My students need six digital voice recorders, a battery charger and batteries to enable them to hear themselves read aloud, allowing them to monitor and improve their fluency abilities in reading.
We tell students to make sure they are reading fluently and we model this for them. How can they monitor their own fluency if they cannot listen to themselves read? By utilizing the voice recorders, students would be able to listen to their own reading and work to improve their fluency.
My 23 students are in a rural, high-poverty school.
Due to monetary concerns, students are not able to take as many field trips or have as many educational experiences as we would like to provide for them. My students have a high desire to read and they are hungry to improve their reading abilities. We have discussed how reading well can help us to reach our ultimate goals later in life. One of our largest focus areas in reading this year is our fluency. My students this year need to improve in fluency which will also improve their comprehension. However, we do not have many materials to allow students to "hear" themselves read aloud. This is where the digital voice recorders would be so beneficial to my students.
My Project
Research has proven a direct link between a student's fluency and their comprehension of a text. In upper grades, students have so much content to learn. However, many of my students lack in the basic areas of reading such as decoding and fluency. Without being able to read text fluently, comprehension of fictional and content texts is very difficult for my students. We are working hard to improve fluency in my room. With these six voice recorders, students would be able to read a text aloud and record themselves reading. Then, they could play the recording while looking back at the text and analyze their fluency. They can monitor the words they struggled with and the parts of the texts where that they need to use fluency strategies. Students can then read again and listen to see if they improved their fluency from the previous time. This practice will improve their fluency and comprehension.
The rechargeable batteries will allow us to use the devices and be more earth-friendly.
How will a child succeed if he/she cannot read well?
Everything builds upon a child's reading ability. A strong reader will go far in life. My students need to improve on their basic reading skills in order to be able to fulfill their goals and dreams for the rest of their lives. These recorders will be an important tool in our classroom to help students improve their fluency and help them be prepared for their future in an ever-changing world.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Kilpatrick and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
