My students need 40 biographies of ten amazing individuals to gain greater historical understanding and awareness while building their reading and genre skills.
My classroom houses a diverse group of middle school children who are striving to be the best possible students they can be. Earlier this year they were engrossed by the biography of Vincent Van Gogh and made text-to-life, text-to-self, and text-to-world,comparisons. In addition, they completed complex writing assignments while learning about an artist, art,and Europe. This experience proved to be an interdisciplinary success.
I want to achieve this same success now in a small group dynamic. The four sets of biographies I am requesting will allow the students to work in groups of four (since each set has ten unique biographies). They will be able to study a noteworthy individual while incorporating the use of timelines and maps to better understand that person's role in history and their sphere of influence.
In addition to the history element, the students will be accomplishing a genre study by having the opportunity to reading a variety of biographies this year. In the process, they will synthesize ideas to analyze the text and determine significant accomplishments of each person. They will engage in comparing and contrasting, studying cause and effect, drawing conclusions, making inferences, and summarizing.
The fact that the sets include ten diverse biographies permits the students to decide which texts they would find most engaging. They can choose to study politicians (Kennedy or Washington), men or women (Gandhi or Eleanor Roosevelt), a scientist (Einstein), a magician (Houdini), etc. Therefore, they will be more successful in their reading and knowledge acquisition because the choice was theirs! The style and approach of these books makes them accessible to the students for independent study and discussion under a guided structure. They will use these texts in a Socratic circle approach so that they develop critical thinking skills.
If you fund this project for my classroom, the students will grow as readers, they will learn history, develop their sequential time-line skills and get a better understanding of geographical influence. In addition, these books will have an ongoing impact, as future classes will have the opportunity to use them. Your donation will make them better readers, better historians, and overall, better students.
Thank you for considering my proposal.
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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. O. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.