My students need a diverse array of intriguing, challenging independent reading books with the power to both reflect their lives and inspire exploration.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Rangel's classroom raised $507
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
I teach in a 6-12 Horace Mann in-district charter school in a large urban district. We have about 75 students per grade level, making for a small, closely-knit school with the feel of a family. We pride ourselves on welcoming and meeting the needs of an extremely diverse student population. Our students are 90% minority, 85% free and reduced-price lunch, 30% special needs, and 15% ESL learners. Our faculty works to differentiate for our kids in the most inclusive environments possible, meaning that any one classroom will have a bright mix of all these populations.
The students you'll be particularly impacting make up our sophomore class -a bright, enthusiastic, eclectic bunch with a strong desire to challenge themselves.
They are excited to embark on our ambitious year-long independent reading project, and I want to reward that commitment with materials befitting their level of engagement, providing them with books that will expand and challenge their worldviews and a text-rich, literate environment that will encourage them to stretch and take the risks needed to further their education and development.
My Project
The greatest impediment my students face as they prepare for college or career is the depth and breadth of their reading. Improving the skills of reading complex text and maintaining stamina help them not only in ELA class, but also in their other content classes. My cross-curricular team of teachers is devoted to guiding our students to reach an ambitious independent reading goal this year, and our students need a wide variety of texts to help them choose books and authors that interest them. The novels I've chosen represent a wide array of difficulty, but more importantly, contain glimpses of characters and lives that our students can relate to. Quite frankly, our students need more access to literature featuring protagonists of color. It's my hope that all of my students will be able to find an intriguing, thrilling book from this list.
One of my favorite authors, Junot Diaz, has said that if we don't give kids reflections of themselves in literature, we other-ize them; we make them feel like monsters.
With these books, my students can experience the vulnerability and perspective that comes from knowing one is not alone - that someone has felt the same way, or lived a similar life, and an amazing author wrote about it. I hope they learn through reading that their stories are just as valuable and deserving of the world's attention.
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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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. Rangel and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
