0 Help Me Show My Students that Reading is Wonderful

Hi friends,

so as many of you know, I will be teaching 6th grade reading in Houston this coming year at Black MS.  As a reading teacher, I am excited to cultivate a love of reading with my students and expand their knowledge of what is possible for them to achieve in their own lives.

Something I noticed this past summer as a teacher for a different group of students was just a general foreignness to the process of reading, an unfamiliarity with the joys of it and a rejection of the notion that reading was something done for pleasure.  This isn't unsurprising considering how these students are bombarded with passages from standardized tests more often than they are given books and taught to develop literary skills.  In the face of this, I want my students to look past the test and to aspire toward a more comprehensive and enriching attitude toward reading.

Therefore, I am calling upon anyone and everyone who is interested to assist me.  It requires very, very little time for you to do so.

Here is what I am asking:

Write a postcard to my students that addresses the following: 

• Start with "Dear Students," or "Dear Panthers," or "Dear Mr. Cotton's Class," something like that 
• Who are you? (Just a quick sentence or two about where you are from, what you do, etc.) 
• What is your favorite book (and/or thing to read) and why?  Or, what was your favorite book when you were in 6th grade?
• (If you want, feel free to ask questions of my students too.  They will be 6th graders.)  

I would really appreciate it if what you sent me was hand-written (so that the students know that I'm not just mass-producing these postcards).  Also, I think it would be extra-great if your postcard represented YOU in some way (an image of your university, your hometown, etc.)

If you are interested, please just comment below, on Facebook, shoot me a text message, or something else and I will give you my address.


Where is this idea coming from?

My high school mentor/life coach/role model, Mr. Wright, had postcards on the walls in his classroom that were written to him from former students.  When ever one of his students went on a trip, or graduated on to college, or moved, they would write Mr. Wright a postcard and he put it on the wall.  It really cultivated a sense of community in the class and showed us that he cared about where we were going long after we had left his classroom.

It is one of the favorite things I remember about these classes and I think that postcards from you all would be a wonderful opportunity to connect my students to other locales, people, and to show them that there are people beyond their immediate vicinity who are A. fired-up about reading and B. interested in them and their lives.

If this goes well, hopefully you all will get a postcard back!

This is THE postcard wall and that is Mr. Wright