My students need high interest pleasure reading materials at their level in order to develop their vocabulary, language proficiency, and reading comprehension.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Austin's classroom raised $522
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
There is massive evidence that self-selected reading, or reading what you want to read, is responsible for most of our literacy development. Readers have better reading ability, know more vocabulary, write better, spell better, and have better control of complex grammatical constructions. -S Krashen
I teach long-term English language learners in a high poverty public middle school.
Most of my students have been in local schools since kindergarten. They are, in the main, perfectly fluent in conversational English. Students who haven't tested out of ESL after a number of years are generally poor readers with low vocabularies. So far. I do not accept this as a permanent condition.
Getting kids to read is the best way to turn them into better readers.
Lack of access to engaging books is a chronic problem for children in poverty. My students are not taken to the public library. Nobody buys them books. Our under-resourced school library is somewhat lacking in the high-interest easy-read books which are most likely to appeal to my students.
Accordingly, I have spent hundreds of dollars of my own money each year to build a classroom library geared to the tastes and reading levels of my ESL students.
My Project
Recently, my collection has been under strain because I have developed a school-wide reputation as a teacher who has good books, especially for low readers. Youngsters who are not even in my classes continually show up looking for books to borrow. A student came to my door recently and said, "I heard that you have books that kids actually like to read." A youngster who was taking a new student on a tour of the school brought the newcomer to my classroom and said, "You can always get a good book from Ms. Austin." It's true that I am unable to turn down any child who wants a book, especially since I am attracting students who are challenged readers.
The overwhelming popularity of my book collection among the struggling readers at my school, however, has left me with not enough books for my ESL students to choose from. I would like to establish a collection-- which will stay in my classroom-- of the most popular titles.
As I work to help my students develop grade-level literacy skills, I am mindful that turning a reluctant reader into an enthusiastic reader is more powerful than any work we do in class or any project I assign.
I have seen it again and again. The children who decide they like to read for pleasure and start reading more are the ones who move up in their language proficiency.
Students who read things they like to read, read more. They become better readers. They do better in school.
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. Austin and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
