Boda Borg: Questing for Collaboration, Growth Mindset, and Reading Culture
My students need entrance to Boda Borg, an interactive experience that will help them cooperate, problem-solve, and develop a growth mindset while celebrating their Summer Reading accomplishments!
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Allen's classroom raised $418
This project is fully funded
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.
My Students
At our high-poverty, urban K-8 school, my students learn all subjects in two languages, reading and writing in both English and Spanish. That means twice as much reading, twice as much writing, and twice as much thinking. It means we sometimes struggle for resources when the Spanish-language book is not available or is too expensive. When it's time to research about landmark Supreme Court cases or the use of drones in Afghanistan, they evaluate the credibility and potential bias of the source. Then they devour the information, often calling each other over -- "You've got to read this!"
These bilingual middle schoolers are curious, hilarious, and irrepressible; they want to know everything, and they rightly see themselves as leaders.
My students feel pride in their cultural heritage as well as their academic accomplishments. They act with empathy, and they are the kind of people to whom I am glad to entrust this world when I am older and dependent on the younger generation. I want to do anything I can to encourage their best qualities and play to their strengths, even as I try to help them improve their reading and writing skills.
My Project
Some students grumble and gripe their way through their Summer Reading assignments. Our seventh and eighth graders, however, are anxious to read novels and articles in both English and español, excited to write essays about them, because all of our Summer Readers are invited to a celebratory field trip... to Boda Borg!
Boda Borg is team-based "questing": live-action physical and mental challenges where success in the first challenge means entry into the next challenge, and failure means going back and trying again.
These brain-busters require teamwork, careful observation, methodical testing of ideas, and most of all persistence. I have never seen a better example of a lived practice in developing growth mindset.
This trip is key to continuing to develop the culture of joyful reading in our English and Spanish Language Arts classrooms. Students have an incentive to read and write in both languages over the summer, and then those who do earn the trip come back and share how fun it was. The next year, we have more readers opt to do the extra work, and the program grows!
Your donation provides entrance to Boda Borg for our summer readers. Our goal is to have 40% of our students opt into the Summer Reading program this year. By next year, when word spreads, we hope to double it. Help us make it happen! ¡Adelante!
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. Allen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
