I consider reading a pleasure, and hope you do as well. If not, then let's work together this year to help you find books that you like. The only way to do that, of course, is for you to actually read. Although there will be some short worksheets, essentially your Language Arts homework will be to read, approximately 20 minutes a day or 100 minutes a week. You will use Reading Rewards to track your reading and share reviews of the books you read.
With Reading Rewards you can log your reading, but there is also much more ... you can choose an avatar, read other students' reviews, and receive badges and other items in recognition of your reading and writing.
We will start out by logging on to Reading Rewards in the classroom, but you can also log on at home at www.reading-rewards.com. Your username and password will be the same as your PowerSchool and Google username and password. If you have any questions or problems logging in at home, please let me know. There won't necessarily be time scheduled to log in at school, though if you finish assignments early you might have the time to do so. You will want to find out what works best for you ... you might want to record your reading each day, or every other day, or just once a week. Grades will be based on 1) your weekly reading (100 minutes outside of school time), and 2), the short reviews you write of the books you finish. I would also request that when you log your reading that you also include the number of the last page you read in the comments section. I've found that makes it easier for you to track the pages you've read. Each Monday I will run a report of your reading for the preceding week (Monday - Sunday), and that will be entered as a grade in PowerSchool.
Parents, we have some students who are still struggling with enjoying reading and finishing a book, and other students who love to read and are devouring books. If your child is at either of those extremes, or somewhere in between, you may be interested in following the steps below to get a free parent account (it only takes a few minutes). With your parent account, you are able to set up your own custom rewards for your son or daughter. You might also have other children at home you would like to set up on Reading Rewards. This will allow you to do so. If you are interested, here is what you will need to do:
Step 1) Go to URL: http://www.reading-rewards.com/sign-up.html Step 2) Click on the 'Sign me Up!' button in the Administrator's column and follow the signup instructions Step 3) Sign In to your Parent Account Step 4) Create a group for your family from Reading Circle › Manage Groups Step 5) Link to your child using the Link to Reader button, by entering this code: 5RDUN Please do not create a new account for your son or daughter. Simply link to them using this student code. Step 6) Create accounts for any other members of your family that might want to participate in Reading Rewards via the Manage Accounts option. You can do your own challenges at home!
I am very excited and looking forward to using Reading Rewards with the students this year. I hope you enjoy it as well.