Reading Ladders

"Readers are made, not born. The experiences we present students can have terrific influence, sometimes more than we can see at the time" (p. 17).

When I saw that Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders: Helping Students from Where They Are to Where We'd Like Them to Be was going to be the English Companion Ning June book club selection, I thought it was a perfect excuse to buy it! Upon finishing the book, I signed up for the ECN book discussion page. I was the 95th member, and the discussion was well-underway. It seems like it will continue to be a lively discussion, and Donalyn Miller, who wrote The Book Whisperer, is one of the participants. I was excited to see that because while reading, I thought that her book was a good book to compliment this one, along with Middle School Readers, Readicide, Igniting a Passion for Reading, and The Reading Zone. 


There was so much to love about this book. I could tell from the beginning that I would like the tone because as I have mentioned numerous times about other authors, I appreciate it when they write as a colleague who can share their experiences, give thoughts to ponder, and make their ideas more transparent. She encouraged her readers to use her ideas as a starting point but to remember that we are the experts making decisions based on our students and contexts. In addition, Lesesne focuses on conditions that foster life-long reading.

The concept of reading ladders is to not just match students with one great book that they will love, but to have successive books to recommend. She talks about reading horizontally (for example series), vertically (a big jump in reading demands), and diagonally (a progressive moment with support - a reading ladder). Lesesne said, "Simply, a reading ladder is a series or set of books that are related in some way (e.g., thematically) and that demonstrate a slow, gradual development from simple to more complex. [...] The intent is to move readers from their comfort zone to books that represent more diversity" (p. 48).  She then went on to give many diverse, thorough examples of the possibilities of reading ladders.

I kept a pen close by as a read to jot down all the ideas that popped into mind as I read through her examples, such as:

• She mentioned how some reading ladders span years. I have 6th-8th grade students, so I thought about having some reading ladder visuals posted around the room and/or on our class blog with different colors (or some other distinction) to show the recommended entry grade level. I was also reflecting on how I could have a visual representation of the horizontal reading that goes on until the reader is ready to move on to the next rung of the latter.
• I want to think of the progress and growth of my incoming 8th graders from the time they started in my class as 6th graders. Remembering their reading journeys could help me create some of our class' reading ladders. 
• I am going to have a theme of the year for each of the grade levels, and I thought it would be great to have a reader ladder for each theme.
• Classics and remakes ladder
• Student created ladders (After writing this idea, I realized that Lesesne later recommend it on  page 65 with ideas on how to scaffold their own creations.)
• Book Clubs reading ladders (with books in our library available in multiple copies)
• And of course, I will need to make sure to have some Escaleras de lectura, to represent Spanish titles in our classroom library.

I am excited for all of the possibilities that there are with reading ladders and to see the impact they will have on my classroom.