1. Kindle #14 arrived!
I’m very happy to report the arrival of Kindle #14. There it is, complete with attractive skin, over to the right! (Sorry for the bad lighting.) This is a great donation from Donna of Nevada. I personally like Kindle 2s because they have all the benefits of Kindle 3s (specifically, text-to-speech) and are a little bigger, which students like. After all, when you’re reading something, you want to feel like you’re really reading something. Thanks again, Donna!
2. Our Kindle library is close to 150 titles.
It’s great to get more Kindles. But as important is making sure there are good books on those Kindles.
That’s why I’m really happy that I’m getting donations to build the Kindle library. (Our latest contributor: Imene — thank you!) The money is helping me fulfill my promise to the Kindlers. I’ve told them that every month, they can request a book for the library as long as they read at least one book.
Here are of some of the books the students have requested — now on all the Kindles:
As you can tell, students do not choose randomly. They’re getting some of the most popular and the most well-regarded titles in Young Adult literature.
If you want to help our with our library, check out the Contribute page!
3. There’s a big effort to get a classroom set of Kindles.
Why wait for a classroom set of Kindles when you can get there all at once with one big project? That’s what’s happening over on my DonorsChoose page, where 19 generous people have already contributed to a project that aims to bring 10 new Kindles to the classroom.
What’s interesting is that after a great donation by Iris M. in San Diego, most donations have come from Nevada — specifically, from employees at Zappos, the major retailer of shoes, clothing and more. Apparently, Zapponians like books as much as they like shoes and customer service.
Right now, there is still $591 remaining on the project, so feel free to donate here (even if you’re not a Zappos employee).
4. Students’ reading skills are improving.
The most important goal for the Kindle Classroom Project is to promote the joy of reading. But it doesn’t hurt when students’ reading skills improve, too.
I’m pleased to announce that the students reading on Kindles are progressing at a faster rate on their reading than students reading physical books alone. We just administered our second online reading assessment today. The first one was in early September. On average, ninth graders have increased their reading score by 0.7 grade levels — an impressive figure. But Kindlers’ reading scores have gone up an average of 1.2 grade levels. If these gains continue, we’ll see two grade levels of growth before school ends next June.
Yes, this isn’t a scientific survey. Perhaps the motivation of students in The Kindle Classroom Project is higher. Or perhaps their initial reading skills were lower, thereby making it easier to improve. Right now, I don’t care about any of that. I’m just happy that students are reading a lot, having fun reading, and becoming better readers!
Please let me know what you think. I’m also looking for suggestions about next steps for the project. What would you be interested in seeing?
Awesome.