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This unit is easier to provision with books than others because children can grow ideas about characters when reading any fiction book at all, so you do not need a specialized library. Although your teaching may emphasize envisionment and prediction during the first portion of the unit, close reading and inference during the second, and growing and learning lessons alongside characters in the third, throughout the whole unit children will be engaged in the crucial habit: reading, reading, and reading more fiction books. Keep in mind, the number of books you’d expect children to read in a week is different

according to the levels of the books in their hands. For example, readers in level K should be reading eight to ten books per week, while readers in levels L/M, four to six per week, and in N/O/P/Q, two to four per week. Either way, they’ll be reading a lot—and this matters more than anything else in this curricular calendar.

You will want to think not just about the texts you provide to children, but also how you will structure their book talks. Depending on the availability of books in your class- room library, you might ask partners to read the same books, or, alternatively, you might ask them to read different books that they swap upon completion. If partners are read- ing about a common character, they may be able to push their conversation deeper, focusing on that shared character. This sort of conversation might invite readers to deepen their understanding of who the character is and what he or she might do next. This conversation might invite readers to reflect upon how a character responds to changing situations, learns lessons, and grows. This work supports the speaking and lis- tening standard for third graders outlined by the Common Core State Standards: “[T]o build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must have ample oppor- tunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations—as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner. Being productive members of these conver- sations requires that students contribute accurate, relevant information; respond to and develop what others have said; make comparisons and contrasts; and analyze and syn- thesize a multitude of ideas in various domains.”

To scaffold student talk, you can teach partners to ask each other questions such as: ■ “What kind of person is the character?”

■ “Do you like him (or her)? Why or why not?” ■ “Why did the character do that?”

■ “How come the character is feeling that way?” ■ “Do you think he (or she) did the right thing?” ■ “What do you think will happen next?”

Notice that these questions push your children to do some of the reading skill work of the unit. They are not questions that can be answered with one word, nor can they be addressed merely through a retelling of the story. These questions are designed to push readers to express what we think about the text and about the characters, to predict and to theorize.

To help sustain partner talk and push readers to build more ideas, ask kids to prepare for conversations with partners by rereading whatever jottings they have made thus far, whether those jottings are in a reader’s notebook or on Post-its and theory charts. Teach partners to listen to and extend each other’s remarks, perhaps using conversational prompts such as:

■ “What in the text makes you say that?” ■ “I thought that too because . . .”

■ “Another example of that is . . .”

■ “I thought something different because . . .” ■ “I agree because . . .”

■ “Wait. I’m confused. Are you saying . . . ?”

■ “Have you found the same thing with the character in your story?” ■ “Can you say more about that?”

■ “Can you show me the part in the story where you got that idea?”

By offering children these prompts, we are teaching them to ratchet up the level of their thinking in conversations. While teaching into partnerships, you may find it helpful to reference Session VIII of Following Characters into Meaning. This session provides strategies for showing readers how partnerships talk. The mid-workshop teaching point helps readers to rehearse for grand conversations by going back to their jottings and thoughtfully selecting a jotting that is a thought, not a fact from the text. We know that when partnerships come together to talk about ideas, their con- versations are richer and their thinking grows and changes. When done thoughtfully and openly, talk can help readers to grow more powerful and provocative ideas. In her book The Art of Teaching Reading, Calkins tells us that the definition of a good con- versation is that your thinking grows or changes. During the character unit we must seize teaching opportunities to show children the power of talk. Note that these part- nership moves directly support the Common Core State Standards emphasis that third graders ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text.

Whole-class conversations are also a wonderful way to support children’s partner conversations. You can provide high amounts of scaffolding, and with this help children can grow a conversation by sticking to an idea or two of importance. This means that when you finish reading aloud a chapter, you may want to ask, “Can someone get us started in a conversation about this chapter?” Teach readers that great book talks begin with ideas that are central to the text and provocative enough to merit conversation. Once a child makes a comment, give everyone time to mull over that comment for a moment, and even to look at the text or jot notes. Then you might ask, “Who can talk back to this idea?” Readers can then try sticking to that idea, using evidence from the text to support their thinking. Coach them to listen and then talk back to each other.

Make sure that your kids are not just supported by good talk, but that they are also doing this work in texts that are appropriate to their reading level. As you prepare for the unit and think about structures you’ll put into place, be sure you keep in mind that read- ers who were assessed a few weeks ago could well be ready to move up to more chal- lenging books already. Some of them will have entered the year rusty from a summer without reading, and after just a few weeks of reading up a storm, be ready to move up to another level of text difficulty. The good news is that they’ll be continuing to read fic- tion books this whole month—so now is a good time to think about making those books be more challenging, for those who are ready. You needn’t do fancy running records on

assessment passages in order to move kids up—instead, ask them to read aloud bits of a leveled book and listen for fluency and accuracy, then talk to determine comprehen- sion. If their speed at moving through books has increased, that too can be sign they’re ready to move up. You will probably want to put readers into “transitional baggies” con- taining some of the easier books at the text level, and then you will want to provide extra support in those harder books. Same-book partnerships help, as does a book intro- duction. If you or a parent can read some chapters aloud to the reader, this too offers help. Series books are especially good for supporting readers as they move to harder levels. If you see some children who are not ready to move toward transitional baggies, then this should be a sign that they need some extra teaching and extra guidance. It is likely that as you enter this unit, more children will be in transitional baggies than not. You can do some whole-class or small-group work on supporting oneself in harder books, and talk up the purposeful goal-driven stance that can support acceleration.