Growing Life-Long Readers And Thinkers

My Students

Some students would rather stare at the clock than at a book. This is a major problem at every school, as teachers compete with electronics for students' attention. One of the best ways to fix this is to provide students with more choices in reading. We need books to ignite their love of reading!

My students are teenagers.

They are all mixed up in the craziness of finding out who they want to be. They are confused and have a great sense of humor about it (on their good days). My students live in a community that lacks diversity, so they need good books that open the world for them. They are in the weird place between childhood and adulthood, so they need to make choices that will help them later in life. Finally, my students are a variety of academic levels, from reluctant readers to book worms. They are athletes, musicians, actors, comedians, debaters, and a million other categories; they need as many options as possible when choosing books that speak to who they were, are, and want to be. Not enough of my students realize the potential that a good book can have; I want to teach them how to love reading.

My Project

The books that I chose for our classroom are books that allow the reader to be absorbed. They are the kind of books that let you forget where you are for a little while. I focused on a few specific genres that I think are important in creating a rigorous readers' workshop. I chose a lot of historical fiction books, so students are exposed to the cultures of the past and can learn from previous mistakes in history while following powerful stories. I also choose many books from the realistic fiction category, because these are the books that my students can often relate to. These books don't require students to take a leap in imagination; my students may have even lived through similar experiences, so they can reflect on their own situations. Realistic fiction is a great way to get reluctant readers to begin loving books. I also chose some classics so that my students are exposed to materials that will lead them on the path to success as they think about college.

I began readers' workshop as a way to invigorate students to love reading.

A survey showed that most high school students only read 2-3 times a month. The students claimed that they weren't reading because they didn't know any good books. I hope that by providing my students with books that are about issues they care about, not impossibly above their reading levels, and easily accessible that they will grow to be life-long readers.