My students and I are joining Project LIT this year! I love giving students a variety of opportunities to connect with books. Project LIT will combine the traditional 1 book focus along with community involvement, service learning and fun activities at our meetings.
Last year on Twitter, I noticed a guy who was making things happen at his school in Nashville. Jarred Amato is an English teacher at Maplewood High School, and he started Project LIT. The goal of Project LIT is ” to inspire children to become lifelong readers by making books more accessible and creating excitement about reading.” For service learning, the focus is on eliminating book deserts. Jarred and his students had a knock-out year, and after seeing their success, I wanted my students to check it out.
I love that my students will have the opportunity to connect with others in and outside of our community and join a larger conversation going on about reading and books. I plan to set up a Padlet wall for any of the middle schools to use so that our students have a place to talk about the books virtually. My students are going to love sharing their thoughts and ideas with others around the country!
For our service learning, we’ll also address book deserts. We already do a huge book drive every fall, but what more can we do to get books to kids in need? My students will love the challenge of examining this issue and will do whatever they can to help.
Finally, our focus will be on reading diverse books. The demographics of my school reflect an 89% Caucasian population, so Project LIT will be another way in which we can focus on and celebrate the wonderful diversity in books.
Nationwide conversation with peers. Service learning. Diversity centered. My students need and will love being part of Project LIT. I look forward to sharing our journey!
Project LIT Middle Grade Selections 2017-2018
Library Stile 