Getting to Know You- Meeting Characters in Series Books
My students need 50+ series books to provide them with characters they know and love. This will include stories like Captain Underpants, Nate the Great, and Ivy & Bean.
We love Baby Mouse. We love Bones. We love, love, love Greg the "Wimpy Kid" but they are the only series we know. We need to know more! We are in third grade and now is the time to expand our literary minds! Please, please, please help us to meet new characters and authors we love. Please!
The students I teach are dying for books that make them want to read more.
They search for characters to connect with and stories to love. They enjoy read alouds, book talks, and even writing about books. They are avid readers who are seeking a wide range of reading in a rich classroom library. Unfortunately, as a fairly new teacher in a school with very little book spending money, we can't always give my students the books they deserve. I work in a city school in Maine with over 700 students. We are a Title I school where over 70% of the school body receives free and reduced lunch services and approximately one third of our students are English Language Learners. Our books right now are old and not in great shape and with donations like these new series books we will find new characters, new families, new friends to read and care about in our day to day classroom learning.
My Project
With these series books students will have a wider range of reading to choose from during our reading workshop time. They will be able to read books independently or with a partner taking turns. Because we have requested multiples in a series, students can form book clubs around a specific series where they discuss characters and share their favorites. We can work on character development as a class and make connections relating to characters or even connecting characters between series. With most of these series also in our school library we can collect multiples and host book groups. We can write authors about our new favorites and we can recommend books to one another. Because of this wide array, our class will become a stronger book reading community with a range of interests and book knowledge. We will leave third grade as experienced readers who know what we like and why because we have had so many experiences with these books, characters, and authors throughout our year
Working in a reading clinic this summer at the local college, we have been Skype interviewing different authors with our students.
Erin Soderberg, author of The Quirks series, told the children how much she loved reading series books when she was younger. She said she loved growing with the characters and learning all about their lives. Finding that my students feel the same way, I hope to expand my series collections to better meet my students' needs.
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
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Derouche and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
