My students need leveled classroom libraries filled with beautiful fiction and nonfiction books at their independent reading levels.
$11,860 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.
We are a Title I Elementary School in California with approximately 550 students school-wide. Students at my school come from a variety of backgrounds. We are situated in very diverse city in which about 40% of our population has a household income of less than $49,000 a year, while 30% earn more than $100,000 a year. There is a wide discrepancy between students at our school who come from low-income households and those who come from middle class families. A large portion of the students at our school come from households in which Spanish is the primary language spoken. Our neighborhood is situated minutes from the beach, and there are some students who have never even been to the beach, while others go on a weekly basis. This wide range of backgrounds and circumstances produces a unique set of opportunities as well as challenges among our students each year. Despite the differing circumstances from which our students come, our school provides ALL students with equal opportunities to learn and succeed. We have a beautiful Design Center which houses our STEAM program, a bike program, art class, music class, and a garden program to nurture our students' diverse interests.
My Project
As a first grade team, we are in the beginning stages of building our libraries and implementing a Reader's Workshop model; however, we do not have sufficient books to meet our students' needs! Research shows that children need large chunks of time each day to read high-interest books that they can access independently with high levels of success. These books are the foundational materials needed for this to be accomplished.
Students will have access to these books on a daily basis to support their independent reading during Reader's Workshop.
Students will each have a bin of books at their "just right" reading level, for them to read independently following a lesson in which they learn something that strong readers do. For example, students may learn that strong readers reread in order to smooth out their voice and read fluently. Then, they will have the opportunity to practice this skill in the context of their independent reading while the teacher circulates and meets with students individually. These books will provide our first graders with opportunities to have meaningful practice of critical reading skills and habits.
Perhaps most importantly, these books will foster our students' love of reading. Through providing our emerging readers with beautiful libraries, they will have daily opportunities to fall in love with books. These libraries will also support us as teachers in our implementation of a Reader's Workshop and school-wide literacy reform. We cannot have a Reader's Workshop until our classrooms and students are equipped with books that match their reading levels. Similarly, we can not lead our school and district in literacy reform until we have the materials to do so. This project is part of a larger vision for literacy reform and a balanced literacy program at our school. First grade intends to lead the way.
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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. Pueschel and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
