Books, books, books!

One of my favorite new things that I've implemented this year is my classroom library. I always had a small one before, mostly old library discards and miscellaneous books from home, yard sales, etc., but this year I invested some money at the end of year Scholastic Book Sale and have been hitting up Goodwill on the 50% off weekends to find newer, popular books that kids actually want to read. 

 (Please excuse the embarrassing, cluttered mess that is my classroom...)

It hasn't been cheap, but I've seen it pay off in students who willingly, excitedly, and regularly READ. We take 10-15 minutes at the beginning of class two days a week (on a block schedule, we meet 3 days a week) just for reading, any book they want. One of the things I love about this school is that there seems to be a reading culture. Aside from some minor (and very rare) grumbling, all the students seem to take SSR as a matter of fact. It's just something we do. They even ask for it on the rare occasion that I have to push it from the schedule for a special event.

Now that we've established SSR time as a regular routine, my goal is to push students to read books that are a little more challenging, books that will stretch their minds a little, whether classic literary fiction or modern popular nonfiction and memoir. I'm calling this the College Bound Reading Project. Students have to self-select a book that will in some way "prepare them for college and college-level reading," complete three easy tasks related to the book, and finish by December. No time for too many details now, but if it goes well, I might post about it here.