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On the front lines of autonomy

Free reading is not very free

Frank Lacey

Ådalens Privatskole, Denmark

Frank has been teaching languages for eons. About 10 years ago his teaching practice was seriously disturbed by Leni Dam. Since then his lessons have been scenes of chaos, which he calls autonomy. Frank tends be rather passionate about a lot of things such as autonomy. Email: frank@jernsokkerne.org

When I explain learner autonomy to people they very often confuse the idea with ‘learner anarchy’. They believe that students not only take over responsibility for their learning, but also take over the teacher’s role and that the teacher is side-lined. This is not the case! I am still in control of the classroom (more about this in a future column) and I do also have short periods of whole class input, in contrast to individual guidance, and I do set demands to the class as a whole.

One area where I am very firm is that I insist that my students read books. In the 21st century this is perhaps more difficult than it used to be. Nowadays we all know that ‘teens are on screens’. The idea of reading a book is old-fashioned and time-consuming. Phone screens give immediate gratification; books don’t. I stumbled upon an article in The New Yorker recently which confirmed this belief:

“Reading has lost its privileged status; few kids are ashamed that they’re not doing it much. The notion that you should always have a book going – that notion, which all real readers share, doesn’t flourish in many kids. Often, they look at you blankly when you ask them what they are reading.” (Denby, 2016)

Before I practiced autonomy I used to encourage students to read, and students with more intrinsic motivation often did read as an extra-curricular activity.

After introducing autonomy, where I changed my focus from me teaching to my students learning, I realised that weaker students often needed help to know how to learn. And one of the first learning tools I gave them was books. Stephen Krashen talks about free voluntary reading as being one of the most powerful tools in language acquisition:

“It will, not by itself, produce the highest level of competence; rather it provides a foundation so that higher levels of proficiency may be built.” (Krashen, 2004)

I completely agree and therefore do everything within my power to guarantee that students read. So a very regular comment that I write in my students’ logbooks is “this is interesting but there is too little free reading.”

In newsletters to parents, in online weekly plans, and at parent-teacher meetings I stress the importance of reading. I see student logbooks as an essential tool for student evaluation and my students know that I require reading to be an integral part of their learning, which they must write about in their logbooks.

But I practice autonomy! So does this not sound very teacher-centred? Yes, it is, but the books students can choose from are captivating, so students are interested in reading them, and they can choose between hundreds of titles.

The books

The school has a budget for textbooks and materials. I do not use textbooks and have managed to channel some of our English budget over to free reading books (novels, factual books, youtuber biographies, etc.). I buy these online and invite my students to tell me which books they would like. This is of course seen by students as ‘cool’. They get to decide what we spend the school's money on! They also feel that I take them very seriously. I spend real money buying a book they want. I trust their judgement, but there is an advantage for me, too. I am 56 years old and do not know what 13-16-year-olds are interested in. I recently bought books by youtubers whom I of course had never heard of before, such as Paul Jake, The Sidemen, and KSI. (NB: Some will probably find the language in these books unpleasant).

Books that are popular at the moment, especially with girls, are Turtles All the Way Down and of course The Fault in Our Stars, both by John Greene. Also popular are Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, Another Day by David Levithan, and Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. The Wicca series by Cate Tiernan is still really well-liked and I have several students who have read all 16 novels!

Among boys the Gone series by Michael Grant is still popular as is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Among younger boys (11-13-year-olds) books by Tom Palmer such as Ghost Stadium and the whole Football Academy series are also very popular.

I have now read stacks of youth literature, which is can be hard work but means that I can talk to students about books. No, I have not read them all, but it is obvious to my students that I have read quite a lot of them and can talk enthusiastically about them.

I have been buying authentic books for some years now and despite careless teenagers not returning books I have built up quite a collection that is distributed around the school so that my colleagues and students can access them easily. I do not waste time on library cards or lending systems but have chosen to trust kids to return them and most do, although there is inevitably a certain loss.

This year, to encourage and support my students in their reading, I often start lessons with 10-15 minutes' reading; this has been very popular. It means that they see each other reading and inspire each other to do so. Teens on screens see 21 other teens with their noses stuck in books!

Yesterday I was in a class of 14-year-olds and we had a lot of projects to view, and as I was anxious to get through them I dictated that we would skip reading. There was a collective sigh of disappointment from most of the students.

I am convinced that my students build up vocabulary and cultural knowledge, and that they learn their grammar through the immense exposure to written language.

Not all of my students are equally industrious and there are of course some who fail to see the joy of reading. This does not have any direct sanctions, just a ‘Frank is disappointed’ look and maybe another little lecture on the importance of reading.

I encourage parents not just to praise their kids when they read but express their amazement that their son/daughter can read authentic youth literature in a foreign language. I personally am still, despite years of experience, shocked that not only are my students able to read books that are 500 pages long but that they actually do so!

The New Yorker article that I referred to earlier ends: “If teachers can make books important to kids – and forge the necessary link to pleasure and need – those kids may turn off the screens. At least for a few vital hours.” (Denby, 2016)

References

Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.

Denby, D. (2016). Do Teens Read Seriously Anymore? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/books-smell-like-old-people-the-decline-of-teen-reading.