Helping students choose books for reading pleasure | Services to Schools. Reflect on your reading practices The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. — Neil Gaiman, Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming When we reflect on how we choose what to read, we can identify our reading strategies: skills we use to browse and select books, and the wider contexts that support making reading choices. This also involves knowing our own reading preferences and the purposes for our fiction reading — delight, discovery, interest, pleasure. Sharing our reading strategies with students helps them discover and articulate what they like to read and why. It develops their sense of self as a reader, strengthens their browsing and selecting skills, and leads to a lifetime of reading for pleasure.
Questions to reflect on include: Books for Strong Girls in Middle School. I could have called this list “Books to Help Strong Girls Stay Strong.” In their book Meeting at the Crossroads, Lyn Mikel Brown and Carol Gilligan identify this age — the years between childhood and adolescence — as a sort of critical fork in the road of a girl's passage into womanhood. Throughout their observations of many girls and women, Brown and Gilligan identify a tendency, during this time, for girls “to lose their vitality, their resilience, their immunity to depression, their sense of themselves, and their character.”
No longer children, nor yet adults, pre-adolescent girls struggle with the necessary and important work of self-discovery and expression. Guiding them across this threshold requires open communication and loving support. The books on this list can help us to begin and frame conversations about issues girls might be facing, such as popularity, peer pressure, shifting friendships, and interpersonal conflict. The Best Books for Middle School According to My Students 2019. This is the fourth year that my students have gathered what they deem the very best books that they read this year and shared their recommendations with the world.
As always we have favorites that seem to pop up every year, but this year we also had a lot of new titles join the mix. As always, I loved seeing what made the cut because I simply could not do the work I do without the help of these incredible books. Some of these are fine for all 7th graders, some are more mature, I am including them all so that you can make your own decision. All parents are informed of the range of books that are present in our classroom library so that students can choose something that speaks to them. Not all of these books are in my library but are books that the students have found and read independently.
It was interesting to see just how many of these books I myself had read and book-talked, as well as how many have been favorites two or more years in a row. Other things I noticed were: A cannon. Mr. Books for Middle-Schoolers Who Struggle With Reading | 9 Books for Reluctant Readers. It can be hard to motivate middle-schoolers with reading issues to pick up a book. One way to engage them is to find books with themes they can relate to at a time when they’re trying to figure out who they are. Here are nine great titles to explore with your reluctant middle school reader. “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” by Brian Selznick The lavish, enthralling illustrations in this book draw readers in right away. “Hoot,” by Carl Hiaasen There’s nothing like rooting for the underdog to get a kid pulled into a story, and Hoot’s main character gets hit from all sides. “The Underland Chronicles,” by Suzanne Collins Before Suzanne Collins wrote the Hunger Games trilogy, she wrote The Underland Chronicles.
“Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor: Book One,” by Jon Scieszka Jon Scieszka is the author of several great books and series for boys. “Wonder,” by R.J. Six different narrators tell the story of Auggie, a boy who was born with facial deformities. “The Breadwinner,” by Deborah Ellis. Best Middle School Books, As Chosen by Teachers. 9. The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry Jonas lives in a society in which the government controls everything: childbearing, careers, marriages. His utopia has sacrificed emotions and uniqueness in favor of a safe and predictable life. When Jonas learns that life could be different, he can never turn back to the life he’s always known. 10. Ponyboy and his brothers, Darry and Sodapop have a tough life. 11. On a trip to visit her mother’s grave, Sal learns about herself and her family. 12. Is eternal life really that wonderful? 13. Bud Caldwell, is a 10 year old orphan who has grown up in Flint, Michigan. 14.
Basketball-loving twins Josh and Jordan find their way through isolation and conflict in this novel in verse by master poet, Kwame Alexander. 15. Melinda Sordino can’t tell anybody why she called the police to break up a party the summer before ninth grade. 16. 17. Parvana is eleven when the Taliban comes to power in Afghanistan. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Luke Garner’s existence is illegal. 14 Top Picks for Middle-Schoolers | Scholastic | Parents.