"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." --Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"
In order to achieve our goals in reading, we must proficiently read at our level. Sadly, we lack a sufficient number of books to reach this goal.
The socioeconomic status of our students vary greatly.
Students come from all walks of life at our school. That is what makes us so unique. Our school is heavily involved with its community and prides itself on its ability to reach out to those in need. Unfortunately, it is our students who need help now. We have students who cannot supply their own materials or funding for field trips. Quite often, our students solely rely on their teachers or their media specialist to provide books for them, because they are unable to secure transportation to the local library or afford to purchase books at the local bookstore. It is imperative, in order for teachers to help their students reach their academic goals, that a classroom library with a sufficient number of books is available to these students.
My Project
My students need a collection of books such as Pie, Eight Keys, and Three Times Lucky on the fourth grade level. Our state provides a list of 15 books called the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards. Each year, at our school, our media specialist offers rewards to those students who have read 3, 6, 9, and all of those books. Those students are also recognized on our school's morning news program. For some students, this recognition means the world to them. It helps build confidence in reading and a sense of accomplishment. For students who have read 14-15 books from the list, they will get to celebrate their achievement as they have lunch with a local author! Students are also given reading goals at the beginning of each nine weeks. They work so hard to reach these goals and there are prizes awarded for this achievement. Some classes enjoy a little friendly competition just to get the children excited! Students will develop a sense of pride as they get closer to reaching their goals. There are many studies that correlate reading to higher academic achievements as well.
Since moving to a new grade level, our classroom does not have a sufficient number of books to reach our reading goals.
Students will have access to more books, which will also aid in developing a thirst for reading! They will gain confidence in their reading comprehension skills, as well. Providing more books in our classroom library will allow students more choices for reading. Having these books will help our class reach its reading goal!
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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. Bodiford and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
