A couple weeks ago, I set a reading challenge to read 5 picture books and 2 middle level books a week. This challenge is going okay. I have been able to meet the goal every week since I have set it so I suppose that is a good thing! The problem is, I am not reading the middle level books that I want to teach. These two books a week are pretty small books and are things my students would read but I would not teach. Another challenge that I have faced is this readings take me more than four hours to do so throughout the week, I have read for about 7/8 hours. This is not a bad thing but I found this to start to interfere with my other classes and their readings. So based on these reason, I want to change my reading goal.
I’ve thought about this for a little while about how I would want to change it but incorporate it in both elementary and middle grades. I decided to keep my 5 picture books a week because those are not very time consuming and I am finding a huge variety of books! The problem stands with the middle level books. I decided to choose one “big” book to read over 2 weeks. So my plan is to read a different books every two weeks. Since I will not finish it by the Monday post, I am going to have my middle level section be a check-in section about what has happened and my thoughts of the book so far. At the end of two weeks, I will talk about my final thoughts of the book and my plans on using the book in the classroom. These can include project ideas I want my students to do, or if we are going to read the book together, or if I am going to read it to them completely. I think this will equal my 4 hours a week if I span the middle level book across two weeks.
Until next time,
-Rachel
Rachel's Mind 