teachers who use novels in a reading curriculum (elementary)?

Question

hello. i'm a 6th grade teacher and the regular reading curriculum i am supposed to follow only has my kids reading one story in a basal reader per week.

i work in an inner city school without a library, so i'm working an extra job to earn money to buy some class sets of books from scholastic (where they are cheap and i can earn extra points towards free books).

i'm aiming to teach one novel per month (on average), and i'm wondering if these is a good timeline, or if i will need two months. i know it is different for everyone, but i would like to know what other teachers out there do.

also, do you have any great ideas for novels in the classroom that works for you? (i.e., using post-its, extended activities, etc.)

what works in your classroom?

sorry, i meant "this" instead of "these" when i was talking about the timeline...

Answer 1

Keep in mind that a 6th grader perceives time slightly different from adults and that a month can seem like a very long time for them to stay focused on one book.

Answer 2

I am working with a teacher (4th grade) that is using reader's workshop to teach reading (along with the basil). She lets the kids pick books on their own, and they use post-it notes to record questions, connections, likes, dislikes, etc. (At least one post-it per page.) Once a week she conferences with them to hear them read, check comprehension, etc.
The post-it notes are a great resource. It makes the kids stop, think and react. They are getting so much more from the stories than they ever have. She also has them keep in their journal a page for meaning breaks down. Everytime they have trouble getting the meaning of the book, they write down why and how they fixed it. (ex. distracted from noise- reread page. didn't know meaning of word- looked in dictionary) This is a great tool in making the kids realize that it's okay not to comprehend everything all the time. It makes them really concentrate on the story.

Answer 3

I can't make any specific recommendations on how to teach English to sixth graders, but I can suggest that you look into getting your school involved in Donors Choose, so that you won't have to pay for all of this yourself. It is a great organization with a website on which teachers post their needs and donors can choose to fund a particular project. Some, of course, are huge things like computers for everyone in the class, but since I'm not that wealthy, and since I credit reading with much of my own educational success, I have funded several sets of books for kids in inner city schools in my area.