My students need culturally relevant text sets in order to engage and become motivated readers. Many of the books in our school library are not culturally diverse and the students need texts that are relatable.
Most of the students that attend my school are Hispanic or from culturally-rich backgrounds. The students at our school receive 100% free lunch and breakfast daily. The students are engrossed and engaged with literacy, and they would like to be able to read texts with characters that either look like they do, or read about characters that are going through similar problems as them. Many of the books in classroom libraries and in our school library are not culturally diverse and I would like to provide texts that the students can relate to.
My Project
The materials within this project would be used in third through fifth grades at my school for student participation in book clubs. Students meet within these book clubs to read and discuss text. In order for the text discussions to be deep and relatable to our students, the students need choices of texts that are relevant to the lives that they live outside of school. Many texts that students read are very cookie cutter and the texts that are included in my project, would help students to read books with characters that look and are living lives very similar to their own. Through these culturally relevant texts, the students will be more engaged and motivated to read the text and because the content relates to them, they will be more open to discuss the confines in the text and the discussion should be more authentic because of the student's deeper understanding.
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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. Fitts and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
