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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Meade from Chicago, IL is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Meade is requesting
Fully Funded

Ms. Meade's classroom raised $475

My Last Lesson

My students need 35 copies of the graphic novel of Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun in order to gain a deeper understanding of nonviolence.

Classroom photo
Ms. Meade Urban Preparatory Academy - West
Chicago, IL Grades 9-12

My Students

According to statistics, my students are more likely to be incarcerated than they are to graduate from high school. My students are urban, Black males with disabilities and the odds are stacked against them.

Urban Prep Academy was created in a direct response to reverse alarming crime figures and abysmal graduation rates among Black males in Chicago.

Our motto, "We Believe," is a constant reminder that my students will not fall into the trap of negative stereotypes and low expectations. I frequently refer to my classroom as the gap within the gap. As a Teach For America corps member, I am working to close the achievement gap between low-income and affluent schools in our country. As a special education teacher, however, I am working to close the opportunity gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers.

My Project

For the past two years, I have promoted and preached the importance of literacy. As you can imagine, this message was not always well received. My students have both significant learning needs and significant gaps in their learning; reading is incredibly difficult and regularly neglected. Despite these challenges, my self-contained literature class was able to read high-interest novels such as The Hunger Games, The Catcher in the Rye, The First Part Last and The Book Thief. At this time, however, reading is something that is done only in my classroom. Unfortunately, my school lacks the funding for a library and a majority of my students' homes are bookless. Books are not the only thing missing from my students' lives. These young men are constantly bombarded by images of gang bangers, weapons and death. As a result, they are confused by their own identity; they now associate a certain lifestyle with their own race and gender. My students are in need of a message of nonviolence.

Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence is a raw and riveting account of urban violence.

In addition, it is a graphic novel, and therefore, it is accessible to low and struggling readers. As my Teach For America commitment concludes, please help me provide my students with a book of their own, but more importantly, please help me teach my last lesson.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More than half of students from low‑income households

35 students impacted 23 donors
Ms. Meade Urban Preparatory Academy - West Grades 9-12

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Chicago, IL 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

35 students impacted 23donors

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Fist Stick Knife Gun • AKJ Books $10.36 35 $362.60

Materials cost

$362.60

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$5.44

Fulfillment labor & materials

$35.00

Total project cost

$403.04

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$71.12

Total project goal

$474.16

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $474.16

21 Donors

-$460.92

Donations toward project cost

-$403.04

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$57.88

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$13.24

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

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

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Project Activity

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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. Meade and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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