"I'm beginning to like reading more!" These are the break-through words spoken by some of my fifth grade students. Although some students come to me with a love of reading, other students struggle with reading or haven't yet found books they enjoy. I need to support both the avid readers and reluctant readers with books that span a wide variety of interests, genres, and reading levels.
Help all my students become motivated readers!
My fifth graders are caring, curious, eager to learn, and excited to share their learning with their classmates and families. They are critical thinkers and problem solvers. To support their academic and personal growth, one of my primary goals is for my students to LOVE to read: to talk about books, think about books, and share their enthusiasm for reading with others.
My Project
To foster a love of reading, my fifth graders agree to take on the 40 Book Challenge, which challenges them to each read forty books in a variety of genres, including poetry. At the beginning of this challenge, many students are insecure and doubt their ability to succeed. As the year continues, however, they discover that the challenge has pushed them to not only read more than they ever have before, but also step outside their comfort zone and read different types of books. They learn to select books that are "just right" for their reading level, and their confidence increases.
My fifth graders need engaging poetry anthologies to help them appreciate poetry and study figurative language.
My students especially enjoy Shel Silverstein's well-known poems, but our selection of poetry anthologies is limited. Increased availability of poetry anthologies would encourage students to read more poetry and would give us the opportunity to analyze the poems for figurative language and poetic devices. In addition, the vocabulary in these books fits this age group well and makes poetry accessible to students who read below grade-level. The humorous, high-interest poetry anthologies in this project would especially encourage lower-level readers and motivate them to read more!
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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 Ms. Slaven and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
