Not simplified, supported.
What I thought would be a small project to create materials for a teacher-led literature circle (Our Reading Club), and then use them throughout the year, or years if they catch on, turned into something bigger, so much bigger that it has taken most of my free and ‘busy’ time, putting my other ‘million genius ideas and things to try’ on hold. Well, no rest for the wicked, or so they say.
The project in a nutshell:
Goal: Help learners start reading original English literature
in the original wording, not simplified, not in the Titanic in Almost Five Seconds style, keeping all the features that make literature worth reading: authentic vocabulary, sentence patterns, style, humour, cultural references, and the author’s voice,
but with enough support to make meaning more accessible for those who need it, without disrupting the reading flow,
so they can read the story comfortably, with no stops to check a dictionary or lean on guesswork, and then reread it for the language,
their way, the next way.
This resulted in a new reader working as a bridge between graded readers and unsupported authentic literature: The Next Reader with seven elaborated short stories and tools for working with them either in a class/club setting or independently; and my Reading Room, a platform for reading these stories online, with a few tech features to compensate, at least a little, for the lack of paper and pencil. Ideally, though, these stories should be read on paper, with a pencil in hand.
I’ll be describing the process of creating elaborated texts if there’s interest. For now, just a spoiler alert for anyone wondering: yes, it’s a mammoth (but immensely enjoyable) task, and no, AI cannot ‘automate’ the process. It definitely helps in some tasks like picking the target items above B1, or brainstorming some alternatives, but in most cases, the process needs ‘human slow’. Humans are slow. But, as we know, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
It’s also human to want to try something new. So,
If you teach B1+ learners…
If you’re planning a reading class, working with a solo learner, or running a reading circle, here’s a full story for you to try.
The Teacher’s Guide
I’ve put together a brief Teacher’s Guide that explains the approach and a full reading cycle, and gives you practical materials to try and see whether it is useful to your learners.
It includes:
- The Next Reader and its components
- The Complete Reading Cycle
- Suggested reading activities
- Ready-to-use Notice Cards
- Story Path template handouts
Read or download the Teacher’s Guide-Next-Reader in PDF.
And one complete story for you to try – The Open Window by Saki.
Download the PDF and print it for your class, or use the Classroom Code READING-11 for free online access in the Reading Room and share it with your learners.
[Read/download the story + Notice Card in the Teacher’s Guide]
Try it with one class, one reading group, or one learner.
I’d be very interested to hear how it works with your learners: what helps, and what doesn’t.
And if you find the approach useful, and want to have more stories to read with your learners this year, I’ve just made the paperback version of The Next Reader (Annotated & Illustrated): Original Classic Stories for English Learners (B1+) available on Amazon.
Happy Year of Reading, everyone!
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