I am a sixth- and seventh-grade special education teacher at a New York City middle school where nearly 90% of the students receive free or reduced price lunch. Fortunately, all 15 of my students can read, and some of them have already learned to love reading. However, as middle school students with learning disabilities, most of them read at a level three to five years behind where they should be. Unfortunately, our school has an extremely limited selection of books that are below grade level. To make things worse, these few below grade level books (about two dozen) are so visibly below grade level that it is an embarrassment for the students to have to read them.
What the students need is access to a library with high-interest, low-level books. Currently, I am forced to find reading passages at the students' levels and then make photocopies for class use. This is not an ideal situation. The students feel like they are being babied and are not given much choice. Furthermore, having only brief reading passages available to them does not allow them to develop the book skills that they need. They are unable to go through the process of picking out a book, navigating their way through a book, and feeling the sense of pleasure that comes with completing a novel. Additionally, it is very difficult to engage the students in inquiry projects when the students do not have the resources available to aid in their selected topic of inquiry.
I would like to set up a classroom library composed of high-interest, low-level books. With such a library, my students will finally have a chance to pick out books that they really want to read. They will be able to feel the satisfaction of completing a novel. They will be able to read without having other students look at them awkwardly. Most importantly, they will become better readers because they will have a wealth of books that they can actually read and enjoy.
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