How do you turn a reluctant reader into an avid bookworm? The solution is surprisingly simple. Today, Denise talks with English teacher Ramona Daun, who used techniques laid out in Donlyn Miller’s book “The Book Whisperer”. In part one of this two part conversation, Denise and Ramona talk about the key concepts and the successes her students experienced.

Links:
The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller

 Music: Simple Gifts performed by Ted Yoder, used with permission

Transcript

Dan: Welcome to The Mindful SLP, the podcast for SLPs looking for a simple tools and optimal outcomes. Your host is Denise, experienced speech therapist, specializing in all things pediatric and Dan, business manager for her private clinic.

Denise: Welcome. And thanks for joining us today. Today’s podcast, I’ve titled The Book Whisperer Experiment. The Book Whisperer was written by Donalyn Miller, who is a middle school teacher. I just love the subtitle on her book. It says “Awakening the inner reader in every child.” Today. I have a guest with me, Ramona Dawn, who is also a middle school teacher, and she has been using the book whisperer approach in her school.

Ramona, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Ramona: Alright, So my name is Ramona Dawn. I teach eighth grade English. I have taught other grades, but I’ve been a middle school teacher for 14 years. And before that I was a stay-at-home mom. I always loved to read. I took my kids to the library faithfully, and I read most of the books they checked out. So I have a really strong background in young adult literature.

Denise: We talked earlier about something we called the perfect storm in reading education. So tell us about that.

Ramona: I teach eighth graders, they’re 14, 13, 14 years old. And if you back up 13, 14 years from 2020, that’s when iPhones became a really big deal with everyone, including a lot of young parents, I call my students iPhone babies, because they’ve been holding technology in their hands since they were younger than two.

My philosophy is that all humans, crave stories. We love stories. We find stories everywhere. Growing up in the 1970s, I found stories on the back of a cereal box because I didn’t have an iPhone in my lap.

Denise: So did I, I remember those stories and puzzles,

Ramona: Right. As our technology has exploded, schools are finding out that children have low reading scores, even children from higher socioeconomic families. And this is really puzzling to a lot of people, but teachers know it’s because those children are not getting enough practice reading. Reading is a skill, you have to practice it. The insatiable desire to find out what happens to Nancy Drew is replaced with reading a really low grade story, but a story never less, um, by following someone’s Instagram story.

Denise: Yes, or Twitter, which is what, 40 characters or something. I have no idea. Very short and brief.

Ramona: Right? And so we’re omitting all of the rich language, the aspects of theme and setting and characterization. And as children today are coming to school, less prepared to read and comprehend complex texts. And so as an English teacher, I have to try to combat that.

Denise: Now, the other part of the perfect storm we talked about is how reading is taught now.

Ramona: So, so schools bless their hearts. Um, especially the technology people at schools say, Hey, um, we have a fix for this. We have digital reading tutors and we’ll put your kid in front of a computer and give them a set of headphones, and we’ll plug them into a reading tutor that will help them practice reading. And they’ll sit there for 20 minutes and they will read lists of words and they’ll read sentences and they’ll do little reading comprehension exercises, and they will love every minute of it. And no.

Denise: And who would be surprised?

Ramona: So my school had been using a Pearson product and we did see our students’ scores go up. The other eighth grade teacher spent more money than I’d want to think about. I never turned the receipts in, cause it was way over my budget stocking a treat cupboard for kids who made certain successes with their online reading program.

Denise: The carrot and the stick, and…

Ramona: I mean, you know, I gave away so much mountain Dew. I mean, you know.

Denise: And bribing a child to do what we want them to intrinsically love. The research has shown that does not help children beat internally motivated.

Ramona: So true, in November, the online reading tutor program was starting to glitch. It didn’t like our iPads. It was becoming just this huge pain until, you know, with some students, it would glitch three or four times during the 20 minute session. And finally, I said just don’t watch it. Just read your library book, but don’t let anyone else see that I’m letting you read your library book.

Denise: And uh, this is a school teacher saying this, an English teacher saying, don’t you dare let someone see you’re reading the library book. I mean, how did we get to this point? It just blows my mind.

Ramona: Right? We’re trying to make up for years of not having enough reading practice with a technology program, right. Which is totally the wrong approach. Now, these programs can be helpful in limited settings, maybe in a reading class, but always accompanied by an authentic text.

Denise: Yeah. So never take the book out.

Ramona: No. No. Okay.

Denise: So what did you do?

Ramona: In November, I went to my state’s teaching conference. I’m really interested in reading and I went to a breakout session about reading and some teachers from a small little mining town out in the boondocks, in my state, we’re talking about this book, The Book Whisperer, and they shared with us that their school had had an F grade based on standardized tests and reading levels.

And they had tried an online digital literature text. They had tried books or literature circles. They had tried class novels, and then they found the book whisper and they implemented Donalyn Miller’s system. It didn’t take them very long, maybe a year to start raising those scores. Now they’re at an A, and that’s why they were asked to come present.

Denise: Donalyn Miller wrote The Book Whisperer. She’s also a middle school teacher. And I’m just going to describe it a little bit. When she got through student teaching. She was so excited to do her first unit, The View From Saturday, a great book. She thought that her students would absolutely love it. She spent hours preparing these units, these activities all around this wonderful book and it bombed, absolutely bombed. This book goes into her process of discovering what had gone wrong. Why didn’t these kids love this book? And she started reading to find the answers and she has got it here in The Book Whisperer, how to get kids to tune into reading. Um, what do you want to add here about The Book Whisperer?

Ramona: One thing that I love is that she realized that it wasn’t working.

Having all the students read all the same books all year long, that doesn’t necessarily work. She developed a system of independent choice. She developed the 40 book challenge. Students, when they come into her classroom, she gives them an interest survey. She spends some time getting to know them. She brings in lots of books from the library and she spreads them out so students can have a lot of books to choose from. And then they start reading, a student may start with quote unquote, Captain Underpants, that’s fine with her. Her goal by the end of the year is to move them on to more sophisticated. Donalyn’s book, um, her whole program requires that students try to read from several different genres throughout the year, but it’s totally driven by student choice.

Denise: Yes. I love that part. The students get to choose what they’re interested in.

Ramona: Right. And as an adult, I don’t follow a reading program. Kids want to read their own. They, they want to pick their own books too. So I’m sitting there in this conference and I’m thinking I have to do this. I have to find a way to do this.

I’m thinking the digital program’s glitching, why am I doing it? Why am I wasting my students’ time, their precious, valuable time? And when I got back the very next day, I schedule a time to go to the library. No, I didn’t take the time that Donalyn does in her book. She takes great pains at the beginning of the school year to get to know each student and what they like to read.

But this was November, the program was glitching, and I just had to go off of my knowledge of books. I figured would catch most kids with a book that they liked. And then I would individually go after the stragglers. Yes.

Denise: You just had to do what you had to do with that point in time.

Ramona: Right? Right. Normally teachers have a really hard time getting students to read independently, and that’s why this, you know, independent reading time has been eliminated from most English teachers, the schedules, because I don’t have time to mess around with giving my students time to read. If I only see 20% of my students actually engaged in reading, but Donalyn’s book talks about how you do this.

I have the perfect situation, because I stood in front of my students. I said, we’re going to library, we’re checking out library books. Everybody needs to get a book. If you don’t like the book that you check out after you read it for a couple of days, then come and see me. And I’ll figure out a way to get you back to the library to change it out. Or. If you don’t want to do independent reading, you could do the digital reading tutor program, and I’d love to have you do that.

Denise: Reverse psychology. I learned.

Ramona: I didn’t have anyone take me up on that. Not once do not even the most reluctant readers said, no, I want to do the digital program.

Denise: They hated it so much.

Ramona: I know, I know. Teaching our kids to hate it, right? One thing that I have my students do is I tell them at the beginning of the year, that good readers make better lovers. Ninth graders are very intrigued by this, but it’s true. It’s true because the more books you read, the more characters you encounter, the more you understand about people and people from different situations in different places.

If you’re a 14 year old boy and you read a book and there are some girls in this book, you’re going to know a little bit more about how to talk to a girl. Okay, that’s all there is to it. I also say, so, you know, when you first watched on Stranger Things, did you watch just one episode and they’re like, oh no, no, no, no.

We watched the whole night. I’m like, yeah, so when you get this new library book, you’re going to binge read just like you binge watch on Netflix because you have to binge read to get into the book. So no one’s going to return their book until they have done some binge reading. You need to give the book a chance. You need to read at least three chapters. Now I do make some exceptions when it’s something and the book is offensive to a student. And of course we would change that right away.

Denise: How do you help a reluctant reader choose books and branch out?

Ramona: You know, it’s, it’s, it’s tricky with, with kids and some kids are just putting you off, you know, they’re, they’re trying to play this pretend reading game.

So another student named Lily and I taught her older brother, they’re both on IEPs. Um, but they have a really great committed mom. She brought her independent reading book to school. And it was the same book that her brother had brought to school. Their grandfather is a famous cowboy and he’d written a biography.

She knows this book inside out. She knows the story. She’s never, maybe even read this book, but she knows all the stories, right. Because that’s family stories, right. This book is safe for her. She knows she’s going to be able to ace any book report on this book. However, as she looked around and saw other kids in the class excited about their books, then she changed and she decided she wanted a real book. And that’s what this does. Is it changes the culture of your classroom.

Denise: So she looked around, she saw the culture around her, all her peers, choosing books and being really engaged in them. So, what did she do?

Ramona: She came to a school with a book that she and her mom had gotten on Amazon and ordered. It’s a book about horses, it’s a series, which would be excellent for her because reading in a series does help reluctant readers. They know what to expect in book two and book three. So she went from being this reluctant reader, you know, dragging grandpa’s book to school because it’s a safe book. She zoomed through the first book and she finished the first book before the second book actually came.

Wow. So let’s talk just a bit about journal entries. So this…

Denise: Yeah, let’s get to journal entries because reading and writing, so closely connected.

Ramona: And this is the accountability piece, and I think that this also helped improve writing scores. Um, so every day they do a journal entry and it’s always based on a key concept, you know, explain how a character is described by the author. You know, what is the author doing with this character? What is it? What is the characters purpose in the novel? Can you imagine this novel being in a different setting? Every day. I try to either have a really, something really broad that every kid with all their different books can use, can, can grab and, and run with, or a couple of options.

You know, I just jumped into this November and I have to admit, I was only ever one day ahead on finding the journal entries and that’s okay. You don’t have to have a canned curriculum. In fact, sometimes it’s better that you not do that.

Denise: It inspires creativity sometimes. When you don’t have it all laid out in front of you.

Ramona: So when we first started the reading for the first week, I modeled how they to do the journal entries. I would stand up with a book and I would read a few paragraphs of this book. And then I would say, okay, now see how this character is being described by this author, or let’s examine the setting here.

And I would strategically pick some sections to read that would demonstrate what I wanted in the journal entry. I did that for the first couple of weeks. Until kids got a little more proficient, they needed some modeling. Right. But then, then I just walked the room after that, or, or modeled by reading my own book.

Right. Because a classroom full of students who are not used to doing, um, independent silent reading are not going to just magically do it. We did start with 15 minutes and then we increased to 20 minutes, just building their stamina. But after the first week or two weeks, I started pulling back kids for book conferences, just walked by quietly, tap on the shoulder, had a place set up in the back of the room.

And I had a paper for them with their name at the top, and just places for book conferences. And I just take a few notes. I just say, ‘tell me about the character, tell me about the setting’. I got a little more sophisticated as the year went on, but you can really tell if someone’s reading their book or not. For example, this kid I can tell is not reading his book and let’s say, well, you don’t seem to love this book. And it was just something non-threatening like that, that opens the door. Right. And then they could admit it. It’s okay to admit that you don’t love this book. And then I say, well, you know what, I’m going to give you a pass to go to the library, right now go to the library, get a different book. And on the back of the little pass that I, that they have to show the library. I make a couple of little notes. This student likes motorcross, so I’m not there to help, but the librarian and I work hand in hand, she knows that she’s going to get that little note from me.

Give her a headstart with this student.

Denise: And then she can help, and choose something that they are more likely to like.

Ramona: So, right. And not all students are going to be forthcoming and they’re not all going to say, oh, I love motocross. You know, some kids are shy with the librarian and they don’t see her every day. So that gives the librarian head up.

But I do have another little anecdote about this going to the library. So a few weeks in, you know, students were finishing books like crazy, especially the kids who already liked to read and, and who were so excited to be able to read what they wanted to read. A couple of girls had finished their books. They walk into class and I’m like, okay, Hey, well, here’s your past to go to the library to get your next book.

So let’s be honest here, even smart, right, A students, eighth graders never turned down a chance to be in the hall. No, never. These students said to me, we don’t need those. Mrs. Dawn, we already have our next book. Oh, I was blown away. Because that shows that they were so excited that they wanted to be in class. They wanted that 20 minutes of reading time.

Denise: They didn’t want to be in the hall missing out on reading time. Wow.

Ramona: I mean, it doesn’t get more powerful than that. My fifth period class, the period after lunch, the period everyone hates, okay, the biggest discipline problem. When I told them that they could come in and sit down and read for the first 20 minutes of class, discipline problems went away.

Wow. I want to talk specifically about two students, a boy who was reading below level, below grade level at the beginning of the year, he was in a reading class. He was a hard worker, but he just didn’t read very much. He took me up on this. He started reading books in my class, and I could tell that he was doing the reading. He was authenticly reading. He wasn’t pretend reading right before the shutdown, um, in March I gave my students a practice essay for the end of the year argument essay that they would have done for the end of level testing. Now experts across the field will say that the one thing that improves writing is reading more.

Oh, for sure. Even if it’s fiction novels, it, they don’t have to read reading nonfiction texts to become a better writer. They just have to be reading. As I checked with him and he is working on his essay, he was using a writing tutor program, which is a digital tool that some people like them, some people don’t, but it does give students some immediate feedback on some basic grammar concepts.

And so I do like it for that. In my state, the end of level testing is scored on a level of 1, 2, 3, and 4; 3 and 4 are passing, 1 and 2 are not. Coming into my class, he was a low kid. And looking back at his records, he had never scored above a 2 in English Language Arts ever. The essay that he turned into me would have scored a 4.

Another student Kara, um, has an IEP. Now she’s working to get off the IEP before she goes to high school. And so we’re sitting in the IEP meeting, um, and this is just right around the time when I’m making all these changes in my classroom. So it’s November and you know, she’s a reluctant reader. I know she’s a reluctant reader, but I have an idea of a book for her that I know will be perfect for her. Okay. And I’ve talked to her a little bit about it and she’s even started reading it. Okay. And then the principal starts throwing out ideas for her to read of, of his favorite books. Right. And her mom jumps in and says, I’ve got a whole bookshelf of 1980s adult romances and I don’t understand why you’re not reading them. And then the math teacher jumps in with her favorite book, right? What’s wrong with this situation? We do this to our students and to our children, we take our favorite books that we loved growing up and we hand it to our child and we say here, read this. You’re going to love it, right?

Sometimes it flies, sometimes it doesn’t. And so students and children need to be given the freedom to sample a lot of books and find books that they can really commit to, they could connect with, because if they connect with a book, they’ll love that book forever. Um, my feeling is that if they connect with three or four books, they’re a reader.

Denise: So what happened in the IEP meeting? Did you jump in and say Kara needs to choose? Or…

Ramona: I just looked over and I said, I’ve got that book. I was telling you about my room. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.

In March, right before the shutdown, when we were doing the practice essay, Kara had the same results as the boy was telling you about, she would have scored a three or four on the end of level test. Now how she got there was I gave her a book that I thought she would like, and she loved it, but it took her a long time to finish the first book, and, but she loved it. And every day when I talked to her about it, her eyes would sparkle and, and I could see her gain confidence in herself because so many times kids who are categorized as low students or as IEP students, their confidence in school is just trashed.

Denise: Yes. And they don’t consider themselves good readers or that they will ever be readers. According to Donalyn Miller, by middle school they have categorized themselves as readers or not readers and they don’t see it as something that they can improve in. They don’t see it as a skill they can work on and improve. They see it as a yes or no.

Ramona: This was her transformation. She, she read a book by April Henry. It took her a long time, but she loved it. So then I gave her the next one and I made sure that I pulled it off my shelf and I held it because I wanted to make sure that the very day she finished, that I had the second book for her. And you see, this is what Donalyn’s program is, it’s knowing your students well enough that you can recommend a really great book for them and it’s going to be successful for them. The second book she read in less than half the time.

Denise: That’s a principle I’ve learned through all my years as an SLP. Patience, the most effective, most powerful things we do have a really slow start and they gain momentum. And you just need to be really patient as they’re working through this process because they are making huge, fundamental shifts at a very basic level. That’s what Kara was doing with that first book.

Ramona: Right and she shifted from, you know, being this girl who was very shy about speaking up in class, you know, not confident in her English ability, and now, you know, in March she’s getting a 26 out of 30 in my state. No one gets 30. Okay. So 26 would be a four.

Denise: So it was really, really would be a four. I mean, on an IEP.

Ramona: Right. And you could see she’d come into class, she was holding herself taller, her eyes are sparkling as she was making revisions on her essay. This is the same with the boy I was telling you about.

I could look up and I could see their eyes sparkle, but I could also see them, you know, they, they were so engaged in correcting that essay. I could see them and they, they were just, their heads were down. But guess what? It wasn’t just Kara, it was everybody in my class. I mean, I had zero discipline problems that week.

Denise: Oh, wow! Just imagine, so the solution to discipline problems, the solution to, um, kids who don’t see themselves as good readers, the solution to reluctant readers, the solution to kids who were on IEP. I mean, all from letting kids choose what they’re going to read, giving them time to read and knowing a little bit about them so you can help them make good choices. I mean, it’s mind blowing. It’s just mind blowing.

Dan: We’re going to take a break right here. Join us in our next episode for the rest of the conversation about The Book Whisperer. We’ll talk about how SLPs can apply Donalyn Miller’s methods to your practice. Thanks for listening. And we’ll talk with you next time.

Thank you for listening to The Mindful SLP. We hope you found some simple tools that will have optimal outcomes in your practice. This podcast is sponsored by SLP Pro Advisor. Visit SLP pro-advisor dot com for more tools, including Impossible R Made Possible, Denise’s highly effective course for treating those troublesome Rs.

A link is in the show notes. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and tell your fellow SLPs. And please let us know what you think. Join the conversation at SLP pro-advisor dot com.