Spotlight reading works best when it’s done every week and throughout the school year. “Kids get into routines and think, see and respond,” Smith said. After the first few Spotlight readings, he said, students know exactly what to do when they walk into the classroom and see a quote on the board. Spotlight reading also helps set the tone for the rest of the class period. Especially for Smith’s fourth-period class for seniors, which falls after lunch. “Spotlight focuses those kids quickly,” he said. And “it starts the day with the three things I teach: thinking, writing and reading.”
Sometimes Smith uses the spotlight to propel the class into a larger discussion or lesson for the rest of the class. Other days, the spotlight fulfills the practice of what Smith calls “risky writing,” which deemphasizes grammar and refined ideas. During the spotlight, “I just want them to get used to responding to a text or a poem,” she said.
This lesson segment is designed to last 10-13 minutes at the beginning of a class period and, for students, gradually develops their ability to respond quickly to texts. At the end of each grading period, if students have completed each featured reading, they earn 100% credit.
Greater impact
Meredith Lawrence, a colleague of Smith’s at Round Rock, collaborated with him to introduce spotlight reading throughout the school. According to Lawrence, “these brief moments where[challenging texts]are spotlighted can be more powerful sometimes than spending an entire class period” on that text. By writing unchecked during spotlight reading, they learn to trust their literary instincts. “I call them reckless writing because … I want[students]to be reckless and excited about doing the same thing as the activity itself, and not worry about the rules,” Lawrence said. “Reckless writing frees them up a little bit from their own ideas,” she continued.
After students write, Lawrence asks them to highlight all the places where they feel they’ve developed an interesting idea or thoughts they want to explore further. This practice of highlighting key moments “starts to build confidence[with students]and you start to see, as the year goes on, that there are more and more highlights and fewer moments” of uncertainty, Lawrence said.
For Lawrence, the spotlight reading also allows students to explore a text that she might not otherwise be able to teach. Her hope is that students will be exposed to authors and texts that “they will end up choosing to read independently at a later time.” Over the years of spotlight reading, Lawrence has seen students’ confidence in their academic discussions. “It helps them become more engaged and comfortable with their own thinking process,” she said.
For AP literature and composition, Smith students have to be able to write an essay in 40 minutes. That’s tough, she said. “So I need them to be able to read, recognize and find places to get in quickly… I attribute all the improvements we’ve had in our (AP) scores over the years to the featured reading.”
