My students need Moo: A Novel, to engage with books every day this summer so they can maintain, and ideally strengthen, the skills they learned during the school year.
My students represent my city. They are diverse in race, economic status, family makeup, and learning style. This diversity makes my classroom a rich environment for learning--not just for math, geometry, and language but also for empathy, compassion, cooperation, and tolerance.
I teach at a public Montessori program in an urban setting with a free-and-reduced-lunch population of 41%; we are a Title 1 school.
We are an alternative program in our city's public school district, and students are enrolled through a lottery program.
My Project
Research shows that summer is a time when students who don’t read lose 2-3 months of reading proficiency, which accumulates over the years every summer a child goes without reading. “By the time children reach middle school, those who haven’t read during the summers may have lost as much as two years’ worth of achievement” (Julie M. Wood, Ed.D., PBSKids.org). Our students reflect these statistics. As a whole, our school's reading scores are below to severely below national and state averages on standardized tests.
A majority of our students don't have easy access to public libraries nor have even the minimal of home libraries.
My goal is to give my students quality books to read and discuss over the summer months. I need my students to continue reading in the summer.
I propose a Summer Reading Club where teachers volunteer to read and discuss books with our student body over the summer months. Along with several of my peers, I will advertise the books selections in our building and invite students entering 4-7th grades to sign up for the book or books they would like to read. The books are chosen from several grade-appropriate reading programs, such as the 2019 Rebecca Caudill, Bluestem, and Jane Addams selection lists. Each participant will receive the chosen book and the discussion date before summer break. Students will provide contact information, so that I can keep in contact and encourage them up until the discussion date, which will be in June, July, or August. Students will meet with the me to share their ideas, questions, and understandings. There will be no assignments--just an opportunity to enjoy a good read!
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