Our students are curious and enthusiastic learners who bring a variety of perspectives and experiences to the classroom. Their energy for learning about themselves and their place in the world as well as their enthusiasm for getting to know their peers is inspiring.
These young scholars are part of a community school district that is working to grow and learn together.
Although there are seven different elementary buildings in the district, we truly work as a team to create a community of learners across schools.
As someone who has the privilege of participating in the literacy learning of students in all elementary buildings, I am continually delighted to see that spark of curiosity and connection that develops when students have access to rich literacy materials. This is a literacy community where all students can learn more about themselves and others.
My Project
One Community Telling Our Many Stories is a project that brings together our elementary community through storytelling. The purchased books will be distributed to each elementary school so that our staff can record themselves reading them aloud and share them with our families to view at home. These books might provide you with an opportunity to talk about your child's unique identity and what attributes they proudly carry with them. It might also provide you with an opportunity to share different life experiences and learn more about your neighbors.
Our students bring their rich identities into the classroom every day.
Through these shared storytelling experiences, we will be able to provide students with the opportunity to see themselves reflected in the books and to learn more about others. Rudine Sims Bishop wrote: “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created and recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books. (1990, p. ix)”
Through One Community Telling Our Many Stories we look to expand our understanding of what it means to be a student in Grosse Pointe Public Schools by providing our students with both the windows and mirrors of literature. With your support, we can ensure that all students across the district have the opportunity to participate in this storytelling project.
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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 Ms. Bourke and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
