As an intervention/reading specialist, I work with the lowest performing students in grades 3-5 in math and reading/writing. My students are very diverse, with many coming from Yemen or Bangladesh now living in Hamtramck. My students benefit greatly from the small group attention or even one on one attention they receive with me throughout the day. Many of my students have IEPs, are on track to receive an IEP or cannot qualify, unfortunately, because they are deemed "undereducated." Not only do I work to catch my students up to grade level, working on phonics skills with 3-5th graders, but I also talk to them and get to know them on a deeper, more personal level so that they feel comfortable sharing stories with me about their home lives, their friendships, their fears and anxieties and hopes and dreams.
My Project
At my school it is hard to get kids to open a book. Is it because of social media or not enough access to interesting reading materials, I'll never know... One thing I know is that some books are better understood by more students and actually engage students, especially those that rarely pick up a book.
When I asked students why they liked to read, many of them said because sometimes what they read is funny.
I think that this goes for lots of kids....why read something if it isn't fun or enjoyable? Or even scary! Now a lot of my kids are asking for scary books, which are hard to find in this school. Graphic novels have always been popular and those are hard to find in my school as well.
Recently I wasn't able to let kids go to the library to pick out reading materials anymore, so I decided to start my own library of reading materials I thought were better than the average book. After a child reads a book and returns its I have them tell me a summary and tell me if they liked it. This allows me to know if they are comprehending what they read and if the books I have are good. One problem with books is there are so many but sometimes not enough! Kids go through so many short books in a year so I always need more!
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