I love meeting teachers who are using YA literature in their classrooms. This week's guest contributor is Katie Sluiter. She teaches middle school in Wyoming, Michigan. Katie is wonderful. Her classroom is an inspiration and a model for others who want to surround their students with books. A colleague, Gretchen Rumoht-Voskuil, introduced us when I was looking for participants in another study. Katie has been a great addition to that project. I look forward to chatting with her in person at the NCTE conference this November. I am sure you will enjoy Katie's discussion of her transition from high school to middle school.
Teaching middle school is a YA Lit lover’s dream. When I made the transition from high school to middle school three years ago, I traded The Great Gastby and The Scarlet Letter for a curriculum of exclusively YA Literature: Hero by S.L Rottman, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and a stack of historical YA fiction for literature circles. All middle school students were also required to read at least one independent reading book per quarter.
My move to the middle school had impeccable timing. During my final year at the high school, I discovered Penny Kittle and her ideas for Reading Workshops. The seed of an idea had been planted: how could I provide my students with choice rather than dictate everything they read? When the idea first hit me, I thought I would be dealing with a curriculum for high school seniors. As the fates would have it, as I began to amass books for a classroom library, I was re-assigned to the middle school--eighth grade English--the perfect environment for growing readers.
My move to the middle school had impeccable timing. During my final year at the high school, I discovered Penny Kittle and her ideas for Reading Workshops. The seed of an idea had been planted: how could I provide my students with choice rather than dictate everything they read? When the idea first hit me, I thought I would be dealing with a curriculum for high school seniors. As the fates would have it, as I began to amass books for a classroom library, I was re-assigned to the middle school--eighth grade English--the perfect environment for growing readers.
I teach in a Title 1 district which means there isn’t exactly a surplus of funds for things like stocking teachers’ classroom libraries. If I wanted to grow my collection of books, I had to take matters into my own hands.
First I shared my dream of a classroom library on my blog and social media channels. Someone suggested making a wishlist on Amazon, so that is where I started. What I learned about people is that they want to help kids read; they want to give the gift of the written word. Boxes started arriving to my house daily. Most were Amazon boxes, but some people shipped me all their gently used books because they loved the idea of a new generation of readers getting their hands on them. My sorry excuse of a 104-title library quickly grew to over three hundred.
A close friend and colleague strongly urged me to apply for Penny Kittle’s Book Love Foundation Grant. Ten applicants received 500 books for their classroom library, and while I was not one of those ten, I was a runner-up. I received $500 to purchase books for my already started library. Since then I have hit up thrift stores, garage sales, bookstore sales, and hustled to get some donorschoose.org projects for books funded.
First I shared my dream of a classroom library on my blog and social media channels. Someone suggested making a wishlist on Amazon, so that is where I started. What I learned about people is that they want to help kids read; they want to give the gift of the written word. Boxes started arriving to my house daily. Most were Amazon boxes, but some people shipped me all their gently used books because they loved the idea of a new generation of readers getting their hands on them. My sorry excuse of a 104-title library quickly grew to over three hundred.
A close friend and colleague strongly urged me to apply for Penny Kittle’s Book Love Foundation Grant. Ten applicants received 500 books for their classroom library, and while I was not one of those ten, I was a runner-up. I received $500 to purchase books for my already started library. Since then I have hit up thrift stores, garage sales, bookstore sales, and hustled to get some donorschoose.org projects for books funded.
If you walk in my classroom today, you will see a large 800+ title library along the back wall. Those books have been very thoughtfully and intentionally chosen. Books range in topic and difficulty level, but all of them are there because they are high interest for teen readers. I want students to find books they truly want to read since each is expected to read four books during the school year. While it’s not the ten-book goal that Donalyn Miller set for her middle schoolers, four is a far cry from the zero many of my students have read in their life. Some of my students stick to the required four, but many read far above and beyond.
Additionally, we read three YA books together as a class each school year. These are pre-chosen for me and required of all the 8th grade English teachers’ curricula, but I try to make it a positive experience for my students; I use books as read alouds. Studies show that students need not only to have time to read on their own, but also to hear what good reading sounds like. I also use these books as a way to model and teach reading, thinking, and response strategies that students can use with their own independently chosen books.
My favorite thing about teaching middle school is that every day I am surrounded by books and reading. My students silently read books of their choice, I read aloud our required texts, and we talk and write about books. In the fourteen years that I have been teaching, I have never seen such an enthusiasm for reading as I do here in middle school. While I still have students who are self-proclaimed non-readers, they are few and far between. The majority of my students are eager and excited to read and talk about their books. I believe centering our junior high curriculum around YA literature has gone a long way to making this happen.
My favorite thing about teaching middle school is that every day I am surrounded by books and reading. My students silently read books of their choice, I read aloud our required texts, and we talk and write about books. In the fourteen years that I have been teaching, I have never seen such an enthusiasm for reading as I do here in middle school. While I still have students who are self-proclaimed non-readers, they are few and far between. The majority of my students are eager and excited to read and talk about their books. I believe centering our junior high curriculum around YA literature has gone a long way to making this happen.
Katie Sluiter currently teaches at Wyoming Junior High School in Wyoming, Michigan. She has taught middle school, high school, and community college English and Composition classes and has her Masters Degree in Teaching English from Western Michigan University. She advocates for best practices in the ELA classroom as a contributing writer to The Educator's Room. She has presented at multiple MCTE conferences and will be on two panels at the upcoming NCTE conference in Atlanta. Her blog, Sluiter Nation, chronicles her life as a mother and teacher. She lives in Zeeland, Michigan with her family. You can contact her at [email protected].
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