Books They'll Love

I am an English teacher and 9th grade adviser at a small urban charter high school. One of the goals of our school is to help prepare our students for college, and as most of them will be the first in their family to do so, they need a great deal of support. As an adviser to 17 freshmen, my primary focus is to help them get the skills they need to graduate high school and to be successful in college.

Many students come to our school lacking basic literacy skills. Some of them speak English as a second language, some have learning disabilities, and some didn't receive the necessary early-childhood education and encouragement in reading. To improve their literacy skills and to make them competitive college students, we have implemented various programs across the curriculum. One of these programs is 30 minutes of Sustained Silent Reading we do in Advisory 3 times a week. Unfortunately, we do not have adequate resources to purchase books at their reading level and in their preferred genres. So for many of them, SSR is not an enjoyable or worthwhile experience.

I have taught in schools with a great deal of resources for SSR, and I have seen how empowering it is for a child to select a book, read it independently, and gradually learn to love reading. One of the most important parts of SSR is teaching students how to select books on their reading level that they will enjoy. So I need a much bigger variety of books to offer my current students. When this program is successful, our classroom becomes a community of readers in which students share their favorites through Book Talks, top book lists, and author studies. More importantly, students learn the independence and confidence they need for high school and beyond.

Now I need your help! From my experience as an English teacher and through my Masters in Humanities Education, I have learned a lot about young adult literature. I have compiled a list of some of the most popular titles that range in genre and reading level. Your generous support will help us add to our classroom library, but more importantly, it will help my students continue to build their literacy skills and increase their love of learning. I will be their Advisory teacher for four years, and I would love to finish off their freshman year with a meaningful and beneficial SSR experience.