Mr. Forman's Accessible and Culturally Relevant Library
Help me give my students access to books that will inspire them to love reading and build their confidence to continue working hard as readers.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Forman's classroom raised $577
This project is fully funded
My Students
I teach in "The Learning Center" at my school as the sole special education teacher in our middle school. As I explain to my students, my job is to support students with everything that is hard for them in school. For some, that is reading, math, or writing. For others, it's making friends, remembering, or paying attention. Whatever the case, I spend my time planning, teaching, and advising students to improve in their areas of greatest weakness.
For many of my students, school is not a place that they feel successful.
In order to maximize the level of support I can offer the students I work with "The Learning Center", and build their confidence in school, we need access to a range of materials that make learning more accessible for them. I see how excited my students can be when they have a high-interest book in hand that they can actually read, or how their engagement rises when they are sitting in a wiggle stool that allows them to move around freely and focus on the task at hand. This is my job: to make school feel like my students where my students can thrive.
My Project
"The varzdnb of my cwbkks are not able to fgihe this hyupsjg without odbdonzws." If you took a long time to read this sentence (in which 1/3 of the words are hard to read), and still aren't sure what it means, then you have just experienced something that my students experience almost hourly in middle school. What you should have read was this: "the majority of my students are not able to read this sentence without significant support." This project aims to support my students become stronger and more confident readers.
This project is exclusively to bolster my classroom library and give my students access to books that are appropriate for their reading level but also not belittling or embarrassing.
They include collections of graphic novels, hi-lo texts (high level content written for low-level decoders), and several texts by prominent Authors of Color to be sure my students feel represented in the books they read. Together, this new collection of books will not only give students appropriate texts to practice on, but also provide them with texts that are engaged by and excited to read. When students are enthusiastic about their reading, it becomes easier to instruct them in the skills and strategies necessary to be an effective reader.
More than half of 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
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Mr. Forman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
{"pmaHash":"","showProjectRecommendations":true,"leadGenEnabled":true,"hideTeacherDetails":false,"schoolState":"CT","teacherPossessivePronoun":"his","PMsManager":null,"schoolGradeType":{"id":3,"name":"Middle School"},"TeacherPMForms":{},"completingDonationAmount":0,"teacherHasClassroomPhoto":false,"proposalURL":"https://www.donorschoose.org/project/mr-formans-accessible-and-culturally-r/5982165/","mayHaveReplacements":true,"numStudents":20,"isEquityFocusV1":true,"teacherScreenName":"Mr. Forman","isEquityFocus":true,"proposalHash":"1409306731","isApplePayMobileOnly":true,"progressBarPercentage":100.00,"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":false,"photosPublished":false,"queryString":"","DonorPMForm":null,"shouldTrackEquityFocusV2":true,"schoolCity":"Hamden","teachersOnPage":[6962747],"isTeacherViewingTheirOwnProject":false,"minimizedLeadGenEnabled":true,"proposalId":5982165,"proposalMessageFormModel":null,"numActiveProjects":0,"verifyShowPhotos":"","eligibleToBeCopied":false,"schoolId":128085,"schoolName":"Booker T Washington Academy - Middle","authorIds":{"6962747":{"owner":"Mr. Forman","donationSalutations":{}}},"displayedPercentFunded":1.0,"proposalsOnPage":[5982165],"pmaId":"","teacherProfilePhotoURL":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-4_272.png?auto=webp","teacherHasProfilePhoto":false,"currentWorkflowStatusCode":21,"teacherChallengeId":21840288,"isApplePayEnabled":true,"fundedByTarget":false,"activeProject":null,"donorIdsForImpactPhotoCheck":[],"teacherId":6962747,"schoolCounty":"New Haven","fullyFunded":true,"isStudentLed":false,"isExpired":true,"schoolStateObj":{"code":"CT","name":"Connecticut"}}