Awesome Books for Awesome Kids

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.

Dear Kind Benefactor, Thank you for supporting our efforts. We have really great kids but we need some great books to help them improve their literacy. About 75% of our class is reading below grade level. Six of our students are on a second grade reading level in the 7th grade. This is unacceptable and if not corrected will greatly diminish our students' ability to get good jobs. Please help our kids to improve their reading levels by funding this grant. I spent four hours this weekend at Barnes & Noble searching for books that are on a second grade reading level but would be interesting and not humiliating for urban 7th graders to read. There is not a great selection out there but we found enough books for a good start. Our school uses the Columbia Teachers College Workshop Model of literacy. What that means is that students are taught literature skills that are somewhat universal such as how to make text to self connections, how to focus on the conflict in a text, or how to make inferences about what they have read. Each day, students are expected to read a certain amount and record notes using post-its in their books for discussion with their peers and to help them in their writers workshop. This model of literacy has been shown through research to help all readers not just the top readers which is what used to happen. However, this model also hinges on having books that are on the appropriate reading level of the students that will also engage them. This is why I have written this grant to you. We need your help to get these books and help our students progress to higher reading levels. Our students have been begging me to get them interesting books to read. I have bought many books on my own but a teacher's salary doesn't give a lot of room for philanthropy. Our goal is for all of our students to be on grade level. Please help us move towards this ideal by funding this grant. Each child that moves up a level will be a victory for all of us. We need our citizens to be literate for democracy to work. Our kids need to be literate to get good jobs. Your support is crucial in this struggle. Please invest in our students and their promising future. Thank you for your support and god bless.