We had the year’s first reading time in my 9th and 10th grade US history class on Monday. I’ve assembled a nice selection of nonfiction books related to history from the school library and my own bookshelves. My plan is very close to what I outlined in my June 16 post above. Every Monday students will spend the first 20 minutes of class reading. Afterwards they fill out a simple form, writing at least one thing they learned from their reading so I know their brains were turned on. A correctly filled-out form gets a grade of 100 and counts as half of a quiz in my grading system. They earn extra credit for each 100 pages read in the same book and for reading an entire book of at least 200 pages.
The students were enthused and read with admirable focus. I think this will be one of the year’s highlights.
