I See Me . . . And I Like It!: Celebrating Reality in Reading
Help me give my students the books that they need for a representation of their reality and the button maker to help them celebrate their diversity publicly.
Our school is an academic, economic, and socially diverse school in the heart of Henrico County. Three-fourths of our students have applied for, and been accepted to, the International Baccalaureate program. The other portion of the student community filters in from nearby neighborhoods. Our library is working towards creating a flexible learning commons to support the needs of all of our students.
"We read books to find out who we are.
What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel...is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become." ~Ursula K. Le Guin
A large focus of the library program is to build lifelong learners and promote the love of reading. We have been working hard in building a collection that represents the cultural diversity of our school's population. While we have made strides in getting more books that readers can find themselves in, we are not where we want to be yet. Students want to be able to celebrate themselves, and we want to give them that opportunity.
My Project
Every day students are checking out books from the library because they love to read. They get truly excited when we have new books, however, we often hear kids asking for books with "a character like me."
We want to give students the opportunity to celebrate what makes them different.
This book list has been curated to include titles and genres that represent the diversity found within our building. Many have main characters of different ethnic backgrounds (Brown Girl Dreaming), but all feature stories that a middle school student can relate to (Sunny Side Up). We will use our button machine to allow the kids to express their inspiration and celebrate their individualism for all to see! We want these kids to get excited about reading!
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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. Dunaway and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
