Mr. Strasser,
Just a quick note say thank you for skyping with Maine East yesterday. The students are really enjoying your books and I think the Skype was a very valuable experience for them. The teacher was extremely happy and grateful, so thank you again. I have attached a photo of the class to this email. Friday, April 19, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
What Makes A Writer Feel Good
They read it with this cover! |
I teach 8th grade Language Arts in southern Maine.
Two boys in my class this year were really struggling with reading. They were
at about third grade level. "I HATE
books!", "Books are STUPID!" were some of the milder comments I
got from them.
I decided to pull them in for private reading
work. It was just the three of us and I selected a third grade reading level
book for us to read aloud together. They hated it.
Rummaging around in a school closet, I found three
copies of "Friends Till The End."
"Why do we have to read this?!", "I
hate soccer!", "It's prolly just about nerds!", "sounds
like da Outsiders movie you made us watch, greasers and Socs!",
"Dumb!"
That was a month ago. We usually cover about a
chapter a day. Today one of my students, Nate did not show up for SSR (sustained silent reading). The other
student, Phillip, (who provided MOST of the comments I've quoted) said,
"come ON! Let's get started, I LOVE this book!" I said, "really?"
"YEA, it's not some nerdy, boring book. It's about real people that I can
relate to. I LOVE this book! I'm gonna see if the author has any other books.
Do you think he does?"
Well, I've googled you and was I happy to find
that you do have a few other stories. ;-)
I just thought you'd like to know that you've made
a tremendous difference in the lives of at least two young, now proficient and
steadily improving, readers.
Thank you.
Kevin Neely Sanford
Junior HS Language Arts
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is
the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be
successful." -- Albert Schweitzer
Monday, April 1, 2013
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