I arrived at 30 books after seeing that Miller in The Book
Whisperer required her 6th graders to read 40 books. I
thought that was too many, and the books that older kids
pick are often smaller print. I also allow books over 300
pages to count for 2 books. My sophomores are required to
read 24 books, 6 a quarter. The teachers in my school that
teach the 7th, 8th and 9th grade are doing the program as
well and those students are required to read fewer.

Miller suggests a high number of books in order to encourage
the kids to keep reading all the time. We are going to
reevaluate the program at intervals and will undoubtedly
make some changes as time goes on.

As far as grading, I would prefer not to grade this activity
at all. But knowing how high school kids are, it better
have a payback. I average in the reading grade as 1/4th of
their overall grade. This seems to affect the grade by
about 6%, one way or the other.

I do teach critical thinking skills. After their reading
time, we hit a variety of topics such as grammar, writing,
class literature. I have cut back on the amount of homework
I give, but that point has also been left out of the
explanation of my program. Sure some kids are probably
cheating, but they are the ones who would cheat on anything.
Many kids cheat on the classroom novels that teachers plow
through with them as well. I am very diligent in my
conversations with the students and in watching their
reading progress.

I am so excited about the progress my students are making!
Just to see the smiles on their faces when they finish a
book and the excitement when they tell me about a book is
enough for me to call the program a success.

Oh yeah, another component is to provide current teen
literature, books that deal with what they are going
through. I do book chats about the books I think they might
enjoy and we have literature circles where they answer
questions about their novels.

Thanks for all the positive comments. I have taught for 29
years and this program has added an element of excitement
that I haven't seen in a long time.
Karen

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