Having a “class book” or teaching one book to an entire class
is no longer a popular option in this age of workshop, differentiation, and
personalized learning. And while I tend
agree with the current mode of thinking, there is still something so powerful
about a large group of students excited and engaged as they read the same
title. In my own classroom we have fully
embraced the workshop method. Students
are free to choose their own books for their individualized daily reading time,
and each student has been taught how to find books at his/her independent
reading level. Students are well aware
of their Lexile level, but have also been taught other methods to judge if a
book is appropriate for them.
Once in a while though, a truly wonderful book comes along,
that grabs a reader and then quickly spreads like wildfire as other students
learn of the book and discover they simply must read it for themselves. We’ve all seen this happen with the Percy
Jackson series, the Twilight series (older students) and even Harry
Potter. In fact two of my students this
year are such Percy Jackson devotees that they inspired many of their
classmates to either read or reread the entire series this year. But it seems
like there just hasn’t been a new book that has had the mass appeal to cause
dozens of students to feel the need to read the book at the same time and
discuss it. There just hasn’t been a
book that has inspired students to talk with each other about the characters as
if they knew them well, as if the students were actually a part of the story
itself.
That is until this year.
Over the winter break one of my students discovered the book Hollow
Earth by Carole and John Barrowman.
I had set up a class Twiducate account so the students could Tweet with
each other about their reading over the holidays. The student’s urgent (and frequent) Tweets
piqued my curiosity. I downloaded the
book on my e-reader and began to read.
The story was captivating. A
fantasy set in Scotland; there were all the makings of a student
blockbuster. Two twelve-year-old twins
discover that have supernatural abilities, one of which allows them to animate
pictures that they have drawn. (How cool is that?) Their father mysteriously disappeared years
ago and now some evil force is after the twins. The book is fairly long, but
the chapters are short and so action packed that it’s hard to put the book
down.
After vacation, I shared what I was reading with the
students. Hollow Earth became the
class “Red Hot Read”. Soon I had so
many students begging to read the book that I was putting in a bulk order for
students that couldn’t wait for the library to order a copy. Within two weeks I had ordered over 40 copies. Since I have book clubs in my classroom as
well as workshop, we quickly decided to have fantasy be the genre for our next
book club rotation. Four groups choose Hollow
Earth as their title. Now I should
mention that when forming book clubs, the groups are formed based on the books
the students want to read. Within each
group there may be students at different ability levels, but I found this not
to be an issue. The groups are merely an
avenue for the students to discuss their books, share ideas, clear up any confusions,
and work on any comprehension strategies/skills taught in workshop.
It has been almost magical watching the evolution of Hollow
Earth, as it becomes the infamous “class book” for the year. The students are now at the point where they
are finishing the book. The conclusion of the story leaves the reader with
questions, as book two is due out this summer in the United States. We are having many discussions about the
future of Matt, Em and Zach, the three main characters of the story. Hollow Earth, as our “unofficial class
book”, has lit the fire of excitement and engagement in reading for many of our
sixth grade students this year.
