My students need a bookcase to display their student reviewed and recommended books and a lit circle set of non-fiction books with essays that show them their potential.
$427 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.
"Oh gosh. I don't really remember what that book is about. Ask your table partner. I think he just finished reading it."
"Miss, you're the teacher. You're supposed to know what these books are about."
"So many books. So little time! I can't possibly read them all. That's your job now. Help me!"
The students' unstable home environment unfortunately mirrors the tumult of their neighborhood school.
Our campus fights and wins yearly battles against school closure. The threat is persistent and real. In the last two decades our campus has added a Liberal arts magnet school and taken it away; closed after decades of low performance and reopened under a new name; separated into two campuses and recombined again; fought off the takeover from a charter school only to spend millions on the services of a national school improvement program.
The students feel the uncertainty and insecurity of extremely low teacher retention. Every year brings new faces trying to enforce new rules. The students in my classes also struggle against prejudicial attitudes towards our school and have internalized the negative association with our school's performance and rating. They take a longer time to understand their worth and potential; they need more role models telling them they can be successful, too.
My Project
My students swear they've not read a whole book before in their lives, but they are voracious readers. They read texts, tweets,and devour pages of biography about their favorite musical artist. We will read essays from Reach during our unit on identity and self-discovery. Students will connect with the essays in this collection because the submissions are from high interest celebrities. They revere successful artists in music, fashion, and design. These essays help my students navigate dreams, expectations, and real world results. Reach is their mentor text and will guide them while writing their own essay of their successes-current and future.
Student and teacher book talks, reviews and recommendations help value reading. But I can't read everything first. Students will display reviews, recommendations, and the "hottest" reads on the bookshelves. This bookcase will house the students' picks of the month along with QR codes linking to personalized reviews/recommendations of top books.
The book of essays acts as 40 role models showing my students how to make it in life.
The collection counts as high interest because my students consider the group of men chosen to contribute celebrities. They would love to read about the success stories of people in the music, arts, and fashion industries. Non-fiction reading will improve their on the job skills significantly considering most work reading consists of informational texts. The bookcase displays "hottest reads" and rave reviews.
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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 Ms. Jones and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
