As a language arts and reading support teacher, I know the number one way to get kids to read is to put books in their hands. Of my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students, many come in as avid readers; however, a significant chunk do not. For some students, it has been years since they experienced a good page-turner, that they were excited to take home, explore, read, and share. Many of these kids come from low-income backgrounds or are special-education students. Either way, they need good books at a level they can understand to help build that reading life-style again.
My Project
My students need multiple books at their reading levels to help them build skills. The students in my reading support class read anywhere from a kindergarten through fourth grade reading level while in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. We want to be closing the gap between them and their peers, but to do it, they need to have texts they can engage in.
The first step is finding books that are fast, easy, and fun that they can start using to build a reading lifestyle.
We want books that have just one or two challenge words per page, so they can use the text surrounding them to figure it out. Students need to be reading 30 minutes a day to help them learn and grow, but we need a larger variety of materials to keep them interested.
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