My students need to connect through the arts to the world history and cultures they've studied. AZA, a North African music group, would greatly enhance our curriculum.
$513 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.
Heinrich Heine said "When words leave off, music begins." In a class with many learning styles, I make sure every history unit I teach includes poetry, art, science, and music. My students' connections to world history through music would be hugely enhanced with experiencing a live performance.
My students are seventh graders at a public middle school in California.
They live in a majority Latino community, with many students living in migrant housing situations and getting free meals and other support services from our school. It is a vibrant community, rich in the arts, but our district cut most of the arts from the regular school schedules at middle school level year ago, because of local and state budget crises. The only chance most have to be involved in music on our campus is in the after school program (singing class, dance, guitar lessons, band), and not all students participate in that.
Many of my students also have low reading comprehension levels for which they receive tutorial help to get them closer to grade level; this makes it difficult for them to have true access to curriculum materials without help, including exposure to the arts. They are excited about music, art, and drama and dive wholeheartedly into the assignments that include these activities.
My Project
Some of my favorite memories of my students involve watching them at live performances of music, arts demonstrations, or storytelling. They lean forward with rapt attention, curious and often wide-eyed despite teenage attempts to be "cool"; toes and fingers tap as they figure out new and unfamiliar rhythms, hands shoot proudly up into the air to share their knowledge from class with our guest or to ask questions, and connections are made to a culture they are frequently encountering for the first time.
This AZA concert would mean that they will be hearing new languages and styles of music from several cultures whose origins and history they've studied this year. They will confirm similarities and differences between cultures, others and their own, and that helps them be more open-minded about the variety of people they will meet as they grow and learn.
My seventh graders need to connect cultures they studied with real people, and with live music that helps them make those connections between book and real life.
It extends beyond school; a student once asked one of our guests if she minded a photo of cultural objects that had been shared so that family at home could hear and see all about the experience in class that day. We don't have much money at our school for field trips, so I want to bring the outside world to them and expand horizons.
AZA
(AZA (two of its members) will present a performance that teaches about North African and Islamic music traditions and how cultures can influence each other's music in rhythm, subject, and style. This will link into seventh grade history curriculum and allow students to connect the music to what they have learned.)
$400.00
Visitor cost
$400.00
Vendor shipping charges
FREE
Sales tax
$0.00
3rd party payment processing fee
$6.00
Fulfillment labor & materials
$30.00
Total project cost
$436.00
Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
$76.94
Total project goal
$512.94
How we calculate what's needed
Total project goal
$512.94
14 Donors
-$457.94
Donations toward project cost
-$389.25
Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
-$68.69
match offer
-$55.00
Match offer toward project cost
-$46.75
Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
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 Mrs. R. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
