With outside distractions today, there are many things my students would rather be doing than reading. Students today often lack a desire for pleasure reading. Most of the daily reading in school for students, is the academic reading of nonfiction texts to gain information on a topic, complete a task, or analyze the text. Academic reading is hard “work” for the students. This has caused many students to think of reading in general, as “work”.
It’s important that they know the difference between academic reading and reading for pleasure.
Pleasure reading is connecting with a text, connecting with characters, it can take you to new places, make you feel sadness, compassion, empathy, joy, fear, anger, and everything in between.
My Project
My school uses the Florida Sunshine State Books to encourage and foster their love of reading, while tapping into the student’s competitive nature. We have an after-school celebration themed around the books as an incentive for third-fifth grade students who read 8-15 of the titles. The more books they read, the longer they get to stay at the celebration! In addition, there is a special field trip for students who finish all 15 by January! The few copies we have available for checkout in the school media center just aren’t enough. A class set would ensure that my students have daily access readily available to these titles.
My classes for the past 2 years have blown me away, with EVERY single student reading ALL 15 of the SSYRA Books for 2016-2017 and 2017-2018!
This would not have been possible without these funded projects.
My hope is that these high interest books and their sequels help promote all my students, but especially any reluctant readers, to actively engage themselves into a text that will foster and promote a lifelong love of reading.
If it makes a difference to even one child in my class, then it was more than worth it!
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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 Mrs. Thompson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
