Creating a Listening Center to Help Eager Readers

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

When you were a child, do you remember reading a story that you really connected with and loved? Many of my students come into my room every year with a lot of barriers that block this love. It is my goal to create a community of students that enjoy reading, listening to books, and creating stories.

I teach in a fifth grade regular education, special education, and English language learner inclusion classroom.

I will have approximately 100 students in my classroom throughout the day. My students for the 2014-2015 year range in ability over several grade levels in the areas of math, reading and writing. By the time they get to fifth grade, some of them begin to realize that they are behind their classmates. It is my passion to change that and help all of them be successful.

My Project

I am requesting a mobile listening center storage unit and a couple of extra wireless headphones. This unit will house a CD/cassette player, headphones, books on tape/CD, and other resources to help my students read. Listening centers have many benefits for literacy learning of children. When listening to stories read by authors, many of the authors read with such great expression that it brings the stories to life for the children. Children then see the meaning behind the words on the page, and how a story is read can convey certain messages. Another advantage of an audio-literacy center is it helps children read in a fluid manner without stopping and stumbling over more complicated words. Children can also enhance their vocabulary through hearing how words are used in the context of a sentence/paragraph. Listening to books also helps children hone their listening skills to understand what is going on in the story.

Many ELL and Special Education students struggle in the area of reading.

Fluency and vocabulary are two main factors that determine a child's reading ability. This donation will help my students improve in both of these areas through hearing and reading along with fluency activities and stories. Even more importantly, this listening center will help to capture many reluctant readers' interests by listening to many great stories that are read with creative expression.