Books

Funded Nov 25, 2016

Having such a variety of texts available in the classroom has allowed students to use free time to explore new books and challenge themselves to read from a multitude of lexile levels and genres. Some lower-level reading students checked out books beyond their lexile level because of interest in the content, and accepted the challenge of reading beyond what they were accustomed to.

In my classroom, I have students that range from below basic reading levels to gifted. This makes reading texts together particularly challenging. Reading at their own pace while highlighting and annotating allows students to interact with texts on a more active level, which helps them understand and process what they are reading. When reading something of interest, students across all levels perform better and retain more.

It was interesting to me to see who were among the first students to pick out books to take home and read. Some of these students expressed before that they hated reading and had never read an entire book. I think part of the reason for this, from what they expressed to me, is because they only books they had direct access to were the ones being assigned in the curriculum. Having books, at reach, from all levels and genres grabbed their attention and appealed to their interests.

I very much appreciate all of the donations. Seeing any student read beyond what is required makes me happy, but seeing struggling readers excited to take books home really warms me. I hope you know how much your donations means to these students.”

With gratitude,

Teacher Miller