Twice a week I make independent reading an assignment in my English classes to increase a love for reading. On a practical level reading is a muscle the more you use it the better you become at it. If I am being honest my students have hated. Having a love of reading has decreased tremendously with social media and so many “distractions”, and honestly do have test scores (see where I am going with this)
In typical “Tracey” form I went to the library at grad school, and told the librarian my struggle. She said let’s go upstairs and see what kind of books I can send with you to “trap” the students into loving to read. (She was amazing)
We are required to read the classics like the books on the left...and they are awesome! However, independent reading should be fun and strictly based on personal interest.
I pulled out the books on the right and before I could sit them down on the table...my students particularly my young men of color were literally almost fighting over them! These are same students that have shown little to no interest in our reading time in the past. I loaded the timer with 15 minutes, and they read to the last second! #missionaccomplished drop the name of some other non required good reads for High School Seniors!