Six Novels, Six Weeks!

Our Marcus High School Soccer players are great
celebrity readers. Elementary students love
spending time reading with their older mentors!

I love sitting in training thinking about stuff that has nothing to do with the professional learning opportunity at hand. It never fails that I am totally focused then the trainer says something that leads me on a brilliantly exciting and invigorating bunny trail! Today, she was talking about writing across curriculum. Then, she said something about vocabulary and reading and Bam! There is was: the most enticing bunny trail I’ve encountered in a week or two!

Call me Alice, but I love a bunny trail. So, off I went on my own – smiling and nodding in encouragement to the trainer, and even taking an occasional note (on my idea) to look engaged!

Here’s kind of what I was envisioning. I LOVE to read. I always have. It may have been that Gilligan’s Island and the Brady Bunch could only engage me for so long or the fact that my parents only allowed me to watch an hour of television a day as a kiddo. Regardless, I love to read. I love the classics, grew up with Shelia the Great, wondered if I was a 4^th Grade Nothing, befriended Ramona and Beezes, and snuck a copy of Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret under the covers and read with a flashlight! I’ve also mourned the death of the great Albus Dumbledore, imagined myself with a dozen siblings, belabored the impact of utopia in The Giver, agonized about surviving in my own little house in the big woods, cried when Leslie drowned in Terabithia, and fell asleep at work after having to sit up all night to make sure Katniss Everdeen would win the Hunger Games.

So, I just don’t think kids get to experience growing up with some of the fictional characters that shaped my childhood. I’m envisioning some type of principal’s summer reading list. I’m thinking there should be a list of classics that we really encourage our students to read – a list that a student would consider it an accomplishment to say that they’ve read most or even all of them. I’ve bantered the idea with myself for a couple of years, but nothing has ever come out of it. Today, however, I may have found a jumping off point.

We operate on a six weeks grading schedule because that just works. Six weeks, six novels – all six grade levels K-5! This would be done independently so we could encourage families to participate. The list of the titles for the year will be distributed at the beginning of the year, along with a list of ways to access them (local bookstores, websites, personal devices, libraries…) I will read (C.S. Lewis said “I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”) and prepare opportunities for students and families. There should certainly be an online component. I’m thinking something like a reader’s response forum. Everyone reading along with us could post comments and thoughts. What if we could even get grandparents and local city leader or even a celebrity to read and comment too?!We could track where comments originate using Google Earth. Wait. There goes another bunny trail! At the end of the six weeks, there would have to be some type of culminating activity that enriches the novel for those kiddos who read the book! I’m not thinking a reward; I’m thinking a guest speaker, a Skype session with an author, a game or activity.

I think this is a perfect segue into promoting the Principal’s Summer Reading List next spring! Now, what I need are six novels that would be perfect for elementary students and their families to read. Stronger readers can read independently while younger students can read with their parents and siblings! This promotes family time, reading and learning – without even realizing that we are increasing our thinking and our vocabulary!

Vocabulary, that was it. That’s where the bunny trail began, but look where it got me!

Please email, tweet, or leave a comment with a suggestion for a novel! I’d love your thoughts!

I’d also love to share this endeavor with a couple of other elementary schools so our students could Skype or work on a project together! What a great opportunity for global discussion and collaboration!