There is nothing better than the feel of a book in your hands. There is nothing better than being lost in a world of magical creatures. I want this technology-driven generation to feel the same way about books. Students need books that capture their interest and turn them into lifelong readers.
My students don't read because they have to; they read because they love it.
They love it so much that I cannot keep up with their requests to purchase new books for our classroom library. The school and local libraries are lacking new literature, leaving my students to depend solely on my library. Students in my classroom are readers. On any given day, you could walk past my middle school classroom, and see two 8th graders passionately disagreeing about the ending of the Hunger Games trilogy, or another recommending a book to her classmate because "she used a flashlight to finish it last night when everyone else was sleeping." And yet another posting a book review on Goodreads.
I believe my students have fallen in love with reading because of their parents' encouragement and my free-choice reading environment. My eighth graders thrive in this environment, but are stifled by the lack of resources in our out-dated school library. As a result, I purchase books with my own money.
My Project
I keep this email in my desk:
"Dear Mrs. S,
This year when I asked my son for his Christmas list I expected to see Call of Duty, an iTunes gift card, an iPad 2. I was confused when he handed me a piece of notebook paper with this list: Fat Vampire, Beauty Queens, Death Cloud, The Name of the Star, The Wednesday Wars. I had no idea that this was a list of books until I started Googling the words. So thank you. Thank you for inspiring my 8th grade boy, who has never been a reader, to hand us a list of books for Christmas. My husband and I hope you continue to inspire this generation to be readers."
For this reason, I want to continue to provide students with books that they love.
Like Gary Paulsen said, "The most, MOST important thing is to read.
Read all the time; read when they tell you not to read, what they tell you not to read, read with a flashlight under the covers, read on the bus, standing om a corner, waiting for a friend, in the waiting room. Read every minute you can. READ LIKE A WOLF EATS!
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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 Mrs. Shaffer and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
