Peachtree Ridge High School



Peachtree Ridge High School

Fall Semester 2010

Independent Reading Requirement

9th through 12th grade Gifted & Pre-AP LA

Peachtree Ridge High School requires independent reading to be completed by all students. This aspect of our Language Arts program is to encourage students to read more and to learn to make good choices about reading by selecting books of interest. See your teacher, a friend, or a media specialist if you need assistance in finding a book that you might like.

Book Selection:

• Fiction or non-fiction (not a book you have read before!)

• Appropriate for school, age, and ability (teacher approval REQUIRED for all book choices prior to reading).

• Books with controversial matter may require a signed note from your parents prior to approval of your outside reading selection.

• Get your book from any source – PRHS or public library, home, bookstore, friend, teacher, etc.

• No short stories, plays, magazines, newspapers, comics, etc. – NOVELS AND APPROVED NON-FICTION ONLY! No books based on movies, no self-help books, no religious texts.

• Books with pictures in them will earn only half the page count.

• If you don’t like a book selection, stay with it for 25 pages; if you still don’t like it, PUT IT DOWN and select a different book, with teacher approval.

Getting Credit for Your Reading:

• You don’t have to finish a book to have a conference. However, once you have had a conference, you are expected to complete the reading of that book and conference on the complete reading. No conference may occur until you have read at least 1/3 of the book.

• Each term a student must complete three assessments.

• Come to the book conference with your book (no book = no conference), and any notes you’ve taken during your reading. Your individual teacher may require an additional pre-discussion handout.

• The book conference is ORAL – the teacher and student will chat about the book – your job is to convince the teacher that you have read and thought about the book. If a teacher is not convinced you have read the book, the conference WILL NOT COUNT, and you will need to schedule another one.

• You may complete only one book conference per day.

• You are expected to complete 3 book conferences in a term, one every 6 weeks. You should read and report on at least 1/3 of your total number of pages during each 6-week period. The expectation is that students will read three books during the term.

• You MUST convince the teacher that you are reading – if the teacher doubts you are reading, you will not receive credit for those pages. If you re-read a text, you will not receive credit for that reading. Also, texts read as class novels, plays, etc. cannot be used as independent reading books. This includes texts from other subject areas. For example Utopia, by Sir Thomas More is taught in Social Studies, and therefore off limits for independent reading.

• Some teachers may give some class time to read, but most of the reading will be done OUTSIDE of class. Regardless, you should have your book with you EVERY day (you never know when you might have a few moments to read).

The Grade:

• Your Independent Reading and 3 graded Book Conferences will count 10% of your total grade.

• The Reading Across the Ridge summer reading grade will be recorded in this category.

• Students are expected to read 1/3 of the total required pages each 6 weeks.

• The total number of pages that you read and have Book Conferences with will determine your grade.

• The scale that follows is for Gifted and Honors students.

Your overall reading grade will be based on the following

three graded book conferences:

By Week 9/17/10: Book One (300 Page Goal)

300+ pages = A

250-299 pages = B- to B+

200-249 pages = C- to C+

150-199 pages = D- to D+

0-149 pages = F

By Week of 10/29/10: Book Two (300 Page Goal)

300+ pages = A

250-299 pages = B- to B+

200-249 pages = C- to C+

150-199 pages = D- to D+

0-149 pages = F

By Week of 12/10/10: Book Three (200 Page Goal)

200+ pages = A

150-199 pages = B- to B+

100-149 pages = C- to C+

50-99 pages = D- to D+

0-49 pages = F

Gifted/Pre-AP Independent Reading Semester Goal: Three Books / 800 pages

Teachers may assign additional work to be done with the Independent Reading texts. Also, any of the above rules may be changed at the discretion of the teacher as he/she deems necessary for a particular class.

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