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.
My Students
My students are excited to come to school and learn! They are creative, smart, and full of questions. As with most classrooms, we have a wide range of students with different abilities. Many of my students do not come to school with the basic supplies they need to start the year, such as crayons and pencils. For many of them, the structure of the school day and the consistency of a classroom is a safe haven. I work very hard to create fun, engaging lessons that will keep my students learning. I feel it is my responsibility to create an environment where all of my students can learn.
Research shows that many students need explicit, systematic phonological awareness and phonics instruction to learn how to read.
I differentiate the skills that students are learning, giving them exactly what they need when they need it. Hands on learning is also important in my classroom- students learn through games and other activities where they play and explore. This gives students the opportunity to engage in their learning, and gives all students the opportunity to learn.
My Project
In first grade, tons of growth occurs with students' ability to read. Students come to first grade able to read basic texts, and they refine their abilities in first grade and hopefully leave as readers. However, this isn't the case with all students, and sometimes first grade reveals the gaps that some students have as they struggle to learn to read.
Research tells us that students with strong phonological and phonemic awareness skills learned beginning in Kindergarten and first grade will have better outcomes once they reach the upper grades and must "read to learn" instead of "learning to read." They will be able to draw on these foundational skills to read multi-syllabic words and decode unknown words.
Without this strong foundation, students may begin to struggle later in their school career. I want to give my students a strong foundation in phonics and phonological and phonemic awareness so that they continue to be great readers throughout the rest of their life.
I believe that phonics instruction should be systematic and explicit, and students should be given plenty of opportunities to practice the skills they're learning in both reading and writing. These Recipe for Reading books follow our phonics scope and sequence and give students ample opportunities to practice the phonics skills they are learning in the context of real reading. Decodable texts give students specific practice with these skills, creating students who are confident readers. With the copy paper, I will be able to create copies of the books for students to take home and share with their families. This will give them more opportunities to practice what they've learned.
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 Ms. Butler and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
