My students need different books which represent their cultures and languages to create historical fiction book clubs in class.
$388 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! 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 7th graders are a tight knit community of chatty, hardworking young people. Despite knowing that this would be their last year at RESMS, that is closing in just a few short months, they've been determined and focused on their learning and do their best. My students' eagerness to learn has inspired me throughout this year to ensure that they read and work with texts that represent the realities and cultures which they come from.
My Project
RESMS is a K-8 Title 1 school that serves over 500 students. 70% of those students identify as Latino, 14% Black, 12% White, and 4% Asian. Of our diverse student population, 72.8% receive free lunch, which means that a child's family income is under $15,171. At the end of this school year, our 6-8 middle school will be closing down. This makes it so much more important that our hard-working students have as many meaningful learning experiences as possible.
YA novels deal with issues of social inequality, identity, and sexuality; they help young people form their own ideas about their world and build their identity.
However, most of the novels that are published represent these issues from a white perspective. According to the Collaborative Children's Book Center, less than 5% of the 3,400 they reviewed were written by or were about the Latin experience. As young people growing up in challenging circumstances, it's important for my students to be able to see themselves represented in the texts that we read.
Our following unit for Reading and Writing will cover Historical Fiction. Students will choose which book club they'd like to join and read the novel together. As they are reading, they will also be learning about how to write their own historical fiction stories, drawing from their 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. Jerez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
