Middle School

Check out these 8th graders:

These students are extra special to me because they were in my very first 4th grade class back during the 2011-2012 school year. They have returned to me once more, a little older and wiser, for my Accelerated Reading class that meets every day in the library for 50 minutes. Together we discuss books and quotes, update our reading lists, and silently read the novel of our choosing. We start every class with a picture book read-aloud, which is incredibly funny and usually causes us to have a fit of giggles. So far these 8th graders' favorite read-aloud has been The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems. If you have ever been curious about my personal feelings about hot dogs, I believe this book explains it pretty well.

Page from The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems

Books are fantastic conversation starters and make for lively discussions. Just today I listened in as one of my students discussed the main character in her book and his struggle with a disease. From there the conversation took off to Steven Hawking, scientific theories they are currently discussing in Science class, Star Wars, and the book series Origami Yoda. Then they quickly jumped on to the Goodreads website and threw out names of books that such-and-such person needed to read based on the conversation they just had. The whole thing was student led, connected to school content areas, and left us all with new books on our to-read list, everything from non-fiction to fantasy.

It's going to be a good year with the Middle Schoolers.