My students come from an amazing variety of ethnic backgrounds. This is one of the reasons I love my school so much. Books that reflect the world around us and explore different cultures are the books I love to teach.
My students, as I said, come from just about every country in the world.
From China to Lithuania. We live in Brooklyn, New York where most of the students are immigrants or children of immigrants. I feel as an English teacher it is important to include books that reflect these unique experiences. It helps all the students become global citizens.
I feel, that while I teach the classics, there needs to be more emphasis on World Literature that also includes the American immigration experience. Most of my students have come from situations that cannot be believed. Yet they often sit next to students that are well off and whose families have been here for centuries. I think it is a valuable and exciting and informative processes to learn about other cultures and the situations that their peers and their families have faced.
My Project
I am asking for donors to please help us receive a class set of Paper Daughter by E. Elaine Mar. The memoir is about a girl from China who immigrated to the US and the cultural, parental, educational and societal conflicts she had to overcome. She eventually went on to attend Radcliffe.
It is an American Literature class for the eleventh grade as well as a twelfth grade Honors class that focuses on the family. My students will be able to learn about their classmates' experiences (as the majority of our students are Chinese immigrants) as well as validate the Chinese students life experiences.
As far as the Honors class is concerned, the experiences of an immigrant family and the challenges they face both within and outside the family is intense. They will create art projects, write college level essays, read extended articles and stories about other similar situations and write personal responses. We do not have any books that address this issue. It is essential.
The vast majority of my school's population is Chinese.
We have only two books that address China. They are set in China and are not very accessible to recent ELL learners. Plus, I feel it is important that the non-Chinese population learn about their peer's culture and situations. I have presented it to my students and they are eager to embrace it. It is poignant, accessible and very often, quite funny...necessary for high school students!
Please help us.
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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. Baranja and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.