Listening Center for First Grade

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.

I am writing this proposal in order to receive a listening center for my classroom. I teach first grade on the southwest side in a Chicago Public School. My students are predominantly Hispanic and 88% come from low income families. A listening center will greatly benefit my students by giving them an opportunity to enhance their love for literature through listening to books on tape. My classroom is center based which allows for several hands on activities to incorporate Reading. Teaching young children to read is essential for future success in school. I would love to add a new center to my classroom this year. A listening center would allow my students to listen to stories which will further develop comprehension and fluency which are necessary tools for emerging readers. A listening center also offers students the opportunity to record their voices while reading a story aloud. Assessing students ability to read is challenging. Being able to record my students reading passages several times a year, would give my students and I the opportunity to not only see their growth, but hear it. I feel that a listening center would also be extremely beneficial for my ESL (English as a Second Language)students. Being able ot listen to stories will help with their language development. In a listening center, sutdnets will be able to discuss the stories they heared with their peers. My students would also use the center to write and draw pictures about the stories they listen to. My listening center would consist of a tape recorder with the the option to record, several headphones to plug into the recorder, and some starter books on tape. I have 24 students in my first grade classroom that would love to enrich their lives by listening to stories on tape. When students are able to listen to books on tape, it is amazing to see how engaged they become. I have read stories on tape to my whole class, and my students love listening to them. Having a listening center would give my students the chance to work in a smaller setting while listening to stories. Giving my students the opportunity to enhance their learning is something I strive to do everyday. Incorporating a listening center into my classroom will give my students the opportunity to become better readers. A listening center is not only educational, but something I know my students would be so excited to have. My students probably do not have many opportunites to listen to books on tape. I would love to be able to show them how exciting reading can be!