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Ms. Stratmann from Arlington VA is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Literacy for Living Juicy!

My students need a class library that reflects their lives and experiences, and expands their understanding of the world: MLK, Roald Dahl, and Sherman Alexie! Perfect!

  • $475 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

My Students

A student explained quite plainly how she did not like reading, only movie stories. By the end of our first book, her preference had changed...and it was a triumphant moment. Kids need books they can see themselves in, especially if they are struggling readers, and mine are: ELLS all of them.

My students are English language learners at the high school level, arriving from all over the world.

They arrive with diverse skill sets, academic backgrounds, and a need to become literate in English--and often interrupted or altogether halted educations prior to coming to the United States. Reading is, generally, unattractive, and part of that comes from the absence of stories featuring conflicts they can relate to, characters they can relate to, or material that is at their reading level, and not "babyish". When exposed to great literature, and supported in their reading, almost all students come to grow: in their enjoyment of reading, and their view of the world. My room desperately needs print material at many levels, that is high quality, high-interest, and will engage and delight my very special learners.

My Project

Students will use the materials in class, for supported reading experiences, will use independently for daily SSR, will use for independent novel studies, and will use in book groups. These books (Mexican WhiteBoy, Just So Stories and Lord of the Flies) will be read up! The top priority is to engage students in understanding how stories have such power--to communicate, entertain, and sometimes transform. Also important is that students become skilled at critical thinking, and analysis, in order to apply those skills to their lives. Finally, a passion and facility for reading, and the skills we will develop in reading comprehension, will help them academically in all classes across the board--helping them to become informed, well educated, productive people outside of school. The trick is to find materials that they are willing to spend the time and real effort on--and that is the impetus of this list. I want them to have beautiful, important writing to respond to, meaningfully.

My classroom has the best library I can scratch together, but it is clearly scratched together.

This means not only a dearth of books of interest to my kids, but sends a message I don't like sending--and an infusion of donated books will provide both a richness and diversity to the materials we can use and enjoy, and will be a positive reflection upon the value of these kids, saying: you deserve good books, people want to give you the pleasure of reading and have chosen to make you this gift.

Ms. Stratmann
Grades 9-12

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TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

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Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
Mao's Last Dancer - Young Readers' Edition • Amazon Business $49.97 1 $49.97
Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World • Amazon Business $20.71 1 $20.71
Lord of the Flies • Amazon Business $19.74 1 $19.74
The Roald Dahl Audio Collection: Includes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James & the Giant Peach, Fantastic M r. Fox, The Enormous Crocodile & The Magic Finger • Amazon Business $19.28 1 $19.28
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths • Amazon Business $17.20 1 $17.20
Tales From Outer Suburbia • Amazon Business $15.92 1 $15.92
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights • Amazon Business $15.22 1 $15.22
Tell Me a Story: Timeless Folktales from Around the World • Amazon Business $13.54 1 $13.54
Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah • Amazon Business $11.99 1 $11.99
Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Amazon Business $11.99 1 $11.99
Just So Stories CD • Amazon Business $11.92 1 $11.92
A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students (King Legacy) • Amazon Business $11.47 1 $11.47
Stars of Women's Soccer (World Soccer Legends) • Amazon Business $10.75 1 $10.75
Brown Girl Dreaming (Newbery Honor Book) • Amazon Business $10.31 1 $10.31
Letters from Burma • Amazon Business $10.13 1 $10.13
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian • Amazon Business $9.82 1 $9.82
Mexican WhiteBoy • Amazon Business $9.18 1 $9.18
Copper Sun • Amazon Business $9.14 1 $9.14
American Born Chinese • Amazon Business $8.64 1 $8.64
The Chocolate War • Amazon Business $8.58 1 $8.58
Wonder • Amazon Business $8.41 1 $8.41
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time • Amazon Business $7.68 1 $7.68
The Book Thief • Amazon Business $7.60 1 $7.60
Of Mice and Men • Amazon Business $7.00 1 $7.00
Jesse (Point Signature) • Amazon Business $6.99 1 $6.99
Divergent (Divergent Series) • Amazon Business $6.91 1 $6.91
Lord of the Flies • Amazon Business $6.20 1 $6.20
The One and Only Ivan • Amazon Business $6.00 1 $6.00
What Is the Statue of Liberty? (What Was...?) • Amazon Business $5.99 1 $5.99
To Kill a Mockingbird • Amazon Business $4.94 1 $4.94
Esperanza Rising • Amazon Business $4.40 1 $4.40

Materials cost

$367.62

Vendor shipping charges

FREE

Sales tax

$0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$5.51

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$403.13

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$71.14

Total project goal

$474.27

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$474.27

5 Donors

-$362.98

Donations toward project cost

-$318.13

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$44.85

match offer

-$100.00

Match offer toward project cost

-$85.00

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$15.00

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$11.29

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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