Chapter Books for the Classroom

A little lifetime ago I had the absolute privilege of teaching at a wonderful school down in South Auckland (shout out Papatoetoe!). Working with students in Year 5/6, one of my favourite things was reading together. Every day after lunch we would sit down to regroup and read a chapter or two of our shared chapter book. This, combined with time every day for kids to choose and read their own books independently, was a big part of my attempt to create a classroom community of readers (but you can read a bit more about my tips for raising readers here!).

I know how busy a teacher's day is - the amount of content and learning required to get through, as well as every other part of the day, means time is short. Here's why I think reading chapter books together is such a key aspect of the day that should be protected as much as possible!

1. It's a great way to support struggling readers. For kids who find reading independently challenging, shared reading means they can still enjoy more complex and sophisticated stories together with their peers.
2. The chance to model reading. One of my favourite parts of reading aloud was being able to share the process readers go through when they get stuck. We would puzzle out tricky words together (as well as keep a "wow word" chart we would add to when we learned a new fun word! I would ask questions, make predictions, and make the reading process more visible as we enjoyed the story together.
3. Collective Experiences are Key! There is something so fun about everyone reading or watching something at the same time (Off Campus anyone?), and for kids this is important too. They may have a variety of different interests but this one book gives you a shared thing to connect over and talk about.
4. Teaching Social Skills. I remember a period of time where my class was struggling every day with friendship issues. You know what I mean right, you come back from the rare lunch break and there's always a messy fight to break up or tears to try and sort out. Choosing select books that were relevant to what we were all working through gave us the chance to talk about some of the issues together, and to learn things via the characters we read about.
5. It's fun! I love reading aloud, I love sharing books with kids, it's enjoyable for me as well as them (which is more than I can say for teaching them division techniques).

I have fond memories of so many chapter books I got to read together with 30 willing co-readers (well, some were reluctant at first!). What I discovered was that regardless of genre, there was often an aspect of any story that kids connected with. It was also so satisfying being able to introduce children to their first chapter books, or help them extend into new genres. One of the first books I remember reading to my class was 'The One and Only Ivan'. More than a little heartbreaking, its a story from the perspective of a captive silverback gorilla who is held inside a shopping mall with an elephant and a stray dog. Inspired by a real story, this one broke us all emotionally in the best way and also may have made us slightly critical on the upcoming zoo trip which was not at all my intention (I love the zoo and am happy to report there were no captive gorillas there but boy my class were ready to call out any bad treatment if they saw it!).

Another story we all loved, was 'Holes' - one of my all time favourites growing up and an absolute experience to read together. A modern classic by Louis Sachar, Holes gripped my class with it's story about a young boy sent off to a correctional boot camp in the desert, and hits on so many deep themes whilst also being hilarious and full of adventure.

We also loved reading New Zealand authors, starting with 'The Dragon Defenders' by James Russell which is a wonderful adventure story about two boys who live on an island with dragons, and are forced to confront the impossible together. It's a nice length, not too long, so makes a great first option for a chapter book to read together that is fast paced and full of little cliff hangers that will have your class begging for just one more chapter. One of our most confronting reading experiences was working our way through 'Dawn Raid', a really impactful story for a lot of my students about a young girl who is living through the era of Dawn Raids in Aotearoa. It was a story that gave us opportunities to discuss racism and discrimination with the novel as our scaffolding, and I'll never forget some of the korero we shared. Although the original is currently sold out, 'Dawn Raid: The Apology' is a follow up that I would absolutely check out.

Lastly, amongst many fabulous chapter books, I have to remind everyone about the genius that is Lemony Snicket. 'The Bad Beginning' is the book that made me love words, that introduced me to stories that are both sad and terrible, but also funny and wonderful. This is such a great choice to read to the class because at least one student is going to become obsessed with the Baudelaire siblings and want to read all 13 books.

There are so many new chapter books that I wish had been around when I was teaching and that I would definitely recommend teachers try with their class! You could even make a fun game out of choosing by giving your class a few options and getting them involved in voting for which one the class should read based on the blurbs! I set myself a challenge which wasn't that much of a challenge with focusing on NZ authors for the books I would select now because we are absolutely soilt with them. 

'Lonasei and the Mystery of Origin Grove' by Kenneth Chapman is a fantastic new novel about 11 year old Lonasei, lonely and suddenly presented with a world beyond her current reality. It's a fantasy story that would be perfect for opening up many discussions for kids about paintings, and the worlds we might enter via them. Speaking of amazing fantasy novels that I would use now for shared reading, Claire Mabey's 'The Raven's Eye Runaways' is an amazing adventure fantasy about three friends and a one-eyed raven who go on a rescue mission against rulers who are restricting reading and writing to the elite. Again, would open up such fascinating class discussions! For all the kids obsessed with K-Pop at the moment, you have to try them on Graci Kim's Slinger Series! 'Dreamslinger' is book one of the Korean inspired fantasy duology where dragons and phoenixes roam the skies of Seoul. All of the details the Graci includes - everything from the food to the fantastical creatures and the magical powers are absolute gold for classroom creativity. I dare you to read this book and not feel inspired to create your own fantasy world. 

Lastly, one of the current chapter books I recommend constantly to teachers who pop in store is 'Stepping Up' by literary heavyweight David Hill. This one is a fantastic choice for something that isn't a fantasy related adventure, but instead something contemporary and impactful for kids and adults alike. 14 year old Ben goes through a life-changing accident whilst taking a shortcut on the high shingle slopes on Pangonui. What follows is a journey of learning to accept the impact of this one split-second decision, grappling with disability and trauma, and finding an inner resilience to keep going. This would be such a great read for the class because there is so much to unpack, and it will not only keep kids on the edge of their seat but also give them an example of a young boy having to find an inner strength that I think would be inspirational for anyone.