My students need a mix of fiction and nonfiction literature that will engage and empower them during our daily read aloud time.
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Ippel's classroom raised $466
This project is fully funded
My Students
I have a group of 18 second graders that live in Gallup, NM. Most of my students are Native American and live on a reservation. Every student in our classroom receives free and reduced breakfast. No matter their life situations, students find a safe, nurturing, and loving environment in our classroom. It is also a place where I try to provide my students with opportunities they would not have outside of school.
Reading is one of my key ingredients to providing my students with opportunities to explore the world, see through someone else's lens, brainstorm new ideas, and chase after our passions/interests.
Currently, my last group of second graders were bored with the reading curriculum we had last year. The books were worn and old. They were dull and uninteresting. Read alouds quickly became their least favorite time and quite honestly, it became mine as well. For my new group of students, I want to quickly engage them into our literature and change read-aloud time into a space of exploration, questions, and problem solving together.
My Project
This project would be providing me with 3-5 books that I could use to follow our theme and our reading strategies each week for the entire year. Books from this project will be used during the read-aloud portion. Our read aloud time consists of 20 minutes with 15 minutes of dissecting our reading strategy through book talks, writing or post-reading activities. The literature included in the project have strong vocabulary, empowering themes, and that are relate-able to our standards. The read alouds consist of a mix between non-fiction and fictions texts with themes ranging from mummies to inventors, from friendship to fairtales.
These books will become the basis for weekly exploration and deeper learning experiences.
For example- in March, we will be spending two weeks learning about inventors and the connections to history. With books like "On a Beam of Light," a story about Albert Einstein and "What Do You Do with an Idea?" students will make inventions of their own. This unit will also include coding opportunities for my students and stem projects to help develop an inventors mind. In December, my students will be learning about the Iditarod- the last great race on earth through books like "Stone Fox" and "DK Readers L4: Snow Dogs!: Racers of the North". Student will have the opportunity for a virtual field trip to experience the race in a new way.
This set of literature will follow weekly themes that help students grasp reading strategies more effectively and develop new learning experience with hands-on units. Literature is our basis for experiential learning. "It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations... " -Katherine Patterson
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 Mrs. Ippel and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
