Chicken Soup for the Bulldogs Soul

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.

Students faced with tremendous amounts of obstacles are trying to beat the odds by becoming literate readers. I currently teach 1st grade in a highly poverty stricken environment. The community is extremely poor and run down and the school is currently labeled Title 1 which means the majority of our students receive free or reduced lunch. The students don't have access to many books, and we all know that books and the ability to read are an important aspect of life.

The students I serve are mainly monolingual students who are trying their hardest to read the English language. Although there are books available in the library, there are a very limited amount of books located in our classroom for them to use on a daily basis. Most of these students are the only members of their family that speak English and they don't have access to much literature that is at their reading level, which if we had, it would increase their confidence in becoming better readers.

If my classroom was able to obtain our own set of books, the students would be able to read books throughout the day that were on their individual levels. I would be able to have the students take home the books and share their progress with their families. My students are a great group of kids who really have a desire to learn and although they may not have the resources to buy their own books, they would be able to come to class and feel as though their classroom is their very own personal library.

As we all know, reading is the gateway to empowerment. Every child, regardless of their home lives or the community they live in, should have access to a vast array of books. You and your contribution would mean so much to my students as well as myself. Every time I go to the public library and bring back books my students are so happy, as many of them have never been to the public library. So, my thought is if I can't get them to the public library, then I will have so many books within our classroom that it will feel like our own little public library within our class. Please do whatever you can to help my students gain books and create their own little reader's paradise. Thank you!