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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 458 526 CS 014 483 AUTHOR Ericson, Bonnie O., Ed. TITLE Teaching Reading in High School English Classes. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-5186-8 PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 182p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 5168-1659: $17.95, members; $24.95, nonmembers). Tel: 800-369-6283 (Toll Free); Web site: http://www,.ncte.org. PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adolescent Literature; *Classroom Techniques; Critical Reading; *English Instruction; High Schools; *Reading Difficulties; *Reading Improvement; *Reading Instruction; *Reading Motivation; Reading Programs; Reading Writing Relationship; Student Needs.; Vocabulary Development IDENTIFIERS *Response to Literature ABSTRACT This collection of essays aims to encourage high school students to improve their reading skills. The essays offer numerous practical teaching ideas for helping students increase their vocabulary and comprehension as well as learn to love the medium of books. Useful ideas revolve around issues such as: guided reading; independent reading; making authentic reading-writing connections; literature circles; reading intervention; reading aloud; vocabulary exploration; mentoring; and picture books in high school. Following a foreword, "Welcome to the Planet of the Readers" (John S. Mayher), essays in the collection are: (1) "Reading in High School English Classes: An Overview" (Bonnie 0. Ericson);(2) "Word Matters: Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in Meaningful Ways" (Janet S. Allen); (3) "A Literary Transfusion: Authentic Reading-Writing Connections" (John Gaughan); (4) "An After-School Reading Intervention Program for Struggling Readers" (Linda L. Flammer); (5) "A Twelfth-Grade Reading Class for Struggling Readers" (Susan Schauwecker); (6) "If You Build It, They Will Come: A Book Flood Program for Struggling Readers in an Urban High School" (Jeff McQuillan with Jeannie Beckett, Lupe Gutierrez, Matthew Rippon, Sue Snyder, Doug Wager, Gregg Williams, and Eydie Zajec); (7) "Students Becoming Real Readers: Literature Circles in High School English Classes" (Sandra Okura DaLie); (8) "By Any Other Name: Reconnecting Readers in the High School" (Teri S. Lesesne and Lois Buckman); (9) "The Place of Young Adult Literature in Secondary Reading Programs" (Lois T. Stover); and (10) "Picture Books in the High School English Classroom" (Carolyn Lott) .An afterword "Future Directions for Reading in High School" by Leila Christenbury, concludes the book. (Each paper contains references.) (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Teachin Readin in High School English Classes A' se, 11.11,- U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY NI_Lifters TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 4DronrogiBESTCOPY AVAILARI F II al P I Teaching Reading in High School English Classes 3 NCTE Editorial Board: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Willie Mae Crews, Colleen Fairbanks, Andrea Lunsford, Gerald R. Og lan, Jackie Swensson, Gail Wood, Paul Bodmer, Chair, ex officio, Peter Feely, ex officio 4 Teaching Reading in High School English Classes Edited by Bonnie 0. Ericson California State University, Northridge National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 5 We gratefully acknowledge Kane/Miller Book Publishers, who generously gave us permission to reproduce the cover of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julie Vivas. First American edition published in 1985 by Kane/Miller Book Publishers, Brooklyn, New York. Originally published in Australia in 1984 by Omnibus Books. Text copyright © 1984 Mem Fox. Illustra- tions copyright © 1984 Julie Vivas. Staff Editor: Bonny Graham Interior Design: Doug Burnett Cover Design: Tom Jaczak Cover Photos: Elizabeth Crews NCTE Stock Number: 51868-3050 ©2001 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including pho- tocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holder. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teach- ing of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Teaching reading in high school English classes / edited by Bonnie 0. Ericson. P.cm. "NCTE stock number: 51868-3050." Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8141-5186-8 (pbk.) 1. Reading (Secondary)United States.2. LiteratureStudy and teaching (Secondary)United States.I. Ericson, Bonnie 0. LB1632 .T372001 428.4'071'2-dc21 2001045235 6 This book is dedicated to my parents, Robert and Dorothy Ohrlund, to my husband, Dan Blake, and to all the teachers who make a difference in the reading lives of their students. Contents Foreword: Welcome to the Planet of the Readers ix John S. Mayher Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii 1. Reading in High School English Classes: An Overview 1 Bonnie 0. Ericson 2. Word Matters: Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in Meaningful Ways 23 Janet S. Allen 3. A Literary Transfusion: Authentic Reading-Writing Connections 33 John Gaughan 4. An After-School Reading Intervention Program for Struggling Readers 48 Linda L. Flammer 5. A Twelfth-Grade Reading Class for Struggling Readers 57 Susan Schauwecker 6. If You Build It, They Will Come: A Book Flood Program for Struggling Readers in an Urban High School 69 Jeff McQuillan with Jeannie Beckett, Lupe Gutierrez, Matthew Rippon, Sue Snyder, Doug Wager, Gregg Williams, and Eydie Zajec 7. Students Becoming Real Readers: Literature Circles in High School English Classes 84 Sandra Okura DaLie viii Contents 8. By Any Other Name: Reconnecting Readers in the High School 101 Teri S. Lesesne and Lois Buckman 9. The Place of Young Adult Literature in Secondary Reading Programs 115 Lois T. Stover 10. Picture Books in the High School English Classroom 139 Carolyn Lott Afterword: Future Directions for Reading in High School 155 Leila Christenbury Editor 159 Contributors 161 ix Foreword: Welcome to the Planet of the Readers John S. Mayher New York University When I started teaching high school in ancient times, I sud- denly found myself confronted by students from another planet. I was from the planet of the readers, and it was soon clear to me that with few exceptions, they were not. It wasn't that I had never known such aliens before; I'd gone to school with a few ofthem, and as an elementary and secondary student, even my brother seemed to have had such alien blood. But roomful after roomful of them was a shock, and certainly something neither my experience nor my educa- tion had prepared me for. I had been a reader from as far back as I could remember, and there was no time when I wasn't reading at least one, and often two or more books at the same time. Many of my happiest hoursthroughout my childhood and adolescence were spent reading, and Ioften sought out reading time in preference to other forms of recreation. Where else, after all, could one visit remote places and, particularly, remote times except in a story? And, even more important, how else could one live lives other than one's own? Or learn how to live the one life we have? In my generation, there were few alternatives to books as places to find these stories. And there were no other places where one could find the stories on demand. The need for narrative is one of the strongest human needs, and indeed Mark Turner (1996) has argued that we have what he calls a lit- erary mind, which is, in his view, the source of our language and our grammar. James Britton used to argue that our need for storystarted with gossip and moved deeper and more complexly into other genres without completely leaving the voyeurism and moral judgments of gossip behMd (1982). This need, of course, has not left kids at all. They are more in touch with each other than any generation everhas been: beepers with voice mail, cell phones, answering machines, call waiting, 1 0 John S. Mayher and their own phone lines. I'll never forget the moment I watchedmy teenage daughter talking on two phone lines, a phone at each ear, while simultaneously writing to both of the people she was talking to and others in an AOL chat roomthe radio, of course, providinga soundtrack of teenage laments. The need for narrative has not disappeared, but the competition for reading as a source of story has become much more intense. Televi- sion is in color, not black and white, and there are a hundred or more channels available to virtually every adolescent in the United States. Many kids even have their own TV set, and, as often as not, continual access to a VCRnot even a dream in 1962 when I began teaching which they fully understand how to program. Radio is still with usin some ways the least changed of the media for teensas are movies aimed directly at the teen audience. An additional range of entertain- ment options comes with the computer and the Internet for those able to avail themselves of them.