KISSing: A Shared Experience

This week, I was going to write about skimmy-dipping and how we've become a culture of skim readers and its impact on students and blah blah blah. I was going to write about getting a call from my wife mid-run asking me to buy some wine to 'cook' with, then running home with a bottle in my hand and somehow connecting it to my teaching. That was all too complicated and last week happened, and this week happened, and today happened, and then I decided to write about KISSing - cause who doesn't like to KISS?


I'm regularly reminded that KISSing is where it's at in education. In the past, and currently, I overcomplicate learning for my students. I’m a much better teacher when I'm KISSing - when I keep it simple stupid. And that's how I approached the past couple weeks while reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. Here's a quick synopsis of the KISSing that went on:

I started the unit asking students to list three things that would make our country a better place. Students recited the typical - no homelessness, no money worries, no racism, no drugs, etc. Journaling was optional (most ended up journaling). Then we simply sat in a circle and started to read and talk. I played devil's advocate. We read, we talked. I asked simple questions, What's BIG on your brain today? What's worth talking about? What surprised you? and I'd leave the circle and they would continue to talk. And we'd read and read. And talk and talk. And they'd question and challenge and desperately want to read ahead and I'd say no. When we came to a pivotal chapter in the book (Chapter 19) you could feel the tension in the room. At its conclusion, some threw their books, others jaws dropped and one girl left crying. I wish I could have recorded the day. We concluded the reading portion of our unit with a Socratic Seminar and it was rich. We discussed the importance of memory, and freedom and choice and the purpose of pain, and if we wanted to trade our society for theirs. We kept it simple and we experienced the text together.

Here's the reality - I could write for days about the skills and strategies and habits of mind I pound (rightfully so) into my student's heads, but these seven days - of book-throwing, of jaw-dropping, of ugly-crying, and angry-eyes - reminded me of the importance of creating shared experiences with students. We kept it honest. We kept it rich. We kept it simple.

Our students are bombarded daily with standards and strategies and content and testing and pressure and stress, but I have to remember they are just like you and me. They are people. And people learn through shared experiences with their teacher and with each other. They learn by reading, thinking, writing, listening, and talking together.


My reality, and maybe yours too, is this: I learned to read on my mother and father's lap. I learned to read with my friends in college. I learned to read through shared experiences because reading, no matter the content, is meant to be communal.

When we read together we are filled with anticipation and wonder and connection to each other, and the Truth leans closer.

I want to create this in my classroom. I want to create not-school experiences by keeping it simple, by creating shared experiences that bind us, that move us, that teach us. I want my students to understand the power of KISSing. I want to show my kids how to be filled with the same anticipation and wonder and connection I've experienced and continue to experience. I believe it's possible to have these book-throwing, jaw-dropping, ugly-crying, angry-eyes (reading) experiences in every classroom

Give me your thoughts.
Give me your questions.

An Afterword:
When I surveyed students about how this reading experience was different than reading experiences they've had in past years, they repeatedly told me they are usually asked to do tons of work while reading - write in journals, answer questions, take quizzes, write papers, do projects, etc. - making it unenjoyable. They also revealed that this experience worked because they were given time inside of school to read and make sense of the text together. To my surprise, more than a few students asked if they could start reading books together. They literally didn't realize they could read the same book together inside or outside of school; they thought it had to be assigned to them - #worstteacherever. Soon after, students were going to the library together and checking out the same books together #thepowerofreadingtogether. They have come to the realization that reading together is better than reading in isolation. I feel good about this.

For my sanity, I need to keep it simple. I’m finding that my year and my students year is all about KISSing and the shared experiences we have with one another. I've started to regularly ask myself, What are the set of experiences my students need to have in order to _____________? and it's helped.

I love this job. I hope you do too.















Comments

  1. Wait, you mean if we get them engaged enough to enjoy the book, without turning it into a project they might actually LIKE reading?

    Seriously though, this has been something that I have thought about for a long time. I've even talked with another teacher about this recently-the idea that we need to explain the book to them so they see it for it's complex beauty, without rubbing their noses in it until they hate reading for any sort of meaning.

    I think that at the end of the day, if our job was to make our students LOVE reading instead of assessing and bludgeoning them to death with worksheets, acronyms (who doesn't love SMELL or OPTIC) and projects that they might turn into adult learners, instead of adults who have an aversion towards reading.

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