Copy Machine for my Classroom

Thank you so much for reading my proposal. I teach sixth and seventh grade English at a SUR school in the Bronx, meaning that our test scores are so low that we are under constant review by the city and region. On top of our low academic achievement, 90% of our children are given free lunch. Despite these setbacks, my children want to learn so desperately, but often times do not have the means to do so. In my English classroom, we do most of our work in Reader's and Writer's Notebooks. I come into my room with chart paper pre-written, and my students usually copy the necessary information into their workbooks, because I am not given the luxury of using a copy machine in my school. I have been making copies at local stores using my own money and I have spent over 300 dollars already in copies. As a new teacher with very limited funds, I will soon run out of the resources to keep this copying going. In order to compensate for the lack of resources, in my last unit (Narratives and Vignettes) I focused primarily on read-alouds and independent books, because I could not produce class copies of material. This style of learning is beneficial, because it enhances auditory learning, however, my students desperately need to have one-on-one interaction with the texts. They need to read the words themselves in order for them to improve their reading and critical thinking skills. The next unit that we will begin in both classes is 'Exploring Non-Fiction". In order to make this unit fun and exciting for my students I have been subscribing to current events and science magazines and checking out biographies from local libraries. However, the nature of this unit requires my students to see these materials for themselves. I would love to make copies of specific articles so that they can write directly on them and keep them in their notebooks to review. When my students are able to see the print for themselves, they can pick out the main idea and supporting details on their own and then share their findings with classmates. In order to prepare for our ELA examination in January, my students need individual copies of these articles so that they can practice on their own. Furthermore, my students desperately need graphic organizers and copies of notes because many of them are far behind; copying information and not having a template that allows for step by step problem solving greatly hinders their academic progress. Please help my students by giving their teacher the capability to create the educational tools that will help them achieve significant academic gains. Thank you so much.