Celebrate Black Teachers and Students
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
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Mrs. Willis from Albany GA is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
Help me give my students a classroom set of Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" to help them increase reading skills, reading stamina, and combat student illiteracy.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My students come from families who face a number of obstacles; however, they are so much fun and love to share and discuss their lives as a connection to our learning. Despite the obstacles (economically disadvantaged, learning disabilities, mental disabilities, etc.), my students push pass their circumstances and strive to do their best. I admire their perseverance, but I wish I could provide better learning opportunities for them.
Our school is classified as Title I, which means: all kids will receive free lunch, all kids are economically disadvantaged, and academic scores and literacy rate---low.
It can be hard to teach students who feel as if they have no way out of his or her situation. Thus, it is my goal to help students develop a mindset of growth through reading and exploration of topics they may never discuss.
Each one of my students are special in their own way and deserve the same opportunities as students who attend schools who are greatly funded; because they too still dream and possess the potential to succeed.
With technology on the forefront, physical copies of books are disappearing from the classroom more and more each year. Studies have shown that with books in close proximity to classroom activity:
•time spent reading increased by 60% compared to a control group
•literacy- related activities more than doubled, from an average of 4 interactions per hour to 8.5 interactions per hour
•letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, concepts of print and writing, and narrative competence rose 20% more than the control group after a year, followed by continued gains 6 months and 12 months later (Neuman, pg. 2).
Thus, it is my goal to keep classroom sets of novels so that my students will have an opportunity to read books that are tailored to their interests.
More than anything, this novel will play a part in helping students increase lexile scores and reading stamina; and with consistency will further develop literacy.
With this particular novel, students will be able to learn about the historical hurricane(s) of Florida, how to identify various literary techniques (like characterization, imagery, dialect, etc.), and life lessons about self discovery and perseverance. In addition, they will also produce projects that incorporate artistic elements that demonstrate learning.
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