Commit to the challenge!
Welcome to the 40 Book Challenge, an independent reading challenge for your child! At BSE we are working towards a growth mindset, and this includes reading. Barbara Marinak, author of No More Reading for Junk: Best Practices for Motivatiing Readers, defines motivation to read as, “…the likelihood of engaging in a reading task and persisting despite challenges.” We want our students to grow as readers not just for the few short years they are with us, but throughout their entire lives.
The 40 Book Challenge was created by Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. She says, ”Children who read the most will always outperform children who don't read much.” Research shows that a minimum of 20 minutes of daily independent reading has a tremendous impact on a child’s academic success. If a child reads 40 books over the course of a school year, they will have read on average 20 minutes daily.
Here’s how the challenge works:
Your child’s goal is to read all of the books from the categories listed on the next page by the end of the school year. He or she will check off one of the boxes each time a book is read. After checking off a box, record the title, author, date on the back of this page. Mrs. Boren and your child’s classroom teacher will help your child select books and conference with your child throughout the school year to see how they are progressing on the challenge. It is ok to abandon a book, but you may only count books read cover to cover. Books more than 250 pages count for two.
The 40 Book Challenge is:
•a personal challenge
•self-selected reading across the genres
•tracking the books you read to determine your reading interests
•an opportunity to share our “reading lives” with others (classmates, teachers, parents).
The 40 Book Challenge is not:
•a contest against classrooms or students
•a reading assignment tied to writing a book report, a summary, or any other type of "proof I read the book" assignment
•a reading incentive or reward program
We hope this challenge will encourage your child to read different types of books he/she may not have read before, all the while have fun keeping track of his/her reading! Happy reading!
