You have certainly noticed that reading plays a very important role in the new curriculum for lower secondary school. The curriculum states that by year 3-4 students should be able to read simple, clearly structured young adult literature or non-fiction with satisfactory comprehension. To achieve this goal, we’ll need to start in year 1. Don’t forget to organize some interesting reading projects for your students. Now is the time to do it.
Let me give you some practical tips on how to infect your students with the reading bug.
Time for a Christmas Wishlist for your school library
I would like to remind you that the school library budget must be spent by December 31. If your school does not use all the money, it will be returned. Therefore, December is a good time to order interesting English books for your school library and use up all the money. In January your school library budget will be replenished, and you will be able to order more English books for your reading projects.
Take a look around the reading pages of my website and write a wishlist for your school library. Make sure you order lots of different books to cater for different interests and reading levels. Don’t buy sets of class readers and force every student to read the same book. Choice will make reading soooo much more interesting for the kids.
If you are looking for some helpful reading tasks for year 1 and 2 students, check out our Reading Diaries. If there is still some money left in your school’s budget for Unterrichtsmittel eigener Wahl (UeW), you can order class sets of these booklets any time between September and March. Check with your Schulbuchreferent/in to see if there is still some money left for UeW.
I Survived: One of my students’ favorite series
One of the most popular book projects for year 3-4 students is the I Survived series.
In each book of this series a young hero gets into serious trouble and just barely survives one of the famous historical disasters of our times. These stories are so riveting that they will turn any non-reader into a reader — books like these are called “home run books” — you cannot put them down.
Go to my I Survived project page to learn more about this series. This series is also perfect for groups that need differentiated materials. Struggling students can read the graphic novel adaptations of the stories while the rest of the class reads the full books.
Christmas time is Storytime
To make the time leading up to Christmas special for your students, you may want to read them a short Advent story at the beginning of each lesson. The 24 stories in the Advent Calendar Book for Kids are appropriate for students in years 2- 3-4. Since you will not have 24 English lessons before Christmas, you will have to choose the stories that seem most relevant for your students. These stories will also work well in classes with many non-Christian students. They all focus on the spirit of Christmas, rather than on the biblical story.
Click on the image to find the book.