Ravenous Readers
Book Recommendations:
2010 Ravenous Awards Winners: Regi LaChance, Kayelyn Sousley, Medra Stoner, and Kendra Marckini
6th grade is a year that I will be having students focus on continuing to develop our love for reading while widening our tastes for different genre of books. Each Monday, students will spend in our wonderful library choosing books, reading a self-selected book of 100 pages or more, writing a Book Recommendation for the book they just finished, and/or presenting Book Recommendations to the class.
Twice each trimester, or approximately every 4-5 weeks, students will be asked to complete this entire process. The Book Recommendation form is a very short and simple way for students to recommend books to one another (see example on the back of this letter). These completed forms will be kept in a binder for other students to refer to all year. When a student has their form filled out, they may turn it into the Reading bin. I will then sign them up to give a short book talk. These talks are done only on Monday’s in the library. Book Recommendations are considered quiz grades for reading class.
Students are required to vary their reading genre for each graded recommendation. The following are genre that may be selected.
Fiction: realistic, historic, science, fantasy, humor, adventure, mystery, classic/Newbery
Non-fiction: biography, scientific, historical, social sciences, (some) reference
A self-selected book must be at least 100 pages. If a student chooses a much longer book, I often give up to 60 extra credit homework points per semester or Good As Gold tickets (students choice). However, books must be pre-approved by me to be considered. Please encourage your child to chose books that they haven’t already read before. Middle school age students are many times loyal to a select type or author and unwilling to branch out. But, when they do try new things, many times, they are pleasantly surprised and find a new favorite. In effort to encourage this variety, I do not let students repeat a genre through the year for a grade. If students want to earn extra credit in reading or extra Good As Gold tickets, they may do extra book recommendations which may be from any of the above genre as well as from approved poetry, newspaper, magazines, and comic books.
Need a Book Recommendation form? Print from here: book-rec-form
HOT READS! What have you read lately?
- Have you read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? I just LOVED it and am looking forward to reading the sequel Catching Fire. Here’s a bit about it from visual bookshelf:
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat’s sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. (Science Fiction or Adventure genres)
Another great read that gets into dealing with differences and learning that who we are comes from the inside. Read the Visual Bookshelf summary:
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules from “a peach is not a funny-looking apple” to “keep your pants on in public”—in order to head off David’s embarrassing behaviors.
But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? (Realistic genre)
