Diversity in Print: Seeing Ourselves and Others Through Reading
Help me give my students enough books for everyone to take home their own copy.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Walter's classroom raised $427
This project is fully funded
My Students
My students are creative, energetic, and ambitious. The best part of my job is getting to talk to, build relationships with, and inspire such positive, friendly young people.
While some of them may not admit it, they love stories.
Every student has his or her own preferences when it comes to genre, but they all enjoy reading about interesting, compelling characters. They love being shocked and surprised, and their reactions to the twists in some of our readings is one thing I love most about being an English teacher. More than anything, they love reading about characters who are like them; if they can see themselves in the works we read, they become that much more invested.
As students in an urban, low-income area, most students don't have access to many resources. Their reading options are often limited, and the books available to them aren't always the most engaging. They often can't take books outside the classroom because of limited supplies. One of the biggest challenges I face is providing them with new and innovative reading experiences, but this is what I need to do to give them the best educational experience.
My Project
One of my goals as an English teacher is to provide students with reading experiences that allow them to learn about other cultures, to see that there's a much bigger world than the one they know. As teenagers in a small, urban area, most of them have not had opportunities to travel, and they're largely unaware of what's outside their own community. We currently don't have many books at our school that are written by diverse authors, and I hope to introduce Parrot in the Oven to work toward that end.
With this novel, students will read about a young boy who, like them, experiences adversity, but whose cultural background is vastly different.
The book is an engaging, thought-provoking read that students are sure to enjoy and benefit from.
In teaching this novel, I'll help students to appreciate the differences offered by other cultures, making them more well-rounded, worldly citizens. I'll guide them in seeing connections to their own lives despite these differences so that they can reflect on the threads that unite us all.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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