I teach at a school where ninety percent of students are socio-economically disadvantaged and twenty five percent are English Learners. One third of my class started late in the school year and need to make a year's worth of reading growth in order to prepare them for Kindergarten, and ultimately the college or career of their dreams.
I often find myself stopping at the store on my way home to pick up various things, but these little purchases add up over time.
As you know, a teacher's salary is barely enough to make ends meet for myself, let alone to cover the supplies of my students.
My Project
Students will be using sight word talking boards, sight word journals, and phonemic awareness journals during small group time. Each day, we have thirty minutes of small group time so that I can meet with students in small groups to provide differentiated instruction and provide extra support to students who need extra help mastering certain concepts. With no teacher's aide, it is imperative that I have developmentally appropriate activities that students who I am not meeting with in a small group can navigate themselves and practice on their own.
Currently, I have four stations, one which is with me, but the resources I am using do not provide the rigor and excitement my students need to take their academic careers to the next level.
My students need hands on learning materials like the dot and learn journals and interactive tools like the talking sight word boards to keep them engaged and excited about learning to read.
Another need of my students is to have comfortable seating for a group of four in our library. During small group time, students love reading books and following along to audio with our listening center, but it becomes an issue of space and comfort because I do not have enough seating for all students. Students need floor seats to be comfortable while they sit and read.
In addition, (no pun intended!) we use small group time as a way to practice number sense skills. Being that our day is short, we need to integrate math into all parts of our curriculum! Students will use the number rockets, unlock number match activity, and the count and slide learning apples as a way to build essential number sense skills.
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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. D'Alessandro and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
