Mercer County educator, Lisa McGhee, from the Princeton Public Schools, was awarded a $5,000 grant to carry out a project at Princeton Unified Middle School.
Our school librarian runs a Project Lit book club. Project Lit is a national literacy movement. It is an online community where educators, students, and authors decide on a list of books to read during the year. Once a month the book clubs come together online to discuss the books, talk to the authors, etc. The novels chosen, represent various genres and promote diversity and equity. Many of my 6th/7th/8th grade students involved in this project have been in basic skills reading classes for several years. Due to this, their motivation to read and their self-esteem has declined because they felt they don’t have the ability to read well.
The purposes of this project are to help students: see the value and entertainment of reading in hopes to make them life-long readers, use reading strategies, inferencing, questioning, connections, etc. to demonstrate comprehension, increase fluency by read aloud and increasing their amount of reading. connect with peers across the U.S. to discuss novels they read, view themselves as successful readers. These objectives will be measured with a pre/post self-reflection survey and a pre/post comprehension and fluency assessment
Monthly, McGhee and her students will attend an online Project Lit discussion group. During these meetings, the students will share their thoughts about the book with their peers and educators across the country. Various times throughout the year, the author of the book makes an appearance and allows students to ask questions about the novel. This plan is to cover four novels during the year with hopes of adding a fifth novel if possible.
For more information, contact:
Lisa McGhee
609-806-4270 (School)