How Yoda Used the Force to Create a Community of Readers Brooks Spencer

Ah, sixth graders, smart, funny, tall, short, nerdy, clueless, and needy—that about sums them up. Combine about 225 of them from four different elementary schools and get ready for a chaotic first few weeks in Middle School. What a great time to set the tone, get everyone, literally, on the same page, by Creating a Community of Readers, also known as One Book, One School. In our case, it was One Book, One Grade Level. Getting Started At our school, we incorporate a Seminar period each day for each grade level. Depending on a student’s academic needs, classes range from math and reading remediation to enrichment. There are several preliminary tests to be done with sixth graders, so we keep them with their homeroom teacher for the first four to five weeks. When they are not testing, we have planned activities such as Handbook Scavenger Hunt, Study Skills, locker organization, utilizing their agendas, Harry Wong type activities. By the end of the second week, there is a little down time. What greater opportunity is there to create bonds with new classmates and new teachers than reading a book together!

I presented my suggestion in early spring of 2011 to our principal, Steve Parker, and being the great reader that he is, fully supported the idea. Of course, there are always funding concerns, which became my job to research. My suggestion was to choose a book that would fit into a two- week period, be grade appropriate, be of high interest, and provide teachers with related materials..The perfect book just happened to be The Strange

Case of the Origami Yoda (2010) by Virginia author, Tom Angleberger. And, it was on the Virginia Reader’s Choice list – and hadn’t been discovered by the students. Win! Win! Win! Building out the Activity Plan Next, I presented the idea to the sixth grade team – ten awesome content area teachers. They had trusted me to create grade level projects before, and I promised them they would love it, and it would be painless. They were in. I had two books of my own and there were a couple in the library. The book is such a quick read; almost all of the teachers were able to read it before the end of the year

and heartily gave their approval. I spent a couple of weeks during the summer working on pre-reading activities, a teacher’s guide, a student study guide, questions, vocabulary exercises, and even some math problems. I focused on the concepts we wanted them to be familiar with including summarizing, elements of literature, characterization, figurative language, cause and effect, etc. Plus, I added bonus activities such as trivia games, Clue, creative writing, origami folding contests, communicating with the author and dancing. I found Star Wars coloring books with great pictures of Yoda. The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda lent itself well for use as a large group read. It has so many possibilities and connections. It connects to such as a well known movie –Star Wars; to food – Cheetos; to music and dance - The Twist; to art form – origami; to community service - a canned food drive. One of the characters in the book is hearing impaired, which offers an opportunity to talk about American Sign Language and lip reading. The format of the book is a case file; the main character is trying to establish Scientific Evidence by collecting stories of students’ experiences with the Origami Yoda finger puppet in the book. The Origami Yoda finger puppet is known for giving great advice; however, its host, Dwight, is known as the sixth grade odd ball. There are doodles (visuals) on every page. There are romantic situations, bullies, dorks, references to Shakespeare; it is a gold mine! The fact that the setting for the book is sixth grade and that the voices and thoughts of sixth graders are so authentically captured was simply icing on the cake for us. Sometimes a project takes on a life of its own. While collecting those miscellaneous items, I found the Star Wars coloring books, but I also found Yoda Pez dispensers, stickers, party favors and origami kits. At a flea market in Front Royal, I bought a Yoda fortune teller, sort of like the old 8-Ball, but in Yoda’s voice. Our whole group activity took place in October, when costumes are easy to find. We found a Darth Vader and Yoda costume for volunteers to wear. Teachers created bulletin boards of origami examples, vividly colored pictures of Yoda, and math problems written in “Yodaese.” Challenges

One of the few problems with the book was that it was only available in hardback and the best price I could get was $11.05. We needed over 200 books and hoped to also get audio versions of the book, so the total price was over budget. Upon further discussion with the sixth grade team, we decided to do the project in rotation. Half of the group would get books, and as soon as they finished in about eight school days, the other half would begin. The first group would then move to the handbook and study skills activities.

Reducing the number of books needed by half was going to help, but then I thought of our ELMO document cameras. If two of the teachers used the doc cameras, we could reduce the number of books even more. The final purchase was 85 books and five audio sets for around $1100.00, which was approved with an additional $150 for miscellaneous purchases.

Getting Underway

The week before we started the project, I submitted a question to be read each day on morning announcements directed to sixth graders. I asked, “What is an Angleberger?” and “Who is Yoda?” (Many didn’t know). From the winning submissions, I would draw three names and deliver a bag of Cheetos. They would discover later how Cheetos tied into the book. My rationale for using pre-reading activities was to spark interest and offer background information (Pearson, Roehler, Dole, & Duffy, 1992). Each teacher was provided with a Teacher Resource booklet, which included a

pacing guide, summaries of each section, answer keys for questions, vocabulary lists, a study guide, trivia questions for research, a figurative language cheat sheet, math problems, and bonus activities. They also received green paper cut to order for Yoda origami folding and a study guide for each student. The daily reading sections had been timed in advance so each section could be completed without having to rush. Our special

education students were in a very structured reading class during seminar, but their teachers took time each day to read the book aloud so every sixth grader could participate. After the first group had finished, Angleberger’s second book in the series, Darth Paper Strikes Back (2011), came out. I picked up copies, and teachers used them as read-alouds to their enthusiastic classes! Connecting with the Author

We wanted to invite author Tom Angleberger to come for a school visit, but he was in such demand for book tours that he had no dates available for September and October. However, he graciously offered to Skype with us. He ended up Skypeing with each group and each session went very well. For many of the students, talking to an author was a first for them. The author, a self-proclaimed nerd, was a huge hit with the

students. For our culminating, whole group activity, we re-created the PTO Fun Night from the book. In the book, admission to Fun Night was $2.00 or one canned food item. We didn’t charge, of course, but used that idea to start an early fall Food Drive. We collected almost 100 cans and donated them to one of the community’s church food closets. We had a Twist contest, an origami folding contest, an Ugly Vest Contest (Dwight wears a really ugly vest one day) and all the Cheetos they could eat. Epilogue After completing the unit, we had 85 books and five audio sets not being used. After an email to other teams, there were requests from the 7th and 8th grades to use the materials. We are going to hold onto them and hopefully do the project again in two years. With support from our principal, we are hungrily looking at War Horse (Morpurgo, 2010) for our next Community

of Readers. World War I is part of the Social Studies curriculum and it’s out in paperback! Other books that may lend themselves well for Creating a Community of Readers include:

o The 6th Grade Nickname Game – Korman (6th) o Red Kayak – Cummings (6th-8th) o The Revealers – Wilhelm (6th-8th) o Tangerine– Bloor (7th-9th) o Flipped – Van Draanan (7th-8th) o Chasing the Falconers – Korman (6th-8th) o Surviving Brick Johnson – Myers (4th-5th) o My Dog, My Hero – Myers (3th-7th)

Final Thoughts Always, always read the book yourself; do not rely on another’s recommendation. Have participating teachers read the book. If the teachers don’t buy-in to the project, it is doomed. However, creating a community of readers can be a very rewarding experience, especially when students stop you to ask, “What are we going to read next?” A former Library Media Specialist, Brooks Spencer is currently the Reading Specialist at Cedar Lee Middle School in Fauquier County, VA. Active in GWRC and VSRA, Spencer is serving as President of the Virginia State Secondary Reading Council and is on the middle school selection committee for the VA Reader's Choice List. Making reading fun is her goal in life!

References Angleberger, T. (2011). Darth paper strikes back. New York, NY: Amulet Books. Angleberger, T. (2010). The strange case of origami Yoda. New York, NY: Amulet

Books. Morpurgo, M. (2010). War horse. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. Pearson, P.D., Roehler, L.R., Dole, J.A., & Duffy, G.G. (1992).Developing expertise in

reading comprehension. In S.J.Samuels & A.E. Farstrup (Eds.). What research has to say about reading instruction (pp. 145–199). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.