Our First Class Novel

Today we started to read our first class novel Charlotte's Web.  I am so excited to start this process.  I have not really taught a class novel in a long time so I am excited about trying something new.  I decided to come back and teach a class novel for a lot of different reasons, but the one I am most excited about is how it helps to create a community of readers.

I also picked the book Charlotte's Web for a lot of different reason but the one I am most excited about is how it relates to The One and Only Ivan.  The One and Only Ivan has been called the modern day Charlotte's Web in multiple reviews that I have read.  I cannot wait to see the class find connections between the two books as we read.

I know there might be concerns that some of you have about the class being asked to read the same book.  Some of you may be concerned that the book might pose too much of a challenge for some of our readers.  Others might be concerned that the exact opposite may be true for some of our readers.  I understand these concerns and just wanted to explain how we plan on dealing with these issues.

First to make the book more accessible to some readers we will have iTouch reading stations.  An iTouch station allows five readers to follow along in their book as I read the book aloud.  Today students started to practice using these iTouch listening stations.  We will continue to practice using this technology to make the book more accessible to our students.

The professional book where I got this idea to try a whole class novel was called Notice and Note.  In the book the authors talk about rigor.  Rigor is a new buzzword in education right now.  In the book the authors talk about rigor and compare it to weightlifting.  They say a lifter who tries to pick up too much weight is actually not doing rigorous work.  Just like asking a student to read a book that is too hard does not lead to rigorous work.  I agree with this statement completely and that is why we created the listening stations to allow students to access this book.

As a freshman I used to loathe going to the weight room during gym time.  If you have seen me, you know that weights are not my friend.  However I did like one exercise that we were asked to do in the weight room.  At times we would bench a small amount of weight as many times as we could until we hit the wall.  As a freshman lifting 40 pounds was not rigorous but trying to lift it 50 times would become rigorous.

We know for some students that Charlotte's Web may not be a challenge, but we will be challenging your students with what they do while they are reading.  Over the next few days I will be introducing you to some of the concepts that we will be talking about in class.  These ideas will allow the class to read Charlotte's Web more closely.  These techniques will be able to used while reading other books and hopefully they will challenge all of our students.

I cannot wait to keep going with the book.  I think many of you are familiar with this book and know it is a book that shows the power of literature.  I hope you become part of our reading community by talking with our students about the book.  You could even pick the book up yourself and reread the text.  I have been loving going back through the book as I read it into the iTouch.

Hope your Monday was quick.