My students are enthusiastic to learn despite many challenges they face. I have 25 awesome students who vary tremendously in their reading abilities and levels. A few of my students read above grade level at a 7th grade level, while three of my students read as low as a 1st grade level. The majority of the class reads below grade level. Since there is such a disparity in reading abilities within my students, I desire to find books that spark their interest.
The school I teach at is located in a low income area surrounded by higher income schools.
My school is qualified to be a Title l because the income levels are lower; however, we do not receive funding yet. To be Title l, a school has to qualify for two years in a row. We are currently in our second year of qualifying, so next year we hope to begin receiving Title I funds. With a lack of state funding, it is extremely difficult to provide the exciting and challenging reading opportunities that my students need to improve.
My Project
My students need new books to reignite their curiosity and engagement. They struggle to stay engaged for multiple reasons. Each day, my students participate in guided reading lessons. These small group lessons provide me the opportunity to provide personal feedback and coaching. What I hear all to often is, “I’ve read this before.” There are insufficient books available in our school library to meet the needs of 6th graders at any reading level because the number of available books does not correlate with the student enrollment at the school. For this same reason, our literacy circles are stagnant. In order to change this, I am asking for multiple copies of nineteen different books like Number the Stars.
There are three main groups of students that I hope to reach by having this project funded.
First, the students who have not achieved growth and are stuck in a rut of exposure to the same books year after year. Second, students who are accelerated but often read through the upper level books in our guided reading library long before they arrive in sixth grade. And the third area of at-risk students includes the below-level readers who read at a 1st through 3rd grade level. These students are shy and have little confidence because the only content level they can read is material geared toward beginning readers. To enjoy reading, these students need high-interest low readability texts. These are books which target their interests as a 6th grader but are at a 1st-3rd grade reading level.
My goal is to provide all students with an opportunity to achieve their potential with books that are engaging and appropriate for their individual reading levels.
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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. Berns and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
