What are You Reading?

I'm going to link up with Teach Mentor Text for their...



linky party! I look at this linky party all the time and figured I might as well contribute. I will post what we are reading in my classroom for the week so I can reflect a bit and hopefully get some feedback from amazing teachers out there.

So, we are starting Bud, Not Buddy this week in my classroom and let me tell ya, what an awesome book! My 6th graders have read it every year and it is always a hit. This year I am going to do it a bit differently though and read it everyday straight through. Normally, I spread it out over a 4-5 week span, reading from the novel every few days, but not this year.



This book is about an orphan named Bud, who is on the lam during the Great Depression. He is looking for his birth father and his only clue is a jazz band advertisement that his mother treasured. Both funny and entertaining, this book is always a hit with my middle school students. We actually listen to it on CD and stop frequently to discuss. I will be introducing fluency to my kids during this unit, because the guy who reads this book is so amazing. Do you remember Fresh Prince of Bel Air? Well, it is the dad on that show who reads this book.

Projects with Bud, Not Buddy: Bud carries around an old battered suitcase with everything he treasures in the world tucked inside. As we read the book, my class discusses what he has and the students put together their own suitcase, create a flyer from that era (research project), write about themselves, and actually make a suitcase that reflects them.  Maybe I will post some pictures of a few finished projects this year.