ALAN Online

JUST THE BEGINNING
Dr. Lori Goodson

In my years of teaching language arts at the middle school and high school level, I’ve had an amazing array of students come through my classroom doors—with a just-as-amazing array of reading interests and issues.

I’ve had a seventh-grade girl who loves the farm, hunting, and fishing. Going through my bookshelves, I picked up a Gary Paulsen book and put it on her desk.  She glanced up, and, with a wink, I told her to give it a try.  It could have been the wink that did it, but I think it was the book.  About once a week, she visited my room to exchange one Paulsen book for another.  In time, she decided Paulsen deserved his own shelf in my classroom library, so she came in during her homeroom time and rearranged my books.

At the end of the year, she took the standardized reading test, and her scores jumped several grade levels from the previous year.  Another teacher asked me my secret to success.

            “I had a little help from my friend, Gary Paulsen,” I said.

This past school year—three years after my initial introduction to the girl–as luck would have it, I switched to teaching high school in the same district.  And while I didn’t have her in my sophomore class, she maked regular stops.  One time another student asked why she came in my room when she doesn’t have me for a teacher and there’s a perfectly fine library down the hall.

            “Mrs. Goods—she knows the kind of books I like,” she said.

This year, she’s branching out to find other authors she can connect with, but she still has her first literary love to turn to. 

With this column, I’m hoping to help more teachers make those amazing discoveries I’ve made.  I plan to offer specific book recommendations for some students you may find in your classroom, as well as insight from my years of attending the ALAN conference.  Most of all, I hope it’s a practical column—where you, the classroom teacher, can snag ideas—and share a few, as well.  Think of it as an academic Dear Abby, where the focus is young adult literature.

I hope you join me on this new journey.  Just keep in mind, I may end up snagging a few ideas from you, as well.

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For the record, I try to avoid the term “non-reader” when I talk about my students.  I really don’t think there are non-readers; instead, there are plenty of reluctant readers—students who haven’t found that one author who makes them feel excited about turning the pages in a book.  Let’s face it, there are plenty of other things—sports, television, video games, computers—that compete for a student’s free time…and often win.

Yet these reluctant readers are some special challenges that enter my classroom each year.  At the sophomore level, I’d love to tell you that all reading issues have been solved for all students; unfortunately, that’s not the case.  Trust me, I know it’s not because of lack of effort from teachers they’ve had before me.

This year, I found several books that helped pull in students who were struggling to make connections.  Probably the biggest hit of the year was Carl Deuker’s Gym Candy (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), which deals with steroid use and student athletes.  My students sit at tables, and one student at a table held up the book and boasted that his buddy—also at the table—had read the book in three days.

With that kind of endorsement, the book never made it back into my classroom.  There was an informal waiting list for it (mostly male athletes)—I never figured out the order, but the students—who could be SO frustrating because they often couldn’t remember to bring a pencil to class—always knew who was next in line for the book. Go figure.

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Lori Atkins Goodson has taught middle school language arts and high school English and newspaper in Wamego, Kan.  An instructor at Kansas State University, Manhattan, she received National Board Certification and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction.  She has received numerous teaching awards, including NCTE’s 2007 Hoey Award, being a 2008 top 10 finalist for the NEA Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Kansas Master Teacher Award.  She is the former chair of the NCTE middle level nominating committee and co-editor of The ALAN Review. She has had articles published in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Voices from the Middle, and Kansas English, among others.

To read more by Dr. Lori Goodson, visit her weblog “Book Business” at http://bookbusiness.lorigoodson.com.