A Different Take on Reading Centers: An Interview with Kathy Collins (AUDIO)
Kathy Collins
I caught up with Kathy on a bitterly cold winter day, phoning thousands of miles to reach her in the wee hours of the morning at her home in Alaska from my home in Maine. Within minutes, we were deep into a conversation about reading centers and the challenge of making reading more relevant for kids in schools. Kathy splits her time between her family, consulting across the country, and regular treks to local schools to observe, learn from, and chat with kids and teachers.
Most of the conversation was about her new book on reading centers. I think it is going to be just as influential as Growing Readers, her bestselling book on reading units of study. It will certainly change the way many of us think about how to structure and support independent work in reading centers.
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
This interview excerpt is approximately nine minutes long. A transcript follows the interview below.
Brenda: So Kathy, what projects are you working on now?
Kathy: Well right now, I'm working on a book about reading centers. The reading centers that I'm writing about are not what people typically think of as reading centers or literacy centers. It's a little different, and that's what's tricky about the book. I'm trying to present them clearly, but I think there's a lot of interference with what people already think of with reading centers.
Brenda: When you say that there's misconceptions about reading centers and that's not necessarily the best term, what do you mean? How do you think people conceive of reading centers in a different way than you do?
Kathy: The word "centers" conjures up a lot of things; like centers as in play center, science center, art center. So that's one issue--just that image that people have of centers. Then the other issue is -- not issue in a bad way, but the other connotation of reading centers, I think, is what students do while the teacher is leading guided reading groups.
The activities that students participate in - some kids will be in the big book center, some kids will be in the writing center, the listening center. Meanwhile, the teacher is conducting a guided reading group.
When I say to teachers, "What do you think of when you think of reading centers?" That's exactly what they think of, unless they worked closely with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. And then they have a different idea of reading centers.
What I'm NOT trying to do with this book is say, "Okay, you thought you knew what reading centers were? Now let me tell you what they are." That is not at all the intention. Instead, what I'm trying to do is say, "Oh look, here's another thing that you can do. They're called 'reading centers,' but they're different than what you might think." I don't know if that makes any sense. The term is loaded.
I was talking to Lucy Calkins at length about something as simple as the title for the book. There's a lot of great books out about literacy centers.
I don't want people to buy my book thinking, "Oh, more great ideas for literacy centers," and then they'll be disappointed.
The way I've used them in my classroom, it's not an ongoing, daily structure from September till June. It's sort of an intermittent structure. I'll have cycles of reading centers at different points of the year to complement or support units of study.
For example, in non-fiction unit of study during partner reading time, instead of my kids being in regular, same old, same old partnerships, my kids would work in reading centers. These are really just two kids and a basket of books that go together or are connected in some way.
So in non-fiction, you might have kids doing research on mummies, other kids doing research on birds, and so on around the room. What I love about reading centers, and what I'm really trying to say in the book, is that it's not enough to teach kids the skills and strategies to be a strong reader. I mean, that's so important, of course.
But I think sometimes there's such an overemphasis on the skills and strategies that the habits of reading, the reasons to read, the ways people read in the real world, are not found at all in classrooms. It's the race to read, as opposed to reasons to read. Reading centers are an opportunity for kids to do the kind of reading work that real readers do.
Like for example, during a nonfiction study, it's easy to get caught up in teaching kids the features of nonfiction; teaching kids how to skim and scan, how to synthesize, how to determine importance. And that's important, of course I would do that.
But I also want to give them the opportunity to say, "You know what? There's something I'm really interested in. I really want to learn more about dogs. My family is thinking of getting a dog. So I'm going to do some research about dogs." I write a little bit about this in Growing Readers. I skim over the idea of reading centers.
In primary classrooms, reading centers are one of the structures where kids do the kind of work that we do as readers. You know, for example, in the authors study--most adult, avid readers have authors they adore, and they pursue those authors.
When a new book comes out, they get the book, they love to talk about the book, they find the author. If the author is going to a bookstore or on Larry King or something--I don't know. They have an interest in the author. And then when they read the books by the author they notice things across books--craft or themes the author writes about.
With kids, we can say, "You know what? One of the things that really powerful readers do is they have authors that they really know well and that they really love. And so you guys -- all of you--we've read so many authors this year--you're going to get to pick an author that you really love. And it's almost like you're going to become an expert about that author."
So say there are two kids--because we have them work in partnerships-- who both love Ezra Jack Keats. They gather a basket of Ezra Jack Keats' books and then they read the books; and then they start to notice things across books. "Oh, he often writes about kids. I wonder if these stories are from his own life? Oh, maybe Ezra Jack Keats lived in a city, 'cause the setting is always in a city."
It's sort of what I think about when I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver. I think, "Gosh, this book is so different from her other book. How is she so smart that she can write one book about Africa with such knowledge and detail, and then the next book she's writing about -- "
Brenda: North Carolina, or somewhere in the hills?
Kathy: Yes. We're trying to find ways that what they do in the school with reading is as similar as it can be to what real avid, powerful readers do in real life--to build those habits and to imprint in their minds, "Wow, reading is really enjoyable. I can get a lot out of reading."
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