Most Popular Titles in My 5th Grade..so far :)

Every year is much more different than the last. Each student comes in their own, their own stories, their own memories, their own emotions. They find the stories that either help them escape these. They search for stories to help them not feel alone. Or they find those stories that help them to understand what their friends or other classmates are going through. As a lover of books, I choose what I read aloud wisely. Basing our read alouds primarily this year off of Project Lit - we started with Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Not long after students were fighting for Patina, then Sunny, and then Lu. You could say that introducing them to a series was definitely successful. Then we moved to A Long Walk to Water to review empathy and understanding of those that we may not always come into contact with. Students developed a deeper understanding in that moment about how good their life truly is in comparison to others. Our last read aloud was Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry. Having their own classmate with Tourette's, Forget Me Not brought awareness to my students of what their classmate may be going through. Then we had the opportunity to Skype with Ellie and they truly were able to develop that empathy even deeper. 

I decided to ask each of my 54 students this year SO FAR what's their TOP book choice. This in no way will be the final choice, I am sure of that, and it may even change tomorrow, but I think this is so interesting! 

Drop below in the comments what your students are reading and LOVING:)