Repurposing Small Groups Around Community and Empowerment

I remember my first AA meetings. I don’t remember them because of why I was there, but for what we did. That was reading. I sat there flabbergasted at the seemingly ingrained nature of round-robin reading the group partook in. No one cared how they sounded. No one cared what mistakes they made. They (and we) cared about our connections within the text and the stories we shared that were evoked from a text written decades prior. Wasn’t it a sin to read in a round-robin format? To my understanding it was. However, this was the last place I wanted a pedagogical discussion.

Years later, as I think about it, it’s not so much the pedagogical approach as it is the function of the group. This cast of characters, rich with some of the most profound stories ever, didn’t care about components of a balanced literacy approach or the level of the book, they cared about our perceptions and each other, the shame and resiliency with one core element – the Blue Book.

I consider the work of Dr. Kelly Cartwright on reading and executive function. How we orient readers, equip them with strategies, and support how they would plan to read successfully, is critical to their self-perception and confidence as readers. For many readers, picking up a book, reading it, and being amused or feeling the gratification of reading is foreign, if not impossible. Alternatively, for me, I am seeing to:

1)  Observe and instruct students on their independent use of skills, strategies, and awareness of reading in an authentic context.

2)  Invest time in every student and their reading process that delineates each reader as an individual, as a perceiver, and expanding their social understanding.

Book Expert Groups:  Many students read, perhaps enjoy, but have no opinion of a book. A few base their interest in reading a book on my opinion. Honestly, I am the least relevant reader in the class. Empowerment is key when helping readers improve their self-perception becoming competent and confident. They need to be experts!

Plus, there was a point when I realized I couldn’t keep up with all the books students were reading.  I had to turn the responsibility of book expertise to the students. What’s better than bringing students together and becoming experts on a book or books they read collaboratively?

One way I establish small groups is by locating successful readers who don’t discuss what they’ve read (or in-depth). Or students who are cool with reading my suggestions, but not sure what they can select on their merit. Thus the idea is to invite ownership in reading and to foster opinions of books that belong to the students to be shared amongst peers.

Under these circumstances, students are on a mission to read books independently and report what they think of the book. One group might consider characters, settings, and conflicts. Another group focuses on the emotions experienced while reading. Our discussions are based on text evidence drawn from emojis, post-its, and annotations made while reading.

I encourage students to read books I haven’t read. By doing so, I’m inviting students to read books they may otherwise overlook and to create a space to collaborate with other readers. Such a process allows readers to see how they develop opinions, fancies, or disgust, and their affect, in response to reading these books, regardless of my input or expertise. There may be a risk for readers, however, engagement and personalization, that is the reader's viewpoints, and participation are what make the most effective interactions and the reader's experts!

Book Preview Groups: I once wrote about a concept called “Thirty Books in Thirty Days.” The idea was to introduce a new book to students in a read-aloud for an entire month. Similarly, I’d work with a group of four students a week or two, focusing on a particular author, theme, genre, or nonfiction series.  We’d spend a session reading the first chapter, a few random pages, or comparing books to see what we liked about each book and what possibilities might be in store.  I refer to this as the “first take,” an early opinion of the book based on ease, speed of plot development, understandable text/language structures, and metacognition (Is the book a holiday book or will I have to employ strategies?

For instance, in reading the first chapter, we would look for the primary conflict that could carry our interest and use strategies like predicting to consider what happened at the end based on our background knowledge. It would be up to each reader to read to the group, and their determinations about reading, to inspire future readings. Typically this group is reserved for students struggling with book choice or who might have spent too long on one series or genre.

A similar group will form if we have an array of advanced reader copies. Each student would take on one book, becoming the sole expert of that book (since it’s not been published), before classmates (and I) have the opportunity to read.

Community Groups: Sometimes, readers just want to be in a group. A book’s title, author, theme, or content can be irrelevant due to the desire to read with people. When maturing readers face tough times finding new interests or are insecure about exploring a genre, theme, or topic they are (secretly) interested in, I carve out time so reading can be pleasurable alongside peers. After reading a short segment, our discussion is open. Any guidance I provide is based on what the readers feel they need or notice in texts. The same applies to “assigned” reading, where sharing is imperative since we are (hopefully) bubbling with thoughts.

For example, last year, a group of boys, by their own volition, of a variety of reading levels, came together to tackle The Real Boy by Anne Ursu. What each reader needed differed greatly. How fast each one read the book varied immensely. How the students interacted and supported each other’s comprehension altered their attitudes. I offered some instructional ideas such as exploring archetypes. Two boys took an interest. Two others felt learning to manage the complexity of the text mattered far more than the role of the characters. All students benefited from the group, just differently. Just like we did at AA with the Blue Book. It wasn’t about how we could read; it was a way reading brought us together.

Theme-Based Groups: Reading interest is not always about what a person likes. To that notion, interests, like taste buds, change. What one finds universal is key to interest. For example, I find readers are compelled to try new books based on themes, like relationships. I gear instruction or guide discussion to focus on the relationships between characters. This allows students to explore issues buried within the text, learn and apply vocabulary that describes characters and actions, as well as study story patterns such as “star-crossed lovers,” “redemption,” or “comedy.” Understanding what makes The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck is funny. The humor is different for all readers and dependent on how one processes written words.

Within these groups, we explore books that kids would avoid engaging in reading that take us on a journey as a group.  As the year goes by, building upon reading experiences, readers can begin to see how texts are related, by theme, across genres. The idea is to look for the threads, the eternal messages, that propel us to read, not just this book, but other ones like it that invite using background knowledge to invite interest in later texts as well as knowledge of text structure.

Further, I enjoy forming groups to help readers manage the complexity of text.  Whether we are learning to handle a book for humor or pleasure, or to understand the dynamics between characters, such as the drama triangle, or personal internalizations of empathy, gathering kids around a common book to look at the magical ways authors write creates interest in the reader. 

Writing About Reading Groups -  After Reading Kelly Gallagher’s Write Like This (2009), I felt compelled to develop writing about reading groups more regularly.  If we expect students to write about their reading, wouldn’t it make sense to bring them together as an instructional group? The idea of “focus groups” presented by Gallagher confirmed my thinking.  At the onset of a writing-about-reading group, students

1. discuss a common book where we can look at students’ choice of text evidence, personal perspectives, and presentation information.
2. discuss different books to explore and compare texts (plot, setting, characters, conflicts).
3. explain the use of reading strategies (questions, predictions, clarifying, and inferences) and share differences in emotional responses.)
4.  compare texts from one experience to the next (Students are together two or three texts i.e. short passages.)
5. share their process as readers and write reflections and responses on what they are learning and how they apply strategies in their reading process.

Though it’s a “writing about reading” group, the idea is to talk and collaborate first, as an oral rehearsal. Students deserve to be acknowledged for their thinking in conversation and amongst peers before writing. Before leaving the group, students are tasked with writing out their thoughts, as shared in the group, to document their experiences as readers, becoming their written responses.  In addition, we also use an array of prompts to respond to text-dependent questions, which follow the same format, particularly for those who struggle. Here, readers will point out what text evidence he chose to support his response. The idea is for students to practice to develop confidence and efficiency when writing about reading. In another session, after students have completed their responses, we review what was written and provide feedback. Occasionally, through Google Docs, students share their responses for interactive evaluation and collaboration with peers.

Success can be immediate and profound within small groups. Be it focused on Reciprocal Teaching or working with students to find time in their lives to read. Maturing readers, love participating in groups for the camaraderie, the accountability, and the curiosity of learning. Shame-bound readers don’t feel this way at first, but through nurturing the small community and the interpersonal bridge, such readers bring down their defenses.  We, educators, just have to be willing to take time, and invest in our students, focusing on the reader as much as their reading.

Knowing readers for who they are, within the context of the interpersonal bridge, is essential for small-group success. These groups focus on affective traits and the readers’ experience, intended to restore broken trust, overcome reading deficits, and provide the intimacy that young students or maturing readers deserve to become competent and confident.