Creating Mirrors Through Diverse Books in Our Classroom Library
Help me give my students 21 new, exciting, Latinx, middle grade books for our classroom library.
$314 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
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 middle school students are eager to find "their" book. When we do an activity each semester in class called a Book Tasting, they excitedly race to the bookshelves to discover something that calls to them before the timer goes off. As they flip through the books in the genre bins they enthusiastically glance at the covers and hope to find something new and relateable. Even my students who self-proclaim that they are not interested in reading fully participate in this activity and ask me for recommendations on a "good book".
My Project
The entire 6th and 3/4ths of the 7th grade student body uses my classroom library as their on campus resource for checking out books. As an English teacher, I assign reading four nights per week. Students use my library to find new and engaging books as we work to improve their reading levels. Reading is the number one homework assigned in my classes because it improves vocabulary and reading comprehension.
54 percent of the students at our middle school are Hispanic and yet my classroom library almost only consists of books with Caucasian characters and authors.
How can I expect all of my students to relate to the books in my library when I cannot provide them with "mirrors" in which they can see themselves? How can I inspire all students to be writers when half of them cannot find books written by writers who are Latinx?
Your donation to our project will provide our Latinx students with these "mirrors". This is imperative to learning because students are more engaged in their reading when they see reflections of themselves in their books. My classroom library desperately needs these books so that I can provide a more balanced array of novels for our entire student population.
Lastly, all students will benefit from the books about Latinx characters or written by Latinx authors because reading creates empathy and understanding. All students will benefit from reading about characters from not only their own culture but other cultures.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Mrs. Haggmark and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
