My students need "high interest- low level" books, since many of them are learning English. These books are written at a low reading level, but cover Science and other non-fiction topics!
My students weren't born with the resources and advantages many children have. My job is to try to even that playing field. I spend ten to twelve hours a day doing that, but I am still lacking some of the resources I need. My students live in a very poor area of Oakland, California. The large majority of them are English Language Learners. My students come from poverty and most of them come to me performing substantially below grade-level.
Amazingly, their difficult home lives rarely affect their efforts and attention at school.
They are smart, driven, and hard-working sixth-graders. They deserve the opportunity to receive a good education, with all of the resources they need.
My Project
I teach Math and Science in Oakland, California. I may be biased, but I truly believe I have the most amazing students in the world! Almost 100% percent of my students come from families that have recently immigrated to the United States. I have seven hardworking students whose families have moved to the US within the past two years. These students are very intelligent, so it isn't as difficult to teach them Math. Science, however, can be very frustrating for them. The root of this difficulty is reading. I am working with these students after school, and I could really use more resources in order to better reach them. Reading affects these students across all subjects, so I will continue to do all I can to help them grow.
For many English Language Learners, learning to read in middle school can be embarrassing, but these books will help to relieve that problem.
The books I picked out are for "early-readers", BUT they discuss interesting, educational, middle-school topics. The "High Interest/Low Readability" books are perfect for these students. My students won't feel embarrassed reading these books at school, while learning Science and reading at an appropriate reading level! The Science encyclopedias and dictionary would benefit all of my students. However, I purposely chose lower-level Science resource books, so my ELL students can see pictures and simple explanations for our Science topics.
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