Dear friends,
Welcome to Ms. McNeil’s 5th annual Real World Reading Rockstar Challenge! If this is your first time joining the challenge, we are so excited to have you on board; if you are a returning Rockstar, we’re glad to have you back (you know the drill, so you can just read the highlights)!
I am writing to you again from KIPP STRIVE Academy in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood where I teach ninety fantastic 6th graders. As a reading teacher, I want to show my students that reading can open up a million doors in the world if they are truly exploring; that reading is not a book report, a homework assignment, the antithesis to summer vacation, or just a “school thing,” but a life skill. We need the leaders of tomorrow (who sit in classrooms today) to believe with conviction that there is incredible value in reading…in picking up a newspaper to know the world view, in exploring a good book about anything from “space” to “finding your inner happiness,” in reading a poem or novel by their favorite writer, in discovering new favorite writers, in becoming writers…
Do you believe this? If you do (and I wrote to you because I think you do), help my students to see that smart, successful people read both within and beyond the walls of the classroom. You are, as you will henceforth be known, a “Real World Reading Rockstar.”
OUR AMBITIOUS GOAL: The amount of reading is a strong predictor of reading comprehension, outweighing intelligence, economic background, and gender (Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1991). Therefore, at the beginning of the school year, my students and I set a goal to read 2,019 books by the end of the year! 2019 is the year that these students will graduate from high school, head to college, and go on to become excellent readers of the world, not just the classroom. We use this number as a constant reminder of where we want to be in 2019 and beyond.
THE PROBLEM: The challenges they face are great. Only 14% of students in Georgia are proficient in Reading by the 8th grade, according to the state standards. The statistics fare ever worse for African American students living in poverty. Low-income students in Metro Atlanta are already 3 grade levels behind by the time they are 9 years old (GPEE). I can count on my hands the number of students who entered my classroom at the beginning of the year reading “on grade level.” We have just passed the halfway point of our goal with a total of 1,118 books, but that still leaves 901 books left to read!
THE SOLUTION: Their will is greater. What motivates them? Being able say with confidence every day, “We’re climbing the mountain to college!” What motivates them? The fact that African Americans in Atlanta were denied access to any public library until July 25, 1921. What motivates them? People who believe in them, like you.
Therefore, starting today (should you accept the challenge), when you read a book and fill out the easy peasy “Reading Tracker” (attached, with new and improved guidelines!), your books will count toward our Reading Goal to 2019!
COLLABORATIVE GOAL: Let’s halve the rest of the 2,019 goal. With 901 books left to read, my students will have a new goal of reading 451 books (bringing the total to 1,569 books). The “Real World Reading Rockstars” will have a goal of reading 450 books. Together, we will reach 2,019!
What? You say you don’t have any time to read? Well, I will count any book you have read since the beginning of the school year (July 2012)!
Timeline for getting to the goal: March 11, 2013 - May 17, 2013.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU? Aside from the warm fuzzy feeling you will no doubt get from changing lives… My students will be tracking the progress of the “Real World Reading Rockstars,” and prizes will be given to the top 3 readers (most books read/trackers completed)! I may even have a “spotlight” on you in my classroom one day!
Possible prizes available: $25 restaurant/iTunes/store gift certificate, original t-shirt designed for you, letters and poems from my hilariously creative 6th grade minds… suggestions welcome!
Hall of Fame Reading Rockstars include
- Andrew George
- Marty Hill
- Srikanth Kapali
- Juliana Lindenberg
- Candice Palmer
- Amber Wall
Again, welcome to the challenge and thank you for being an inspiration to my students and me. Please feel free to forward this to anyone and everyone you know who might like to join us!
Yours, Ms. Celeste McNeil