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
My students are, in many ways, what you imagine when you hear of the challenges facing "urban schools." Most of my students come from poor, often immigrant families, and they are all entering high school severely lacking the skills they will need to be successful in college and beyond.
Our school is committed to project-based learning that connects the educational experience to "the real world" through assignments and activities that takes students beyond the classroom into their communities and the wider world.
While fiction might not always be "real," good fiction is always "true," and as many of you know, can be the hook that sparks a life-long love of learning.
Most of my students enter high school woefully under-read. In order to pass the English Regents (New York State's standardized test, which is a graduation requirement), be prepared for college, and generally be well-rounded human-beings, my kids need to read more. There is no way that I can teach as many books as they should experience. Also, the students who need to read the most are, unsurprisingly, often the most reluctant to do so.
My Project
In order to attempt to correct this, we do independent reading for 30 minutes 2-3 times a week. Students are allowed to read anything that interests them, as long as its a book. Having a good selection of books is vital, because if a student who is reluctant to read doesn't find something that grabs them, they simply won't read -- and no amount of cajoling, begging, or threatening will work. There is nothing more exciting than seeing a kid, who once declared they "hated reading", beg for 5 minutes more with a book.
I try to give my students a variety of high-interest, high quality literature, but I currently have a very limited library. Until you've tried to get 100 kids to each find a book they enjoy reading, you won't understand how few books, even 200 books, really is.
Having a wide variety of classic but still popular titles is invaluable.
Helping buy these books will ensure that more kids find a book they love to read -- and might just help put them on the path to academic success.
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 Mr. Van Dyke and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
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