My students need additional science fiction novels (including the Hunger Game series, Gone series, Life as We Knew It series) to read, in order to draw thematic parallels across works and to consider alternative perspectives.
It is my teaching philosophy that ALL students are readers; you just have to figure out what they are interested in reading. Many middle-schoolers love exploring futuristic sci-fi, leading them to discussions of what is and what could be.
I teach 6th grade at a first year charter conversion.
Our students are eager to learn, committing to our charter's mission for academic success for all students, after the previous school was closed due to poor performance. Our students represent a myriad of nations, with no one ethnic group comprising more than 25% of our population, and with our English learners speaking more than a dozen different first languages. The majority of supplies that we have at hand are what was left behind after the district school closed last year. The library in particular is in bad shape, with few current novel choices for our students.
My Project
The novels on this list are for a mixed-grade (6-8) reading course I teach that focuses on dystopian science fiction. At our vastly diverse school, students cross ethnic and social boundaries to come together to examine our possible futures, eagerly debating the role of government and of the citizen in society. I currently have a class set of one novel ("Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld) that we read during this quarter-long course (Students choose a different genre-based course each quarter). I would love for my students to have access to thematically similar novels for them to read independently to allow them to continue their explorations. The hardcover novels will last through many years of eager reading.
These additional novels will help further the love of reading in my students.
They get very passionate discussing our current novel, and I want to help them to continue to nurture that love by providing them with access to similar novels. Students will also continue to consider their own role as forces of change in society as they contemplate our possible futures.
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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