Do you remember what it was like the moment you first read a book you couldn't put down? Many of my students have not yet experienced that moment, that feeling, that rush that comes from connecting with alternate universes created by magnificent storytellers.
My students attend a high school in New York City.
They are culturally diverse, ethnically diverse, and diverse learners. Many enter reading significantly below grade level while others are exceptionally articulate writers and fluent, passionate readers. My task is to meet the needs of all of my learners who are grouped together heterogeneously - an engaging Reading Workshop that provides all of my students with high-interest "Just Right" books allows me to do that. Time spent with self-selected books is the way we best know how to monitor and teach reading comprehension in a diverse classroom.
My Project
The resources you are providing us with will help to prepare my students for college...and as members of the Early College Initiative, my students will begin their first college course the summer before they begin the 9th grade! An engaging, motivating, dedicated Reading Workshop will provide all of my students with the time and practice needed to develop and mature into passionate, skilled, independent readers - the single most valuable tool they will need if they are to experience success in college.
Students will use the books to engage in discourse with me over the coming academic year. They will write a letter-essay to me every three weeks about what they noticed, appreciated, and/or didn't like about a text they have finished. They will keep track of strategies taught in class in their reading journal, participate in book talks with the entire class, develop and monitor their own goals each marking period, and (hopefully!) learn to love reading.
The school initiative is dedicated to helping underrepresented youth become college ready young adults.
My students deserve the chance to better themselves, their families, and their communities.
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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. Kaplan and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.