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Lara Hussain's avatar

I love the 3×3 exercise and may borrow it to encourage reading, and stoke the interests of others with a bulletin board full of reviews. Thank you for sharing. Also: Levar Burton's Reading Rainbow was The Best. Decades later, I can still sing the jingle from it.

Jenna Vandenberg's avatar

I love the idea of 3X3! I'll add that to my book tasting (sometimes I call it book speed dating) lessons on WWII books.

Patricia Zaballos's avatar

I appreciate how hard you’re working to help your students love reading, Adrian! The decline of reading breaks my heart. You may be giving some of your students a lifelong gift 💝

Garreth Heidt's avatar

Great post, Adrian. One thing you might push is to avoid "to be" verbs in the three x threes. Or maybe set that as a "challenge level." Doing so will help the students gain the added benefit of learning that strong verbs trump adverbs and weak constructions all the time.

But I, too, love the pizza connection. And I have HS kids who have literally said: "reading? Outside of class? Yeah, I'm not doing that. I have better things to do."

Sigh

Adrian Neibauer's avatar

Excellent suggestion! I think once I gain some momentum, I will do a grammar lesson specifically on strong verbs versus adverbs. Then I can give students a chance to level up their L3×3! Thanks for the push!

Clarkie Doster's avatar

Adrian, your students' 3x3s are so inspiring!

I've always struggled with the to-bribe-or-not-to-bribe with bigger kids who just don't have the reading muscle worked out yet, but this seems to be a really great combination of external motivation and true rigor. What a wonderful way to get them excited to read, to share books with their peers, and to practice sharing what a book is about without going through the. entire. plot. page. by. page.

You are doing such great work, and I'm honored for the shout out here!! Thank you :)

Adrian Neibauer's avatar

It is a fine line that I used to worry about. I’m at the point now that I’d rather just bribe my students to get them to participate (or read) so that they get some reps in before leaving for middle school.

Let me know if you’d like a copy of Ryder’s chapter on L3×3s. He describes the lesson really well!

Clarkie Doster's avatar

But I think the thing that's important is that you're also including the 3x3s!

Would love a copy of the chapter. Send me an email hello@readingandwritingmatters.com -- I have some other ideas/questions that could lead to a potential collab!

Jenna Vandenberg's avatar

I usually fall on the bribery side, but I get the struggle!

Anne Sulsky's avatar

When learning to do something new (read full books), leveraging external motivation is prudent! Love your commitment to helping students become lifelong readers. Keep it up!!!

Jen's avatar

I can't wait to use Literary 3x3s with my Advanced English 10. students. Such a great post! I've been feeling pretty burned out the past few years, and I find myself recognizes a little bit of that spark from my early days after reading this. Thank you!

Adrian Neibauer's avatar

That’s great to hear! Let me know how your students take to Literary 3×3s.

Justin Baeder, PhD's avatar

Love it! Found you via the Marshall Memo. I'd love to have you on The Teaching Show—will PM you.

Dan Ryder's avatar

This makes my jaded crusty heart so much softer, Adrian! Thank you for pushing the L3x3 love forward! I'm going to sling some Literary 3x3 action around the CRCS campus next week to see if we can awaken the beast in non-fiction as well.

The Literary 3x3 transformed my classroom. And because the book was geared for AP Lit educators, I use L3x3s for evvvverrrrrrrybody because it works that well with my instructional style and my learners' attention spans/need for tactile engagement.

Similarly, L3x3 is a great tool for PD and staff meetings -- create a Literary 3x3 of the week, put it on cards, pass the decks around, see what common themes emerge, see we can find ourselves in each others' experiences, pull out the negative words and see how they change, etc.

Adrian Neibauer's avatar

I’m so pleased that you approve how I’m experimenting with L3×3s! Gary has already given me a great idea on how my students can level up their L3×3s by strengthening their verbs. I’m excited about the potential and possibilities with this strategy. Thank you for writing such an excellent chapter with an incredible strategy!

Dan Ryder's avatar

I am, In the words of James Hetfield, King Nothing. L3x3 belongs to us all! Mix and remix and go nuts.

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Love the connection to getting babies to eat vegetables… and eventually develop a taste for veggies so they WANT to eat them!

I love that the local public library is so supportive!

I have seen teachers be really successful with book tastings and book talks (given by kids)— and I love your bulletin board and the 3x3 idea, which is new to me! So intriguing for kids.

Keep fighting the good fight on this!!

geovjenkins's avatar

You can leave Geometry Dash, but https://geometry-dashpc.io never leaves you. It’s been years and I still find myself coming back to beat the latest demons.