Boys Hate to Read? No, We Love Reading!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

The Scholars of Room 505 are pushing to break the stigma that "boys hate to read." They would tell you that they love to read-- they just want exciting books that can keep their interest! Their eyes lit up when they saw some of the books from the last project, they just need more books for boys.

I thought I became a good reader naturally by going to school, but my mother brought me back to reality when she reminded me of the countless trips to the library I made.

My students have limited access to a distant public library, which has a limited selection and operating hours. Our school library is pretty great, but we only get scheduled time once-every-two-weeks, and my boys are gobbling up books in a matter of days. The library is shared between the 900+ students at our school, so there are naturally limitations on types of books they are allowed to check out. This year, our 5th grade class is pushing to get everyone into a magnet or charter school and be competitive at that level. The transition-to-all-English year for our school is 5th grade, so many of the students come in with above grade-level in Spanish, but at around a 3rd grade reading level in English. We need to close that gap and fast. The scholars embrace that there are no shortcuts so they need to start reading

My Project

They love books and they love reading, now we just need the resources. Last year, graphic novels and chapter books were purchased for my class of all-girls and it brought tremendous gains for our students. Our school uses the Accelerated Reader program, and after we received those books, all of the girls met their AR goals (reaching 20 points in 9 weeks-- a book like Holes is 7 points). This year I made the switch and am teaching all boys. We have 3 classroom librarians (student jobs) and they have been labeling and sorting the books, as well as over-seeing our Classroom Checkout procedure on our computer. The boys are very respectful of the books and will absolutely love them. It's also motivating for them to know that there are other people out there who believe in them. The graphic novels help the ESL students (and are just awesome anyway) and the chapter books can be used in literature circles or book clubs.

Help the boys of 505 reach their goal of growth in reading.

They loved the Wimpy Kids, now let's help push them to even higher levels. It is so important for these boys to engross themselves in the pure enjoyment of a great book; it will help them become lifelong readers and set them on a path to success. Please help us out!