Student-Run Book Club for Middle School Girls: Part I
The cost of 15 copies of 14 different books, including Copper Sun and Stargirl, purchased from Barnes and Noble, is [price], including shipping and [fulfillment].
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
At the end of last year, a few of my 7th and 8th grade girls approached me about helping them to start a book club that focuses specifically on issues that pre-teen girls face. At the start of this year I held an informational meeting and 17 students are interested in joining already! This is pretty remarkable considering we only have 50 7th and 8th grade students in our small K-8 school, and fewer than half of them are girls!
As an experienced reading teacher with workshop experience, I am incredibly excited about helping my students facilitate a book club. Our school, Future Leaders Institute Charter School, is located in central Harlem and services neighborhood kids, the majority of whom are black and impoverished. We also serve a sizeable immigrant population from Western Africa. These girls are living in a neighborhood where the women who serve as role models in their lives have often made choices that have left them powerless and poor. Through this club I hope to expose these young women to stories that have female protagonists who overcome odds to achieve their dreams and deal with pre-teen issues such as peer pressure, emerging sexuality, teen pregnancy, drug and alchohol abuse, and rape and sexual assault.
These girls are avid readers capable of completing a young adult novel within a few days. The girls have committed to giving up lunch and recess once a week to meet and will complete all reading outside of school. They will come to our club prepared to discuss the major issues and ideas of the text together. My hope is that the girls self-select the texts (with my guidance).
All we need to make this happen is for you to help us purchase the books we will use. We hope to read texts such as Forever by Judy Blume, If You Come Softly by Jaqueline Woodson, Speak by Laurie Hans Anderson, Go Ask Alice, and other seminal young adult texts adressing issues for young women.
These girls are intelligent young women who will truly benefit from such an incredible personal, social, and intellectual experience. If you donate to our club they will keep you updated on the books we are reading and perhaps invite you to a sesssion or two! So please, help us make this happen.
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