As a teacher, I believe that all of my students can learn...just maybe not in the same way, and maybe not on the same day.
My students live in a low-income, rural ranching community in Colorado.
My students are as unique as the community we live in. Here, kids still go out and play in the mud, or sling their fishing pole across the front of their bicycles as they head to the fishing hole. They have the most amazing, innocent childhood. But, living in a rural community also has its downfalls. My students lack experiences that most of us would consider "typical," like going to a museum or traveling on a ferry. Our school also has very limited funding for resources and materials, and each year our classroom and school funds continue to be cut. It is a true challenge, as a teacher, to ensure that my students will be adequately prepared for the future that lies before them. My hope is that, as a teacher, I can ensure my students make clear connections between their learning and the "real-world."
My Project
Our class needs a "Finding Evidence Reading Comprehension Kit" to help engage them in finding evidence in a hands-on way. The kits include a variety of text, both narrative and informational, that helps students with a variety of reading comprehension skills: inferring, comparing/contrasting, summarizing, determine main idea or theme, analyzing text structure, determining point of view...but most importantly finding the text evidence that supports their answers. I love that these Comprehension Kits focus not only on individual reading comprehension skills, but primarily targets the skill of finding evidence to support thinking. I have found that students, even the best of readers, continue to struggle with this component of reading; I have also found, that as their teacher, I too humbly struggle with finding materials and resources to enhance this skill.
My goal is to use the Comprehension Kit in small group or independent reading to build individual student's reading skills, while working on the overall goal of proving their ideas and responses through text evidence.
I would love to add the Comprehension Kit to my classroom resources!
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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 Mrs. Cucuel and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.