My early five students are eager to explore and dive into their educational journeys, as this is the first school experience for many of them. My students come to school every day happy to see their friends and learn together. My school is a Title l school where all students get a free breakfast, and many receive lunch aid as well.
My students' first year is a valuable and influential time for them as it lays the foundation for their school career.
I want to provide them with the most authentic and engaging educational experience.
My Project
Each of these texts is listed as mentor texts for our Reading and Writing Units throughout the year. These books will be utilized to introduce new concepts to my students. For example, the story "Hey, Little Ant", will be used during our Opinion Unit. This story will create discussion on whether or not it is okay to flatten ants. From this discussion, we could lead it into many other talks of respecting living things and their differences.
I believe stories can open students' minds to many other avenues outside of their everyday life.
I chose many National Geographic nonfiction texts for this project because during our Informational Units, my students love learning about living things they've never seen; like koalas and dinosaurs! Each of these texts is colorful and full of vocabulary to expand my students' learning.
At the beginning of the year, we have our Emergent Units. This is where students are exposed to many classic texts that they will learn to love as we will read them over and over again. Each story also has a powerful message for my young students. Examples of these texts are "Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed" with the theme of doing good deeds for others which in turn might start a chain reaction, or "Otis" which shows that everyone has purpose- even Otis the Tractor and "The Carrot Seed" that emphasizes having perseverance, even though others may doubt you.
These books will be used all year long, over and over again, to grow my students' love for literacy!
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