Rationale for 2013 Book Order for 10th Grade

Nicole Schwartz
Background:
The positive effects of independent reading on learners have been consistent: the more a
student reads independently, the stronger his/her vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal
fluency, and general knowledge of the world. Unfortunately, research has shown that students
ranging from 7th to 10th grade tend to decrease independent reading practices, which thus lessens
their ability to become advanced readers, writers, listeners and speakers in their classrooms, as
well as meet the expectations of higher education and future career opportunities. Throughout
my experiences teaching, Ive observed that students who read independently perform at a higher
level in comprehension, understanding, critical analysis and applying newly learned knowledge
to prior knowledge. In addition, these students are better able to draw connections and converse
about a text in a more comfortable manner than students who do not choose to read
independently. Therefore, I find it essential to motivate students to not only read independently,
but enjoy the process, so that they could improve in all areas of literacy in a pleasurable fashion.
In order to motivate students to read independently, it is important to give students
choice, to allow students to converse about the themes, topics, characters, etc. within the text, to
provide structure, and to encourage students to question and debate. By incorporating book clubs
into the classroom, students will flourish as readers, writers, listeners and speakers, as well as
become motivated due to feelings of ownership and responsibility. In book clubs, other than
choosing the text, Cindy ODonnell-Allen, the author of The Book Club Companion: Fostering
Strategic Readers in the Secondary Classroom, states that the joint task is to build an
interpretation of a text together through exploratory acts of composing, including writing,
visualizing, and speaking.
After experimenting with different independent reading practices, listening to students
reflections, and conversing with colleagues regarding the best practices for independent reading,
I have learned which practices work well, and which independent reading activities are not as
effective. As education evolves, it is important to adapt strategies that could work best to
improve students academics and excite them at the same time. This is why book clubs are

important to incorporate into students educational experience. They are motivating, hold
students accountable, and give a sense of ownership and responsibility to each student.
Initially, students will learn specific roles in collaborative learning through literature
circles. Students will assume specific roles and responsibilities (literary luminary, connector,
wordsmith, etc.) within their groups, and then share their responses with each other. As students
become more aware of, and experienced with, the different roles within literature circles, they
will begin to internalize each role. Thus, by the time they begin their book club meetings, they
individually would have already internally accessed and thought about every role that took place
in literature circles to help them complete their preparation sheet and prep for discussion in their
weekly meeting.
Book clubs will consist of four to five students. Book club meetings will take place every
Friday. Students will be expected to bring in their novels, as well as their preparation sheets and
the tasks that were designed for that week (based on a current skill study). I will provide a minilesson or think-aloud to emphasize the specific reading skill, and then allow students to immerse
in academic conversations. Students will be focusing on specific skills that we are working on,
all geared by the Common Core and New York State Standards. Several skills that will be
applied to book clubs are making strong claim statements and supporting them with textual
evidence, critically analyzing, interpreting and synthesizing information from the text, as well as
using academic vocabulary in reading, responding and conversing. Students will be taught to
engage in academic conversations through skills and activities found in Jeff Zwiers and Marie
Crawfords book titled, Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking
and Content Understanding.
Book club conversations also foster better writing skills. I have seen that students often
write the way they speak. Through the use of academic conversation skills that I will teach the
students, their conversations will be crafted somewhat like the writing we often want to see from
them. Advanced use of academic vocabulary, along with elaboration will be used in conversation
and evident in their writing. This will especially help enhance skills for students who are
struggling readers and writers, ELLs, and inclusion students because the prompts and academic
vocabulary used in questioning and responding, will then be transported to paper. Through book
club conversations, every student gets a chance to speak, listen, and write about their chosen text.

Book Order:
I have put together a list of books that will relate to specific themes studied throughout
this year, as well as themes, topics, and emotions that are relevant to the students own lives. The
given books represent a variety of interests, genres, and levels for students to choose from. Many
of the book titles have received awards and all of the books were highly reviewed by literature
experts. Book club topics of study will resonate around cultural texts, nonfiction texts, memoirs,
and coming-of-age novels. The first focus we will have will be Cultural texts. Throughout the
reading of these texts, students will gain more knowledge of the world, learn to empathize with
characters and cultures, and draw text to text, text to world, and text to self connections.
Cultural Texts
1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
3. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
4. House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
5. Almost a Woman by Esmaralda Santiago
6. Night by Elie Wiesel
7. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
8. Red Scarf Girl Ji-Li Jiang
9. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
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Coming of Age Texts
1. Shes Come Undone by Wally Lamb
2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexi
4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon
5. Holes by Louis Sachar

6. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

7. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
8. Ordinary People by Judith Guest

Memoirs:
1. Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Rolston
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Baeh
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
4. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise to Fulfill a Dream by Dr. Sampson Davis
5. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
6. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
7. Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston
8. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom