Dear Families,
One of the greatest parts of teaching for me is engaging in literature with my class; analyzing the plot and author choices, picking our favorite character, and debating what makes the best genre for reading; as you can imagine, for some students, this is the most challenging parts of teaching for me. As a teacher for 20 years I have researched numerous programs, literature series, and formal studies to discover what I always knew, one size does not fit all and neither does one book. Reading is a deeply personal activity, it is typically done alone firstly and secondly, our favorite stories are those that mean something to us, that teach us something we want to learn, that we have selected for our own reasons. I truly believe (and the research backs me up) that “good” readers are those who have developed reading habits from reading consistently because they enjoy it...just like that neighborhood kid who spends hours practicing his 3-point shot in the driveway. With my research and own love of reading guiding me, I have re-installed independent reading time into my classroom as a regular part of the curriculum, encouraging students to fall in love (or at least like) with reading, identifying their own reading preferences, and learning not only about new worlds, but also themselves.
My curriculum integrates the skills and strategies, literary elements, and common core standards taught during structured reading instruction and provides authentic opportunities to practice these with novels and books that students choose to read. I have spent years, expanding my classroom to include a diverse selection of books from children’s literature, to Young Adult literature, from non-fiction war stories to graphic novels-I challenge any student to say honestly that “nothing in my library appeals to them”.
One the first couple of days, I will work with all students in my classes to develop an independent reading goal for themselves that is challenging, yet attainable. This may be to read a particular book series, a whole run of an author’s work, maybe read an unfamiliar genre, or set a goal that measure the amount of books they can read over the course of a term or year. I want to see students to challenge themselves to become better, stronger, and more knowledgeable readers. Students will decide what their goal is and then track their goal in the way that makes most sense to them and that can be shared and celebrated with me.
To help with their goals, I have reduced traditional homework expectations to allow for more independent reading opportunities. Also, Every Friday in class is FREE READ FRIDAY, where all of us spend the entire block in class reading what we want to read (this has become a fast favorite over the years :) ). I will also provide opportunities throughout other class meeting times to read as well. Students will engage in literary discussions, Book Talks, create book trailers, critique author styles and choices about books they are excited to READ!
Please support this endeavor by encouraging your child to read, talk about their progress towards goals, and share some of your favorite books too! All students are welcome to check-out books from my class library, the Nipmuc Media Center or if they want to own the book, I highly recommend Amazon or Thrift books.com as the best value on books. If they are looking for titles outside of my class library, they can search “Mrs. Beaudoin’s Wish List” on Amazon which includes books that have been reviewed, read, and/or have won awards that I just haven’t purchased yet.
I will also continue to review books that I read on my blog, Mrs. Beaudoin’s Book Talk @ (http://beaudoinsbooktalk.weebly.com).
If you have any questions or concerns, please never hesitate to contact me directly. I hope to see you all at Open Night on September 19th...I’ll be the one surrounded by books.
Warmly,
Lori Beaudoin
Photo used under Creative Commons from wuestenigel