My students need high interest books, like Bone and Bruce Lee stories, to complete monthly reading projects. I need engaging text to teach literary techniques.
Remember when you discovered something new, went to the library and pulled all the books about it on to the floor? Some of my students have not yet developed a passion for reading. My goal this year is to make them life long lovers of books.
My students are all classified as special education, reading is challenging for them.
When a student finds a book they like and I catch them in math or science trying to read it I know I have done my job successfully. This year has been a struggle finding books that interest some of my readers. One student who is particularly shy finally shared with me that he loves martial arts, so I have requested books about Bruce Lee. Another student hates to write, but has notebooks full of comic strips. I am not going to spoil it for him and tell him that comic strips are writing too, but I am going to foster his love of drawing and story telling with a book about it.
My Project
My students will use these books for independent reading and will create projects about the books to share with the class. There is one project due a month and when students have complete 5 projects they receive a prize such as a reading light, a book, a bookmark, or a homework pass. The projects encourage creativity and are differentiated to be accessible to all learning styles. I will use "The Sweetest Fig" to teach inferencing and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to teach point of view.
We are a Title 1 district, many of our students do not have the resources to purchase books and because they are classified some do not have the ability to access the public library independently.
These books will be part of their classroom's collection so they can borrow them often.
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