The Big Fresh June 3, 2017 Bearing Walls

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

                                                                   Andy Warhol

Years ago I did three video projects back-to-back in classrooms in three different states. All three of the projects focused on reading instruction. The classrooms ranged from primary to middle school. The teachers had a lot in common — they were all acclaimed for their instruction, had published bestselling books, and were gracious about letting me into their rooms with lots of cameras. When I sat down with each one to plan out a shooting schedule, I noticed they all had something else in common. None had regularly scheduled reading groups.

With each teacher, I approached this as a problem to be solved. How could we integrate some group work into the reading workshop, at least for the days we were in the room with cameras? The first-grade teacher was apologetic — it was early in the year, and she often did groups later in the year. The middle school teacher volunteered to start her book clubs sooner than planned, so that we could have group work on camera. But the fourth-grade teacher wasn’t going to accommodate me by rejiggering her plans to come up with some groups. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t do reading groups much in my classroom. Occasionally it makes sense to pull a group together, but for the most part, it’s minilessons for the whole class and then working one-on-one to see what each child needs that works best for my students.”

I was stunned. How could all three of these teachers, remarkable educators all, have the same flaw in their teaching? And then I realized that maybe there wasn’t a flaw in their teaching, but a flaw in my thinking. Perhaps they were so successful because they rejected the notion that you couldn’t teach reading well without regularly scheduled reading groups? I thought about all the dreadful reading groups I’d sat in on (and sadly, many times captured on video) with bored, distracted kids and round-robin reading. I’ve sat in on plenty of great groups too, but the point is, I’d never questioned the notion that reading programs had to have a grouping component to be successful.

It’s an act of courage for a teacher to reject any staple of the literacy curriculum. Colleagues visiting your classroom (or outspoken video producers) will helpfully point out what is missing, and that you need to correct the omission to teach well.

I was reminded of the quote from the writer Annie Dillard about bearing walls:

You hammer against the walls of your house. You tap the walls lightly, everywhere. After giving many years’ attention to these things, you know what to listen for. Some of the walls are bearing walls; they have to stay, or everything will fall down. Other walls can go with impunity; you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, it is often a bearing wall that has to go. It cannot be helped. There is only one solution, which appalls you, but there it is. Knock it down. Duck.

Reading groups are one of those bearing walls in reading workshops for most teachers. Yet each of these teachers grew up in our education culture being taught the necessity of reading groups, and on their own rejected them. Then they ducked. What they discovered is that the most efficient use of their time was to teach some things to the whole class so that there was a shared knowledge base, and then much of their time in workshops was spent one-on-one with students to make sure each one was challenged at their level of competence. Rarely was a whole group of students in the same place, at the same point of need, to require a group.

My point isn’t that reading groups should have no place in the curriculum — far from it. They are an essential part of many thriving workshops. But any routine is worth reconsidering, especially over the summer when there is time to reflect on what works and what is stale.  Late in the school year is the perfect time to see which routines should stay, and which are truly stale. The mark of a good one is that by this time of year your classroom is humming  So take out your hammer and tap on a bearing wall. It’s almost the end of the year anyway — what have you got to lose? You’ll have plenty of time this summer to clean up the rubble and figure out what to build in its place. Knock it down. Duck.

This week we conclude our series on creative assessment. Plus more as always — enjoy!

[For sneak peeks at our upcoming features, quotes and extra links,  follow Choice Literacy on Twitter: @ChoiceLiteracy or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChoiceLiteracy or Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/]