Expectation: Students are EXPECTED to read the book critically. When you enter the class at the beginning of the year, there will be an assessment to determine the depth of your reading and the critical thinking used to connect to the Author’s Purpose and Style, Themes, Characters, Setting, and Point of View.
Purpose: We read during the summer to ensure we cover the material necessary for the next year and beyond… What Research Says About Reading:
The following points are from “Reading In and Out of Schools,” a publication prepared by the Educational Testing Service for the U.S. Department of Education, and Patterns of Reading Practice, a publication of The Institute for Academic Excellence.
- The amount of reading that students do for school and do out of school are both positively related to their reading achievement.
- Students who reported discussing their reading had higher average reading achievement than students who reported never having this opportunity.
- When ranked according to the amount of reading they do, students in the top 5 percent read 144 times more than students in the bottom 5 percent.
Refugee – July 25, 2017 by Alan Gratz
A New York Times bestseller! JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . . MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe . . . All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers — from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end. This action-packed novel tackles topics both timely and timeless: courage, survival, and the quest for home.