I am a reading interventionist at my neighborhood middle school. I work with students from 6th, 7th and 8th grade who can be described as reluctant readers. My students have a difficult time finding high-interest texts written at appropriate (independent) reading levels. Reading for the mind is what exercise is to the body (Joseph Addison). We know the more we read, the better readers we become. I want to expose my students to a variety of great books and utilize each student’s ‘voice’ to select a book to keep for their very own! My students are sweet, hard-working and funny! I love their positive attitudes about “trying something new” even when the work they are asked to do is not easy. This year we participated in the #bookaday movement and the #GlobalReadAloud project. My students were eager to listen to and discuss these selections and were able to make great connections to the characters and text. Our school library will be closed this summer. I’m hoping by gifting each student a brand-new book before summer, they can not only ENJOY reading, but also, see the world outside of school!
My Project
I hope to always create special memories for my students.
I want to host a “book tasting” before spring break!
The room will look like a restaurant (tablecloth, music, flowers, placemats). I will be the maître d and “serve” each student a book. Students will “sample” each book by reading the first chapter and completing a reflection slip (voting on a scale of 1-5 stars how much they like the book and if they are interested in reading on). Those slips will be collected, the books will be rotated to the person on the right and the process will repeat until each student has the opportunity to “taste” each book. During spring break, I will review the scoring slips and match each student to his/her book of choice. Self-selected reading is twice as powerful as teacher-selected reading in developing engagement so choice is a critical component of this project!
In May, each student will be gifted his/her book with a menu of (optional) summer tasks. Students could choose to:
*share what they are reading via Twitter (#viewfromabook and #readingforpleasure);
*create a graffiti poster (to be used in a book advertisement);
*write a one-sentence book recommendation and share via Google (to be used in a book advertisement); and/or
*post thoughts about the book on a Padlet wall with others reading that same book.
Students will also be given end of summer options. Students can:
*keep the novel;
*return the novel to me (to be used to repeat this project in 2021); or
*pass it on! Using a @bookabandonment ticket, they can drop the book somewhere in our community for others to enjoy!
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