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Goal

The goal of this project is to motivate all of my third grade Cambridge students to read all 15 Florida Sunshine State Young Readers (SSYRA) during the 2018-2019 school year. This will be the second year implementing the Cambridge program at the elementary level, and I want to give my new students the opportunity to set a challenging and exciting goal for themselves while in the Cambridge setting as well as participate in activities that will include reading, writing, speaking and presenting about the books. 

What will be done with my students

Students will be encouraged and challenged to read all 15 of the SSYRA books while earning a special book charm for each book completed. In order to officially complete a book, they will need to pass a Reading Counts test (comprehension quiz) for that book. When this is done, they will receive a charm that has a special meaning related to the story to be put on a charm necklace. For example, the book “The Great Treehouse War” will have an evergreen tree book charm to represent the treehouse theme in the story. Throughout the year, they will be encouraged to continue reading the books and earning charms while receiving special recognition for each charm received with a special chart in the room that will track their progress as well as regular Twitter posts that will celebrate their charm earnings. They will also receive a notable charm for completion of all of the books called the Shining Example charm (in the shape of the Sun to represent the Sunshine State books). Upon completion of the SSYRA books, students will be able to vote for their favorite using real Collier County voting booths and machines which is exciting in itself, but I will also be adding a special classroom debate before we vote in which students will share their ideas about their favorite book (and book charm!) and “argue” with their classmates, trying to persuade others to vote for the book they think is the best. This is a Cambridge strategy that gives the opportunity for reading, research, writing, revising and speaking which will be an awesome time to invite families into our classroom to hear about the reading that has been completed! 

Benefits to my students

I used this idea with my class of students last year and it was a huge success! My class was the first class ever at our school to have ALL students finish ALL 15 SSYRA books in a school year! I want to repeat this project (with the new addition of the debate activity) because the motivation that the book charms provided was more successful than I could have imagined. Students in third grade are exposed to very rigorous standards and testing for the first time since they have been in elementary school and assigning this challenge to read as much as possible, in particular with good quality literature, gives each child more practice and experience with the higher level reading they will be expected to do on the FSA assessment. A motivating program like the book charms enables me to help all of my students, whether they already love to read or are hesitant to pick up a more challenging book, get excited about reading. This is always my ultimate goal every year that I teach! The charms have the additional benefit of giving students the opportunity to share with their families and our school community their continued success as the year progresses when they are wearing their charm necklaces for all to see. And finally, an added bonus to completing all 15 of the books is that they will be invited on a special field trip to Barnes and Noble with our media specialist at the end of the school year!  

Budget Narrative

Book prices calculated and totaled using Barnes and Noble Educator discount. Book charms total includes 25 packs of each charm shape needed from the company Fitness Finders. 

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