Reading Ladders: How to Hold Students Accountable to Choice Reading

What is a Reading Ladder, and where does this idea originate? 

A Reading Ladder is simply a piece of explanatory writing where students rank the books they’ve read according to complexity, reflect on their reading habits, and make plans for future growth.  When teachers question how to hold students accountable to choice reading, this piece of writing is probably my favorite response.  For one, it is nearly impossible to fake, because it requires a ton of thinking that is unique to each student; furthermore, students practice such incredible critical thinking and literacy skills that it’s totally worth spending valuable class time grappling with it. 

I originally heard about this idea while attending a workshop with Penny Kittle back in February of 2012.  She mentioned how she was inspired to push kids thinking forward by Teri Lesesne‘s Reading Ladders: Leading Students from Where They Are to Where We’d like Them to Be (2010).  At that time, I’ll admit hadn’t read Lesesne’s book, and we all know Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers (2013) wasn’t even published, so I had to do what teachers do and improvise.  Because Kittle really only mentioned it briefly in the workshop, I didn’t even really know what a Reader Ladder actually was, yet I knew it was good stuff if she mentioned it.

Thanks to this student example from Penny’s workshop, my students and I studied this mentor text and worked backward, noticing what the writer did in each paragraph and then constructing a rubric that we imagined the student’s teacher probably required of her.  For a year, this worked just fine, and now, since Book Love has been released, Kittle has provided a really stellar description of how she uses Reading Ladders in her class (see pages 124-132).  Today, I basically do what she says, but the reason I’m regurgitating it here is to share my interpretations and variations with you and to show that it works with “real-life” students.

How does a Reading Ladder benefit student thinking?   

When students construct Reading Ladders, they have to consider the questions “What makes reading difficult for you right now?” and “How will you work to improve?”  We all know the benefits of this kind of internal reflecting and planning conversations: they push students to evaluate their current habits and abilities while making goals for the future.

The students in my sophomore class have thankfully come from a highly supportive, book-lovin’ environment in ninth grade, but as they transition to tenth grade, we always talk about how important it is to “step up our game.”  From the first day of Humanities 10, they take on a new reading challenge.

Within in this challenge, we talk about how important is to consider all the evidence that proves they’ve grown as a reader.  They always say, “I just know I’ve gotten better.” Yeah, okay, that’s great!  I know that feels really good, especially for those developing reading.  Of course, I want to celebrate this good feeling, but this feeling isn’t always going to push them to the next level.  Sometimes, they don’t even know what the next level is.

One way my students begin to shift their thinking about intelligence is by analyzing their own reading data.  Of course, they take the ACT Reading prototype, and yeah, they also do the Scholastic Reading Inventory, and sure, they chart the books they’ve read, but individually these things don’t paint the whole picture of how they’ve grown as readers.  When they really look at all of these pieces of data combined with their own reflections, they are able to appreciate their progress, recognize effective strategies, and set new goals.

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What process do my students take to construct their own Reading Ladders? 

#1 Compile a list of all of the books you’ve completed and abandoned so far this school year. 

Most of them keep track on their genre requirement chart or on Goodreads, but some of them forget to keep up with their record.  Often, they’re revisiting the shelves to look for titles they missed while I’m printing off their “Student Checkout Detail” under the reports section from Booksource’s Classroom Organizer, hoping that they actually remembered to sign out all the books that they read this year.

#2 Determine the number of pages that you’ve read in each book.  

They do this by either physically finding all of the books in our library that they read or by checking the page numbers on Goodreads website.

#3 Calculate the average number of pages read per week.  

Thanks to Kittle, all of my students can tell you that colleges expect students to read between 200-600 pages per week; therefore, we must develop our stamina as in order to compete with other students.  College is competitive, and if we want to succeed, we’ve got to practice daily.  So everyday, we work on reading for an extended time frame and with greater fluency.  I know that in Book Love, Kittle talks about recording students’ reading rates on a regular basis.  I never seem to have time for this, so instead, we talk about it regularly and try to track it at least once a trimester. Students calculate their reading rate by first adding up the total number of pages they read and dividing it by the number of weeks in that trimester.

#4 Write a reflection, comparing this reading rate with last trimester.  

Before they get started, I model my own reading rate reflection.  Sharing my # of pages/week with them creates a common ground during reading conferences.  I discuss the obstacles that get in the way of my reading and how I try to get around them.

This reading rate calculation primarily helps students pay attention to the reading they’ve done outside of class, along with identifying areas of needed improvement, and celebrating gains.  I also ask students to discuss if/how they are challenging themselves, in preparation for the stamina and grit they’ll need in college.  Most are very honest if they are only reading in class,  a little here and there at home, or devoted to “stealing minutes to read” wherever they go. Whatever their habits are, sharing this reflection highlights that the choices they make have a significant difference in their later success.

#5 Discuss what makes a book difficult. 

Over the years, I’ve done this a few different ways, but now I’m taking Kittle’s most recent suggestion by dropping a pile of books in front of a group. The title are mixed based on genre, level, structure, fiction/nonfiction, etc.  Students work together to re-stack the pile in order of text complexity.  As they’re debating over the characteristics that makes one book more difficult than the next, I walk around and write down some of their spoken statements.  We share our new book stacks with the other groups, arguing why they’re in the order that they are.  Because we have created an atmosphere that supports debate, other groups, naturally, counter-argue, providing alternative evidence. Together, we then discuss their spoken statements and all the qualities that come in to play when determining the complexity of a book. 

#6 Organize the titles on the list from the least challenging to the most difficult (i.e. climbing up the ladder) and write a corresponding argument.  

If this is the second or third trimester, students blend new reads in with their older reads, often annotating the new books with asterisks for the sake of clarity.  As with a lot of arguments, there may not be a “correct answer,” but as long as they clearly explain and support their thinking with quality evidence, I’m satisfied that they adequately reflected.

#7 Write mini-reviews of your favorite books.

We spend time analyzing mentor texts to see what other book reviewers do. This year, my students really enjoyed analyzing the amazing YA Lit book bloggin’ work of Brian Wyzlic, of Wyz Reads; Sarah Anderson, of YALoveBlog; Jenn Fountain, of Fountain Reflections; Jillian Heise, of Heise Reads; Aaron Bergh, of Real Men Read YA, and Beth Shaum, of Foodie Bibliophile and Use Your Outside Voice.

#8 Write Reading Goals

As mentioned, the need for students to make plans for improvement is critical to their learning; therefore, each goal should be unique and individual to the student. Often these are derived from our conversations during reading conferences or students’ own awareness of their particular challenges. When writing these goals, they should be specific: “I will read 15 books by June. I will read at least one non-fiction book. I will read one Jane Austen novel. I will develop an at-home reading habit. I will….” This specificity will make it easier for them to measure if they’ve accomplished what they intended to do when we reflect next time. I also ask them to include a list of To-Read books, which contains at least a few titles that they want to read of increasing difficulty.  This is another great opportunity to do a teacher model. Throughout the year, my students start to learn about my reading challenges and goals, and this helps them see that we all have room to grow as readers. 

#9 Reflect on your reading in a short essay.

Kittle shares in Book Love the prompts she uses with her. Check out the assignment description and list of prompts from her class.

In the end, I am always impressed with the thinking my students do as a part of their Reading Ladders.

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What does a finished Reading Ladder look like?  

The example below comes from one my actual students.  According to power data, this kid is about six grades below tenth grade proficiency.  I’m including it here because, although he struggles, his Reading Ladder shows really deep thinking and awesome grit.

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I’d love to hear how you’re using Reading Ladders in your classroom, so please share your ideas below. I’m always hungry for more student examples and variations of the process.

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