My students are in 7th grade Language Arts at a K-8 language immersion magnet school. It's a school with a kind of real-world diversity that really reflects the community we live in. One of the challenges of teaching reading in the Internet age is finding ways to foster a love of books in a generation that has an ever-shrinking attention span and relies more and more on electronic media for entertainment. I believe high-interest novels are the way to do that!
We do have quite a few students who enter my class seeing reading as a chore and only wanting to do it when forced to.
I always tell them that just means they haven't found the right books yet. I make it my mission to expose them to reading materials that they will connect with on a personal level or books that will activate their imagination so that they come to class wanting to read.
My Project
As an English teacher, it's a constant struggle to find compelling novels that my students haven't already read. My 'go to' had been the fantastic novel 'Wonder.' Since the film version of that book came out last fall I am finding that more and more students come to my class having already read that book. That has led me to start looking for a new book to read with my students which can have a similarly positive impact on their perspective.
'Piecing Me Together' tells the story of a child from a disadvantaged background and another from a more privileged background finding common ground in their shared struggles and learning to support each other despite their differences.
Published last year, this novel won the Coretta Scott King award and was a Newbery Honor recipient.
Reading this novel in my English classes, my students will be able to gain support mastering literary elements that are part of our curriculum while at the same time engaging in vital discussions about our complex and diverse culture in the United States--which is closely mirrored in the culture of our school.
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