Do you remember being curled up under the covers, relishing a book that opened up new worlds? My students do not have access to compelling texts that they can explore to develop reading skills and delve into interpretation of complex, rich texts.
My amazing students come from all over a large city, many of them taking trains and buses to arrive at school.
Many of my students have never seen a world outside of their neighborhood and many live in worlds from which they hope to escape, either through college or other career opportunities. They range in ability levels, but many of them struggle with reading comprehension and interpretive practices. They attend a military academy and hope to attend college in the near future, as they are juniors. They are insightful and they love discussion; give them the right text with real world issues and they dive right in! They love exploring the way that issues of religion, culture, and gender impact our choices and our chances to engage in the world around us!
My Project
Two years ago, I began teaching 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini. My students, many of whom were entirely unfamiliar with cultures other than their own and many of whom were struggling readers and writers, could not put this book down. I had students curled up on our reading couch at lunch, reading and discussing the text and the way in which gender and culture played a role in the lives of the characters in the text. They had insightful discussions about connections between cultures and came to an understanding about a world that existed both apart from and entirely connected to their own. They came to class genuinely excited to read and explore, checking out books and taking them home to read ahead. As class sizes have grown, I no longer have texts for all of the students, and I want to provide them with the opportunity to explore texts outside of the limited forty-five minute class period we share each day.
I want to create a classroom of writers and readers that are knowledgeable about and engaged in worlds that exist outside of the blocks that define their neighborhood.
This text offers an opportunity for students to explore and engage in the issues that connect our worlds. It also provides a rich text that compels struggling readers to persist and succeed, which is the goal of our classroom and our community.
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