Asking for Help!

I currently work with at-risk Middle School students who have failed courses. I am looking for ways to improve this program and bring it into the 21st century. I would like to throw out the worksheets and have the students working on tasks that matter to them. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can have these students recover a semester of a core subject, with limited time and while helping them understand the "Why"? Any suggestions would be helpful at this point! Please help!!

What Would You Miss Most If You Could Not Read or Write?

After reading Angela Maier's Assignment for World Read Aloud Day, I took this question into my classroom and asked some of my students what their thoughts were. I was amazed with the discussion we had. The students that I've heard tell me, "This is dumb" and ask "Why do I have to do this?" all year really came up with some GENIUS thoughts and discussion. For most of the discussions the students came to the understanding that they are lucky because they have the opportunity to have an education.

After the discussion I challenged the students to spread their knowledge to others. There assignment was to get others excited about reading. Here is one student's thoughts on reading. Look for more to come. 

World Read Aloud Day...a few weeks late!

I have been encouraging my students to show their GENIUS lately by CONTRIBUTING to others. For most of my Middle School students they were very apprehensive at first. For most of them, I feel that it's the fear of what they are contributing won't make a difference or won't be to the quality that the WORLD is DEMANDING. I encouraged them to share any way. Today's post is full of students reading aloud for the world to see. This was a little scary for some of the students, especially when I got out the video tape. Please show your support for these young readers and their CONTRIBUTION to World Read Aloud Day.

Each student had the opportunity to choose a short portion of the story to read aloud to others. Here is a few of the student's choices.