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.
About My Students
I'm thrilled to be working with some very dedicated students on this literacy project. Armarion and Denajasia wrote a compelling proposal explaining why Chicago's book deserts deserve Little Free Libraries. Their passion for helping their fellow Chicagoans is really exciting!
We started looking at maps of Chicago in World Geography class and right away noticed some stark contrasts. The colors used to represent crime, illiteracy, and poverty cover the South and West sides, the same places a majority of our students come from. They kept asking, "Why?" but more importantly, they wanted to know what they could do to change it. This Little Free Library project is the perfect way to have a positive impact on Chicago's literacy, and in doing so, improve outcomes for our students and everyone who calls Chicago home.
The Little Free Library project combines academic skills in Algebra, Engineering, World Geography, and English. Students will work in groups of 4-5 to determine an appropriate location for their library in a current book desert, choose books according to age and genre to stock their library, and physically construct both a cardboard prototype and a final wooden library. Students will self monitor their progress on a design loop board and hold each other accountable for their work. We emphasize the importance of setting clear and achievable goals by doing a "daily stand up" where we set a goal for work time and state who we need help from to accomplish the goal. So in addition to all of the academic work (measuring, learning how to use hand tools, reading books and writing book recommendations, reading maps and traveling to new parts of Chicago, etc.) students will work as a team to build something they are proud of, and that's a skill that they'll need in college and beyond.
In Their Own Words
Our project idea is to build a bunch of little free libraries and we plan to put these little free libraries in book deserts around Chicago. The ultimate goal of this project is to build literacy within Chicago. These little free libraries give people an opportunity to build up their knowledge. We are trying to spread the idea that reading is very important. -Denajasia
I plan to work hard and put forth effort in helping my fellow classmates in being successful at completing their projects. If that's not being a leader, I don't know what is. -Denajasia
I will bring this project to life by telling my friends how excited I am to build libraries and put them in different neighborhoods. -Armarion
This project is important to my school because we are trying to make a change for the better. We hope to get people reading the books we leave inside our little free libraries. Our main goal is to increase the literacy of people who don't have equal opportunities at a good education. -Denajasia
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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 Mrs. Haberkorn and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
