Students from around the world make their way to our classroom ready to begin their journey in a new country. These teenagers come from Burma, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Israel, Pakistan, Mexico, Syria and Russia. Some of them have been in refugee camps. Some of them have been separated from their parents. And some of them are on academic exchanges.
Whatever their background, our class is a fusion of languages, cultures, and teenage personalities.
Their primary goal is to improve their English quickly so that they can take the required courses to graduate from high school.
My Project
Over the years, I have been amazed at the determination and ambition that newcomer students have in tackling a new language, culture and lifestyle. I am consistently challenged to provide them materials that meet not only their level of English, but their determination to soar.
One area of particular challenge is finding reading materials that are interesting for teenagers but are at a reading level that is accessible to a beginning language learner.
I have found many resources for younger children, but I am now striving to stock my classroom library with young adult titles that my newcomers can strive to read.
One way to support their desire to read difficult materials is to give them the opportunity to Read, Listen and Watch the story. Many popular young adult novels have been made into movies, and these movies can be a powerful tool to motivate a student to pick up the novel. To this end, I would like to create a Read, Listen, Watch section in my classroom library. This shelf will contain popular novels which have been made into movies. I will show movie trailers to pique students' interest in the stories. Students will be able to immediately borrow the books that interest them. As an added bonus, they can immediately access the audiobook online from our high school library. Simultaneous reading and listening of a text has been shown to dramatically increase comprehension and will be a powerful way for these teenagers to read popular novels that normally would be out of their reach linguistically. After they have finished the book, I will encourage them to watch the movie to complete their 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 Ms. Ward and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
