High-Low Books for High School

My Students

For the struggling readers in my Reading Enrichment classes, success in reading has not come easy, if at all. My goal is for these students to be matched with a just right book that matches their current reading level, but also captures their interest and motivates them to read and comprehend more!

The students in my Reading Enrichment classes are high schoolers in a suburban setting who are struggling readers.

The typical lexile for 9th graders is 1050+, and a majority of these students are reading between a 300-700 lexile level. Many of these students have been performing below grade level for so long, that they have become conditioned to the idea that they cannot read or that they do not like reading. Morale and motivation are certainly low amongst these teens as they try to navigate their way through rigorous high school curriculum standards. Their failure to progress in reading has led them to struggle certainly in their English classes, but in other content areas as well.

My Project

The students in my classroom are expected to complete a lot of independent reading practice in order to curate a genuine interest/enjoyment, as well as improve comprehension and lexile scores. In order to do this, we need plenty of access to books that are low enough in level and high enough in interest. Many of these students claim to "hate reading," but I truly feel that it is because they have not been paired with the right book yet. The high/low books I am requesting provide an opportunity for these students to read a book that is mature in appearance and topic, instead typical low level texts which are less mature and perceived to be "kiddish." These texts will also serve as scaffolding and building blocks as these students complete books, gain pages and build confidence.

The book donations from this project will help us build a classroom library that these struggling readers can access in the classroom.

Having a classroom library that is tailored to the needs of these students will create and environment of success and students will begin to think of themselves as readers. It is my hope that these classes will also use these texts as a way to build a community where students interact and engage with each other while becoming life-long readers themselves.