Book Selection: From the Desk of Zoe Washington

During one of our family trips to the La Grange Public Library, my daughter selected From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks either from the YA shelf or as a recommendation from the librarian. Right away I could see Isabella was intrigued by the book’s whimsical cover of a young girl sitting at her desk contemplating on what to write. Something Isabella often does in her own room. I’m convinced that being able to see herself in this book instantly grabbed her attention. But, as we know, you can’t always judge a book by its cover…or can we?

From the Desk of Zoe Washington is Janae Marks’ debut novel for young readers. And, let me say, she knocked it out of the park. Isabella could not put this book down. Whether in the kitchen, in her room, in the car, and yes, even in the bathroom, this book was brought in tow until she devoured every last word. 

So, naturally, I needed to give this book a try. Now, a good book doesn’t always translate to a book I can use during a book study. The main focus of a book study is to teach young readers to be able to understand the nuances of an author’s writing in addition to being able to think critically about the content. 

Without disappointment, Janae Marks checked every box. After reading just the first couple of chapters, she beautifully captivated my attention by developing the main character Zoe, and sparked my curiosity about her relationship with her “past” best friend. Janae also peaked my interest by vividly describing each event with just the right amount of figurative language. 

Although each class will be taught slightly differently, the overall skills students will focus on are vocabulary, comprehension, and academic language. From the Desk of Zoe Washington offers many opportunities to teach these skills and many more. 

I find it ironic that one of the most important aspects of reading, vocabulary, is often one of the most forgotten. Historically, vocabulary words have been taught in isolation. Students were given a list of words to memorize. Words walls were created and students were asked to look up definitions and construct sentences using the selected weekly vocabulary words. This rote approach to learning vocabulary makes it difficult for students to translate the meaning of words to everyday language. Novels rich in vocabulary allow students to use best practice strategies in order to recognize and retain the definitions of unfamiliar words. Strategies such as using context clues. This is a process in which the reader uses clues either before or after the word to determine the meaning of words. And, without the use of a dictionary. Using context clues allows for minimal disruption to the reading flow. Another approach to learning vocabulary is to provide sufficient opportunities to use new vocabulary words  in a variety of different activities such as group discussions, writing, and reading. This is something parents can do anytime of the day such as mealtimes or a short trip in the car. Check out this document to help your child practice and master using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words. From the Desk of Zoe Washington offers a book rich in vocabulary that can be skillfully defined using clues from the story. Words such as reluctantly, tentative, systemic  and exasperated.  I also appreciate the author’s use of legal terms that might require more explicit teaching either prior to reading or during our book discussions while reading. Words such as alibi, prosecution, parole, and penitentiary.

Now, comprehension is a huge onion with a ton of layers and over the years I’ve grappled with the best way to teach comprehension. In the past, teaching was fairly straightforward. Students were asked to read a book and answer simple comprehension questions that involved identifying the main character, describing the setting and remembering a few specific details. Well, although these skills are required to understand the general gist of a story, comprehension has transformed into something more meaningful. Metacognition is defined as understanding or being aware of one’s own thought process or “thinking about thinking”. In order to monitor their comprehension of a book, students must constantly be checking to make sure they are understanding what they are reading. Self-Questioning should be a process that happens each time a student reads.  Self-Questioning is the essence of comprehension because it is the process of questioning, seeking answers and asking further questions that keeps the reader engaged. Self-Questioning allows readers to move from reader to critical readers. But often this process is not always automatic. The strategy needs to be explicitly taught through modeling, discussions or other resources. From the Desk of Zoe Washington offers opportunities for readers to think critically about the characters, the events and the overall problem of the story. “Will Zoe get in big trouble when her mom finds out she’s been writing her father in prison?” “Only people who are guilty go to jail, so Zoe’s father must have committed murder!” “Why does Zoe always notice people “staring a little too long” when she’s with her dad?”  Question asking enables students to make connections, activate background knowledge and ultimately think critically about the characters, events and conflict of the story. 

When it comes to book talks, no matter how prepared, students tend to struggle with truly articulating their thoughts and ideas within a group. Rather than sharing a response that triggers an active discourse, students tend to share a brief statement that limits a group response causing the discussion to fall short. Teaching students to use academic vocabulary not only teaches them to be better communicators, it also taps into their metacognition, helping them think more deeply about what they are reading. Using words or phrases  such as, “Similarly, I agree, however” “Based on the text evidence, I believe”, “contrary to my opinion”, and “Based on my background knowledge, I know”. Similar to other aspects of teaching reading, the use of academic language in group discussions must be explicitly taught. I’ve had great success with sentence frames and sentence stems. Check out this academic vocabulary card. It’s great for starting conversations anytime. It’s okay to print this out and have your child use this while sharing about their last book. Kids also love to hear what parents are reading, so using this card is a great opportunity to model academic language.