By Stephanie Maze Hsu
The first time I heard Rena Finder, a tiny, 91-year-old Holocaust survivor with a slight lilt in her voice, speak, was mere weeks after the 2017 March in Charlottesville that left our nation reeling that such hatred and anger could be happening in the United States of America.  Rena was speaking at an annual event at Boston College where she exhorts students and professors alike to be “Up-standers” not “By-standers” and to recognize that every voice, every story, and every individual has the opportunity to shape our future. We can let hate rise, or we can choose to deliberately work against it. 
​
Her speech, where she recounted her life before, during and after the Holocaust, was moving and compellingly told. She was a small girl when the Nazi’s forced her family out of their apartment and into the Krakow Ghetto, and she chose to describe the pain she felt leaving her toys and books like Little Women and other favorite classics. As she named her favorite stories, the same ones so many of the audience had loved as children, she was able to draw us all into the horrors of the Holocaust, and the audience was silent, and hanging on her every word, for the rest of her hour long tale.

After the war, for quite some time, Rena could not speak of what she endured. The pain of losing her father, grandparents, cousins, and other extended family, was unimaginable, but as she realized that anti-Semitism and hate were again rising, she could not remain silent.  She has spent decades now speaking about her life, and extorting others to speak as well. Her story, in versions for adults, is recorded on “Facing History, Facing Ourselves,”  told in the movie “Schindler’s List,” and videotaped often at events where she speaks, but on Dec. 26, 2019, just a few weeks ago, Scholastic published her memoir, “My Survival: A Girl on Schindler’s List,” aimed at middle grade students.

Rena’s account is highly readable, infinitely moving, and extraordinarily powerful. She survived time in the Plaszow and Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps, and recounts the lengths Oskar Schindler went to protect his workers, saving them from certain death. One of the ways Rena’s story is different from most Holocaust stories aimed at students, is that throughout the book, it feels as if she is having a conversation with the reader. She asks questions, she talks directly to the reader, she shares hope and agony and reality. The first paragraph ends with: “The Holocaust should never be forgotten and should never happen again—but how can we protect against that? You, dear reader, can help. One person with courage to stand up for the innocent can make a big difference.”

Students will find the book compelling to read, but I would make the case that it would make a powerful read aloud. Pausing to gasp at her story and discussing her experiences, emotions, and craft as a writer and storyteller are enough to encourage teachers to use her book as a Read Aloud, but her ability to break the spell of the story to ask powerful questions would make this an incredible call to action for young readers/listeners, and would provide opportunities for students to engage in the kind of deep reflection and thinking all teachers would hope to encourage in their classrooms, and leave them begging to get back into the book.  I can see this book leading to powerfully written, evidence filled spoken and written responses, a desire for students to read more; fiction and non-fiction, on the Holocaust, and help students understand how powerful the written word can be. 

This book is one of those page-turning stories that a reader cannot put down because it draws us in, forces us to think about our thinking, asks us to think about ways reading this book changes the way we want to live our lives, and stays in our minds long after the final page is turned. Teacher friends, grades 5 and up, I am going to do what Rena asked, and speak directly to you: get this book, read it yourselves, then read it aloud to your students and share your own reactions, as well as those of your students, with us here: verbal and written. Let’s be Up-standers not By-standers!

This is a unique time of year to pause and reflect on what we are grateful for. With time scarcity and many competing priorities as educators, we don't want to forsake the practice of gratitude. In fact, the act of giving thanks changes our brains and makes us happier, healthier people which in turn helps our teaching and learning.

So we wanted to take a moment to give thanks. Top on our list in the gift of great children's literature. What a gift it is to curl up with a good book. Great books can take us on an adventure or remind us that we are not alone in our experience or give us language to emotions that we are feeling. We love books and reading and apparently we aren't the only ones. Even in our digital age, the written word is far from dying. In fact, studies show that people still prefer reading physical books to e-books or audiobooks.

So with all our gratitude for great books, we wanted to let you know of a few new ones that we are loving these days. Perhaps you might check them out at your local library over the Thanksgiving break or add them to your wish list for the holiday season. 

(In order from top to bottom, left to right)

Seeds and Tree by Brandon Wallace  Beautifully written and illustrated, this book shows children the power of their words and the positive or negative results of them in time to come. 

Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty  Another in the highly loved series, Sofia is a young girl who wants to change the world. In the same playful poetry Beaty delivers another great read to empower young girls and boys alike.

Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina A chapter book for the older elementary readers in your life. Merci is an easy-to-love character with her charms and quirks. This is a story of family and change and learning how to handle grandparents getting older. 

Island Born (English Version) Lola (Spanish Version) by Junot Diaz Acclaimed adult author, in his debut children's book. We couldn't stop staring at the gorgeous illustrations in this book as the young girl Lola learns about her native island home through stories of her family and friends for a class project. 

What books are you loving? We'd love to know! 

Hello readers! It's one of those lovely summer shower mornings. The birds are still chirping and some are even bathing in the puddles created. The steady drum of the rain is soothing and bringing respite from the humidity of the day past. It's a perfect moment to curl up with a good book and read, read, read. 

This instinct is one that many avid readers have, however it is not something that many of our students would necessarily chose. Summer rainy days often are met with the comment "I'm bored". Or more often now, kids choose to turn on their iPad, plug in their game console and "check out". What are some tips that we can use as teachers (and parents) to instill the innate reaction of "It's raining - perfect time to read a book". Here are a few of our suggestions below:

TIP 1: Model "rainy reading" yourself! At TLA, we are firm believers in the gradual release of responsibility. In terms of teaching, we constantly think "I do, we do, you do". We can't expect our students (or own children) to take on behaviors that we do not practice ourselves. So next time it's raining, do a think aloud for your students "Oh this is my favorite time to read and I have just the book I want to dive into!" Show your students what it looks like to be enthralled in a text. Like so many great things, this could be "caught" not just "taught". 

TIP 2: Have a stash of books ready! Keeping back a few beloved titles from your classroom library collection is something we recommend for many purposes. Because students curiosity is piqued by novelty, it's a great idea to keep back some books you know well for a great rainy day read-aloud. Make a big fuss about it too and you'll soon find kids "buzzing" about getting their hands on that book. 

TIP 3: Read more than just "books". Magazines, maps, and cookbooks are all great resources to have handy for students to read. Too often, students don't get a chance to do this kind of reading because they are working on specific reading strategies. However, these types of texts lend themselves to different kinds of reading skills that are just as important for students (determining importance, synthesis, using text features). Who knows, maybe one of your readers will even find a great recipe to share with the class for the next day!? That's what we call a win-win!

TIP 4: Make it cozy! Pull out the pillows, turn down the lights in your classroom and let the students pick a different "just right spot" for reading. When you are reading at home in the rain, it's often curled up on a bed, couch or comfy chair. Encourage that same idea in the classroom. We worked with a teacher once, who kept spare sheets in her room and would allow the students to build forts and read underneath them with flashlights on "rainy reading days". 

TIP 5: Reflect on the experience! Finally, when the rain has stopped take a moment to talk with your students about "reading in the rain". What did they like? What could have made it better for them while reading? How could they establish this routine for themselves at home?  John Dewey said "We don't learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." Giving the students time to think and talk will ideally engrain this love of reading more deeply. Then, the next time the sky opens up, so will a new book for them! 

The days are longer. The waves are crashing. The sunscreen is being liberally applied. It's summer time again and one of the best times of years to be a teacher or a student. One of the things that summer affords educators (something that is often lacking in the school year) is time! Time to play, time to reflect and time to read! It's challenging to be a good teacher of reading if you aren't invested in your reading life as well. We understand that the school year puts up many barriers to the flourishing of a teachers reading life. That is why we love the summer time. At TLA, we are firm believers that reading loads and loads of high quality children's literature is a great investment of your time and energy in becoming a more effective and compassionate reading (and writing) teacher for your students. 

So our encouragement to you is this --- find a new-to-you title, or ten or twenty and read this summer! Since sticky notes could easily fly away at the beach, we recommend putting one large sticky note in the front jacket cover of the book. As you are reading, if something grabs your attention and you think "that would be awesome for a mini lesson on ________" jot it down in the front. However, if you become so engrossed in reading that you forget all about mini lessons, that's okay too! That experience of being lost in a book is something you will want to share with your students during those long winter days that are bound to come back. 

Now the question begging to be answered is: Where to find some great summer reading? We are so glad you asked. Here are a few of our recommendations: 

2. Check out summer yard sales! You'd be amazed at the books you can find when people are doing some deep cleaning of their garages and houses. This is a great way to find some new-to-you titles for your classroom library. Even if you aren't seeing current titles at a yard sale, if the books are in decent shape and seem appropriate, we'd recommend picking them up. You can display them uniquely in your classroom  and because our brains are hardwired for novelty, even "used yard sale" books can be a great new adventure for your students. ​

3. Subscribe to a podcast! We highly recommend "Book Club for Kids" by Kitty Fielding. This podcast includes real kids and their real thoughts about books. It's edited and fun for listening with your own kids. The Children's Book Podcast has interviews with authors, illustrators etc who talk about their books! The content is a bit longer listen but has some interesting twists and turns. "Read Aloud Revival" This podcast is intended for families and parents who are trying to instill a love of reading in their home. You should also know that much of the audience are homeschool families. However, we have found the book recommendations (you might just want to check out the show notes) to be especially helpful. ​

4. Check out this list of titles from your very own TLA consultants! A little while back we reviewed dozens and dozens of children's titles with a social justice lens and wrote out a little blurb about each. These little vignettes might help you find a book that could be added to one of your Units of Study for next year. 

5. Follow TLA on Facebook! We are constantly updating our facebook page to include resources, especially about recent professional and children's books. Follow us and find something you love. 

We hope these ideas help catalyze a great summer of reading for you. Let us know what titles you've got in your beach bag in the comments section below! 

As March nears its end, ask yourself, how far have your readers come? Are you still wondering how to satiate your advanced readers? Do you still have readers who are “faking” it? Are students cringing through informational text with milk of magnesia-like reticence? Do some of your students still demonstrate significant deficits in vocabulary or background knowledge? The answer may lie in a dormant curiosity factor. Good readers press on to quench their curiosity about how octopuses squeeze through tiny spaces or how the villain will undermine her own conspiracy. So how do we address reader dispiritedness in the March doldrums? Productive curiosity is a potential solution. Teachers can hoist productive curiosity, or curiosity that bridges all of the cognitive gates, with focused, relevant analysis, inference, and synthesis orbiting around fascinating text. But how?
 
Using Text Sets to Drive Productive Curiosity
 
What is a text set?
A text set is a collection of high-quality texts organized around a specific topic. Text sets that drive productive curiosity orbit around unfamiliar topics of high interest. Consider yourself as a reader. Are you more likely to dive into a bin of books about making toast or a collection of texts unveiling the nine types of bacteria currently living around your toaster? We are curious about the unknown. We are productive when our effort feels relevant. Our students approach text in the same ways.
 
How are text sets constructed?
Text sets are constructed around an “anchor,” or complex grade-level text serving as the centerpiece for the curious and relevant topic in the unit. The anchor can be a full-length novel, an article, a primary source, a poem, or any piece of meaty text that necessitates other texts around it to grow related student background knowledge. The other texts in the set acts as a “staircase” building the background knowledge and vocabulary for students to actively engage with the anchor. The staircase also ensures that students move up and down the set through various complexity levels and text types to deepen, reinforce, and connect ongoing learning. The texts in a set “talk to one another” in that each stair is equally relevant.
 
What’s in a text set?
Texts in a set can include print, visual, auditory, and statistical formats. Varied text formats demand that students activate a multitude of cognitive processes and engage a variety of tools to hold on to knowledge and vocabulary.  Notes, concept maps, rolling knowledge journals, vocabulary sorts, and text-dependent questions help students analyze text, capture critical ideas, and prepare to synthesize this new knowledge through meaningful tasks. Texts in a set might include a whole book (e.g., a novel, a picture book), excerpts from a lengthy text (e.g., a chapter, a section from a speech), short text (e.g., poems, articles, song lyrics, “juicy” sentences), photographs, videos, maps, charts, tables, graphs, primary sources, and/or models, among others.
 
What distinguishes strong and less effective text sets?
A text set is most effective if the topic is focused and specific (e.g., Life in the Pre-Civil Rights South) rather than broad and generic (e.g., Ancient Civilizations).  The most effective topics are those that are curious to students (rather than the teacher!). Consider those topics with an “ick” factor (e.g., tongue-eating lice) or those that are provocative and intriguing (e.g., literary monsters). Novel topics offer high levels of curiosity, along with some cognitive discomfort, as they demand knowledge building and decision-making grounded in text rather than privileging or relying on existing experience. Productive curiosity is maximized when the whole class embarks on an uncharted topical journey together because:

• No students will “already be the experts”
• Students will need each other to see evolving and opposing points of view
• Students will endure the productive struggle of integrating new information together
• Reliance on the texts in the set become crucial (as opposed to reliance on prior knowledge gathered through privilege or experience)

 
Strong sets are comprised of high-quality primary source texts (e.g., constitutional amendment, speech, photograph, data collected from an experiment, an interview transcript or audio recording) and secondary source texts (e.g., news article, book, timeline, map, essay, song). Effective text sets include a balance of informational and literary texts, ideally with a 50-50 ratio of nonfiction to fiction texts in elementary grades and 70-30 nonfiction to fiction at middle and high school grades. Strong text sets spotlight literary nonfiction with informational text structure, such as opinion essays, biographies, journal articles, documentaries, and speeches, while also including narrative nonfiction with story-like structure (e.g., memoirs, diaries).

How does a text set support the range of readers in a classroom?
Common core standards demand that all students engage in analysis, inference, and synthesis of grade-level complex text. As a result, effective sets support purposeful access to meaty text. Strategic design of the text set “staircase” can ensure scaffolding without denying all readers the productive curiosity, and productive struggle, associated with complex text. The following continuum helps to ensure an appropriate staircase:

Bridge Texts
Bridge texts are topical texts in the set that are highly connected to the anchor and topic but at lower complexity levels than demanded at that grade. Bridge texts do not replace other texts in the set but are available to all students to serve as a “bridge” toward the anchor. Bridge texts fill a void of topical knowledge and vocabulary at more highly accessible text levels.
 
Mentor Texts
Mentor texts are moderately complex grade-level texts in the set that are tightly connected to specific content in the anchor and topic, but at mid-range quantitative and qualitative levels for the grade. Mentor texts are often excerpts (paragraphs, stanzas, chapters, pages, etc.) from more lengthy, demanding texts, thereby keeping rigor ambitious yet achievable. All students have access to mentor texts in the set.
 
Anchor Text
The anchor text is a richly complex grade-level text, pushing the upper quantitative and qualitative bands for the grade, that serves as the centerpiece for reading and unearthing the topic in the text set. The anchor necessitates reading across the set to amass the background knowledge, perspective, and vocabulary necessary to independently think, talk, and write about its central ideas.
 
Stretch Texts
Stretch texts that are selections in the set falling two to three grade levels above the grade, allowing advanced readers to dive deeper into the topic and acquire even more sophisticated vocabulary. Stretch texts are available to all students but do not contain crucial content for accessing the topic or anchor. Therefore, some students may decide not to access stretch texts in a set.
 
The continuum of texts in a set, from bridge to stretch, ensure that all students can become productively curious about the topic and the anchor text, while maintaining grade level rigor. But what about our students that are reading well below grade level? First, consider these three questions:

• Might these students want to attend a college of their choice?
• Do these students have a right to attend college without spending years in remedial courses?
• Will these students be taking state-wide standardized tests?

 
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then these students need regular access to the texts they will encounter in these instances. States with common-core aligned accountability measures will demand students read grade-level complex text. Colleges will demand that students read richly complex topical texts. Our choices around text need to be purposeful in ensuring that students have a chance to grapple with complex text in the safety of our classrooms. We won’t be there to help them in their college dorm at midnight, or even on the state test during fourth period.
 
Second, consider these three questions:

• Are these students ELLs with significant language needs?
• Are these students with highly specialized cognitive, physical, or social/emotional needs?
• Are these students who are reading many levels below their grade?

 
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should include “supplemental” texts, along with the set, to support the unique needs of these students. Individual students may tap into these supplemental texts to overcome critical gaps in word-level and comprehension-level reading strategies and content knowledge. Supplemental texts may be bilingual resources, audiobooks, abridged versions, or “chunked” texts lifted from original sources, among others. While these supplemental texts may not be enough to leverage independent access to the text set for these students, they will increase opportunity for productive curiosity around the topic when texts in the set are read aloud by a teacher or peer and discussed. Shared reading of texts can take place in small groups with a teacher or with strategically partnered students who can demonstrate and support rich conversation and language models around the texts. Supplemental texts do not replace texts in a set, but make the topic far more accessible for students with specialized needs.
 
How can a text set be used before, during, and after instruction?
With so many texts in a set, gradual release and deliberate progression become essential. One approach to releasing students through a set involves the teacher using each text as a guidepost along the topical journey for students. Consider the following progression of gradual release through a complex text investigation:

Add as many mentors to the cycle as necessary. Insert bridge and stretch texts where appropriate and encourage students to self-select these texts based on their interest and need by asking questions like, “How can you find out more about that?” and “What unanswered questions do we have that might require additional texts to explore?”
 
Students can read bridge and stretch texts during independent reading, alongside of mentor texts, and for homework to debug or deepen topical knowledge. If you use and activator (or “do now”) to start your class, bridge texts and stretch texts can help students define key vocabulary using contextual clues or word-solving strategies. Additionally, bridge and stretch texts can be used during activators as “ten-minute fluency boosts” through which students can read the text chorally. Alternatively, support fluency by turning bridge texts into cloze reading passages. Eliminate every fifth word in a bridge text passage and have partners deliberate the missing words as they read aloud together. Strategically paired advanced readers could do this same cloze work with stretch texts.    
 
The goal of the set is to continually return to the anchor with a deepening knowledge of the topic and a growing, authentic purpose for synthesizing the central ideas of the anchor. The more students read across the text set, the more they should care about the implications of the big ideas on their world.
 
How does productive curiosity and text-setting fit into Workshop 2.0?
Workshop structure allows productive curiosity to effectively blossom for all students. Here are some suggestions for maximizing the independence and joy inherent in workshop when using text sets:

1. Explicitly model reading strategies in your mini lessons as you move students through the text set. Don’t forget, one purpose of a text set is to drive productive curiosity so that students:
   1. Develop stamina for reading
   2. Build intrinsic motivation to read increasingly complex text (because they NEED to know more about this juicy topic!)
   3. Read for an authentic purpose

 
None of this is possible without effective reading strategies. As you plan your mini lessons, ask yourself, “What strategy am I teaching my readers today that they haven’t already mastered?” and “How will today’s texts allow them to practice this strategy with increasing independence?”

1. Integrate teacher-created text sets with special topical collections you spotlight in your classroom library. Allow students to grow your teacher-created set by adding student-selected bridge, mentor, and stretch texts from your library (or the school library if you don’t have a classroom library).
2. Create DIY stations that allow students to construct their own text sets on the topic. Photocopy and/or gather all possible texts for a set but do not pre-construct the collections for students. Sort them into categories that help students recognize which are critical readings for the topic. Category labels might include “must-know” ideas, “great-to-know” ideas, and “nice-to-know” ideas. Have students conduct a “book pass” or “text pass” to skim and scan the selections and build their own group-selected set by choosing two texts from each category. Of course, students can always add additional pieces from your categories over the course of the unit if they need more support or enrichment. Group-created text sets cause interesting variations in the knowledge and point-of-view base across the class, driving productively curious conversation.
   
3. Use conferring opportunities to assess and intervene as students grapple with the various complexity levels in the set. Research one strength the reader demonstrates in the conference, along with one critical strategy you can model to help the reader improve comprehension. Provide a chance for the student to practice this strategy with fidelity before moving on to your next conference.
4. Add new texts that offer scaffolding, specific features, or incremental rigor for small groups in which you provide explicit instruction. These texts may be matched to the instructional reading level of students in the group, in the case of guided reading, or represent multiple reading levels, in the case of strategy groups.
5.  Ask students to continually add their own personally selected texts to the set. These texts can serve as stretch or bridge texts (independent or “just-right” texts at the students individual reading level) or mentor texts that become integral to the topical study. Help students make meaningful selections by modeling ways in which you find and integrate new texts into the set as a reader (e.g., finding an article on the dung beetle to deepen your text set on insect adaptations). Model for students how adding your own text greatly enhances your productive curiosity.