At-Risk 6th Graders: Library Books Honoring Russell Hughes
My students need quality, high-interest middle school books to hook them into reading, break them out of a cycle of poverty, and keep them on track toward graduation.
$907 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
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.
Few people remember middle school fondly. Those years of awkward growth, social upheaval, and self doubt are made even more challenging for at-risk middle school students. It is critical that these students get positive experiences with school and reading in order to succeed academically.
Our urban middle school serves 1200 students, 73% of whom live at or below poverty level.
Coming primarily from Hispanic families, our students have a strong work ethic and value their education. However, reading scores need to be higher if these students will be able to succeed academically on into high school. Middle school is the age where students either get turned on or turned off to reading. We have seen that students who stay engaged in reading for pleasure ultimately perform better in school.
A role model for at risk students at our school and teacher who had a deep impact on students was the late Russell Hughes. A gentle giant, Mr. Hughes lovingly served and shaped the futures of many troubled students on our campus. His love for reading led him to create his own "library" of books in the ISS room. This October our school library was renamed the Russell Hughes Memorial Library in his honor. His wife cut the ribbon in his honor at our dedication ceremony.
My Project
Our school library hooks 6th graders into reading every year with the Bluebonnet Reading program that challenges students to read at least 10 books from a list of 20 books from a variety of genres: mystery, biography, humor, fantasy, historical fiction,etc. Last year we had nearly 120 students reach this goal, and they were able to attend our Bluebonnet Reader Celebration. These students have gone on to participate in other reading programs this year and many are finally enjoying reading for pleasure for the first time. Reading books from different genres breaks many of our students out of their reading ruts and helps them find pleasure in sampling different books much like eating bites of this and that from an all-you-can-eat buffet. We even host a Bluebonnet lock-in where students build tents in the library and read Bluebonnet books until midnight! It is amazing to see a middle school boy reading a biography by flashlight in the library on a Friday night!
In honor of their dear friend, Mr. Hughes' poker buddies asked if they could make a donation of books to our library for Mrs. Hughes' Christmas gift this year.
Your gift would join theirs and make possible the purchase of three each of the 20 Bluebonnet titles which will be shared among the 350 6th graders and help them reach their reading goal. The Bluebonnet books for 2011-2012 will inspire readers here in the Russell Hughes Memorial Library honoring a man's dedication to student learning.
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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. Meeks and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
