My Book Club is made of eighth grade Reading Intervention students who really struggle with reading. One of my girls told me, point blank on the first day, “I don’t read.” My goal is to change that by making reading fun and by caring about the students and working with them individually over the course of the three/four weeks.
To start to engage my students, I asked them to think of a favorite book or book that they are currently reading and enjoying. I made a worksheet that would ask them to make connections to that book (since our focus for these first two weeks is on Making Connections).
The worksheet asked them about a character and had them compare and contrast themselves with that character. I had them draw a picture, too! They seemed to enjoy this and found meaningful connections with some of their characters.
The books they connected to were the Jack & Annie series, one boy connecting himself to Jack because he was the same age and had a sister. The other students connected to Spirit Bear, which is a book they’re currently reading about a troubled boy. A few of the students talked about themselves and how they’ve gotten in trouble before, so therefore relate.
Even though these students may have struggled with reading in the past, they seemed to understand the concept of Text to Self connections and seemed to enjoy the activities. We’ll see how these next few weeks progress!