ELA 9A
Today the students read for ten minutes and recorded their progress towards their reading goal. The goal was determined by how many pages could be read in 10 minutes and multiplying that number by 14 for a weekly total of pages. This makes the assumption that students will read for at least 20 minutes per day. We also discussed the topic of identity and how our identities are composed of many parts, only some of which will be shown when we are part of a community. Students also began to write a bio poem based on their personal identity.Identity paragraphs from earlier this week are due on Friday.
ELA 9B
Today students set a weekly page goal for reading. This was accomplished by reading for ten minutes and then multiplying the number of pages read, in that time frame, by 14. This makes the assumption that students will read for at least 20 minutes per day. The students also all logged onto the school computers and Google Classroom for ELA. They had time to write a paragraph on an aspect of their identity, which is due Friday.I also sent home a note for parents about our reading program, please ask your child for your letter or read below.
Hello parents of ELA 9 students,
A central goal of reading in ELA 9 is to establish a reading habit in the busy lives of
our students. I am hoping we can work together to recapture the pleasure and passion
of readers. This letter is long, but the assumptions it rests upon are too important to be
treated in a superficial manner. Please take the time to read this and know what you’re
signing before you do.
The best books challenge our beliefs by helping us see through different eyes —to live
a different life. For example, Ninetee n Minutes by Jodi Picoult was wildly popular last
year, but it is about a school shooting and I think we’d all rather believe that couldn’t
happen here and don’t want to live the details. Yet reading allows us to confront our
worst fears and live through them. Students love this book and I recommend it to them.
I won’t know the details of every book students read and refer to this semester, and I
won’t remember the details of all the books I recommend to students. What I seek for all
of my students is a compulsion to read—for pleasure— for knowledge—for a passion
for story or information that will keep them into the pages of a book past our assigned
time for reading. This has tremendous benefits. Here are a few:
Reading relieves stress . School is stressful. Reading takes you out of the present and
into another place and time; it is a perfect escape.
Reading builds stamina to prepare students for future pursuits. Reading for an hour or
two in one sitting is a basic expectation in most postsecondary.
In this class we will
exercise muscles soon to be strained in the coming years. Reading for fluency and
stamina has been proven to improve the reading rate for students. Fast reading
develops confidence and an appetite for books as well as teaching vocabulary in
context, which improves writing, but it only happens when students find books they want
to read. But the truth is some of those books might make you uncomfortable.
There is a lot of talk in the media that ‘students today won’t read,’ but I believe students
substitute all of those other distractions (the internet, TV, etc.) if they feel no passion for
the book assigned to them. In my experience, students who haven’t been readers since
elementary school will suddenly become quite passionate about reading with the right
book in their hands. But those books might challenge your values. Is that okay with
you? Can your c hild choose to rea d Crank by Ellen Hopkins , which delves into a
teenager’s drug addiction? I believe we have to trust these young adults more. We have
to trust that books won’t corrupt them anymore than the movies The Dark Knight or Mad
Max: Fury Road might. It is more important that they’re reading! So you may pick up a
book left behind on a nightstand and open to a passage with the details of a group of
child soldiers in Sudan mercilessly slaughtering an entire village ( A Long Way Gone:
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah) and wonder why reading it is a homework
assignment, and I will answer, “Your son or daughter chose it.” I might have
recommended it because I read it and loved it, or the book may be unfamiliar to me
because your child borrowed it from another student. The bottom line: I will not place a
tight filter on what is read in this class and I’m asking for your support in this. I hope you
will talk to your child about what he/she is reading this semester. I suggest you get a
copy of a book and read it if you’re concerned about the content. If you want to know
more about a book your children is reading, call or email me—I’ll tell you what I know.
Because I respect your role as parents and the traditions you hold sacred, if you want
me to more closely monitor your child’s choices this semester, by all means, contact me
and we’ll work out a plan that we can both contribute to.
If I don’t hear from you, it means you understand books won’t be banned in
my classroom and your child will be allowed to choose what he/she reads.
Thanks for your support,
Miss Riddell
P.S. Our classroom benefits every year from cast offs. Please send books you no
longer need to our library, especially ones you’ve loved, if you can bear to part with
them. Better yet… come to class and share a book with us. Share your passion for
reading; get to know these amazing students at UCHS. I would love to have you join us
some class.
Thank you.
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