I have an awesome group of twenty 3rd graders coming to me this year that are excited about learning! My students come from a variety of backgrounds and span varied skill levels. Some of my students don't sleep well because they don't have a bed. Some have difficulty concentrating and learning because they didn't get enough to eat the night before. Some come from homes where education is not valued. Some come from homes where books are not readily available. Some lack personal interaction and instead interact only with a computer or video game screen. I can't control how much food they eat, how much sleep they get, how much their parents value education, or how much personal interaction they receive. However, I CAN control their access to books while they are in my care here at school. I can help foster a love of reading. I need a wide variety of books at varying reading levels to help do that and give them the access to the wonder of books and joy of reading!
My Project
I want to expose my third graders to books of varying reading levels, interests, and genres. They can get this exposure in our school library and our town's public library, but they also need access to that variety where they spend the most time during their school day...their classroom. I have accumulated a great number of books through the years teaching, but many of those years were spent in lower elementary grades. When I switched to third grade five years ago, my classroom library was picture book heavy. This is fine for some of my students, but most third graders are transitioning to chapter books...the very books I am lacking in. That's where you come in...
I need help building a classroom library fit for third graders.
I want to give them access to engaging, high interest chapter books. I also want to offer books from a variety of genres. Every year I conduct a "25 Book Challenge" where students choose books from specific genres to reach the goal of reading 25 books by the end of the school year. Even though they read and are exposed to much more than 25 books in a year, this program gets them to explore books of differing genres that they may not normally have considered reading in the past. One genre I am lacking in is mystery books. I have found that a lot of third graders really enjoy the A to Z Mystery series. I believe if I can give my students immediate access to books of varying genres and that are high interest, participation will increase and thus an excitement about reading will follow.
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