The Top 10 Project: Reading

One of the perks of amalgamating two middle schools is the access to double the resources. Since September we’ve been unpacking hundreds upon hundreds of boxes, the contents of which are slowly finding their new homes in our classrooms, closets, and book rooms. Several weeks ago, when I was going through a few of the boxes, I found several sets (4, 5, and 6 books each) of nonfiction magazine-type books published by Scholastic.

As soon as I saw them I knew they’d be perfect for my students:

• Topics that would appeal to the boys in my classes (75% of my students are boys this year). With titles like: The 10 Strangest Mysteries, The 10 Deadliest Military Inventions, The 10 Most Extreme Sports, The 10 Worst Natural Disaster, Greatest Hockey Teams, Most Extreme Jobs etc., I knew I’d found the mother lode. 
• Many of the topics would also interest my girls and for those that wanted something a little more . . . girly, they could choose The 10 Greatest Fashion Trends 
• They’d provide me with opportunities to teach students the skills needed to read nonfiction as outlined in our curriculum. 
• They’d be perfect for linking reading to writing. I could already feel my mind spinning. 

Each book has 10 short articles - maybe 3-4 glossy pages, chock full of information, pictures, descriptions, and stats on one of the top 10 in the category. Who doesn’t love a top 10 list? An added plus for keeping the class moving at the same pace, the books all follow the same structure, starting with the #10 in that category and working toward the top, or #1 in the category.

I introduced the project by giving students a chance to look the magazines over quickly and jot down which 3 of the magazines they’d most be interested in reading. They were in from the get-go; the titles alone got them excited to read. I put students into groups - literature circles - and for the past few weeks we’ve been reading, discussing, and writing about the articles. This has been the first time I’ve used nonfiction literature circles in such a lengthy project, and it definitely won’t be my last.

Through the reading I’ve been able to:

• review QAR with students and have them come up with questions (Author and You, On My Own) to use in response journals or as discussion points in their literature circles. Using QAR with nonfiction has allowed students to transfer questioning skills learned with fiction to nonfiction. 
• review the features of nonfiction texts (text boxes, captions, subheadings, etc.) 
• have students practice paraphrasing and summarizing, orally and in writing 
• give students the opportunities to apply self-monitoring and fix-up strategies (self-questioning, word-attack strategies, etc.) with the aid of group members 

Because the topics are of great interest to students, discussion has been spontaneous and sometimes intense. As I walk through the classroom after groups are finishing up the reading (groups can choose to read silently, or one group member could offer to read aloud, or pairs can read together) I can hear students discussing the horrors of land mines. They’re trying to imagine the kinds of technology we might use to safely rid the planet of these deadly devices. Students in the group reading about the Greatest Hockey Teams of All Time are trying to decide if women’s hockey could ever be as popular with fans as men’s hockey is today, and what they would do if they were in charge of marketing women’s hockey. And so on . . .

Although we’re still in the process of finishing up the reading - on #3 - we’ve started working on our own Top 10 writing. But, that’s a ‘coming soon’ post!