How does a 7th grader overcome the feeling of being "left out" and grow to love Shakespeare both at the same time????? I teach 7th grade Language Arts, and my school is a low income, high poverty school. We exceeded our goals last year, and we are thrilled about what can happen this year.
Lots of talent, but low on funds. My students face challenges of low income, family stress, and negative influences. They have tremendous reading potential, but appear to be chasing that book that they can wrap their arms around and become really excited about. My classroom library is limited, and many of the books are out of date. Shiny new books can catch a child's eye!
An outstanding book has hit the market, called Wednesday Wars! Having a classroom set of 30 will enable each of my students to have a copy of his/her own when they are in my class. This book addresses many of the emotional issues my students face, and offers hope of overcoming obstacles. It even demonstrates how one young person came to fall in love with Shakespeare while dealing with his own feelings of low self worth and that dreaded and horrible state of feeling "left out"; different and not belonging. We can use this book as a novel to read as a class and even create a book club where students can come and discuss their feelings freely through the characters in this book. This is a much needed service for our students. It not only relieves stress, but provides excitement about reading and increases the desire to know about more new books out there!!
Your help will ensure that my students have the latest books at their fingertips as all other schools have. It will encourage pride in themselves and our school. These books can open dialogue within families about reading, and we all know that excitement is contagious! Research proves that reading scores explode when students have high interest materials available. Middle School is the time to rescue that child who thinks he/she cannot read and even hates reading. It only takes one shiny new good book sometimes to make the difference needed in a child's life. We all know that great feeling of not being able to put a book down, and my students deserve to have that experience also. Please help make that happen for them.
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