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For the next three weeks, you will be challenging yourself as a reader...

Choice 1:

Another round of book clubs. You select your group, your select your book. Emphasis will be on discussion, as well as challenging yourself as a reader.

Choice 2:

Independent reading challenge. You will select a challenge text and keep a journal as you read, rather than discuss.

Learning Target: To identify an area of growth as a reader by reflecting on your own reader identity. You will then create a plan to meet your goal within the next three weeks.

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End Product - All Components Needed

Choice 1:

Completed two discussions in front of Mrs. Ripp
Reading memoir turned in.
Best book of the year speech created.

Choice 2:

Completed at least 6 journal entries that discusses your reading (theme, setting, character development and other literary elements).
Reading memoir turned in.
Best book of the year speech created.

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Reading Challenge Essay

Things to include are:

How your reading life was formed as a child leading up to 7th grade
What you have discovered about your own reading habits
What you already knew about yourself as a reader
What you have discovered about yourself as a reader
Specific book memories or book experiences
How you see yourself as a reader now
Your reading plans once you leave 7th grade
Your favorite or most memorable books from the year
Please see next slide for more ideas!

Format:

Needs to be written as a personal narrative essay, not a bullet list.
Should be more than a page, single-spaced, size 12 font
Should show depth in thinking and thoughts should make sense.
Should have evidence to support your development.

Due date is May 16th

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Personal Narrative on Your Reading Life

I am looking for:

Reflection of what your reading life has been like up until 7th grade, as well as including 7th grade.
Depth in your reflection and evidence for why you believe you are the type of reader you are.
Specific book memories that have shaped you.
Specific reading experiences that have shaped you.
This should read like a memoir and not a question and answer paper.

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Ideas of what to write about

Think of your earliest reading memories, what do you remember first? Which types of books did you like as a kid before you went to school? Was reading something that happened for you before school?

Now you enter school, what are your earliest reading memories from Kindergarten and the earliest classes? DId you like what the teachers did? Did you discover certain books that you liked? What do you remember and how did you feel?

3rd and 4th grade are big years as a reader - what do you remember from these years? Were there books you loved? Hated? What did you like about reading or not like? What happened to you as a reader - did you grow? Did you still love it? Did you start to not like it?

5th and 6th grade - which books stood out to you here, good or bad? Did you read in class? Outside of class? What happened to you as a reader in these years?

7th grade - how do you feel about reading now? When is reading a great experience? When is it not? What do you know about yourself as a reader now?

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Sample beginning

I feel like I was born a reader. As a child I was surrounded by books and reading experiences wherever I went. The fancy ones locked up in the cabinet, the Donald Duck magazines, old tattered copies of Axterix that I would read over and over long after my mom told me to turn off the light and “go to bed!” Every night, no matter how tired my mother was, she would come sit by my bed and read yet another chapter of whichever book we had picked together and as I drifted off to sleep, images of the adventures filled in by my mother’s voice lulled me into sleep. I was a child who loved reading, who loved selecting books, who loved reading late into the night, as long as I got to choose what I read and no one was around to tell me what to do with it.