Help me give my students the opportunity to read and analyze the following four classic books: Number the Stars, Esperanza Rising, Island of Blue Dolphins, and Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
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 Project
Throughout most of my career I have used Literature Circles to inspire my kids to enjoy reading. Often times, kids do not like to read chapter books. However, I have found that reading and analyzing a good book through Literature Circles is key.
Kids should experience the joy of reading by getting lost in a story through analysis, discussion, and annotating.
Literature Circles provide social experiences where students can talk about what they are reading. Kids can compare and contrast, they can argue their ideas based on personal experiences and cite text evidence to state their claims. Analysis and discussion promote their reading comprehension as well as listening and speaking skills. If my kids can have their own copy of the books, they can annotate on them. They can use Close Reading Icons and jot down what they understand or question.
Reading should be fun! We need to make their reading experiences enjoyable! Literature Circles provide powerful experiences even for reluctant and/or struggling readers.
My students will benefit from having these four novels for our Literature Circles The books I have chose are ones that I have been using for the last 15 or more years. In my experience, by the end of the school year, almost all my students pick Reading as their favorite subject.
There is no better feeling than having former students come back to tell me that they way I taught Reading in fourth grade was exactly how they did it in college. It is a wonderful feeling!
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. Ramirez-Perez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
