Guest Post: Blending Whole Novel Studies and Student Choice

Alicia Hunter, 8th grade English teacher, Berea, Kentucky

I first met Alicia Hunter on Twitter.  She told me she'd read Whole Novels for the Whole Class and was really enjoying implementing the approach in her classroom. Not only that, but she was experimenting with allowing students to choose the novels they would study together. This something I've dabbled in at times, but never gone full force. It's always a question people ask me--"If you're so student-centered, why don't students choose the whole novels?" Although I have my reasons for selecting texts the way I do, I've wondered what would happen if I gave that over to students. Now I might just give it a real try-- Alicia's example is terrific and inspiring!  Another neat thing about Alicia is that not only does she teach 8th grade English, but she is also the principal of her school! I'm thrilled that she's shared her whole novel story with us.  ~Ariel

Alicia Hunter is the founding principal of Farristown Middle School in Madison County, Berea, Kentucky.  She taught high school English for fifteen years and has been an administrator for seven years. In 2013-2014, she taught 8th grade English. She lives in Berea with her husband and two teenage daughters. You can find her on Twitter @Hunter_FTMS

Blending Whole Novel Studies and Student Choice 

By Alicia Hunter

As my eighth grade English Language Arts class finished Stargirl, students created service projects. During our Whole Novel-inspired end discussion, students kept circling back to the idea that our school needed a Stargirl. They started asking questions that began with could we…, how can we…, would it be ok if… Their excitement was contagious, and I knew many of our school’s students would benefit from their ideas and their enthusiasm alike. They had already tackled big ideas like bullying, nonconformity, and isolationism. So I asked them, “How can you bring Stargirl to Farristown? What do our students, what does our community need?”

The students immediately started brainstorming ideas. Several wanted to mentor younger students…they wanted to share their experience, pass along the “tricks of the trade.” They wanted to help with homework, social skills, and life in general so younger students would be prepared for 8th grade. Others wanted to just start “service projects.” They wanted to pick up trash around the school, and start a recycling bin in the cafeteria; they even talked about planting gardens for elderly people in our community. We worked on these projects and were ready to implement them.

Giving Up More Control in the Next Novel Study

It didn’t take long before our Whole Novel discussion of Stargirl moved into questions about our next unit of study. Early in the year, I had taught my students that writers always have more than one project going at a time, so we are constantly multi-tasking. Some asked if they could read Love, Stargirl…the next book. One student asked me, “Would it be possible for us to read different books, Mrs. Hunter? You know, choose our own books?”

I said, “So you want multiple books going on at once?” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew I was opening a door I had to walk through. So many things were going through my head: I have suggested this process to many teachers over the years, I have read about this idea, I have watched teachers use this approach, but I have never successfully implemented it. Yes, I have used Literature Circles, but I never felt like students engaged with the reading and formed communities of readers in the ways I hoped they would. I never had a group that I could really turn loose with it.

So after I thought for a few minutes, I swallowed hard and said, “Yes, of course you can choose your own book. Why not?” Then the fear hit me. I had relinquished control.

Making Choices and Framing the Study

Our school is fortunate to have a bookroom organized by Lexile. When students chose books, I encouraged them to choose from a certain area. I wanted students to enjoy, but also wanted them to be challenged a bit. Stargirl was not a challenge by Lexile, but by content. For students to choose their own books, we looked up book trailers, read the backs of books, used our LMS, and students recommended books to each other. Students checked books out from the library, purchased their own, downloaded them, and borrowed them from friends. Students made surprising, liberating, choices. Hatchet, a book many teachers use to get boys interested, was chosen by a group of girls. The Fault in Our Stars was the choice of a group eager to read it before the movie came out. Students were so excited to read that a few of the groups huddled together and began reading while a couple other groups negotiated between several books, carefully weighing their options. I helped by encouraging them to decide which book they wanted to read this time, and that they’d have other chances to read more.

The Farristown faculty worked through Shirley Clarke’s Active Learning through Formative Assessment this year, and with this in mind I talked with the students about what makes a successful book group. I have struggling readers as well as advanced readers, but they all worked together to determine the success criteria for reading groups. Every student had a voice, and students thrilled me by settling on the following criteria:

•  Groups must have 3-4 members, so everyone can be totally involved
• Everyone must be interested in the book and ask questions as we go
• Get along with others; be respectful and take time to help others
• Meet deadlines
• You can’t not read

We established a deadline, an end date on which we would share end products, and each group set its own reading schedule. Some groups decided it was important to read more during the week and not on weekends (though they had to decide whether Friday was a weekday or weekend), while others spread the reading evenly to include the weekend. No matter how they structured them, the schedules came to me looking a lot like the one I gave them for Stargirl. Students had internalized the effective pacing I had tried to model. Of course, my model was Ariel’s from Whole Novels. J

Some groups wanted to keep sticky notes, others decided to have try a variety of forms of note taking. During class, I provided some time for reading, other time for activities like those outlined in Whole Novels. I told students on which days we would discuss characters, conflict, and other topics that would be appropriate as they began reading, and they factored those into their scheduling too – not only did they set aside time for class-wide conversations, they also made sure to prepare in their groups for topics they knew would be coming, holding each other accountable for close reading and productive critical thinking.

Familiar with the CCSS, students heeded my warnings to read with our learning targets in mind. I started each class with mini-lessons on language, character analysis, and theme that included excerpts from one of the novels students were reading. We discovered how, for example, Language standard 8.4a, using context to determine meaning of words and phrases, operated in a passage in one book, then students in other groups found similar examples in their books and shared those with the class. Doing so not only reinforced the learning target, it also had the added bonus of suggesting still other books students might want to read.

Letting Them Drive!

The month of our independent novel study flew by. Students were engaged in the reading; books had been well chosen. Group members reminded each other of the good-group-member success criteria we established from the beginning. The one point that frustrated most students involved reading ahead or not keeping up. But collaboration reigned: a group with a “struggling” reader almost wordlessly revised their schedule to build in discussion days just “to make sure we all know what’s going on in the book.” All students loved the freedom of being in charge of their schedule, their tasks and their end products. The group size and camaraderie made it possible for students to support each other in each endeavor.

The phrase most often directed at me during these weeks of novel study was, “Hey, Mrs. Hunter look at this.” Groups called me over to share in their discoveries, to celebrate their breakthroughs, and to support them in their learning process. Ultimately, the independence they gained, their knowledge that they could rely on themselves and each other, may prove to be the most valuable skill they will acquire. I’m glad I got to be a part of it.

Teaching Poetry, Whole-Novels Style: Creating An Immersion Experience For Students

This post first appeared at On the Shoulders of Giants hosted by Center for Teaching Quality. 

Recently, a reader of my book, Whole Novels For the Whole Class, pushed my thinking. California English teacher, David Jansson, emailed me this interesting question:

I just finished Whole Novels for the Whole Class and am looking forward to implementing those strategies in my classroom next year. Thank you for some wonderful ideas. 

However, I was wondering if you had any thoughts (or resources) on how to use the core ideas of the approach (processing literature in its entirety, student-led discussion, etc.) when studying poetry? Would you recommend looking at a single poem? Several poems by the same author? Several poems organized around a theme?

I had never considered this question before. I do teach poetry, but the “whole novels” method seemed naturally limited to the realm of stories. The nature of the two genres is quite different, and I’d never tried to connect the two in terms of pedagogy. However, as I thought about my general approach to teaching poetry and what I might recommend in response, I began to notice striking connections between my poetry methods and key aspects of the whole novel approach. The more I think about it, the more I have to say about it…(maybe even a short book’s worth!) Thank you, David Jansson, for turning over this stone for me!

Here is my first attempt at sharing poetry, whole novels-style. First, the concept; then tips for classroom practices.

CONCEPT: Just like in whole novel studies, experience is of primary importance in the study of poetry. Too often, students receive the message in their English classes that poetry exists to be analyzed.  They learn terms, strategies and complicated acronyms to remember them--all in the service of solving a “poem-problem” with what, they understand, is supposed to be a clear answer.  As a reader, scholar and writer of poetry, I can say with confidence that poems are not built for a formulated analysis and rarely come with clear answers!  I think the vast majority of English teachers would agree with me on this; yet sometimes, in effort to reach standards and keep kids on track, common classroom methods still push students into the understanding that we read poetry to analyze and arrive at a specific outcome.    

If not analysis or a specific outcome, then what characterizes the experience of poetry?

In the novel, the story is what matters most.  Without it, you’ve pretty much missed the point of reading a novel, right? No matter how progressive the novel, its elements, structures and devices are all in service of telling a powerful story that draws readers in, gives us virtual experience and sends us away with new memories, ideas, feelings and questions. Analysis comes most naturally in the investigation of these feelings, ideas and questions through discussion, rereading and writing (as I show throughout Whole Novels for the Whole Class). 

The nature of poetry is different.  Instead of looking for a story, it is the sounds and images in a poem—and their impact on us as we are involved in their curious interactions—that matter most. Sound and images create the strong, subjective experience, which provokes authentic response.  Once students have an authentic response and real questions, rereading, discussion and analysis of the devices that created the response can make a natural next step.    

How do we draw students into the experience of poetry?

In the case of novel studies, it’s common to break up the extended story experience with questions and discussions, often jumping into analysis too early in the process.  The whole novel approach seeks to depart from these practices in order to allow readers a more fluid, subjective story experience. With poetry, it’s easy enough to read most poems “whole” before doing much else with them, because of their short length. 

Does reading one poem through, one time, create an experience deep enough to provoke authentic response? I think, since most students do not have extensive experience with poetry, the answer is often no.  So we need to design experiences for students that will immerse them in the sounds, images, and feel of poetry.  This is the equivalent of letting them “read the whole book first” in a whole novel study.

PRACTICES: Create an immersive poetry experience for students.  Here are some tips. 

1.     Devote some space in the annual curriculum to poetry, in addition to weaving it into other units.

2.     Begin by creating a variety of reading, speaking and listening experiences with poetry that do not include targeted questions or analysis at all.  Every year I have some students who arrive to my class with a fear or dislike of poetry.  Spending some time away from deconstruction of meaning of poems has always worked to put these students at ease and allow them to open up to poetry anew.

3.     Create an anthology for students. I create a packet of poems as wide-ranging and diverse as possible. I include rhyming and non-rhyming poems, contemporary and ancient poems, poems easily comprehended and others utterly mystifying, classics as well unknown, and always a few written by former students.

An alternative is to create an anthology around a particular theme or image, as David suggests in his message above. One year I created a collection of poems with the common image of rivers, which connected to an ecology unit in science—this is great for helping students with metaphor. I would suggest doing this later in the year (or in a subsequent year), after students have thoroughly experienced the initial, more general poetry unit.

4.     Give students time to read poetry in the packet with no strings attached. I pass out the packets and give students about 10 minutes of quiet reading time. I tell them they may read any poems, in any order. They may write on the packet, underline or highlight, but this is not required. I do ask that they pick one poem that catches their attention, either because they like it, don’t like it, or find it strange.

5.     After about ten minutes, I invite students to read any poem aloud to the class.  We just listen to the poetry.  Nearly everyone wants to join in and read a poem! They may make a comment about why they chose the poem, or not. We may read the same poem several times over if many have chosen it.

6.     Try choral reading. The class picks one of the poems for choral reading. Project the poem, if possible. We read it together in unison.  After reading it once, I ask, “What worked? What needs work?” We decide where to pause. Introduce “line breaks,” as a term. Do we want to pause at every line break? Try it that way! If it’s too much, find some other places to pause.  Mark these on the board if possible. 

Try experimenting with tone and volume.  “Let’s get louder at the end, and then whisper the last line!” Have students explain why they make a certain suggestion. This becomes like a music class, finding the rhythm and expression in the poem.

7.     Give students the assignment of choosing a poem from the packet with a small group and preparing a choral reading, using expression, rhythm, tone. Students can have “solo” lines too.  Gestures may be added.  No words may be added or changed. 

8.     I’m a fan of everyone memorizing a few poems in his or her lifetime. Assign students to choose a poem from the packet (or elsewhere) to memorize and read to the class. 

9.     Check out this amazing activity invented by my mentor, Madeleine Ray, and done here by Nancy Toes Tangel in her Newark 8th grade classroom. Tubes: Experiential Poetry Lesson

10. From here there are many directions students can explore. The key, I've found, is that they are now more open and interested in poetry.

After spending several days and up to two weeks on reading poetry and enjoying the oral/aural art form, the desire to talk about the poems, understand them better, and write original poetry arises naturally in students. They internalize many of the devices poets use without being explicitly taught them, and students feel more connected and curious, when engaging in the more explicit activities, which may have fallen flat without the immersion experience. 

A Teacher's Journey Into Whole Novels With Ariel Sacks: Guest Post From 7th Grade L.A. Teacher Stefanie Cole

I'm so excited to introduce you to veteran teacher & librarian Stefanie Cole, who has begun implementing whole novel studies in her 7th grade Language Arts class.  In this post, she shares how the whole novel method is helping her deepen her students' literature experience, in an already thriving workshop-based classroom.  ~Ariel

Stefanie Cole (@MsColeQVPS) has taught for 18 years in Southern Ontario for the Durham District School Board. For the last 11 years, she has been a K-8 Teacher Librarian at Quaker Village Public School, with the exciting addition last year of intermediate language arts teacher.  

Stephanie Cole is a librarian and 7th grade Language Arts Teacher in Ontario, Canada.

I am a teacher who loves reading and a reader who loves teaching, so when I was given the opportunity to teach Grade 7 language to balance out my library time two years ago I jumped at it.  In the spirit of Ariel Sacks’ On The Shoulders Of Giants blog, I turned to one of my giants to help me.  Nancie Atwell’s In The Middle became the basis of my program.  I wanted my students to develop their reading habits, find authors and genres they loved, while discovering and learning about various aspects of literature.  Through a superb Twitter PLN (professional learning network), which gives much more than I can ever return, I’ve discovered more giants like Donalyn Miller and her books Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild, as well as Penny Kittle and her book, Love of Reading.  Both have shaped and refined my program.

My students and I have had many successes over the last two years.  They are reading novels and finding authors & genres they like, admittedly some more than others. A number of my students have found they love reading and experiencing stories, but they just had never put enough time into reading to discover the pay off.   They tell me they now gossip about their books, authors & next reads, instead of just what they did on the weekend. 

I find their weekly journals are showing critical thought and deeper understanding of the books they’re reading. When a number of students are having trouble with an aspect of reading, we discuss it through the mini-lesson format & it often shows up in their journals.  I’m able to nudge understanding of concepts through journal responses and see them grow in their responses to their reading, but something still didn’t feel quite right. 

A Need To Go Deeper Into Literature Study

I wanted my students to get an even deeper understanding of what they were reading and to have the chance to discover and explore the ideas together and my reading program didn’t seem to allow this.  It felt more like I had the knowledge and they were the recipients of it.  The following problems kept bouncing around in my brain:

1) My students seemed to be just on the edge of exploring the deeper ideas in their books, but the format I provided didn’t allow closer reflection (except through my own questioning).

2) When I would post a “graffiti board” to highlight aspects and discovery in their reading, they weren’t buying in beyond what was being marked in their journals.

3) My most insightful students were sharing their thoughts with me, but not with others in the class.

4) Literature Circles were coming up in my annual curriculum plan, but the format I had used previously hadn’t brought the results I wanted. Students were often annoyed with the assignments and found the literature circle activities disrupted their reading.   

 I wanted an experience like I have in my own adult book club, where we discuss, laugh, disagree and always come away with an appreciation of the book that we didn’t have before our discussion.

 I didn’t know what to do. 

Discovering the Whole Novel Approach

In January, I was on Twitter and @mardieteach had tweeted about @RAMS_English’s post on Whole Memoirs For the Whole Class. He had launched a Memoir study in a new way using Open Response (OR), Language Notes (LN) & Conflict notes (CON) based on Ariel Sacks’ Whole Novels.  That piqued my attention.  First there was a language I didn’t understand and, secondly, it was addressing an issue in my teaching, so I ordered the book.  I read it and, ironically enough, put a ridiculous amount of sticky notes in it highlighting what I wanted to further explore! I was overjoyed that it addressed all the issues that were bothering me and gave a detailed, practical outline that I could implement with my class, while staying true to my vision of helping students to really read & love it.

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Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach

We first tried Madeleine’s Famous Three-Ways-Of-Thinking Lesson (Chapter 3) using The OtherSide, by Jacqueline Woodson. The purpose of this was to introduce Literal, Inferential and Critical thinking as a basis for the program, but also to try the discussion format Ariel outlines in Chapter 4.  The process of the discussion circle allows for each student to have a voice.  We sat in the circle and each student was expected to respond to the story as we went around the circle. “What do you think? What do you notice? What do you remember? What stands out for you?” are Ariel’s guiding questions.  While they responded I typed their responses as a reference for sorting and discussing. 

 I loved the way the students responded.  In only being asked to respond to the book, they explored the major themes, they commented on character development and they showed all levels of thinking. They all spoke and listened.  This was what I had wanted to see in my Literature Circle discussions and in discussions on shorter texts throughout the year, but this group-based open response process led more naturally to it.

Laying the Groundwork for Whole Novels with Sticky Notes

I also changed the focus of our weekly reading.  Here’s what I outlined for my students in a letter.

⃝ Continue to choose books you like, at your level, and read for two hours a week at home & at school.

⃝ Write a minimum of 12 sticky notes a week in the book you are reading.

  ? – One part you don’t understand, isn’t clear or you think there might be more to it.

  ! -  Find something you think is important to the story or the theme the author is exploring.

  * – a part you really like

  9 Open Response sticky note minimum with any thoughts you have to categorize as Literal, Inferential & Critical responses.

⃝ Every week we will tape the sticky notes into a journal so we can see our thoughts and categorize them as Literal, Inferential & Critical.  You are expected to have the title of your book, pages read & date.

⃝ Every third week we will pick a sticky to do a response on your blog.

⃝ You will comment on two other people’s blogs. 

This purpose of this assignment was to get the students into the habit of using the sticky notes and thinking about them before we start our literature circles.  It also gives me a different focus during our Independent Reading time as I conference with students and monitor what they are reading.  I can also direct the focus for a sticky note during a week so that they can look for something specific like the character trait development, similes or various time jumps in their novels, and my direction has place in our program that “counts” in the students’ minds. 

Stephanie's students categorize their own sticky notes into literal, inferential, and critical responses. 

First Steps In Implementing Whole Novel Studies

I know when I say we are going to be starting Literature Circles I am going to be met with a series of groans. It’s sad, but it’s true.  Our students are tired of only reading to a certain page a week, of the typical assignments they’ve done for years, of students who don’t pull their weight and don’t add to the discussion.  I’m looking forward to being able to say to say that this time we are doing it in a way that better supports real reading. I also know which students are going to finish the book early and embrace the Seeker Opportunity allowing them to explore another book on the same theme. (Discussed by Sacks in Chapter 8)

I’ve closely followed Ariel’s structure in my first attempt with a Whole Novel type literature circle.  I’ve typed up my letter and outline in Ariel Sacks’ style (Chapter 6) and am focusing on Character (CH), Theme (TH) and Open Response (OR) sticky notes. (Chapter 3)

 I’m not ready to do one novel with the whole class yet and I don’t have the resources to go there, but my students will be choosing three of five Coming of Ages novels so I can sit in on the official “whole novel” discussions with three groups of nine, using the discussion circles, the go around, typing their observations and using that sheet as a platform for discussions for the next day. (Chapter 4)  I’m excited for the conversations that I know this group is capable of, to see them argue and have to refer back to the novel to prove a point.  I’m looking forward to us developing questions we wish to explore and which they will be posting to their individual blogs to share with each other and I’m looking forward to their work on the character mini-project (Chapter 7) to help clarify the concept of protagonists & antagonists we’ve been circling lately.

 I’m truly thankful to Ariel Sacks for doing the hard work, both thinking and writing, in the development of a program which allows students to have a chance to really read, share opinions in a way which validates their thought process and develops a deeper understanding of important literary concepts.  I appreciate how Whole Novels is a detailed overview providing me with more than the framework of her program. I’m thankful to her for providing me with the chance to grow, yet again, as a teacher, being boosted just a little higher on the shoulder of a new giant, for me.

Stay tuned for Part II, following Ms. Cole's first whole novel study. 

Stefanie, I'm thankful to YOU for giving this idea a try in your classroom and for sharing your thinking and process with us. It is inspiring to see a community of teachers across the country--and around the world--adapting this method to meet the needs of their students. Thank you for being an early pioneer!

@Tweenteacher Reviews Whole Novels for the Whole Class on Middleweb

@Tweenteacher, also known as teacher and author, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, has published a great review of Whole Novels for the Whole Class at Middleweb. She calls it, "Teaching Whole Novels for Love and Standards," and really taps into the double edge of the whole novels approach, where the "fun" of experiencing story is not divorced from the "work" of close reading and analysis of text, but rather a key to it.  

Heather writes, "Sacks approaches literature as a means to teach critical thinking by acknowledging that deep thinking doesn’t happen until passion does. She gives advice on how to cultivate that enthusiasm for reading first and foremost before launching into ways to leverage that newfound passion into assessable knowledge... Sacks has done the work for you, unveiling the legitimate connections among love of reading, sustained narratives, common experiences, deep discussions, and student-centered activities, and a whole-novel approach can help address both the Common Core standards and the necessity to prepare our students for their futures."

Something else I really appreciated in her review is how she thought about using the book (and the whole novels concept) as a tool for collaborative inquiry into the teaching of literature among her colleagues.  

She ends, "Among my own ELA department colleagues, I could go on and on about this resource. But I think I’ll go a different route. I’m planning to recommend Whole Novels for the Whole Class as one of our book club selections. Perhaps we’ll even experience some of the activities from a student’s perspective, participating as we would as learners. We’ll find the balance between whole class discoveries as a department and individual ones discovered through our own independent reading. After all, as Sacks states, there must be a balance between the two. It is this balance that Whole Novels insists is a vital component in any reading program, at any level."

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Tweenteacher!  Middle school teachers should definitely check out her book, Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers and content area teachers should pre-order her latest, Writing Behind Every Door: Teaching Common Core Writing In the Content Areas. 

7th grade English Teacher Jill Barnes Shares Her Exploration of Whole Novels

I met Jill Barnes through #ELAChat on Twitter, where folks were reading and discussing Whole Novels for the Whole Class back in November. Now that some time has passed, Jill has been piloting the method and merging it with elements of several fantastic other professional development books. Join #ELAChat and #WholeNovels to join the conversation and learn from innovative teacher like Jill. --Ariel

By Jill Barnes @Jillgrafton

To say I have been on a learning journey is an understatement.

It all started with Donalyn Miller’s “The Book Whisperer.” Her book helped me understand the importance of student choice in the classroom. I jumped from “The Book Whisperer” to Kylene Beer’s “Notice and Note.” Kylene’s book guided me through the signs and signposts found in many of the novels I use from year to year. Following “Notice and Note” I stumbled upon Kelly Gallagher’s “Readicide” which opened my eyes to how many teachers are killing the love of reading for students by over teaching novels.

Just when I thought my journey needed a break I heard rumblings on Twitter of Ariel Sacks’ “Whole Novels.” Boy did my journey take another unexpected turn!

I will be the first to admit I have had full control over teacher led discussions around class novels for many years. I have spent hours coming up with questions for students to answer before, during, and after reading. I was the master of my students’ reading experiences—taking them on a journey I had crafted.

As I read “Whole Novels” I was drawn to Ariel’s fresh approach of having students respond authentically to reading. I realized it was no coincidence her book was the last on my reading frenzy—it all came together for me as I reflected on her ideas of student notes on post its and student led discussions right before my classes jumped into Lois Lowry’s “The Giver.”

From “Whole Novels” my mind shifted around authentic note taking as students read at their own pace. I could clear a path for my students’ learning by introducing Ariel’s formats for structured notes but at the same time allow for students to find their own way to the end of that path. In other words, I could let go of controlling the reading and thinking of my students.

Many pieces of the “Whole Novel” approach have worked well for my students’ needs since I introduced the method.

Students love note taking on post its! Their enthusiasm bubbles as they take control over authentic responses to the reading. Students move seamlessly between Ariel’s suggested format note taking options and Kylene Beers’ signs and signposts from “Notice and Note.” In the eyes of the students both methods help them make sense of their reading at their own pace.

In addition, student led discussions are a huge hit! I have adjusted the format a bit from Ariel’s method.

I divide my class in half and have an inner and outer circle. The inner circle uses their student note post its as guides for their discussions—referencing page numbers and evidence as they talk. The outer circle listens to the inner circle and takes notes on post its from the discussion—and then they switch roles-with the outer circle becoming the inner and vice versa. It has been interesting to see how the students use their post it notes as springboards for higher level discussions and thought provoking questions.


The student led discussions take on many layers using authentic notes and responses. I take a backseat to the discussions and let the students lead the way! Of course there are times I need to interject—making sure the same students are not taking over the discussion and helping everyone find their voice.

I have added a level of blended learning to Ariel’s “Whole Novel” approach. My students use kidblog.org and blog about their reading on a weekly basis from home. Using the hashtag #comments4kids I tweet student blog links to a global audience and we have visitors and comments from around the world. Feel free to check us out and comment at http://kidblog.org/BarnesA2-2013/ and http://kidblog.org/BarnesA4-2013/


Ariel’s “Whole Novel” approach continues to be a success as students take part in authentic note taking, authentic student led discussions, and capture an authentic global audience along the way!

Whole Novel Studies in Texas and Massachusetts!

Over the past month, two teachers in geographically disparate locations tried out their first whole novel studies, using the methods in my book, Whole Novels for the Whole Class.  

Nancy Wahl (@WahlWords), in Texas, shares her experience teaching Elie Wiesel's Night--whole novel style--in this fresh post, Story of Learning, on her blog, Journey to Story. A veteran teacher, she is excited to be engaging with new ideas and melding aspects of the whole novel approach with some of the great practices of her classroom.  Her enthusiasm is contagious! Enjoy a peek into her classroom!

About a month ago, Ken C (@RAMS_English) also a veteran English teacher, curriculum leader, and prolific blogger in Massachusetts piloted the same text, Night, in his 8th grade English class as a whole novel study, while another teacher on his team was teaching the text in a more traditional style.  Ken chronicles the whole process and shares his resources on his blog in eight parts!  He also includes results of feedback from his students which I thought was super interesting and such an important piece of trying out something new.  In this way, he lets others learn from his risk-taking and reflections.

Here are his posts in reverse order--

My Students Weigh In On Whole Novels Method

The Whole Novels Pilot: A Look Back

Day Two's Seminar: A Slight Adjustment

Seminars: Marathons or 5K's?

Night: Final Projects, Final Discussions

Feedback: The Lifeblood of Teaching

Day One: Modeling Annotating Skills

Whole Memoirs for the Whole Class