All DHMS students are expected to read a minimum of 25 books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) each school year. Language Arts teachers monitor the student reading logs, and many subject areas require students to read a certain number of books in their discipline each semester.
Students should read a wide variety of genres, including fiction and non-fiction related to the subjects they study. The DHMS library catalog includes booklists for many genres and subject areas ("Life Science in Fiction", "Europe Fiction", etc.)
The Georgia Performance Standards
M7RC1
Grade: 6,7,8
Description: M7RC1 Students will enhance reading in all curriculum areas by:
Elements:
a. Reading in All Curriculum Areas
Read a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books per year from a variety of subject disciplines and participate in discussions related to curricular learning in all areas.
Read both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse.
Read technical texts related to various subject areas.
b. Discussing books
Discuss messages and themes from books in all subject areas.
Respond to a variety of texts in multiple modes of discourse.
Relate messages and themes from one subject area to messages and themes in another area.
Evaluate the merit of texts in every subject discipline.
Examine author’s purpose in writing.
Recognize the features of disciplinary texts.
c. Building vocabulary knowledge
Demonstrate an understanding of contextual vocabulary in various subjects.
Use content vocabulary in writing and speaking.
Explore understanding of new words found in subject area texts.
d. Establishing context
Explore life experiences related to subject area content.
Discuss in both writing and speaking how certain words are subject area related.
Determine strategies for finding content and contextual meaning for unknown words.
Kathryn Lapolla
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