My students need multiple copies of Lord of the Flies, The Raft, Shipwreck: Survival, Beauty Queens, Nil, Stay Alive #1: Crash, and Shipwreck Island in order to participate in survival at sea literature circles.
Students in my 8th grade Language Arts classes are developing their reading stamina in order to be able to engage with increasingly longer and more complex texts. This can only be accomplished through regular and continual reading. High interest, engaging stories are the best way to encourage middle school students to read.
Students at my school converge in the 6th grade from four different and socioeconomically distinct elementary schools of approximately 300 students, to a single middle school of about 1,000 students.
The variety of income levels, nationalities, home languages and cultures provides a rich daily dynamic within our student body.
My Project
Students will use multiple copies of the following age appropriate fiction novels to examine survival at sea stories in a literature circle format: Lord of the Flies, The Raft, Shipwreck: Survival, Beauty Queens, Nil, Stay Alive #1: Crash, and Shipwreck Island. Each literature circle group chooses a single book to read and discuss. During the reading of their selected literature, students complete various "one pagers" of their own choosing. One pagers emphasize skills such as high-level questioning, the elements of literature, vocabulary development, and writing skills. Similar to a book club, students then get together for an opportunity to share their "one pagers" and thereby discuss the books as a group. Upon completion of the novels, each group creates a presentation to share with the class about the suspenseful elements they located in their respective books.
Research has shown a correlation between increased student achievement and participating in literature circles.
In addition, participating in peer-led literature discussion groups often increases a students motivation to read, as well as, his or her comprehension.
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