Gina Hale admits that because she tried to “cover” the entire history textbook with her seventh graders, she had no time for extensive reading. One class changed everything.

“That year, I taught an English language arts—history core class with one-third special ed, one-third English learners, and one-third GATE [Gifted and Talented Education] students. I had nonreaders and students reading above grade level in the same class.

“At the time, I was operating on the idea that kids had to read the textbook, front to back. But that year, I needed a different plan—more kids than ever were not reading or doing homework, and way too many were failing.

“In desperation, I decided to try extensive reading. I could see that it was the only way to get my kids all reading about the same topic. I spent several afternoons with the school librarian selecting supplementary text sets at different reading levels related to my history content. At first it was a lot of work, but by the end of the year she was so excited that she created units of extensive reading for the whole seventh grade. Rather than having us sign up for library, she brought the text sets around to our classrooms. It became a real collaboration.

“Still, I didn’t want to just dump the textbook, so each chapter I selected a few sections—only a few pages in the beginning, but more later—that covered the essential content standards. In pairs, students took turns reading and thinking aloud. As a class we talked about what partners discussed. It was clear that comprehension was improving, that they were reading, but I could tell from their talk that many students were not really engaged in the reading. I was pretty discouraged!

“The unit on medieval Europe was a turning point. The textbook had a feature on castles, so I chose that, hoping it would be interesting, perplexing. I knew students would have a lot of Disney-type schema about castles, but this section in the textbook zoomed in on how difficult and unpleasant it was to live in castles.

“After the partner work, when I asked students what they figured out about the reading, naturally their first responses were about the details selected to most appeal to a middle school audience—they enthusiastically recounted the horrors of the chamber pot. I was amused, and thrilled, by their engagement.‘ Okay,’ I said, ‘but what did you figure out about reading, not castles?’ Doreen, a GATE student who read well enough but typically with very little interest, responded, ‘You have to really read it! It’s interesting if you read it.’

“During that same unit, I put students into four-person research groups to support guided writing projects. They were gathering information for short stories that would take place in medieval Europe, and each student would be his or her own main character. One group included two special-ed students and two GATE students. Francisco was really smart, but a visual processing disorder made reading hard enough that he had just quit trying. Paulo read word by word, at a first-grade level. And then there were Tami and Julie, both academically successful students who nevertheless were in the habit of reading just enough to finish an assigned task.

“For resources, in addition to the textbook, they had the text sets the librarian and I had built. Paulo started with a picture book about knights, Francisco chose an illustrated encyclopedia about castles. Tami and Julie were reading a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine and expository books about medieval court life and textiles. By the end of the unit, Paulo was reading Francisco’s encyclopedia, Francisco was cross-referencing the textbook, and Julie and Tami were asking the two boys for information on knights. “All this research and writing meant that students were rereading—to get writing ideas, check facts, or find information to share with someone else. They were building fluency, an incredible amount of schema, and stamina. And, they were engaged. Intellectually. In work.

“Over the course of that year, it became clear to me that few of my students would ever get passionate about history because of the textbook. When I decided to make more time for differentiated reading, I saw my nonreaders become readers and my good-enough readers become avid readers.

“In his end-of-year reflection, Paulo, who began the year reading at a first-grade level, wrote, ‘I got better at reading. I read a book for the first time. Now I know I am not stupid. I can read.’

“That’s what extensive reading does for students.”