[CALIBK12] title suggestions

Mon Jun 23 08:56:34 PDT 2008

For the past several years I have worked closely with the 7th grade Mastery Class.  These are the students who fall in the below or far below basic catagory.  The books that these students have enjoyed, and had the most success with, are found in several series published by Pearson, written by the author Tana Reiff.  They are short, feature adult storylines, and immigrant characters.  It does take some work to get sensitive 7th graders to begin reading them, because they do not look like a "real" book.  Once they begin they can't put them down, and quickly go through every title I own.   Although we do not use them, teacher guides are available.

The Series: 
Hopes and Dreams
Work Tales
Lifetimes
Lifeline

Student's favorite titles are:
"The Magic Paper" about illegal immigrants trying to get legal status in the US.
"Juan and Lucy" a young couple meet, fall in love, and get married.
"So Long Snowman" a young musician gets involved with drugs.
"Play Money" a young woman gets in trouble with credit cards.

I understand these are also very popular for adult literacy programs.  

Megan Fuller Aptos Junior High http://www.aptosjr.pvusd.net/library/ Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. -- Wernher von Braun 

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:25:01 -0700From: pamanddoug at cox.netTo: MFischer at buckeyeusd.org; calibk12 at lists.sjsu.eduSubject: Re: [CALIBK12] title suggestions
Mary Helen,I would affirm the previous recommendation for the “Cirque du Freak” series by Darren Shan. The books have a vampire theme.  A very intelligent, high achieving 5th grader (sweet little girl) told me that Book 1, Cirque du Freak,  was the best book that she has ever read.  I read it during last summer, and it had me hanging on the edge of my seat.I think that kids at my school also enjoy Anthony Horowitz titles.  The main series is Alex Rider.  I believe that the theme is espionage:   Book 1 is Stormbreaker:  “After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6”.A very easy, but fun read could be Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Roderick Rules (Book 2) by Jeff Kinney.  High, middle, and low readers at my school give the books rave reviews.  I think that they are funny, and they are filled with graphics of small cartoon characters.  If you don’t want to overwhelm your 7th graders, Diary of a Wimpy Kid might be a good choice.  Kinney is coming out with a 3rd title in the series in January 2009.I read one particular book that I thought was very engaging:  Firegirl by Tony Abbott.  It is a small book, about 100 pages as I recall.  Firegirl is about how a class relates to a brand new student who has been badly burned in a car fire.  One boy student has the courage to befriend the girl in a quiet way when no one else would hold her hand during morning “opening” as she is so disfigured.  He brings “Firegirl” her homework when she is out sick, and they two become friends.  He realizes how shallow some of his guy friends really are.   The story would be good for a group read.  We use Reading Counts as our reading incentive program at Chapman Hills Elementary, K-6.  We have a lot of $$ invested in it.  We have purchased all quizzes that Scholastic offers.  I do think that it motivates students to finish their books because they are asked to take a 10 question quiz (with varying points) on each book.  We have a minimum expectation by quarter, which affects their Language Arts grade.  If kids kids reach a higher goal each quarter, they are on the “Principal’s Wall of Fame.”   For grades 4, 5, and 6, the minimum expectation is 20 points per quarter.  For the Wall of Fame, it is 40 for 4th, 50 for 5th, and 60 for 6th.Reading Counts seems to work for us.  One little 3rd grader who is a favorite of mine just could not find a series that she enjoyed.  She was my challenge for the year.  I introduced her to the series Pixie Tricks by Tracey West.  She read every book and passed every quiz.  It seemed to have given her confidence.  Sienna is moving on to more difficult books.  She achieved 60 points last quarter.  That was a huge leap for her.  Now she loves reading.I do have to admit that the point system is a bigger incentive for grades 1, 2, and 3.  It is all so new in the primary grades, and the kids are eager to achieve.  It is kind of “been there, done that, “ for the upper grades.  A few kids are high achievers and want to go for it.  Most do achieve their minimum expectations each quarter.  One boy in 5th grade achieved 1,198 points for the year...that is a LOT of reading.I hope that this helps you.Pam CarrieChapman Hills ElementaryOrange U.S.D.On 6/20/08 2:20 PM, "MFischer" <MFischer at buckeyeusd.org> wrote:
Hi to those of you still out there JI’m looking for suggestions for titles for a new class we have next year in our middle schools. These are being called Intervention classes, and will include kids in the bottom 30% of the grade. The group I am working with are 7th graders and the teachers and I are going to do book projects with them. These are kids who probably seldom if ever read for fun, are reading 1 or more levels below grade level, and our objective is to “catch” them with some surefire titles that they will enjoy reading, talking about with a small group, and doing some sort of a culminating project on (we’re thinking about doing wikis but have MANY details to work out there!!) We need 5-7 titles that kids will choose from and form small groups reading the same title. Each student will read 3 during the school year. I have the beginnings of a list that we are considering but know there are lots of things I’m not thinking of right now. I’d love to know what you would choose for a project like this—it’s always exciting to see what our collective brain comes up with! Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have! And happy summer!!! Mary Helen Mary Helen FischerDistrict LibrarianBuckeye Union School DistrictShingle Springs CA 95682

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