Reading for Real Teaches Kids to Love to Read
A Review of Kathy Collins’ New Book for Elementary Grade Teachers
Feb 16, 2009
Picture pairs of very young readers (K-3) partnered over a basket of books, reading, discussing, initiating projects based on the books – engaged for extended periods of time. Educator Kathy Collins offers a blueprint for managing just such reading clubs in her new book, Reading for Real [Stenhouse, 2008].
Teach Reading Through Reading Clubs
Collins describes reading clubs as “a kind of reading jam session". The clubs, which meet five or six times a years and last from two to four weeks a session, are not meant to supplant a reading workshop curriculum, but rather to augment it.
This particular literacy experience fits well with a balanced literacy curriculum. Reading clubs offer an alternative opportunity for students to apply their newly gained reading strategies in meaningful and purposeful ways.
Reading Clubs are Different from Literature Circles and Book Clubs for Kids
Collins sees reading clubs as being different from the literature circles or book clubs in which intermediate grade students often engage. In a literature circle, one title is read by all participants; then students gather to discuss the book. When the group moves on to another book, that text may or may not relate to the original book read.
In a reading club, students are offered a selection of related books. Working with a partner, students learn to share, communicate about, and investigate a variety of texts on a single topic. The teacher plans the experience to meet student needs and interests, and conferences with each pair.
Reading for Real is a Valuable Resource for Educators
Reading for Real offers a concise and explicit blueprint for creating a dynamic reading experience for primary grade students. Kathy Collins goes to great lengths to describe effective teaching practices, instruction that support readers in a reading club setting, and even how to encourage effective partnerships. She describes specific types of reading club structures and how to plan instruction to meet a variety of purposes.
If there is one drawback to this tome, it is that the author spends too many pages justifying an instructional approach to readers who likely were sold on the idea before they ever picked up the book. In the middle of the book, she spends another two and half pages detailing her rationale for having students work in partnerships, when a paragraph or two likely would have sufficed.
What Collins does especially well is to describe in clear detail what teachers will need to know to establish effective reading clubs in their classrooms. She walks teachers through a very manageable process for creating meaningful reading experiences for their students.
She also provides an excellent appendix with graphic organizers for students to use, as well as planning guides for teachers. For staff developers who wish to use this book in a professional development workshop, she offers a study guide. Reading for Real is an important resource for classroom reading teachers.
Author Kathy Collins’ Credentials
A former first grade teacher, Kathy Collins is associated with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. She works as a literacy consultant and staff developer for school districts across the country. She is also the author of Growing Readers [Stenhouse, 2005].
Collins, Kathy. Reading for Real: Teach Students to Read with Power, Intention, and Joy in K-3 Classrooms. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-57110-703-9
For more resources helpful to elementary reading teachers, read reviews of Beyond Leveled Books, and Reading With Meaning.
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