Indiana Student Teachers Engage Middle Grades Students With Books

by Jack Humphrey

        Access to books is essential if young adolescents are to engage in independent reading.  According to the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois, independent reading enhances comprehension, accounts for one-third or more of vocabulary growth, and promotes reading as a lifelong activity.

        While all middle grades students need to visit their school library each week as a part of their reading class schedule, librarians are not the only faculty members responsible for promoting books to students.  Reading teachers need to read aloud and provide booktalks for students to help ensure that their students practice and improve their reading skills through wide reading.

        With the above in mind, future teachers from Indiana’s colleges and universities were selected to participate in a program sponsored by the Middle Grades Reading Network.  Working as student teachers this fall, they have a collection of current books to promote to their students. 

        The books were selected from the list printed in the Spring 2000 issue of NetWords and represent those most frequently chosen by librarians, teachers, and professors.  The 20 books for Grades 6-8 on the 2000-2001 Young

Hoosier Book Award list are a part of the collection. 

        Teacher candidates involved in the program received the books during the summer and:

•  Reviewed and/or read the books.

•  Are promoting the books by reading aloud to students, booktalking, and making the books available for   students to read.

•   Will write about their experiences.

• Will give half of the books to teachers for room libraries and keep the other half for use in their own classrooms.

        Indiana schools have many grade configurations for students enrolled in Grades 6, 7, and 8.  These include K-6, K-7, K-8, K-12, 1-6, 3-6, 4-6, 5-6, 5-8, 6-7, 6-8, 6-12, 7-8, 7-9, 7-12, 8-9, and 8-12.  Thus schools where the student teachers will be promoting books to their middle grades students are not all middle schools.  The schools where the student teaching is occurring include the following:

        Beiger Elementary School, Mishawaka

        Blackhawk Middle School, Fort Wayne

        Castle Junior High School, Newburgh

        Concord West Side Elementary School, Elkhart

        Crestview Middle School, Huntington

        Crothersville Junior-Senior High School, Crothersville

        Fall Creek Valley Middle School, Indianapolis

        Floyds Knobs Elementary School, Floyds Knobs

        Hamilton Southeastern Junior High School, Fishers

        Happy Hollow Elementary School, West Lafayette

        Harshman Middle School, Indianapolis

        Hawthorne Elementary School, Elkhart

        Lincoln Elementary School, Warsaw

        Maconaquah Middle School, Bunker Hill

        McKinley Elementary School, East Chicago

        Michigan City Junior High School, Michigan City

        New Augusta North Public Academy, Indianapolis

        Owensville Community School, Owensville

        Rensselaer Middle School, Rensselaer

        Sarah Scott Middle School, Terre Haute

        Test Middle School, Richmond

        Thompkins Middle School, Evansville

        Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, Akron

        Wilbur Wright Middle School, Munster