My students need engaging novels--in verse form or graphic novel form--to undertake the important interpretive work of reading realistic fiction and historical fiction.
My students have a variety of backgrounds and stories. I teach multiple sections of Language Arts, so the students who come through my door for reading and writing instruction need different ways of approaching literacy.
My goal is always to pack my room to be ready for the activities that will guide all my students through rigorous growth every day, all year.
Many students have been using Reader's and Writer's Workshop for years and come to middle school ready to heighten their skills in order to learn about and tackle real-world problems and understand how to critique multiple perspectives.
Some of my students are in a gifted and talented program and crave project-based learning to reach their personal potential.
Some of my students are even new to the country and the English language and benefit from exposure to language in many forms--spoken language, media, and vocabulary--to help find confidence and soar.
My Project
With the diverse group of readers in my classroom each year, I aim to tailor my teaching and materials to reach everyone. In particular, this year I am looking to differentiate my classroom library to help my English Language Learners and struggling readers. Our class uses powerful units around independent reading based on genre reading; for example, we have units around reading historical fiction and realistic fiction.
Research shows that English Language Learners and struggling readers benefit from high level content presented in different formats, like books in verse or graphic novels.
That's why the books I have chosen to accompany these units of study take important themes or historical lessons and portray them in poems or graphic novels.
Books in verse provide much needed white space, which readers use to slow down their pace and consider word choice more deeply. Poetry also provides a wonderful mentor for English Language Learners and struggling readers alike to mimic in their own writing! Additionally, graphic novels use picture cues to teach more with fewer words on the page. That is not to say that either form is simple--far from it! I look forward to working with student independently, in small groups, and in whole class conversations about the complex choices authors use in these high-quality books.
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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 Ms. Cuiffo and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
