Remember being told in school what books you had to read? I do and I did not like it at all! I like to allow my students choices (prechosen by me of course) so that they are reading a book they enjoy and feel ownership towards their learning.
My third grade students will be attending a brand new empowerment school this fall.
They are very bright and intelligent students who LOVE reading! My classes always participate in literature circles. That is, I offer 5 or 6 book choices and students choose the book they would like to read. They then meet with their book groups to decide how many chapters to read a night and discuss the previous night's reading, ask each other questions, and make predictions together. My students are excited to read for literature circles and look forward to their discussion time each day. They thrive in taking this ownership in their own learning and I feel they learn so much more during these peer discussion groups. However, my student's only complaint is that they would like more books to choose from.
My Project
I am asking for a variety of chapter books (6copies of each) for my students to read during literature circles. My students learn about character traits, cause and effect relationships, problems and solutions, and basic story elements while reading and I need more options for them to choose from (the library rarely has enough of the same book for a groups of students to read). They also use these books to help develop their writing skills. My students are taught to look at published work that they enjoy and to use the style that those authors employ.
Reading helps students in all subjects and in life.
They learn how to deal, and not deal, with problems through the stories told in books. Most importantly, having fun, interesting books in the classroom help students learn to LOVE reading, which is extremely valuable!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Nicoson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
