I teach 9th grade English on a Native American reservation in South Dakota. My students are 100% Native American. My school is in a high poverty area.
My students are years behind their peers in the rest of South Dakota in reading and writing skills. For many of my students, reading and writing are scary and mysterious things. They have not seen good reading and writing modeled for them. As a result, they need extra guidance to learn concrete reading strategies and they need to see writing and editing modeled for them in an authentic way by the teacher and their peers.
With a document camera, reading and writing can come alive in my classroom. Texts we are working with can be instantly projected so that they can see how the teacher and their classmates work with the text while it's happening! For writing, the document camera would very powerfully capture the writing and revising process. As the teacher I can instantly show them how I free write in my journal or revise my own writing. Students can model for each other how they are working on their writing in their journals as well. I can also instantly show examples of exemplary student writing that is happening in the classroom- without having to wait until tomorrow to make overhead copies! The writers workshop will come alive with this technology. As a class we will be able to share so much more with each other in a meaningful, authentic, and instant way!
Your donation will help to engage students in reading and writing, many of whom have never been engaged in a language arts classroom before. The document camera will help to demystify the reading and writing process for my students and give them confidence to become readers and writers themselves. The technology is a great hook to get kids attention, but this particular technological tool goes so much deeper than just attention getting, it opens up a world of literacy to students!
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Ms. S. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.