I see my students reading, and they say they’re reading, but something isn’t quite right here.

They’re not finishing books as quickly as they did last semester.

My hunch is that they can’t possibly be reading for 30 minutes every night, the basic homework assignment.

But then on today’s Third Quarter Reading Survey, most students reported that they read 4-6 times a week.

How is it possible that they’re progressing so slowly?

Here are some of my ideas:

1. They’re not reporting the truth. I’m not saying they’re liars. Rather, my students may be over-reporting, or remembering having read when really they were doing something else.

2. Their definition of 30 minutes of reading isn’t the same as my definition. Or maybe they’re “fake reading.” Students may think they’re reading simply because they have a book in their hand, even when they answer a text or watch a TV commercial.

3. Their reading pace — especially on their own at home — is slow. If a student can read 20 pages an hour at school, perhaps it’s 10 at home.

I need to figure this out, find out more details.

I have a pretty good story of why some of my students aren’t reading, but I’m not as clear on the overall trend. Whenever I ask them about their reading habits — or about their identity as readers — the data comes back positive. “I’ve read more this year than ever before” is a common response, and so is “I’m a much faster reader and can read for much longer now.”

Should I be happy with this anecdotal data? It feels good, but it’s much more important to know that they’re reading a lot and that their reading skills have improved.

If you have ideas about next steps, please let me know, and thank you! 

Help a ninth grader love reading even more. Support The 1,000,000 Word Challenge. There are many ways to donate!

1. Buy a book from our Amazon wishlist. These are books that students have requested! You can bring the book in or ship it to my gift registry address. Feel free to buy the $4 used books, and if you’re feeling generous, take advantage of free shipping for orders over $25.

2. Buy a Kindle book from our Amazon wishlist. Want to make sure the book you donate never gets lost or destroyed from too much reading? Click a book’s “Kindle Edition” and email your order to misero@leadershiphigh.org. Each Kindle book you donate goes on 6 of our classroom Kindles, so it’s like getting 6 books for the price of 1!

3. Make a donation on my DonorsChoose page. DonorsChoose is a non-profit organization that helps teachers get resources they need. Just click on one of my projects and donate as much as you like.

4. Bring in a book that you loved reading as a ninth grader. Was there a book that made a difference in your life? Maybe the most personal way to support The 1,000,000 Word Challenge is by sharing a book you love. Come by Room 317 anytime!

5. Donate directly to our classroom library. If you don’t want to deal with Amazon or DonorsChoose, click the button below and make a donation. You can use PayPal or your credit card. I’ll be sure to use the money where it’s needed!

Thank you very  much! For your generous donation, you will receive my deepest thanks and a letter for tax purposes.

Instead of assigning everything my students will read, I’m trying something new this year: a move to Reading Workshop in my English 9 class. My ninth graders will participate in The 1,000,000 Word Challenge.

When I look at the research (thank you, Stephen Krashen), it’s a no-brainer. Free, voluminous, voluntary reading is the way to go. Besides, test scores have gone down among ninth graders at my school (to only 27 percent proficiency) over the last five years, so something new needs to happen.

Still, it’s a controversial choice. Questions abound. Here are a few: (1) Will students actually read? (2) If they read, will their reading be rigorous enough? (3) Aren’t you giving up on “real” homework?

Instead of getting caught up in those questions, I’ve decided to focus my attention to connecting my students with good books. Donalyn Miller, Kelly Gallagher, and Nancie Atwell are my inspirations. If I unabashedly share my love of reading — if I show my students I know them and care about them through the books I recommend to them — they will like reading, too.

One of the requirements of a Reading Workshop is to have a substantial classroom library so students have access to high-quality books. Although Gallagher is correct when he writes in Readicide that “building a classroom library is a career-long pursuit,” I can’t wait. I need books now.

In addition to finding books at used book stores and Salvation Army stores, this summer I turned to DonorsChoose for help. It was easy: I selected the books I wanted, 10 to 15 books at a time, wrote up a little proposal, submitted the project, and waited.

I didn’t end up having to wait that long.

Six projects, 100-plus books, and an Amazon Kindle later, I can safely say that I love anonymous donors on DonorsChoose! Sure, a few of my friends and family helped out, too (thank you!), but my main donors have been strangers: wonderful people out there who love reading and learning and who believe in my project.

If anonymous donors have contributed more than $1,000 in just one 8-week summer, perhaps I have struck a chord. My donors will help me to withstand any criticism I’ll face and to remain singularly focused on working with students to deepen their interest in reading.

You too can be one of my anonymous donors! Here are my current open projects on DonorsChoose. (No pressure, you don’t need to remain anonymous!)

I’m still frustrated after hearing that I’ll be teaching in two classrooms and sharing my own. (It’s now “our” room.)

Since April, after all, I’ve been reading tons of books and envisioning a  new English 9 class, classroom library, and 1,000,000 Word Challenge.

Now I have to figure out which parts of my vision I can keep and which parts need to wait another year.

Things to Let Go

1. The Reading Zone. This year, there won’t be room for comfy chairs, a rug, a little table, and a lamp. When students enter the room, they will see my colleague’s prominent desk instead of my reading nook. (My desk is tiny and in the opposite corner of the room.) Therefore, students will read primarily from their desks. I suppose I can try to find some oversized pillows so at least a handful of students can sprawl out on the floor. But the dedicated nook won’t be a reality this year.

2. A Full-Fledged Classroom Library. I like a minimalist, uncluttered environment, and I wanted my classroom to send a singular message: We read here. But now, the classroom is only half mine. Several of the bookshelves are filled with my colleague’s curriculum binders and materials. As I acquire more books, where will they go? When I teach in the other room, how will students choose books?

Things to Keep

1. The 1,000,000 Word Challenge. I won’t lie: Coming back to school has made me more nervous about unveiling my new project. I sense cynicism and disapproval from my colleagues. But I cannot let their questions deter me from my excitement. The ninth graders will read a lot this year, and they will enjoy reading, and their reading skills will improve! Instead of getting bogged down by and worrying about adults, I will spend my energy with my students.

2. My Experimental Mindset. I’ve reminded myself over and over that I’m consciously changing my practice this year. Sure, I’ve had success as a teacher in the past. But what I want to do this year is fundamentally different. My hope is that my students and I won’t just “play school” but rather will be involved in something real. How I am as a teacher — and my expectancies for myself and my students — is more important than physical space limitations. I hope to learn day by day. It will take patience and confidence.

Jimmy Santiago Baca’s A Place to Stand is an excellent memoir that I’m sure my ninth grade Latino boys will love.

This is not your run-of-the-mill, tedious prison story where violent acts are described, one after another, merely for shock value. Nor is it a sugary feel-good story that promises a happy ending through personal transformation.

Baca describes his childhood in an orphanage, his introduction to drug dealing, and his time in prison. While being locked up, he considers religion but instead discovers his voice through language, letters, and poetry.

The writing in A Place to Stand is excellent. Baca has an ear for language and writes prose like a poet. The prison scenes — murder, rape — are grisly but not gratuitous. The writing is accessible but does not pander. I’m pretty sure ninth grade Latino boys will connect with Baca’s experience and want to read more of his work. 

A teen-aged girl to her brother, overheard in a hotel lobby while vacationing in Germany: “Is Pride and Prejudice as bad as the beginning?”

The brother’s response: “Why would I read Pride and Prejudice? That’s a girl book.”

These are teenagers stuck in assigned, required summer reading.

Just a week after Time Magazine proposed an end to summer vacation to counteract summer learning loss, particularly for low-income students, The New York Times reported yesterday that free reading in the summer helps students and their reading scores.

Nevertheless, the debate continues about whether adults should allow students to read freely. To some people, giving young people choice will somehow prevent them from getting into a good college.

In no way do I dispute the merits of challenging reading, and in addition to The 1,000,000 Word Challenge, I plan to assign my students this year plenty of difficult, rich texts.

But there is no way that a student will enjoy reading and read a lot without being able to read what he or she chooses. 

Teaching is about getting students to do big, memorable things they think they can’t.

My sophomores write a 40-page book and learn 500 SAT words. My ninth graders participate in a debate at UC Berkeley and conduct a mock trial at San Francisco Superior Court in front of a real judge, real court reporter, and real bailiff.

Big, simple, memorable.

So when I found out in April that I am teaching English 9 this year, I began thinking about what could be the course’s cornerstone.

After some reading, thinking, talking with colleagues, and looking at standards, I’ve come up with The 1 Million Word Challenge. In addition to the readings I assign, my ninth graders will read a minimum of 1 million words on their own.

My students — especially the ones who have never finished a book in their lives — may think I’m crazy. So will some of my colleagues. But one million words isn’t actually too bad. If a page averages 250 words, it’s just 4,000 pages, or around 15-20 books, depending on length. (I won’t tell them.)

Even if it’s difficult for my students, it’s absolutely crucial. Ninth graders enter our school an average of 2 1/2 years behind in reading. And the only way to get better, according to gobs of research, is to read a lot. (Nancie Atwell says reading must be voluminous.) The problem with the normal way of doing things — assigning books — is that students resist and end up fake reading them. It’s a game I no longer want to play.

Instead, I’d rather let my students choose the bulk of their reading and spend my time connecting them with good, valuable books. My message will change from “you must read this” to “I think you’ll enjoy this.”

Not all my students will miraculously, all of a sudden, become voracious readers, but I’m confident that inviting them to deepen their interests and to find new ones through reading will engage them in a new kind of academic experience.