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Goal

Our media center would like to impact our Kindergarten through fifth grade readers by purchasing sets of the Sunshine State Readers. There are 15 books for grades K-2 and 15 for grades 3-5. These books are approved, engaging, and a specially curated list of books that will capture the attention of our young readers. The ultimate goal is to increase excitement about reading independently.

Our Title 1 school has been working hard to improve in the area of ELA. More specifically, we are focusing on independent reading and stamina this year.

Our Title 1 status indicates that we have a large population of underprivileged students who do not always have the advantage of being exposed to multiple genres and making connections with the world and new vocabulary. We would like to help with this by purchasing the books and tracking their usage.  

What will be done with my students

Our media center will have tracking boards and celebrations for students who read the SSYRA books. We are approaching it differently this year and chunking the set of 15 books into smaller groups of 5 so we have more opportunities to celebrate our young readers.

The fifteen K-2 books will be read aloud in the media center during read aloud time and/or in the classroom. The fifteen 3-5 books will be read independently by students or as read alouds in the classroom. Students will participate in a "Book Tasting" where they can learn about the books, look through them, and how to pick a 'just right' book for them. Our media center theme this year is "Starbooks" where every reader will be encouraged to "Read a latte" and "Fill their cup with goals."  

Benefits to my students

We will measure the success of this project by tracking how many students read the books and their reaction to this new system. Last year, we had a total of 3 students complete all the SSYRA books in grades 3-5 and no students complete all the books in grades K-2.

This would be tracked on our bulletin boards, but also on tracker kept in classrooms and the media center. We will celebrate the students who have read a group of 5 out of 15 books on the news. The students who complete all 15 books will be able to participate in a grander celebration at the end of the year. It will most likely be an arcade/game day in the media center.

We will also gauge success by informally surveying the students about whether or not they enjoyed having smaller goals of reading 5 at a time and then earning an incentive instead of the daunting task of reading all 15 with no progress monitoring.

Finally, we will note the conversations around these books by reflecting on these questions: How did the students respond to the read aloud in the media center or classroom? Did they make any connections with self, the world, or other texts? Were students discussing the SSYRA books with other students unprompted? Were students inspired to read the next book in a series if the first book was part of the SSYRA list? Were students exposed to new genres?

Although this would be anecdotal evidence, the observations of our media center staff, administration, and teachers can sometimes be the most powerful. We know and love our students and want them to be happy and successful readers for LIFE!  

Budget Narrative

These funds will be used to purchase 1-2 copies of the K-2 and 3 copies of the 3-5 SSYRA books, depending on the book (picture vs. chapter, etc.)
These prices are based on Amazon listings as of 8/3/25 and reflect the price of each of the 30 books.  

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