Percy Saves the 5th Grade!

Funded Dec 4, 2013

First, let me say thank you once again. My students were so excited to read this book. Everyday after we received the package of the books, they would ask if we were going to start the book today. The day we began reading, you could hear a pin drop because they were so interested in what they were reading. Every time we finished a chapter they couldn't wait to begin the next chapter. Now all of my students are reading the rest of the series because they enjoyed reading "The Lightning Thief" so much.

My students and I would read a chapter, they would then make a flow map summarizing the chapter at home, and the following day we would go over the flow maps as a whole class. Students would make corrections and additions to their flow maps as we reviewed the chapter and discussed questions that may have come up or were simply confused about. My students would dialogue about character motivation and the significance of different characters and events. We would follow this up with reading comprehension questions and various thinking maps addressing characters and subtopics within chapters.

This project has really enhanced student learning because my students are more interested in trying new literature when we go to the library. To varying degrees they have been working on projects and researching topics individually to enhance their personal learning; these are not projects for class, but simply to expand their own curiosity and knowledge. We are working on a new project in another subject and they are applying research strategies they learned from a Greek god/goddess project we did. They are asking deeper, more thoughtful questions about documents we are using for our current project.

Most importantly, they all enjoyed reading and they couldn't wait to read more. Thank you!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Sorge