It's a Tween, Tween World

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

Do you have beloved memories of well-loved books from your childhood? Many of my inner city students do not have these memories because they have spent their first twelve years of life as non-readers. My colleagues and I are working hard every day to reverse this growing trend of "dormant" young readers in Texas. At my school, we believe that every child should have access to a free college preparatory education, regardless of zip code or economic background. Our school exists to send low-income kids to college so that they can come back and transform their communities. I teach 7th grade English at an inner city charter school where we work hard every day to provide kids with the educational and emotional resources they need to be successful in life.

At a charter school with a very limited budget, it can be difficult to obtain the resources needed for a successful literacy program. My students participate in reading workshop, a reading program where students read books of their choice on their personal reading level. In a reading workshop model, students read up to ten times more books than they would read with a traditional class novel approach. The only problem (if you can even call it a problem!) is that kids constantly want new books to choose from. A vibrant workshop classroom library needs at least 1,500 books to serve 200 kids a year.

Our classroom library is constantly growing, but by mid-year, the kids always begging me for new books! On a limited teacher's salary, there are only so many books I can purchase out of my own pocket. When I do, the kids practically knock me over at the door, taking books out of boxes and "claiming" them before I can even put them on the shelf! Please help us keep this excitement through the spring semester by donating an award-winning collection of "tween" literature to our library. Tween books are written about high interest subjects specifically for 10-13 year olds.

Remember those memories of childhood books that you have? The very books you donate to our classroom could become beloved parts of a child's life that will stay with them throughout adulthood. Please help kids become powerful readers by supplying them with the books they want and need!