1st Grade Book Club Leaders & Growth Mindset Approach
My students need engaging books to keep them learning! I have a group of avid, curious 1st graders who are hungry for more knowledge than I have available for them.
I am lucky to say that I teach at the only Leader In Me Lighthouse school in Southeast Missouri! We are a neighborhood public school in a high poverty area with a 96% free/reduced lunch rate. We are fairly diverse and many of my students live with grandparents or other family members or come from single parent homes. To say we struggle financially is an understatement. It's no secret that poverty plays a huge role in academic issues such as learning to read. First grade is such a foundational grade level where many students discover they can read and they like to read, provided the right texts and opportunities.
Many of my students do not have a way to get to the public library in town, they may not have anyone at home to help them or encourage them to read, and many say they don't have books at home.
My students deserve opportunities to learn and explore the world around them in unique ways. For many, education primarily happens during their short time with me, so maximizing that time for them with engaging activities and learning opportunities is my goal.
My Project
Book clubs are a fun, engaging way for students to interact with new genres of text titles in hands on ways. To facilitate book clubs it requires multiple copies of the same title. Beginning chapter book series such as Ready Freddy and They Mystery of books are a great way for me to capture my 1st grade audience. First grade students also have a lot of emphasis placed on them in the Missouri Learning Standards to learn with non-fiction texts. I'd love the opportunity to integrate non-fiction text standards with our informational writing standard by facilitating different research projects such as Polar Bears, Penguins, Owls and Spiders. The National Geographic Readers I've asked for are not available in my building or public library but are essential to carrying out book clubs and research projects with my students.
We also are a Leader In Me school and teach our students how to have a growth mindset.
Some of the books I've asked for individually will help me teach growth mindset opportunities more deeply. Having a growth mindset or, Bubble Gum brain mentality, encourages students to embrace the struggle of learning new things. The "power of yet" is often quoted in our classroom as we try to learn new material in a variety of ways. Just because something feels challenging for us it does not mean we aren't ready, it just means we may not be ready "yet." I love to see my students find pieces of themselves within growth mindset books. It's very empowering and encourages them to persevere when things feel tough, something I think we can all agree is an important life skill.
Giving students the gift of reading is my passion and I'm eager to see them take off!
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