2. THE FORTY BOOK CHALLENGE “Failure is not an option, so why talk about it?” - Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer

3. “YOU WANT ME TO WHAT?” I am challenging you to read forty books this year! This includes books that you read during Independent Reading time in class and books you read at home. You will be reading from a variety of genres in order to explore books you might not ordinarily read and to develop an understanding of literary elements, text features, and text structures.

4. THE EXPECTATIONS Poetry anthology: 2 Realistic fiction: 2 Historical fiction: 2 Fantasy: 2 Science Fiction: 2 Mystery: 2 Informational: 4 Biography, autobiography, memoir: 3 Graphic Novel: 1 Free Choice: 20

5. BOOK REQUIREMENTS Each book, except poetry or non-fiction, should be a chapter book written in paragraph form on your reading level. Chapter books need to try and be at least 100 pages or more.

6. BOOK REQUIREMENTS Any book you read that is more than 250 pages long will count as TWO books. Any book over 500 pages will count as THREE books. Non-fiction or poetry books have a minimum page requirement of 70 pages and need to be on reading level.

7. READING RESPONSES Every other week you will complete a reading response on the book you are currently reading. You will choose ONE of three ways to respond. 1. Canvas: Participate in an online book discussion with classmates through the canvas website. You DO NOT have to be done with your book to complete this response!

8. READING RESPONSES 2. Book Review: Once a book is completed students can write a book review that will go into the “recommended for reading” binder in my classroom. Students will find guidelines for the book review in their reader’s notebook and on my website.

9. READING RESPONSES 3. Book Commercial: Students will present a short verbal commercial about the book trying to persuade classmates to read the book. The commercial will be under 2 minutes and be presented before independent reading time. Guidelines for the commercial can be found in their reader’s notebook and on my website. Students must be finished with their book in order to complete this response. Students may only complete TWO book commercials per nine weeks.

10. DUE DATES *Write all these dates in your planner! 1 st Nine Weeks: September 11 th, September 25 th, October 9 th 2 nd Nine Weeks: October 23 rd, November 6 th, November 20 th, December 4 th, December 15 th 3 rd Nine Weeks: January 8 th, January 22 nd, February 5 th, February 19 th, March 4 th 4 th Nine Weeks: March 24 th, April 8 th, April 22 nd, May 6 th, May 20 th

11. GRADING Student’s biweekly responses will be checked for participation grades. Each response will count as a daily grade. Major grade: Each nine weeks (except for the 1 st nine weeks) students will complete a book project on their favorite book. I will send home more information on the projects at the beginning of each nine weeks.

12. POETRY ANTHOLOGIES

13. REALISTIC FICTION

14. HISTORICAL FICTION

15. FANTASY:

16. SCIENCE FICTION

17. MYSTERY

18. INFORMATIONAL

19. BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY/ MEMOIR

20. Now for some motivation… Kid PresidentPresident