I'm a lucky teacher that has a chance to teach in a variety of settings, but I spend most of my day co-teaching fourth and fifth grade inclusion classes. Our classes include both general and special education students. My colleagues and I strive to reach our students in innovative and engaging ways. We rarely use textbooks or commercial products, instead relying on creation-based and inquiry-based learning lessons and authentic literature. We find a great deal of our instruction relies on our students connecting with their inner talents to create innovative representations of what we're learning. Our students are learning so much more through this style of teaching, and we are eager to incorporate more lessons that involve art, technology, STEM and STEAM concepts, collaboration, higher order thinking skills, and allowing students to stretch their learning through differentiated activities.
My Project
Books are integral parts of a classroom. They transport students to far away places, introduce them to the new and unusual, and provide experiences outside the normal scope of a school day. They are also the most valuable tools a teacher can use. Books are beautiful examples of author's craft and can be used to teach so many valuable lessons, both academic and social.
This project will put some of the best picture books of the last few years into the hands of innovative teachers and eager students.
Even though we teach students in fourth and fifth grade, students of all ages love a good read aloud. The titles that we chose for this project are mostly books that have been nominated for a variety of awards. We also chose books that may be considered for the Caldecott Award. Our plan is to use these books as read alouds this spring and host our own Mock Caldecott. Students will analyze and assess each picture book and vote on with they think is best.
We were also careful to select books that represent all of our students. We selected books like My Papi Has a Motorcycle, Going Down Home with Daddy, and Fry Bread: A Native American Family so that our students could see themselves and their families represented in diverse books. We also selected nonfiction books like Elvis is King and Birds of a Feather: Bowerbirds and Me so that students could see picture books as informational resources. Other books like The Little Guys and Carl and the Meaning of Life were chosen because of the underlying theme of the story and the lessons the books can teach. We're extraordinarily excited to share these new stories with our students.
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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. Emerling and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
