"Don't be robot readers!" is what I tell my class of first graders every single day. First grade students learn letter sounds and how to blend them into words. This makes for very choppy reading! To improve their fluency and expression, one of the best ways is to listen to books on tape and CD.
Our school is nestled in an urban environment in Oregon.
Our school is very high poverty, 92% to be exact. We have high diversity with 60% of the students enrolled in ESL classes and over 20 languages spoken in our school. We work tirelessly year after year to help these kids overcome the achievement gap and make grade level progress.
My Project
To teach reading in my room, I use the Daily 5 - Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, and Work on Writing. With the students actively engaged in these 5 activities, I am free to meet with small groups of students and with individual students to deliver instruction at their level. In order for my Listen to Reading center to work properly, I need working headphones and charged batteries. I currently have 4 Walkmans and 4 Discmans for the kids to use independently with a variety of books on tape and CD. The headphones, however, have missing foam pieces and exposed wires where they are coming apart. The batteries die quickly and we do not enough supply money to buy reams of white paper, let alone expensive batteries.
By funding my project, you will be ensuring that my class, and several classes in the future, will have adequate supplies to learn how to read fluently and with expression.
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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. Heinlein and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
