My students need a listening center organizer and a cassette player to create a high quality listening center to help support bilingual students in English reading.
My job is to open doors for bilingual students. I teach a bilingual third grade class. My focus is Spanish literacy. I teach at school with a high number of low-income students and almost all of my Spanish literacy students are low income.
My students have been reading and writing almost exclusively in Spanish since kindergarten. They are third graders and will be in an all English fourth grade. These students have been building their reading skills in their native language, Spanish which has allowed them to prosper in school with out having to learn language and literacy at the same time. In addition, allowing students to learn to read first in their native language makes it possible for their parents to be involved in their literacy instruction. Now that they are in third grade, they are ready to transfer their reading skills from Spanish to English. This is a difficult task that takes many extra supplies and a lot of hard work. We joke about having to work twice as hard as other students because they are learning in two languages. However, my students are happy to do the extra work, I just want to have the best supplies and resources available to them. They know that their hard work will pay off because they are becoming biliterate and will have more opportunities as adults due to their bilingualism. In addition, it is important for these students and their families that they learn in their native language.
To foster diversity and honor individual needs, I like to do reading centers during literacy. This allows me to work with small groups. One activity I love students to do independently is the listening center. Doing this allows students to access grade level literature in English that would otherwise be to challenging for them independently. Last year, my listening center broke and am now in need of a new one.
With the current economy it will be almost impossible for me to get this project funded by my school. Your generosity and support for this project will empower my students to thrive as bilingual readers. They will build confidence and fluency in English reading. In turn, you will be supporting them by opening the door for these students to be the bilingual leaders of the future.
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