40 Book Challenge

In her groundbreaking book on reading instruction, The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller describes the challenge that she sets out each year for her middle grade students - to read 40 books. And not just any 40 books! Her students are required to read a certain number of books in a variety of genres. You can read more details about my approach to this challenge in the classroom by reading my post 40 Book Challenge - The Teacher Does It Too!

I do the 40 Book Challenge alongside my students.
I'm a reader. My students know that I love books. I eat books. I devour books.

But I figure - if they need to do the challenge, then so should I.
By modeling my own progress and devotion to the challenge, I increase their fervor for it.

My progress is on display in the classroom, keeping me accountable to my students:

I wrote 2 reflection posts at the end of the last school year:
* Reflection on My Progress
* Reflection on My Students's Progress

TOTAL # of Books Read This School Year: 14

Poetry
1. Salt by Helen Frost (8.21.2015)
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Traditional Literature and Classics
1. Watership Down by Richard Adams (8.11.2015)
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Non-Fiction
1. Courage Has No Color by Tanya Lee Stone (8.16.2015)
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Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
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Realistic Fiction
1. The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett (9.12.2015)
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Fantasy
1. Milo Speck by Linda Urban (8.28.2015)
2. The Sasquatch Escape by Suzanne Selfors (8.29.2015)
3. The Black Reckoning by John Stephens (9.7.2015)
4. Dead Boy by Laurel Gale (9.12.2015)

Science Fiction
1. Dead City: Blue Moon by James Ponti (9.19.2015)
2. Masterminds by Gordon Korman (8.23.2015)

Mystery
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Historical Fiction
1. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (9.12.2015)
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Graphic Novels
1. Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang (8.29.2015)
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Free Choice Novels
1. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (9.29.2015)
2. Pugs of the Frozen North by Philip Reeve (10.3.2015)
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