My students need enriching young adult novels such as Brown Girl Dreaming, Half a Chance, and Absolutely Almost by renowned authors to discover the love of reading.
In Literacy class, students discover their love of reading through self-selection of reading materials. Increasing diversity of choice for students will continue to fill the essential need for selection of their personal interests.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
― Diane Duane
"Readers becoming writers" is a theme in my junior high Literacy class.
Students love to study crafting techniques that they notice their favorite authors use, and those who have a wide variety of reading experiences discover what it is like to fall in love with books.
My goal is to increase the opportunities they have for reading books outside their regular reading habits to experience new character conflicts, mood, themes, and author's voice.
My students are a diverse group ranging from not being able to afford books in their homes to being resourceful and renting from the local library. Minimally do I see students being able to bring in their own resources.
Nevertheless, they are eating up story plot's like potato chips, and I need help filling their insatiable desire to read more.
My Project
"The Margin Project"
These books will allow my students to continue experimenting with annotating their books in an authentic way as they read. We have a set of standards by which we agreed upon: write your thinking as you read in the margins of the book, each student who reads uses a different color pen (to allow the next reader to enjoy the previous readers thoughts), and to be authentic.
This fun, interactive way to engage readers with their books has been exciting and has created a buzz around class. I notice students sharing their thinking more with others, in turn creating excitement around another book that a student might not have otherwise taken a second glance at.
"The Margin Project" has increased reading stamina in my classroom, and I would like to offer more diverse texts to continue this fun way to interact with the reading.
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ― Charles William Eliott
My goal is to show my students how the experience of reading may help in their daily lives not only for class, but also socially, morally, and personally.
Books have much to teach us and through a wide variety of reading experiences, my students may start to understand these lessons.
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