We need multicultural books so that our students can identify with the characters in the books they read so they are more excited about reading in English.
We are excited to have over 30 multicultural books in our classroom that our students can access at any time of the class. We also look forward to continually expanding the library to reflect the many cultures of our students as the years pass. We want to get our kids more excited about reading!
In all three classes that will have access to this library, the students came up "Wish Lists" of books that they want to read and are interested in reading. There are approximately 10 students in each grade level for this class. So, these book ideas come from 30 students ready to identify with the characters in their books. They took time out of their day at school as well as at home to read through book descriptions that they found interesting and had something to do with their culture. The students also reflected on their current books selection and books that they have read in the past; many of them came to the realization that they had never read a book with a protagonist that shared the same cultural background as them.
We have spent time working on our writing skills and, more importantly, how to write with a formal register. Most middle school students can communicate in writing what they need, but asking for something in a formal, polite way is an essential skill for a college pathway as well as a career pathway. Students will need to know how to write formally for any college essays as well as any cover letters they write for a job.
One social-emotional skill we have worked on is problem solving. We identified the problem in our classroom, which was that our classroom library lacked multicultural books that students wanted to read. After that we discussed options of how we could make changes to our classroom. This process, the idea of students changing their learning environment, is something that none of them said they had ever done before this project. Hopefully, we as the teachers will spark in our students a better ability to self-advocate and ask for what they need as life-long learners.
In Their Own Words
Currently, our library in class does not have enough books that we want and we don’t have enough money to buy the books. We are trying to create a nice, reading-friendly environment where all students want to read multicultural books and other types of book for our subjects in school. We are trying to get new multicultural books and other books, too. Also, we would like some relaxing furniture for us and the future kids to enjoy.
Watch the video to learn more: https://youtu.be/VK4HX17WKCw
There are 30 students from many different country like Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Vietnam, and Cambodia in all of our classes. Our classes created the wish list of books that we would like to read. The book selections all come from multicultural book lists. We are getting books that we want for the classroom’s library. We want to have more readers in our class and in other classes that use the same room with us. This is the first time we have been able to choose the books in our classroom.
We currently do not use the library because there are no good books. This project is important to our classroom because we are trying to get the environment we want and change something to be better than it was in the past. We can learn about other students’ cultures and their nations. We would feel proud to get the multicultural books we want and deserve.
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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 Mr. Landseidel and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.