Imagine your typical nightmare of a middle school experience...Now compound that nightmare with the inability to read and experiencing life changing tragedies as a middle school kid. Bluefish brings these conditions together in an inspiring novel for our at-risk students and struggling readers.
Many of my students are at-risk students who have been identified as needing extra learning and social supports in the academic environment.
Because my students are most oftentimes struggling readers, interventions such as read aloud, small group, and extra time are accommodations for success. In addition to academic challenges, my students often experience challenge with peer relationships, social communications, bullying, and have stressful home environments (as do many middle school students).
Teaching struggling readers is very rewarding, but it is often difficult to find a novel that students with these challenges can sincerely become engaged with. Bluefish is a novel that meets the needs of the students who face such environments.
My Project
Bluefish will be used as a class novel in a small group classroom. The audio version of Bluefish will provide for greater opportunity for our auditory learners to be engaged in the novel study. In addition to providing an engaging plot with several strong themes, Bluefish is written in a literary language that provides for strong instruction on literary elements, character analysis, and other common core lessons.
The central theme of Bluefish develops as the main character struggles through personal tragedy while facing the academic challenge of being a struggling reader. Additionally, plot elements in Bluefish include situations of personal loss, struggling peer relationships, substance abuse issues, strained communication with adults, bullying, and issues of personal responsibility. As students read this novel as a class, opportunity for group discussion and personal reflection will be abundant.
Rarely does a modern novel present themes that meet both the needs of content and engages reading for struggling students.
Through the use of Bluefish as a class novel in ELA resource classrooms and in small group novel reading, struggling students will be able to identify with the characters who may have similar learning and environmental needs. Such great opportunities for providing a safe learning environment are provided through themes in the novel.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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