How would you feel if you couldn't understand most of what you read? If your reading level is four grade levels behind where it should be? Sadly, this is the case for many of the students I teach. In the urban school district in which I work, the importance of teaching reading has been overlooked for students in the middle grades. Students are taught how to read in early elementary but do not get to practice the skill often as they get older when content information takes precedence. This creates a reading and reading comprehension barrier that becomes more difficult to cross as students get older. All kids deserve to know what they are reading about. In all things, they deserve the opportunity to gain understanding.
Oh, to be in love with reading!
I vividly remember falling in love with reading in middle school. Just one book changed my attitude toward reading and allowed me to travel to places I thought I would never be able to go. Many of the students in my classroom haven't fallen in love with reading yet, but it is my goal to create that relationship.
My Project
For the first time last semester, many of my students finally read their first book from cover to cover. They thoroughly enjoyed reading The Outsiders. Now, they are looking forward to reading more books from cover to cover. I'm hoping to start a book club with each of my class periods with everyone in the class reading the same book so that we can discuss it at school and online. I'm really excited that they are beginning to take a liking to reading, something that seemed tedious in the beginning.
With these books, we will conduct book clubs and novel studies.
Too often, my students are not able to take the books home because only a class set is available, and that set must be used for all class periods. Because I am requesting separate titles, each student in each class period will be able to receive a copy of a book to take home for extended learning. When each class finishes their book study, we'll rotate the books among classes.
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