Do you teach middle school? If so, do you still read books to your students? Or, do you think it takes away valuable time, or that the students won't like it? I still read to my kids, they LOVE it, and we all learn so much together. Every day I take at least 10 minutes to read from a chapter book to my students. They absolutely LOVE it. They are all engaged, I ask questions as we go. Not comprehension questions, but discussion questions.
We are currently reading the book, Wonder. Oh my goodness! It is such a great book, I encourage you all to read it. My students are so into it. They always ask me to read more. We have had some great, thought-provoking conversations while reading this book. The boy in the book has facial abnormalities and goes to school for the first time, in 5th grade. My students gasp and the meanness of the other kids in the book, awww at the kindness, and they are honest about what they think they would do if they were the other students in the book. They don't all say, "oh I would go sit with him like Summer did." They are honest, and it makes them question their character.
If you aren't reading to your middle schoolers, I HIGHLY recommend you start. Wonder would be a great book. It also offers more than one point of view as you read. Our next book will be a Long Walk to Water. Another inspirational, thought provoking book.
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I do read-alouds with my middle schoolers, although I will be the first to admit that this is the first item on my agenda that I will drop in a time-crunch. My current school does One Book, One School and every teacher takes turns reading aloud a chapter every day. Even PE teachers do this on their assigned days. It's pretty awesome because the whole school starts buzzing about the events in the story and it gives EVERYONE a common text to discuss in the classroom (which is super awesome for 7th & 8th grade teachers).
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an awesome idea!
DeleteIF I taught middle school, I would ABSOLUTELY still read to my students. I am reading Wonder in my 5th grade class. My kids are LOVING it too! I read some of The Wild Rumpus' blog posts about Wonder and decided to incorporate some of the videos that she shared. They were a hit. I waited for the Nat Geo video until I got to Via's part where she described August. You might want to check out these posts: http://www.wildrumpusblog.com/2013/09/choose-kind.html#more
ReplyDeleteAlison
Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'
Thank you so much for that!
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