It felt like Christmas morning the day I lugged two heavy boxes of fifty books from the Middle Grades Reading Network up the flight of stairs to my apartment. I could not wait to use them to inspire students in my middle school placement.
I was originally going to use them to spark interest in reading among students in my general classes, but I soon decided the place where they were most needed was my large eighth grade honors class. The students were bright and articulate, but they held themselves back for fear of losing a single point. Their main concern was receiving perfect scores on everything. Their focus on grades and their pointillist approach to assignments, while to some degree was desirable, hindered their creativity and took the fun out of learning.
I designed an independent reading project for them to highlight their strengths and interests and showcase their talents. My goal was to encourage them to read and create something that they loved instead of focusing strictly on the grade. I introduced the books with a brief summary of some of my favorites. Afterwards, the students chose a book that interested them the most. To complete the project, students had to write four reading response journal entries, submit a creative project of their choice from a list of nine options, write a brief summary and a detailed rating of the book on a note card that I will use as a catalog system for future students. The students were given a rubric as a guide that outlined my expectations based on the following criteria: analysis, work-manship, creativity, spelling, and grammar.
The students’ excitement was evident the day their projects were due. They turned in mobiles, timelines, dioramas, movie posters, character analysis through costume sketches and portraits, and diary entries written from characters’ viewpoints. Their projects were beautiful and their analysis in depth, but I was most proud of their creativity and enthusiasm about the books. While they were still concerned about their grades, they also managed to be creative and have fun with the project. I even had a few students who thanked me for introducing the books to them because they loved them so much! I displayed their projects in the classroom, and before I knew it, students from my general classes wanted to read the books, too.