Literature-Based Instruction for Middle School Readers: Harry Potter and More

ALAN Review, Spring 2003 by Carroll, Pamela Sissi, Gregg, Gail P

Reading Skills and Literature Instruction

Give Adolescent Readers Choice and Time

When we asked readers to tell us if they enjoy what they arc asked to read in their English/language arts classes, one teenage student surprised us by writing, in November, "We haven't read yet." We suspect that he had probably been assigned some kind of reading in the fall months, but that none of the required reading was memorable or meaningful to him. Another reader reported, "I like the books but most of the time hate the activities that go along with them, which take away from my enjoyment of the books." Both comments remind us that we have to demonstrate that we believe "just reading" is of value by building time for it into our curricula.

Allington insists that the first need of readers is opportunities to read-often and much. Understandably, in today's schools-ones that are driven by accountability measures and standardized testing-many teachers have grown skeptical about the value of sacrificing instructional time to give students time to "just read". Yet, as Allington explains, it is likely to take an average 6th grader approximately eight hours to read the 50,000 words of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (1987), if the reader is interested in the novel, and is left alone and allowed to read silently (Allington, 37). But how often are teachers able to give students eight successive hours of class time for "just reading"? How often do we interrupt classroom time that is set aside for the reading of literature with assignments that test students' comprehension, require them to sketch scenes, or demand that they summarize the plot in a line graph?

Beers (2003) offers one simple and effective practice for increasing reading time in middle school classrooms: read aloud to students as they follow along. Beers claims that reading aloud serves as motivation for reading, and points out that the practice has significant cognitive benefits, too, including these:

Builds background knowledge-an essential ingredient for comprehension

Improves listening comprehension-a precursor to reading comprehension

Improves listening vocabulary-this store of words informs your speaking vocabulary and reading vocabulary

Builds common vocabulary-of both common and rare words

Creates interest in reading

Improves students' understanding of sentence structure and usage

Improves students' ability to visualize the text

(197-198)

Give Readers Books that They CAN Read and WANT TO Read

Beers insists that "When reluctant readers tell us they don't want to read, they mean they don't want to read the novel we've chosen for them" (288). Teachers of secondary reading and English need to accept an obligation to match readers with books that interest them. The match can depend on many variables, including these: topic, style, temporal and geographic setting, genre, author, or theme. The important idea is that we need to know what our students' interests are in order to recommend appropriate matches. Young adolescent readers have shown us, in the survey, that they are drawn to fantasy novels and to realistic adventures and painful non-fiction. They have shown us, too, that many are drawn to essays and short stories like the pieces they find in the life-confirming Chicken Soup books. The adolescents who responded to our survey have given adults-especially their teachers and media specialists-advice and direction. Not only should we provide time for students to read, in school, but we should allow students to choose their own books, and encourage them to read-without the pressure of a test or formal book report response-at least occasionally. Titles like those named by the young adolescents who completed our survey, including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hatchet, Ella Enchanted, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Number the Stars, The Hobbit, Holes and all other readers' favorites, should be welcomed into middle school reading and language arts classrooms, and across subjects. We strongly recommend that every teacher ask his or her students to identify the books that are meaningful for them, as a place to begin building a classroom library that will be appealing to student readers.