At the start of every school year, I feel like Wonder Woman. Okay, maybe not the official Wonder Woman in tights, but a woman who nonetheless is expected to do wonderful and spectacular things for her students.
One of these things is to transform dozens of unsuspecting high school students into the best readers and writers they can possibly be.
Oh, and did I mention I only have 180 days to do it? Lucky for my students (or not so lucky, depending on who is judging) I am a teacher who actually believes she can do it.
I am a firm believer that reading is the key to everything in English land. Not only does reading improve one’s vocabulary, but it also improves one’s reading abilities and writing. The problem? Most students do not like to read. Ouch.
My Project
I try to work around this teeny, tiny, insignificant problem by tricking my students into thinking that yes, they actually like to read. How do I do this? Well, first, I carefully select mentor texts that prove to be interesting to my students. When I teach grammar, the writing process, and the 6+1 Traits of Writing, I pull paragraphs from texts that will appeal to my students. I teach the difference between main and subordinate clauses by using a paragraph from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and, oops, I have them hooked (and yes, even some of the boys read Twilight).
In addition to choosing mentor texts and making them a part of my instruction, I also try to have the biggest classroom library possible available for my students. Now that the Twilight obsession is fading, I am struggling to come up with new and exciting books for them to read.
So, I asked my students what THEY wanted.
Likewise, I scoured the web and searched for lists of current books that would interest my students, and these, my friends, are the books that I would love to add to my classroom library. With your help, my students will no longer be restless from boredom (at least not in English class). Please help inspire my students to become the best readers they can be!
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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. Blythe and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.