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.
My Students
I teach writing workshop to grades K-5th. 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders can participate in the annual Oregon Battle of the Books. I coached a team of five students last year and I would like to coach another team this year. The finalists go to regionals, and the regional finalists go to state.
Most our students are native Spanish speakers, but all are second language learners because we have a dual language school.
The Oregon Battle of the Books competition is all in English. I stay after school twice a week to work with these awesome, intelligent, wonderful, bilingual, sweet kids! We read, discuss the books, and I ask them questions about the books. We are going to continue even through the summer to work together and get prepared.
My Project
With these books, my students will be able to read all the Battle of the Books books and take notes in them. They won't have to return them to the library, so they'll still have them to study during the summer. When the competition is finished, they will be able to keep the books in their personal library, something that many of our students don't have in their homes.
Although my team for the Battle of the Books is only 5 students, I make quizzes for each book and make them available to our whole school, so my project actually benefits all students in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade (about 400 students).
I believe that the under-representation in finalist teams by English language learners is not due to lack of ability or interest.
Competing in a competition in English is more challenging for non-native speakers because they are learning to read in two languages rather than one, because English language idioms are often confusing, and because most of our ELL students' parents are not fluent in English and cannot help their children prepare for the competition or practice English reading.
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
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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. Rodriguez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
