Conversations About Books

Almost from the first year I taught I realized that reading stories in Basal Readers was not a good way to promote reading.
A teacher, parent, or mentor must encourage reading of books. I had an outstanding person wo work with at Linn-Mar schools and she encouraged me to throw out the Basal. (Have you ever looked at those things? They take all of the beauty and poetry of the language out of the prose to make it as unappealing as they can. Then they develop a group of questions that require no thinking whatsoever (sort of like the Masonic Enlightenment questions.) )

Over the next few years my students read BOOKS. Then we met and discussed them. We tracked their scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and as an average the kids grew TWO YEARS in reading ability. We were sold. Of course I had to purchase books myself. Later we convinced the "powers" that we could do a better job without the Basal and we were allowed to teach from books. We were even allowed to purchase class size sets of books and we read to the students (at least 15 minutes a day mandated) and they had USSR - Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading. We also had a program called "Just Read" developed by Bruce Joyce and Emily Calhoun Unfortunately in the last few years Ames schools has regressed and gone back to Basal. Not a good move in my opnion.

We developed a group of open-ended questions for a teacher to use in these Conversations About Books. Here is the explanation:

This set of cards was developed to use as a set of possible questions in an individualized reading conference. They are not meant to be ends in themselves but rather, starting points for the teacher in a conversation with the child about her/his reading. They can be a real aid to some starting points and hopefully can lead to some new understanding on the part of the child.

The cards are placed face down on the table and the child draws three of the cards and we use those questions to start our conversations about the book. If the title section card is drawn the student answers only two questions. Hopefully the conversation is not limited to ansering thouse two or three questions.

Realistic Fiction

1. Why did you choose this book to read? Would you choose another book by the same author? Why or why not?
2. Which character in the book is most like yourself? Why do you say that?
3. Was this a good title for the book? Why do you think so? Give another title that would fit the book.
4. Which character in the book would you most like to be? Why?
5. Tell the story of the book in one or two sentences. Describe the book.
6. What obstaces or problems did the hero of the story have to overcome or solve? How did the hero go about doing this?
7. Does the book have action? suspense? Please describe some of the action and suspense.
8. Who wrote the book? What do you know about the author of the book? Do you know of any other books by the same author?
9. What would you have done differently from the author if you had been writing the book? Why would you do it that way?
10. Did you gain or learn anything from reading this book? What?
11. What is your opinion of this book? Why do you feel this way about the book?

Historical Fiction

1. Was the story a good one? Tell a ittle about the story.
2. What are some of the good things and the bad things that happened in the book? Do these things still happen today?
3. Did the story and the people of the book seem real to you? How did the author make it seem real?
4. Did the book seem to be accurate? How were you able to determine the accuracy of the book?

Fantasy

1. How can you relate this selection to your life?
2. Is this story fanciful (authored) or is it folk (handed down from wone generation to another)?
3. Theme and Character - What is the main idea of the story? What does the main character look like to you?

Information

1. Did this selection present too much detail? Would more detail have been helpful? How would you have changed the presentation of the selection?
2. Did the selection appear to be accurate? How were you able to determine the accuracy of the selection?
3. Was the material presented in an understandable manner?
4. Was the selection written in an interesting manner? Read aloud a portion that you found interestingly written.
5. Did the author present any of the following

• glossary
• scale drawings
• pictures
• graphs
• footnotes? How did they help yo to understand the material.

Biography

1. Has the biographer given enough personal details for you to know the person and the times in which they lived? Give some examples.
2. How does the biographer show that the information is accurate?
3. Does it use the technique (method) of flash back or is the story developed chronologically?
4. Does the person seem real to you? Are there good things and bad things in the story about the person?

Poetry

1. Did the poetry have a singing quality about it? Did it move right along or was it clumsy and hard to follow?
2. What appeals to you about this poem the most?
3. Have you read or heard any other poems by the same poet? What do you think of the poet?
4. How did the poem make you feel inside?
5. What is a poem?
6. What words in the poem do you like the best? Why do you like them? Are there any words which you dislike?

Permission is granted for anyone to use these questions. I had some help developing them and I enjoyed using them a lot.

That is the one thing I really miss about teaching is the interaction I had with the kids each day. (Not sure if all of them would say that they missed me, however (g) I was telling Bob yesterday that I think that is why I was feeling so alone lately. Besides my Sis moving and not seeing family much I missed the collegiality with other teachers and the fun I had teaching. I loved seeing the kids grow and blossom. I am adjusting but it has taken a long time.

Bear hugs from j-bear.