Culturally Responsive and High Interest Texts for Struggling Readers
Help me give my students culturally relevant and high interest books to read. These books have characters that look like them and are on their reading levels.
My students are naturally curious and excited about learning. They come from a variety of backgrounds. Some of their parents brought them to the United States so they could have a richer education. Some of my students were born in the US, but in impoverished conditions. Actually, almost all of them have that story. 100% of the students in my school qualify for free lunch, which indicates that their families live below the poverty line.
My students have many strengths.
They are creative and energetic. They make sassy and hilarious comments that surprise me and bring life to our learning environment. However, one thing my students really struggle with is reading, which is why I work with them. I am a reading specialist for students in grades 3-5. Besides delivering targeted intervention and teaching reading strategies, my main goal is to instill a love of reading for students who find the mere act of reading to be daunting and frustrating. I aim to do this by putting quality, interesting, and culturally relevant books into their hands. Once I started introducing these texts to my students, I have found them to be hungry for more.
My Project
How does one become a better reader? By reading, of course! But what if the task of reading is so daunting, frustrating, and quite frankly, boring that students avoid it? What if they are disengaged because no books that are available to them feature children who look like them? They struggle with reading and do not improve because they are either frustrated with their book options or find them all too challenging.
As a reading specialist, my greatest desire is to help students develop a love of reading.
One way to do this is to introduce them to books that are interesting, culturally relevant, and simple enough for struggling readers to enjoy. My students have started to find books that make them excited about reading, but I want to add to our collection and provide these students with more choices.
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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. Leone and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.