Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

Over Christmas break, I gave my 7th and 8th grade students a one-sentence homework assignment: read a good book. I told them it didn’t matter if it was long or short, above or below grade level, fiction or non-fiction. Just read a good book.
Upon their return to school, I asked them to write on an index card the title and author of the book they read over break. They then took turns sharing this information with the class, as I asked them general questions about the book: did you like it, was it good, was it challenging, would you read something from that author again? My goal was to inspire them to read each other’s books or, at least, do some reading for leisure. You see, in spite of having two built-in bookshelves in my classroom chockful of books, one organized by genre in pretty, brightly-colored and labeled baskets…