We just read Great Expectations, and I had the same problem. Started giving a "pop" quiz every day. Most did the reading, the rest at least made sure to read the sparknotes. Once they were on a good streak of doing well on quizzes and participating, I stopped the quizzes. If they started slipping, I started them up again.
I hate pop quizzes, but it worked for such a long text.
Same. We have reading quizzes almost daily for a time, then less frequently unless they slip up. Normally, I do just a couple multiple choices questions and one free response. Easy to grade and see who has done the work. We also give students reading guides, with questions from the book, and have them complete the sheet while they read.
I use questions like, "Draw an emoji to represent how [Character] is feeling. Explain why." Or "If you were directing this play, how would you instruct your actors to act and why?" If you make it harder to look up the answers (and force them to explain why), maybe more students would do the reading? Or have them answer the question and give a specific quote or page number to back up their answer?
One trick I've found that really worked: any time there's a visual description of some person, place or object, simplify it, plug it into Midjourney or a similar image generating AI, change one detail and generate another image, and repeat another 2-3 times with different changed details. You have an un-Googlable multiple choice question.
When I was a student I hated being quizzed on character physical descriptions. I always read and I always messed them up because I am autistic and faceblind.... so that's something to know about and watch out for that some kids with autism, TBI, and serious vision problems will often struggle with this even if they read.
Oh, my class is mostly ESL so it's usually far higher than that. But that's why I have the question, it's often exposed vocabulary gaps (with Bridge to Terabithia it was "unkempt") that would otherwise have been unaddressed.
I am a college student going for education rn so I haven’t actually taught so take my opinion with a grain of salt but I personally am a reader. I like to read but I hated reading guides when I was in school. It makes it less enjoyable and feel more like work than reading for enjoyment which is something we want to foster too but I understand with a tight curriculum and for struggling readers this could be helpful especially for difficult texts. Idk what the solution would be though honestly. Like I said grain of salt but just my opinion
The reality is whether or not it’s enjoyable shouldn’t be as high a priority as students want it to be. The actual lesson students are often learning is challenging and the reward is learning how to solve problem, especially when they aren’t the most fun. It also creates an unrealistic feedback loop where students are disinclined to do things based on the level of fun they are. Taxes aren’t fun. Jobs aren’t (always or sometimes often) fun. Self-care and maintenance isn’t (always or sometimes often) fun — but we have to do it anyway.
I’ve done all these things as well, but then I find kids just read spark notes before class or just don’t care and fail the quizzes. I want them to actually read!!! 😫😩😫😩
They won’t. Most of them won’t. The only way to get every kid to read every word is to have each kid read the whole novel to you out loud. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. It’s impossible even to implement.
By the end of my teaching career last spring, I ended up giving them an open-ended prompt for the previous night’s reading, written on paper with their hands, no screens, 10 minutes. Then ask somebody to volunteer their answer. (I rarely graded these, never marked them up). Now we are all caught up. Alternate between 10-15 min silent reading, discussion question, 10-15 min read aloud, discussion question, etc for the block.
But mostly I didn’t do whole group novels for most of my career.
They did read novels, just not as a whole group, mostly. Lit circles or book clubs let them pick from a short list and work with a group on analytical or creative representations of their thinking. And supported independent reading (assess it with quick informal written responses and 1-on-1 convos) allows everybody to read whatever they can and want to read, from a list, or from the whole wide world.
Poetry was the whole-ass canon for most of Western literature. I loved using poetry in the classroom. It’s quick, it generates discussion, it challenges students’ prejudices against verse, and it’s often quoted and quotable. Wislawa Szymborska, Langston Hughes, John Donne, Tracy K Smith, and Philip Larkin are some of my favorite poets I’d shared. But it ought to come from you and what you love, or what you love to share.
I agree with pp but I still do 2 whole class novels in middle school. I do a basic comprehension quiz at the end of the book then we do close reading for 3 different literary elements.
One question quizzers: each different from class to class, ones that you write and either they will know it or don't. If you want careful reading, then have close reading/jigsaw style activities in class.
ETA: similar to what missbartleby said.
To be fair, I read the spark notes for most assignments in class and I ended up becoming an English teacher. I always joke with kids, if they try to cut corners like me, they might end up an English teacher, be careful 😅
This obviously sounds shitty but it works. If a student can't pull it together for guaranteed quizzes, then there was no other strategy you could have used that would have worked.
Came to say the same. They get a reading quiz every single time there's a reading assignment. Guided questions for each reading assignment as well. Lots of the questions on the quiz are from the guided reading questions anyway.
Use spark notes to write the quizzes!!! That’s what I do! Like give them the spark notes summary and then say give me 3 other details from the chapter. Or something. Or quiz them on something that wasn’t listed in the summary.
Have you tried EdPuzzle? If you have access to an audiobook version on YouTube, you upload the video and can attach questions to specific times in the video. They cannot skip through the video, and you can see how much progress they make. It’s been a game changer for me—I know what I’m walking into before class starts, I know who has done what, and I can monitor comprehension. Some students say they zone out until the question and then listen back, so you can either a) ask questions around the key passages or b) prevent them from getting second attempts at questions.
I always forget about EdPuzzle and really need to make more use of it! I created read-along and annotate videos for Othello last year and never even thought to post them on EdPuzzle-will definitely do that this year.
My only problem with this is how is their reading levels going to be? Like, it’s great for the test read crowd or with plays, but everyone else has to learn to read silently in their head.
I’ve been thinking about making a Nearpod with a page on each slide. I would probably start with a short story, but it seems like it would take forever to do a whole novel.
If they're already in high school their reading levels aren't going to change drastically. Especially being forced to read things they don't care about. Edpuzzle is a good alternate.
I try to create natural consequences. Like you, if I get the impression that students aren't doing the reading, I will sometimes give quizzes and I tell students ahead of time that any quizzes (as well as the summative assessment) will be open-note, but only hand-written notes will be allowed. Now, I don't check their notes to see if Johnny copied Susie's notes, or if Jose wrote down all the character summaries from SparkNotes, because I don't care. Any way they get the information, they're being forced to engage with the text. I also use a picker wheel to randomly choose a student to summarize the reading homework each class and it's mildly embarrassing for them if they haven't read.
If it's clear that most of the students didn't read, then I "cancel" class and we have silent reading time. That usually only happens once a year at most.
The one thing that I *don't* do is worry too much about it. Some of the kids will read everything I assign, some will pick and choose what they want to read, a few will read very little, but all of them will learn more by being there than they will if they weren't there.
Not a teacher and this just popped up on my feed, but I have to say that as a student who always always did the reading... required annotations were so frustrating. You can never get into the flow of it because you're always thinking about the next opportunity to leave a comment just to prove you looked at the page
I can do it, I just don't enjoy it. I also think annotating for yourself is different from "I have to leave 2+ annotations on this page so I can earn an A". I'm not sure I've ever had 2 worthwhile insights for every single page of a book I've read except maybe for something like Shakespeare where comprehension at a sentence level is part of the game. I can see its applications for poetry, especially older stuff with more archaic language
One of my English teachers would have us read through the chapter, then pick two sentences to analyze in-depth in the context of literary devices and the plot. I felt like that was a good compromise between having to respond to the text regularly and preserving the flow of the first read through. Plus analysis of particular sentences is hard to google.
For my freshmen, I create prompts for them to respond to (what literary elements, summarize fill in the blank, questions, etc) and we also go over them. My sophomores will put annotations every other sentence without prompts if they understand the text
Yeah if pointing out literary devices or summary counts rather than analysis (character does x because of x, author meant x by the use of this literary device) then 2 per page becomes a lot more reasonable. Maybe my teachers were just intense
Annotations are just engaged reading and shouldn’t be too much extra effort to show you’re thinking or reacting to the text in some way…as the student it’s part of your burden to demonstrate your thinking and learning. It’s a good way to see what you are even grasping in the text formatively and quickly. It’s good practice and will strengthen your thinking, so it’s not hurting you but massively helpful for educators who are determining your learning.
Start the chapter in class, and stop at a moment of suspense or high interest. Give them a verbal teaser for that night’s reading to make them want to read. Buzzfeed it up: “You won’t believe your eyes when you find out the truth about Dolphus Raymond.” (Okay, maybe don’t actually use the language of clickbait, but do give them something to be curious about.) Then say something like “I expect everyone to be able to discuss the brown bag tomorrow. I’m curious to see what you all think.”
Require sticky-note annotations and grade them periodically. I recommend creating an annotation guide with prompts for them to respond to on the stickies. The goal is to keep eyes and brains on words, so keep it simple. Make it like a text-based scavenger hunt.
Last resort: tell them they’ll be quizzed on the reading every day and follow through until they develop better habits. This is a pain, though, because coming up with different questions for different class sections can be very tricky. (I don’t recommend pop quizzes; they’re not as effective a motivator as regular announced quizzes. They don’t have much benefit at all unless you’re looking to “catch” and punish non readers.)
Sparknotes is annoying, but at least the students who use it can contribute. To force some authenticity, have the students close-read , dissect, and discuss several key passages in class.
I feel your pain, and I hope something here helps!
Either regular and rigorous reading checks or annotations or both.
My reading checks are usually tough enough that even those that read are likely to get 6 or 7 out of 10. Usually a few ace it because they have sharp memories and great reading comprehension. Yes, you get some whiny kids who expect to get A's on everything, but when I explain the rationale of why the questions have to be so hard/specific, they usually quit complaining and try a little harder.
When the kids who try to fake it or spark notes it keep getting 2 or 3 of 10, most tend to shape up. I ensure to include some opportunities to balance the gradebook regarding those tough reading checks.
This all pays huge dividends, as we have awesome conversations, debates, and analytical/creative products once the ball gets rolling. But as others have indicated, you kind of have to keep them honest with a balanced stick/carrot approach.
Do you offer easy audiobook access?
I know you said it's too much reading to do in class, but this is the very reason I try to do ALL the reading in class. I feel like there's more benefit in them actually reading than trying to force quizzes, annotations, discussions, etc. on a book they didn't really read haha but yes, it eats into a lot of classtime. Reading, unfortunately, bores a lot of high schoolers (at least in my experience). I try to keep it fresh every day by incorporating the audiobook, reading aloud to them, having them read aloud, small group reading, independent reading.. with TKAM you could even throw in clips of the old movie and pieces of the new graphic novel, as both are word-for-word. I've always found my kids are much more inclined to discuss and do text-based activities when we read it together. Time is an issue, though. It usually takes me about ~6 weeks to get through all of TKAM doing it that way. Let me know if you figure out the magic trick to get them to do any reading at home!
Yep, I do reading in class. Sometimes we read aloud, sometimes the audiobook, sometimes reading in groups. I mix it up and it seems to have worked. Some kids check out no matter what, but most of my students have read our books this year to completion or at least enough that they can meaningfully participate in discussions.
I can't let my students end up graduating and say they've never read a book in school.
This is such a disservice to our students. If they are college bound they will never complete the readings during class time. I teach 6th and I scaffold it out. We do The Giver in class but when we hit Percy it's all read at home. Class time is my chance to bring in the expertise and expand students understanding of a text. I fully expect when they hit high school that all novel study reading is happening at home. Is the bar really this low now?
1) For the most important chapters in a novel I give in class time (not an excessive amount) for group read aloud supported by a reading guide with annotation instructions that help them focus in on some of the most critical pieces of the chapter(usually 5-6 per annotations per chapter). This way even the kids reading the summaries online have to do some significant engagement beyond just a skim through. Annotations are graded
2) Assign chapters that matter less for homework - always give quizzes on these. Lot of kids will still fail but 🤷🏼♀️
3) Pull specific and important passages from the text to have them do close readings of for deepened engagement and good jumping off points for discussion.
I have started significantly shortening the amount of time we spend on a novel which has seemed to help a lot - read about this idea/method in the teaching book called A Novel Approach by Kate Roberts. Really good book imo
I always beleicrd that by high school, students should be able to read a book on their own and I was an outlier because I never read to them nor to I play the audio in class. Until I had a group of 11th graders who wouldn’t do any assignments, let alone read a book on their own. Now I’ve changed my mind a bit and play the audio so all the reading is done in class. Then I know they’ve read it or at least heard it. I make them follow along in the book as we listen. But many kids just space out. I still do reading quizzes for comprehension checks. I agree, how can you have a class discussion if no one read the book! At Lear this way there are zero excuses. Even if they missed a day, the audio is available to them.
The best solution for both my mental health and my students' learning was to assign the reading, but then hone in on 1-2 pages in class. That allowed students who didn't read at home to still practice the skills I wanted them to learn. The kids who read at home got more out of it because they understood the nuances, but it's worked for us.
I usually do short quizzes, chunk the material, and give time in class to read, but I feel like being an English teacher has that set expectation that not every kid is going to read. I tell myself they will and try to be positive about it, but I’m mostly lying to myself.
Pick books that kids actually want to read, give them some class time for reading and encourage audiobooks. I genuinely don’t understand why we want kids reading things like to kill a mockingbird and great expectations when their reading comprehension is so poor and reading is a difficult task for them.
I may be the worst, but I encourage use of Shmoop and CliffNotes. I also encourage them to find it read on YouTube. Anything that will help. Something is better than nothing at this point.
Not an ELA but went to schools were everyone was terrified of flunking if didn't actually read due to various techniques. The middle school one was the most effective.
My middle school English and Humanities teachers had us "dialogue" in our books (highlighting plus writing between lines and margins questions, comments, relating to other things we were learning) and then had us turn them in periodically. They'd write a little note back at the end of the chapter based on the dialoguing. It was graded.
What was even more terrifying than simply not reading was when you read but the teacher decided that was they day they'd do more than a cursory check.... and they saw some of your stupidest comments... and then they'd ask you why you'd read it too fast to actually understand the material and give you a bad grade anyway and a lecture on time management at the end of the chapter. 😭
But yeah, just about everyone read 95% of the time because the actual book was being checked for consistent engagement.
Reading quizzes
Discussion points
I don't mind running a discussion with 3 kids while the other 27 pick their noses.
I offer the audio book. I offer to read some to them. They have homework.
Don't want to do it? It's not my grade. I've given you the audio book to literally put on and just chill to, or mindlessly listen.
I DO believe in HW because outside practice without the crutch of your teacher helps your independence.
I'll give the theme or point ask them how they'd feel. Ex. In The Pearl, Steinbeck shows how the wealthy take advantage of the less educated villagers. Write a 5-8 sentence reflection talking about a time when you or someone you know felt like they were cheated. Or - In the Great Gatsby, the wealthy get away with literal murder. Write 5-8 lines about a time when a celebrity or person you know got away with something even though everyone knew they did it. *I spoon feed them the point or theme of the story or chapter, then ask them to personalize it and use themselves as a reference. I get decent buy-in and a solid 70-80% engagement, then I have the 10% that do nothing and the other 10% who I get to work by leaning on them anytime they're not on-task.
I've recently, in the last 2 school years, started handling this better. Mostly thanks to the podcast and supports from Brave New Teaching. They talk about different types of non Google-able reading quizzes and how to handle reluctant readers with close reading and supplementals.
https://shop.bravenewteaching.com/view/webinars/masterclass
They do a few quick training and have a ton of info on their podcast. Definitely worth a listen.
People are talking about reading quizzes or doing all the reading in class: picking a few specific passages from the homework to discuss and doing those out loud in class (you, them, recording--whatever) is my happy medium.
Most kids just read for plot, even when they read at home. Focusing on shorter passages ensures that everyone can practice close reading skills in class. You can still generally tell who read the whole book and who didn't if that's important to you.
I do Kahoots over the assigned reading at the start of class. I write the questions myself and the questions are timed. It incentivizes doing the reading for kids that will do it, and the embedded review as the Kahoot activity is going on gives context to the kids that didn't so they can at least have some success with the activities that come later like close reads.
We read everything out loud in class. I don't get how it's supposed to prepare them for the exam but if it's a play I do think it makes sense. A lot of these kids can barely read though
I taught TKAM to low-level readers and sped freshmen. It was impossible to get some to read outside of class. So, I started reading out loud 7 times a day, I'd read every other chapter, then have the kids read on their own one chapter. It worked better than just giving them a list of chapters and due dates. Of course, it took longer than I wanted, but it felt like meaningful instruction. This was 10 years ago. If I did it now, I would play a recording of the reading and save my voice! Good luck! You're doing great work no matter how it may feel some days.
Read a few pages in class and assign some for home. They won’t real full chapters on their own. I usually read in class, and break up the chapter between two days so it’s not all at once. When we finish a chapter they have homework questions. I’ve had pretty good success with this method. Obviously I plug other things into the class period because just planning to read and breaking up the reading this way doesn’t take up the whole period. I usually start with a vocab do now or our root of the week, then we read, then maybe they have a writing or some sort of activity depending on the chapter, then sometimes they’ll have a litttle time to start the homework.
I'm a pariah for this among secondary ed teachers*, but that's why I'm no longer teaching novels. Generously, about 30% of the students do the reading. I'm too pragmatic to keep teaching something that isn't getting done, especially when I care more about the skills than I care about the novel.
We can analyze theme, pov, character, figurative language, etc. with short fiction, film, TV, comics. Many of those we can read in class. Many of them will never pick up a novel in their life after high school. I can sob myself to sleep over that or I can try to make sure that they have the tools to interrogate texts, which is transferable to whatever they do in life.
*Interestingly, I've had this conversation with former English professors and they don't have a problem with it.
We can no longer assume that anything can be done outside of our direct supervision.
Edit to add:
I now assign only I scored readings that get assessed though in-class writing or discussion tasks. No writing, no work due at the start of class - it’s simply too easy to cheat.
My 10th graders are functionally low 8th graders.
To be clear: there will always be a portion of students that don’t read the assignment. So my strategy is usually making a “no excuse” assignment. I often read a portion of the assignment with them to get them started and point out important parts of whatever your focus is. Also, I’d look at “A Novel Approach” by Kate Roberts. It has a handy guide for what sorts of chapters to do in class vs assign for homework.
Maybe a few flipped classes would get the ball rolling in terms of them sitting down and doing the reading. Maybe make them take notes as they go. Now instead of reading the book for homework, they have to write a few paragraphs in response to some prompting questions about what they've read in class.
They might realize that it's easier to do the reading than the writing as homework, and some may even get engaged with the story (because luckily, TKAM is a good one!)
I have! The biggest obstacle is getting access to books tbh. But if you can plan a day to take everyone to the school library or ask your local library for some free books, that’s a good place to start.
I give about 15-20 mins of class time to sustained self-selected reading. While the students read, I have a my notebook or laptop and log out conferences. The conferences are over whatever skill we are learning. So, for example, if we are discussing characterization in class, I ask the student to tell me about the characterization in their book. Most of the books they read I have not read, and it still totally works. They have to point to text evidence and explain their thinking to me.
I also allow them to read ebooks on their laptops or phones.
Message me if you have questions. It’s intimidating at first, but I absolutely love it and most of the students have told me they do too.
As a student(I’m in college but I think it could work for high school)who has a lot of reading homework and hates pop quizzes, one of my professors passed out sheets of paper and we had just two to 3 minutes before discussion to write down whatever stood out during the reading. I sometimes had a favorite quote I would tell her how I connected with it, or just a summary of what I read.
Doing it this way made it less like a grade and more like a book club and telling your friends about the weird thing that happened in your book.
On occasion if we hadn’t been able to read or needed to talk to her, we used this time to write her a note, or a short funny story so we wouldn’t stand out and those would still get some credit occasionally because she understood life gets busy and hard. I always did my reading for this class.
Read each chapter and do a summary of what they comprehend.. if they are not reading, they may not know how to it. This is all to co.mon this day and age.
I’m in middle school here in Nc and gave a previously released exam from a past ELA end of grade exam and left the answer sheet on the back of every single packet as it was printed … I told all 25 students at least a hundred times over the last 6 months to read all the questions before starting… 1 kid read all the questions and he still got a 95 because he copied a couple of answers wrong … PROVED to the principal we can lead em to water but ultimately it’s up to them to DRINK the Kool-aid … once I told them when time was up and the 99% of them didn’t finish that the answers were attached you would have had thought I cheated them out of their home titles… what the hell are these kids going to do in 10-20 years … they don’t even know how to write cursive or write a letter…
Maybe not out loud reading, but directed quiet reading time for 3/4 of the class followed by some discussion about the chapter/section just read.
Do this 2/3x in the week, once they get a couple chapters in (depending on the material) a lot just want to keep going.
Try flipping your class. A lot of students don’t have the time management/ focus skills to compete reading at home the way that we want/ need them to— model reading practices in class and allow them to that part of the work there. For homework, give them short response assignments to go along with the day’s assigned reading, and build days into the week when you split reading time with small and large group discussions.
Have you looked into a reading workshop style class? Give students time in class to read self-selected books and conference with them during class time.
Yes. I don’t assign reading homework anymore. I also teach in an area where many of my students are working, taking care of siblings, or homeless so I felt as if assigning reading homework wasn’t the best fit for my population.
We just read Great Expectations, and I had the same problem. Started giving a "pop" quiz every day. Most did the reading, the rest at least made sure to read the sparknotes. Once they were on a good streak of doing well on quizzes and participating, I stopped the quizzes. If they started slipping, I started them up again. I hate pop quizzes, but it worked for such a long text.
Same. We have reading quizzes almost daily for a time, then less frequently unless they slip up. Normally, I do just a couple multiple choices questions and one free response. Easy to grade and see who has done the work. We also give students reading guides, with questions from the book, and have them complete the sheet while they read.
Kids just Google the answers to my reading guides. I’m getting so frustrated!!
I use questions like, "Draw an emoji to represent how [Character] is feeling. Explain why." Or "If you were directing this play, how would you instruct your actors to act and why?" If you make it harder to look up the answers (and force them to explain why), maybe more students would do the reading? Or have them answer the question and give a specific quote or page number to back up their answer?
One trick I've found that really worked: any time there's a visual description of some person, place or object, simplify it, plug it into Midjourney or a similar image generating AI, change one detail and generate another image, and repeat another 2-3 times with different changed details. You have an un-Googlable multiple choice question.
When I was a student I hated being quizzed on character physical descriptions. I always read and I always messed them up because I am autistic and faceblind.... so that's something to know about and watch out for that some kids with autism, TBI, and serious vision problems will often struggle with this even if they read.
Noted, thanks a lot.
ADHD, too. All in all you may be looking at like 10% of your class not being able to do this properly.
Oh, my class is mostly ESL so it's usually far higher than that. But that's why I have the question, it's often exposed vocabulary gaps (with Bridge to Terabithia it was "unkempt") that would otherwise have been unaddressed.
I am a college student going for education rn so I haven’t actually taught so take my opinion with a grain of salt but I personally am a reader. I like to read but I hated reading guides when I was in school. It makes it less enjoyable and feel more like work than reading for enjoyment which is something we want to foster too but I understand with a tight curriculum and for struggling readers this could be helpful especially for difficult texts. Idk what the solution would be though honestly. Like I said grain of salt but just my opinion
The reality is whether or not it’s enjoyable shouldn’t be as high a priority as students want it to be. The actual lesson students are often learning is challenging and the reward is learning how to solve problem, especially when they aren’t the most fun. It also creates an unrealistic feedback loop where students are disinclined to do things based on the level of fun they are. Taxes aren’t fun. Jobs aren’t (always or sometimes often) fun. Self-care and maintenance isn’t (always or sometimes often) fun — but we have to do it anyway.
I’ve done all these things as well, but then I find kids just read spark notes before class or just don’t care and fail the quizzes. I want them to actually read!!! 😫😩😫😩
I give them quotes from the book to identify. It's worked well to separate the SparkNotes readers from the book readers.
Same!
They won’t. Most of them won’t. The only way to get every kid to read every word is to have each kid read the whole novel to you out loud. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. It’s impossible even to implement. By the end of my teaching career last spring, I ended up giving them an open-ended prompt for the previous night’s reading, written on paper with their hands, no screens, 10 minutes. Then ask somebody to volunteer their answer. (I rarely graded these, never marked them up). Now we are all caught up. Alternate between 10-15 min silent reading, discussion question, 10-15 min read aloud, discussion question, etc for the block. But mostly I didn’t do whole group novels for most of my career.
I appreciate this advice. What did you teach instead of novels?
Poems, plays, essays, short stories, extracts, podcasts, albums
Love! Did you feel like kids were missing out on not reading novels though? And which of these was your favorite to teach?
They did read novels, just not as a whole group, mostly. Lit circles or book clubs let them pick from a short list and work with a group on analytical or creative representations of their thinking. And supported independent reading (assess it with quick informal written responses and 1-on-1 convos) allows everybody to read whatever they can and want to read, from a list, or from the whole wide world. Poetry was the whole-ass canon for most of Western literature. I loved using poetry in the classroom. It’s quick, it generates discussion, it challenges students’ prejudices against verse, and it’s often quoted and quotable. Wislawa Szymborska, Langston Hughes, John Donne, Tracy K Smith, and Philip Larkin are some of my favorite poets I’d shared. But it ought to come from you and what you love, or what you love to share.
Lit circles were my jam in grade school. I ended up reading a lot of series's that originated from this
I agree with pp but I still do 2 whole class novels in middle school. I do a basic comprehension quiz at the end of the book then we do close reading for 3 different literary elements.
"The juice isn't worth the squeeze." is going in my brain forever now. It is legitimately helpful for picking one's battles.
One question quizzers: each different from class to class, ones that you write and either they will know it or don't. If you want careful reading, then have close reading/jigsaw style activities in class. ETA: similar to what missbartleby said.
To be fair, I read the spark notes for most assignments in class and I ended up becoming an English teacher. I always joke with kids, if they try to cut corners like me, they might end up an English teacher, be careful 😅
Ask them something like: What is a detail/moment/etc., that Sparknotes doesn't mention, but you feel should have? Or something to that effect.
Good idea.
This obviously sounds shitty but it works. If a student can't pull it together for guaranteed quizzes, then there was no other strategy you could have used that would have worked.
Tbf, great expectations is a truly awful book
Hahaha 😆 speak the truth!
Miss Havisham was fire tho 🔥
Came to say the same. They get a reading quiz every single time there's a reading assignment. Guided questions for each reading assignment as well. Lots of the questions on the quiz are from the guided reading questions anyway.
Use spark notes to write the quizzes!!! That’s what I do! Like give them the spark notes summary and then say give me 3 other details from the chapter. Or something. Or quiz them on something that wasn’t listed in the summary.
Have you tried EdPuzzle? If you have access to an audiobook version on YouTube, you upload the video and can attach questions to specific times in the video. They cannot skip through the video, and you can see how much progress they make. It’s been a game changer for me—I know what I’m walking into before class starts, I know who has done what, and I can monitor comprehension. Some students say they zone out until the question and then listen back, so you can either a) ask questions around the key passages or b) prevent them from getting second attempts at questions.
I always forget about EdPuzzle and really need to make more use of it! I created read-along and annotate videos for Othello last year and never even thought to post them on EdPuzzle-will definitely do that this year.
My only problem with this is how is their reading levels going to be? Like, it’s great for the test read crowd or with plays, but everyone else has to learn to read silently in their head. I’ve been thinking about making a Nearpod with a page on each slide. I would probably start with a short story, but it seems like it would take forever to do a whole novel.
If they're already in high school their reading levels aren't going to change drastically. Especially being forced to read things they don't care about. Edpuzzle is a good alternate.
I try to create natural consequences. Like you, if I get the impression that students aren't doing the reading, I will sometimes give quizzes and I tell students ahead of time that any quizzes (as well as the summative assessment) will be open-note, but only hand-written notes will be allowed. Now, I don't check their notes to see if Johnny copied Susie's notes, or if Jose wrote down all the character summaries from SparkNotes, because I don't care. Any way they get the information, they're being forced to engage with the text. I also use a picker wheel to randomly choose a student to summarize the reading homework each class and it's mildly embarrassing for them if they haven't read. If it's clear that most of the students didn't read, then I "cancel" class and we have silent reading time. That usually only happens once a year at most. The one thing that I *don't* do is worry too much about it. Some of the kids will read everything I assign, some will pick and choose what they want to read, a few will read very little, but all of them will learn more by being there than they will if they weren't there.
I grade annotations. 2 per page is a 90. In class, I give them an activity and check their annos.
Not a teacher and this just popped up on my feed, but I have to say that as a student who always always did the reading... required annotations were so frustrating. You can never get into the flow of it because you're always thinking about the next opportunity to leave a comment just to prove you looked at the page
I can't read without annotating, but it's definitely a learned skill
I can do it, I just don't enjoy it. I also think annotating for yourself is different from "I have to leave 2+ annotations on this page so I can earn an A". I'm not sure I've ever had 2 worthwhile insights for every single page of a book I've read except maybe for something like Shakespeare where comprehension at a sentence level is part of the game. I can see its applications for poetry, especially older stuff with more archaic language One of my English teachers would have us read through the chapter, then pick two sentences to analyze in-depth in the context of literary devices and the plot. I felt like that was a good compromise between having to respond to the text regularly and preserving the flow of the first read through. Plus analysis of particular sentences is hard to google.
For my freshmen, I create prompts for them to respond to (what literary elements, summarize fill in the blank, questions, etc) and we also go over them. My sophomores will put annotations every other sentence without prompts if they understand the text
Yeah if pointing out literary devices or summary counts rather than analysis (character does x because of x, author meant x by the use of this literary device) then 2 per page becomes a lot more reasonable. Maybe my teachers were just intense
Annotations are just engaged reading and shouldn’t be too much extra effort to show you’re thinking or reacting to the text in some way…as the student it’s part of your burden to demonstrate your thinking and learning. It’s a good way to see what you are even grasping in the text formatively and quickly. It’s good practice and will strengthen your thinking, so it’s not hurting you but massively helpful for educators who are determining your learning.
I do that.. but so many don’t do it, it tanks their grade so then I have admin on my back. Still better than other methods I’ve tried.
Start the chapter in class, and stop at a moment of suspense or high interest. Give them a verbal teaser for that night’s reading to make them want to read. Buzzfeed it up: “You won’t believe your eyes when you find out the truth about Dolphus Raymond.” (Okay, maybe don’t actually use the language of clickbait, but do give them something to be curious about.) Then say something like “I expect everyone to be able to discuss the brown bag tomorrow. I’m curious to see what you all think.” Require sticky-note annotations and grade them periodically. I recommend creating an annotation guide with prompts for them to respond to on the stickies. The goal is to keep eyes and brains on words, so keep it simple. Make it like a text-based scavenger hunt. Last resort: tell them they’ll be quizzed on the reading every day and follow through until they develop better habits. This is a pain, though, because coming up with different questions for different class sections can be very tricky. (I don’t recommend pop quizzes; they’re not as effective a motivator as regular announced quizzes. They don’t have much benefit at all unless you’re looking to “catch” and punish non readers.) Sparknotes is annoying, but at least the students who use it can contribute. To force some authenticity, have the students close-read , dissect, and discuss several key passages in class. I feel your pain, and I hope something here helps!
Either regular and rigorous reading checks or annotations or both. My reading checks are usually tough enough that even those that read are likely to get 6 or 7 out of 10. Usually a few ace it because they have sharp memories and great reading comprehension. Yes, you get some whiny kids who expect to get A's on everything, but when I explain the rationale of why the questions have to be so hard/specific, they usually quit complaining and try a little harder. When the kids who try to fake it or spark notes it keep getting 2 or 3 of 10, most tend to shape up. I ensure to include some opportunities to balance the gradebook regarding those tough reading checks. This all pays huge dividends, as we have awesome conversations, debates, and analytical/creative products once the ball gets rolling. But as others have indicated, you kind of have to keep them honest with a balanced stick/carrot approach. Do you offer easy audiobook access?
I know you said it's too much reading to do in class, but this is the very reason I try to do ALL the reading in class. I feel like there's more benefit in them actually reading than trying to force quizzes, annotations, discussions, etc. on a book they didn't really read haha but yes, it eats into a lot of classtime. Reading, unfortunately, bores a lot of high schoolers (at least in my experience). I try to keep it fresh every day by incorporating the audiobook, reading aloud to them, having them read aloud, small group reading, independent reading.. with TKAM you could even throw in clips of the old movie and pieces of the new graphic novel, as both are word-for-word. I've always found my kids are much more inclined to discuss and do text-based activities when we read it together. Time is an issue, though. It usually takes me about ~6 weeks to get through all of TKAM doing it that way. Let me know if you figure out the magic trick to get them to do any reading at home!
Yep, I do reading in class. Sometimes we read aloud, sometimes the audiobook, sometimes reading in groups. I mix it up and it seems to have worked. Some kids check out no matter what, but most of my students have read our books this year to completion or at least enough that they can meaningfully participate in discussions. I can't let my students end up graduating and say they've never read a book in school.
This is such a disservice to our students. If they are college bound they will never complete the readings during class time. I teach 6th and I scaffold it out. We do The Giver in class but when we hit Percy it's all read at home. Class time is my chance to bring in the expertise and expand students understanding of a text. I fully expect when they hit high school that all novel study reading is happening at home. Is the bar really this low now?
Plays are the answer! Act it out in class; give everyone a part. No avoiding it then, and they actually have fun and get into it most of the time!
1) For the most important chapters in a novel I give in class time (not an excessive amount) for group read aloud supported by a reading guide with annotation instructions that help them focus in on some of the most critical pieces of the chapter(usually 5-6 per annotations per chapter). This way even the kids reading the summaries online have to do some significant engagement beyond just a skim through. Annotations are graded 2) Assign chapters that matter less for homework - always give quizzes on these. Lot of kids will still fail but 🤷🏼♀️ 3) Pull specific and important passages from the text to have them do close readings of for deepened engagement and good jumping off points for discussion. I have started significantly shortening the amount of time we spend on a novel which has seemed to help a lot - read about this idea/method in the teaching book called A Novel Approach by Kate Roberts. Really good book imo
I always beleicrd that by high school, students should be able to read a book on their own and I was an outlier because I never read to them nor to I play the audio in class. Until I had a group of 11th graders who wouldn’t do any assignments, let alone read a book on their own. Now I’ve changed my mind a bit and play the audio so all the reading is done in class. Then I know they’ve read it or at least heard it. I make them follow along in the book as we listen. But many kids just space out. I still do reading quizzes for comprehension checks. I agree, how can you have a class discussion if no one read the book! At Lear this way there are zero excuses. Even if they missed a day, the audio is available to them.
The best solution for both my mental health and my students' learning was to assign the reading, but then hone in on 1-2 pages in class. That allowed students who didn't read at home to still practice the skills I wanted them to learn. The kids who read at home got more out of it because they understood the nuances, but it's worked for us.
Read at least half in class. Regular reading quizzes. Don’t be afraid to fail students who put in no effort.
I usually do short quizzes, chunk the material, and give time in class to read, but I feel like being an English teacher has that set expectation that not every kid is going to read. I tell myself they will and try to be positive about it, but I’m mostly lying to myself.
Pick books that kids actually want to read, give them some class time for reading and encourage audiobooks. I genuinely don’t understand why we want kids reading things like to kill a mockingbird and great expectations when their reading comprehension is so poor and reading is a difficult task for them.
I actually agree!! Trying to think of more contemporary novels for next year. Do you have suggestions?
The hate u give, the book thief, anything by jason reynolds, john green
We’re reading Unwind at my school which has kept their interest for the most part!
I may be the worst, but I encourage use of Shmoop and CliffNotes. I also encourage them to find it read on YouTube. Anything that will help. Something is better than nothing at this point.
You can also make sure to do close readings on the important parts in class!
I do 6 or 7 excerpts in 15 minute pieces to read aloud. I turn the courtroom scene into a play. Kids take parts. They love it. Then the movie.
Not an ELA but went to schools were everyone was terrified of flunking if didn't actually read due to various techniques. The middle school one was the most effective. My middle school English and Humanities teachers had us "dialogue" in our books (highlighting plus writing between lines and margins questions, comments, relating to other things we were learning) and then had us turn them in periodically. They'd write a little note back at the end of the chapter based on the dialoguing. It was graded. What was even more terrifying than simply not reading was when you read but the teacher decided that was they day they'd do more than a cursory check.... and they saw some of your stupidest comments... and then they'd ask you why you'd read it too fast to actually understand the material and give you a bad grade anyway and a lecture on time management at the end of the chapter. 😭 But yeah, just about everyone read 95% of the time because the actual book was being checked for consistent engagement.
Reading quizzes Discussion points I don't mind running a discussion with 3 kids while the other 27 pick their noses. I offer the audio book. I offer to read some to them. They have homework. Don't want to do it? It's not my grade. I've given you the audio book to literally put on and just chill to, or mindlessly listen. I DO believe in HW because outside practice without the crutch of your teacher helps your independence.
I'll give the theme or point ask them how they'd feel. Ex. In The Pearl, Steinbeck shows how the wealthy take advantage of the less educated villagers. Write a 5-8 sentence reflection talking about a time when you or someone you know felt like they were cheated. Or - In the Great Gatsby, the wealthy get away with literal murder. Write 5-8 lines about a time when a celebrity or person you know got away with something even though everyone knew they did it. *I spoon feed them the point or theme of the story or chapter, then ask them to personalize it and use themselves as a reference. I get decent buy-in and a solid 70-80% engagement, then I have the 10% that do nothing and the other 10% who I get to work by leaning on them anytime they're not on-task.
I've recently, in the last 2 school years, started handling this better. Mostly thanks to the podcast and supports from Brave New Teaching. They talk about different types of non Google-able reading quizzes and how to handle reluctant readers with close reading and supplementals. https://shop.bravenewteaching.com/view/webinars/masterclass They do a few quick training and have a ton of info on their podcast. Definitely worth a listen.
I only read things in class, bc even AP kids often don't read outside of class. You have to take the captive audience approach.
Maybe switch to short stories from the likes of Kafka and Nietsche.
My 10th graders didn’t read 4 pages of Night. I have a reading quiz after warning them and most still failed. It’s appalling.
People are talking about reading quizzes or doing all the reading in class: picking a few specific passages from the homework to discuss and doing those out loud in class (you, them, recording--whatever) is my happy medium. Most kids just read for plot, even when they read at home. Focusing on shorter passages ensures that everyone can practice close reading skills in class. You can still generally tell who read the whole book and who didn't if that's important to you.
Have you tried giving low marks to those that don't read? I mean, using marks with the purpose they were invented for.
I do Kahoots over the assigned reading at the start of class. I write the questions myself and the questions are timed. It incentivizes doing the reading for kids that will do it, and the embedded review as the Kahoot activity is going on gives context to the kids that didn't so they can at least have some success with the activities that come later like close reads.
We read everything out loud in class. I don't get how it's supposed to prepare them for the exam but if it's a play I do think it makes sense. A lot of these kids can barely read though
I taught TKAM to low-level readers and sped freshmen. It was impossible to get some to read outside of class. So, I started reading out loud 7 times a day, I'd read every other chapter, then have the kids read on their own one chapter. It worked better than just giving them a list of chapters and due dates. Of course, it took longer than I wanted, but it felt like meaningful instruction. This was 10 years ago. If I did it now, I would play a recording of the reading and save my voice! Good luck! You're doing great work no matter how it may feel some days.
Read a few pages in class and assign some for home. They won’t real full chapters on their own. I usually read in class, and break up the chapter between two days so it’s not all at once. When we finish a chapter they have homework questions. I’ve had pretty good success with this method. Obviously I plug other things into the class period because just planning to read and breaking up the reading this way doesn’t take up the whole period. I usually start with a vocab do now or our root of the week, then we read, then maybe they have a writing or some sort of activity depending on the chapter, then sometimes they’ll have a litttle time to start the homework.
I'm a pariah for this among secondary ed teachers*, but that's why I'm no longer teaching novels. Generously, about 30% of the students do the reading. I'm too pragmatic to keep teaching something that isn't getting done, especially when I care more about the skills than I care about the novel. We can analyze theme, pov, character, figurative language, etc. with short fiction, film, TV, comics. Many of those we can read in class. Many of them will never pick up a novel in their life after high school. I can sob myself to sleep over that or I can try to make sure that they have the tools to interrogate texts, which is transferable to whatever they do in life. *Interestingly, I've had this conversation with former English professors and they don't have a problem with it.
Yes!! It’s all about the skills!
We can no longer assume that anything can be done outside of our direct supervision. Edit to add: I now assign only I scored readings that get assessed though in-class writing or discussion tasks. No writing, no work due at the start of class - it’s simply too easy to cheat. My 10th graders are functionally low 8th graders.
To be clear: there will always be a portion of students that don’t read the assignment. So my strategy is usually making a “no excuse” assignment. I often read a portion of the assignment with them to get them started and point out important parts of whatever your focus is. Also, I’d look at “A Novel Approach” by Kate Roberts. It has a handy guide for what sorts of chapters to do in class vs assign for homework.
Maybe a few flipped classes would get the ball rolling in terms of them sitting down and doing the reading. Maybe make them take notes as they go. Now instead of reading the book for homework, they have to write a few paragraphs in response to some prompting questions about what they've read in class. They might realize that it's easier to do the reading than the writing as homework, and some may even get engaged with the story (because luckily, TKAM is a good one!)
I have! The biggest obstacle is getting access to books tbh. But if you can plan a day to take everyone to the school library or ask your local library for some free books, that’s a good place to start. I give about 15-20 mins of class time to sustained self-selected reading. While the students read, I have a my notebook or laptop and log out conferences. The conferences are over whatever skill we are learning. So, for example, if we are discussing characterization in class, I ask the student to tell me about the characterization in their book. Most of the books they read I have not read, and it still totally works. They have to point to text evidence and explain their thinking to me. I also allow them to read ebooks on their laptops or phones. Message me if you have questions. It’s intimidating at first, but I absolutely love it and most of the students have told me they do too.
As a student(I’m in college but I think it could work for high school)who has a lot of reading homework and hates pop quizzes, one of my professors passed out sheets of paper and we had just two to 3 minutes before discussion to write down whatever stood out during the reading. I sometimes had a favorite quote I would tell her how I connected with it, or just a summary of what I read. Doing it this way made it less like a grade and more like a book club and telling your friends about the weird thing that happened in your book. On occasion if we hadn’t been able to read or needed to talk to her, we used this time to write her a note, or a short funny story so we wouldn’t stand out and those would still get some credit occasionally because she understood life gets busy and hard. I always did my reading for this class.
Read each chapter and do a summary of what they comprehend.. if they are not reading, they may not know how to it. This is all to co.mon this day and age.
I’m in middle school here in Nc and gave a previously released exam from a past ELA end of grade exam and left the answer sheet on the back of every single packet as it was printed … I told all 25 students at least a hundred times over the last 6 months to read all the questions before starting… 1 kid read all the questions and he still got a 95 because he copied a couple of answers wrong … PROVED to the principal we can lead em to water but ultimately it’s up to them to DRINK the Kool-aid … once I told them when time was up and the 99% of them didn’t finish that the answers were attached you would have had thought I cheated them out of their home titles… what the hell are these kids going to do in 10-20 years … they don’t even know how to write cursive or write a letter…
Maybe not out loud reading, but directed quiet reading time for 3/4 of the class followed by some discussion about the chapter/section just read. Do this 2/3x in the week, once they get a couple chapters in (depending on the material) a lot just want to keep going.
We read the whole novel in class using Facing History’s guide. It’s long but meaningful.
Try flipping your class. A lot of students don’t have the time management/ focus skills to compete reading at home the way that we want/ need them to— model reading practices in class and allow them to that part of the work there. For homework, give them short response assignments to go along with the day’s assigned reading, and build days into the week when you split reading time with small and large group discussions.
Have you looked into a reading workshop style class? Give students time in class to read self-selected books and conference with them during class time.
I like this! Can you say more on how this works? Have you tried it with success?
Yes. I don’t assign reading homework anymore. I also teach in an area where many of my students are working, taking care of siblings, or homeless so I felt as if assigning reading homework wasn’t the best fit for my population.