Celebrate Black Teachers and Students
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
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Mr. Fitzmeyer from Washington DC is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
My students need 15 copies each of 4 board books so we can learn to read together.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
Many of the preschoolers that enter our classroom aren't even familiar with how to hold a book much less read it. My students need sets of board books so we can learn to read together. We use these emergent story board books to teach our students the early literacy skills they need to catch up and be successful.
My students are three years old and entering their first structured school environment outside of daycare.
Our classroom is in a Title I school in Southeast Washington, DC. Our building is older and way past due for renovation but whatever we may lack in resources we make up for in creating a positive environment. The preschoolers that start school with us are often behind already in developing their language and literacy skills. We have to work very hard to make them more verbal and to encourage them to use their words. Often times, before we start to work on reading, we have to begin with very basic things like how to hold the book correctly and turn one page at a time. These are things others may have learned naturally through countless bedtime stories by Mom or Dad, but we have to explicitly teach them here. They're just as incredibly bright and inquisitive as students in the more affluent suburbs and other parts of the city. We just start in a different place.
These sets of board books will allow us to begin exploring literacy together as a class. We will learn how to hold the books together and turn one page at time. We read each book for about a week before moving on to a new one. This gives the students time to become familiar with the story and "read" along. They're incredibly proud to show their parents their reading (even if it's repeating a memorized story) and the only thing eclipsing that pride might be the pride of their parents when they see it.
These resources are incredibly valuable to giving my students a strong beginning in literacy.
They allow us to give them an important introduction to reading, and this activity is one of our favorite things to do as a class.
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