Summer is coming! Will your students be reading? Are you reading yourself? Perhaps most importantly, how are you planning the reading opportunities for all of the students you will meet next year? These are important questions. I believe that we need to think intentionally about our reading and the reading of our students. I read intentional in at least three ways. First, I read a great deal of young adult fiction. It is my profession. As a result, I think about it, I critique it, I write about it, I wonder about the impact it has in the life of adolescents. Given all of that, I still read quite selectively. Primarily, I read older, realistic young adult fiction. To stay current, I rely on the reviews of others so that I don't miss the best of YA sci-fi, fantasy, or middle grades book. Thankfully, every so often these individuals write for this blog.
Second, I read American detective fiction. Now, that summer is here, I will soon make a pilgrimage to the public library to catch up one the most recent books by Robert Crais, Walter Mosely, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Linda Barnes, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Mueller, Janet Evanovich, and yes, even though Sue Grafton has passed on, I still have to read Y is for Yesterday. I will lament with many others that her alphabet will end with Y.
Third, I still read the classics and the books of Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning authors. I don't see an end to my "to be read" list. In fact, as I finish this introduction, I am listening to the PBS show, The Great American Read. I am thrilled with all of the children's and young adult books on the list. I love that I have read so many. Yet, there are some that I need to to my list. The list is exciting, but, in my opinion, it has gaps. It doesn't have a book by William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, or Cormac McCarthy.
Well, enough about my reading habits. Martha Guarisco, a teacher from Baton Rouge, introduces us to a reading activity that might be implemented in your classroom or school.
Second, I read American detective fiction. Now, that summer is here, I will soon make a pilgrimage to the public library to catch up one the most recent books by Robert Crais, Walter Mosely, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Linda Barnes, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Mueller, Janet Evanovich, and yes, even though Sue Grafton has passed on, I still have to read Y is for Yesterday. I will lament with many others that her alphabet will end with Y.
Third, I still read the classics and the books of Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning authors. I don't see an end to my "to be read" list. In fact, as I finish this introduction, I am listening to the PBS show, The Great American Read. I am thrilled with all of the children's and young adult books on the list. I love that I have read so many. Yet, there are some that I need to to my list. The list is exciting, but, in my opinion, it has gaps. It doesn't have a book by William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, or Cormac McCarthy.
Well, enough about my reading habits. Martha Guarisco, a teacher from Baton Rouge, introduces us to a reading activity that might be implemented in your classroom or school.
ProjectLIT: A Book Club That’s FIRE by Martha Guarisco
| It’s still dark outside, 5:15 in the morning on the last Monday of the school year. To-do tasks, loose and prepped by their warm-up laps during my fitful sleep, line up at the day’s starting line, side-eyeing each other, checking out the competition. In the first heat: books to organize, grades to record, essay feedback to share, parents to email, checklists to complete. They’ll have to bounce on their toes a while longer, though, because first, I need to print out a copy of the cover of the latest ProjectLIT book selection for the upcoming school year, Like Vanessa by Tami Charles. I promised Ella, one of my reluctant readers, she could hang it up this time. Besides, the sprinting will come soon enough. |  |
ProjectLIT has, in some ways, been a game changer this year, a reminder that while it’s easy to get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of curricular demands, what matters most is connecting readers to books. Jarad Amato started ProjectLIT in his Nashville school two years ago, focusing his work on establishing a book club to address book deserts. Since encouraging other teachers to join in, there are now 230 chapters across the country. 230 groups of students reading and discussing diverse, contemporary young adult literature. 230 enthusiastic chapter leaders eager to share their experiences with like-minded professionals.
Each of my ProjectLIT book club meetings has looked a little different. Kwame Alexander’s Booked and Alan Gratz’s Refugee were whole-class novels, so discussion took place throughout our reading.. Students who’d somehow missed out on R.J. Palacio’s Wonder before coming to middle school were encouraged to read it independently before seeing the movie and competing in a BreakoutEDU game. Students waited, impatiently, to get their hands on one of the 10 copies I ordered of Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes, which we celebrated by creating a poster for first responders in our area. Many students realized they enjoy graphic novels (and history!) through reading John Lewis’ March, for which we created a trivia game. In one of our Twitter chats, another chapter leader encouraged me to try Jason Reynold’s Ghost as a read-aloud, and students unanimously picked Patina as a followup. Last week, part of our book challenge included a sunflower seed spitting contest.
My involvement in ProjectLIT has served as powerful reminder not to forget the fun while I plan for students’ literary experiences. It’s also given students ways to show leadership: planning for snacks, decorating our meeting space, designing flyers, creating trivia questions, announcing our meetings, scoring trivia contest entries. 60 of my 90 6th graders participated in leading a book club meeting at some point this year.
And we’re hoping to grow next year. We’ve ordered book trucks so we can share books with other grade levels. Students are eager to read the 2018-19 book selections over the summer so we can make good choices about which ones to tackle in our book club. We’d like to invite other community members to participate, too.
And we’re hoping to grow next year. We’ve ordered book trucks so we can share books with other grade levels. Students are eager to read the 2018-19 book selections over the summer so we can make good choices about which ones to tackle in our book club. We’d like to invite other community members to participate, too.
Interested in learning more about ProjectLIT? Or curious about the last selections to be announced? Check us out on Twitter: @ProjectLITBR @ProjectLITComm @marthastickle
Don't forget. There is still time to come to the 2018 Summit on the research and teaching of young adult literature. I am sure we will be discussing great project like this one. Don't forget to come be #VegasStrong and #YACritical
Until next week!
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