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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Ritson from Phoenix, AZ is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

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Fully Funded

Ms. Ritson's classroom raised $480

I'm as Smart as a Dictionary!

My middle school students need 18 dictionaries and 15 thesauruses in order to help with improving their vocabulary and their reading and writing skills.

Classroom photo
Ms. Ritson Teleos Preparatory Academy
Phoenix, AZ Grades 6-8

"Ms. R, what does 'gumption' mean?" "What did the dictionary say?" "We don't have a dictionary!" This is a common exchange in my classroom. My students are demonstrating wonderful curiosity, but I am often unable to give them the answers they crave because we do not have the resources. I teach at a just recently opened, high need, inner-city charter school and we have very little in the way of resources. I teach all the 7th and 8th grade Language Arts classes. We have no library in our school and no computers in our classrooms. There are not enough classrooms for teachers to have our own rooms, so we are all traveling teachers and our classrooms have very few resources.

Our school believes in pushing our typically under-achieving student body to read great and challenging works of literature like Shakespeare and Dickens, but we have no way to look up the difficult vocabulary in these texts. My middle school students have a vocabulary level that is an average of two to three years below their expected grade level. This often leads them to be frustrated and give up on our readings. I try to teach them about how they can go about figuring out meanings of words (context clues, dictionary, thesaurus, internet resources, etc.), but I often run up against the wall of our lack of resources. Students also do not have access to dictionaries or thesauruses at home and many of our students do not have access to the internet. My students are genuinely curious about the meaning of words, and we constantly talk about improving our vocabulary to become more successful readers and writers, but we lack the resources needed for this improvement. I have purchased a few copies of cheap dictionaries from the dollar store, but they have very few definitions in them and students often get even more frustrated that the word they want to know is not in these cheap dictionaries.

Having 18 high-quality dictionaries and 15 accurate thesauruses between my three classrooms will be a great start to addressing the vocabulary gap that my students are experiencing. With several dictionaries in each classroom, students will be able to look up challenging words when they are tackling Dickens and other great works. We will also be able to do group activities where students are looking up definitions in the dictionaries or synonyms in the thesauruses to help the students improve their vocabularies. Students will also be able to improve their writing and spelling with ready access to dictionaries and thesauruses.

My students and I would greatly appreciate any assistance you could provide. Your help would enable more fluid and engaging reading of great works of literature for students who usually have no access to such texts. Your generosity will make it possible for my students to improve their vocabulary levels and become better readers and writers, which sets them up for success in the future!

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More than half of students from low‑income households

86 students impacted 17 donors
Ms. Ritson Teleos Preparatory Academy Grades 6-8

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Phoenix, AZ View local requests

More than half of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

86 students impacted 17donors

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE COLLEGE DICTIONARY THIRD EDITION- - --*Comments* • Teachers' School Supply Inc. $9.86 18 $177.48
ROGETS II: THE NEW THESAURUS- - --*Comments* • Teachers' School Supply Inc. $9.86 15 $147.90

Materials cost

$325.38

Vendor shipping charges

 $35.79

Sales tax

 $18.22

3rd party payment processing fee

$4.88

Fulfillment labor & materials

$9.00

Total project cost

$393.27

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$86.33

Total project goal

$479.60

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $479.60

16 Donors

-$474.11

Donations toward project cost

-$393.27

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$80.84

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$5.49

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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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 Ms. Ritson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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