"Please excuse the mess, we are learning in here!" is a sentiment that describes our kindergarten classroom well. If you were to walk in during one of our reading blocks you would see small groups of students at different levels engaged in different types of learning.
We are a diverse classroom within Title I school with a high poverty level.
69% of our students receive free or reduced lunch. We also have a wide range of reading and ability levels. This includes everyone from emergent readers to independent readers working on first grade skills.
Not every child learns the same way so everyone will not be doing the same thing. We all enjoy hands-on and inquiry based learning and using technology to learn. Both tactile and kinesthetic learning as well as technology is integrated into our daily literacy instruction.
My Project
I would like to bring my classroom further into the twenty-first century as many teachers have teachers by replacing our listening center's tape players with tablets. However, funding has not been available for this.
Our current listen to reading center has audio books on tape with corresponding paperback books. The tape players are over twenty years old and are in poor working order. The books are in constant need of repair.
We already use the Reading A to Z leveled book program on our two classroom computers and in the computer lab. This program is tailored to each student's individual reading level and has an application that is compatible with these tablets. There are also very many sight word and literacy game applications the students could play if they had access to these tablets.
My students enjoy using Reading A to Z.
They would greatly benefit from using tablets. The tablets would be available for daily independent and guided reading use by all students within my class. They would be able to work on their independent level. Current literacy research proves that the more students work within their daily instructional level the better their reading skills will improve. When a child's reading level improves, his or her independence and confidence will also improve.
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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. Wilkerson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
