Inspired by the principal from Ocoee Florida who showed that "Gotta Read" video, I started the Got To Read campaign. I couldn't call it "Gotta" as I work too hard with the students to get them to stop writing "gotta, wanna, gonna". Everyone will still call it Gotta Read. I was a little taken back when I realized I'm jumping on a bandwagon that has been on Oprah. Oh well... Anyway this project will help me in a number of ways connecting with local businesses and getting kids to read. We are going to get businesses and community members around our school to support it. We are having the students keep booklogs that include word counts. Prizes will be given at half a million and a million words. We are going to make posters that describe the project and post them in local business naming the business as a supporter. The businesses will make donations, gift certificates for prizes, or items, what ever they can. So we are bringing businesses into our school community.
The Harry Potter books a while ago made every kid want to read books with supernatural elements but now these Eclipse books have all the girls wanting romantic literature. I could only think of the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. I need to do some research on current tween romantic lit.
One of the issues with the students is how little they read, so maybe this will get them to read a little more. Those students who do read will read even more. They started the day we gave them the book logs. I took all the students to the library and bet some will have 500,000 words by the time we get back from vacation. Some teachers had issues with the fact that we aren't requiring proof and there is no book report due. The California Framework states:
…A variety of methods are available to assess reading done outside the classroom, including student-maintained reading logs and book reports in various formats (Snow 2002). According to the standard, the instruction should be focused on the reading itself rather than on the final report on reading.
Independent reading significantly improves a student’s reading comprehension and vocabulary and increases familiarity with models of good writing and conventions of writing and spelling. It also serves an important affective purpose; that is, to develop a lifelong appreciation for reading for pleasure and information. Recent research indicates that the volume of reading also affects general cognitive development.”
I also like the idea of a community forming around one particular book, like what different cities do; Santa Monica Reads, Long Beach Reads, etc. If it is a book that can inspire everyone to join in across all the stratifications a school has like age and positions, if everyone including the custodial to the principal to teachers to parents to students were all sharing around one book... Wow, what a conversation that school community could have..
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