Loyal and American Reading Company

Ninth graders in Ms. Jacoboski’s class at Loyal High School have been working steadily on research projects in which they were required to publish books highlighting a topic of their choice. The assignment was based in the framework curriculum of the American Reading Company (ARC), an organization promoting critical thinking, vocabulary enrichment and writing development through guided and independent reading. Middle and high school teachers at Loyal have been incorporating the ARC curriculum throughout the school year for the purpose of boosting reading and writing skills in learners.

Maleia Smith, one such learner, spent several weeks researching the economic topic of “fast fashion,” a widely growing issue Maleia describes in her book as “the cheaper option to luxury.” Students were asked to write considering the audience of their peers, so that on the day of completion, their classmates could read each other’s books and learn new information about relevant, worldly topics. Using that objective as a guide, Maleia reminds her peers that while “fast fashion brands are always ‘on trend’” and are inexpensive, that frequently patterns are stolen from more prominent designers and what actually “makes the clothes cheap is the plastic fabric used such as polyester, fleece and nylon.”

Maleia, 15, states she chose the topic of fast fashion because it seemed to be becoming more and more relevant in society and she wanted to learn more about it. She says that she enjoyed creating a book over writing a typical formal research paper because the book “allowed for more creativity.”

A tasty way to practice counting

First graders practiced counting using snacks such as pretzels and M& Ms to represent tens and ones in place value.