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This teacher needs your help!

Mr. Lewandowski from Chicago, IL is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Mr. Lewandowski is requesting

Representation in Novels: Senior-Facilitated Literature Circles

Help me give my students novels where they feel represented - in characters, events and experiences they relate to.

FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Lewandowski's classroom raised $808

This project is fully funded

My Students

My 12th grade English IV students are curious and talented scholar-artists who thrive when offered choice and agency in their learning. Our student body is richly varied, with students representing a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, identities, lived experiences, and cultural & ethnic groups. Creating opportunities for students to engage with fiction that reflects their identities and covers relatable experiences is supremely important for students.

For students from marginalized communities or identities, exposure to such representation in published literature and exploration of those works in an academic setting is absolutely empowering.

And for students who identify with dominant social groups, reading literature about a diversity of lived experiences leads to understanding, empathy and compassion.

Thus, our year-long focus in English IV this year is examining Borders and Belonging.

We intend to explore and discuss texts that deal directly with themes of belonging, otherness, barriers and borers.

As such, our students need contemporary, relevant and culturally responsive novels to read. And in order for this to happen, students need to find a book that is at their reading level, and they need to be interested in the subject of that book.

This is where you come in!

My Project

When students are given a choice, they thrive.

The Borders and Belonging Literature Circles unit empowers students by giving them their choice of texts to read.

This unit is going to involve student-to-student learning. They will be in book discussion groups, similar to a book club or literature circles, and they will conduct the conversation on their own. They will be able to discuss what they determine as important. They will be making text to text, text to self, and text to world connections. They will be facilitating collaborative thinking. They will be analyzing the impact of an author's choices. They will be determining meaning together and enjoying their time in a classroom.

As we move through the year, my goals are to ensure that my students have the tools they need to independently ask important questions, track literature as skilled readers, and create meaning across texts with their peers.

Mr. Lewandowski Chicago High School for the Arts Grades 9-12

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Chicago, IL View local requests

More than half of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

35 students impacted 8donors

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TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood • Amazon Business $14.48 6 $86.88
The Poet X • Amazon Business $14.20 6 $85.20
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter • Amazon Business $12.59 6 $75.54
Solo (Blink) • Amazon Business $12.32 6 $73.92
Americanah • Amazon Business $14.40 5 $72.00
Dear Martin • Amazon Business $9.99 6 $59.94
All American Boys • Amazon Business $6.55 8 $52.40
Ghost Boys • Amazon Business $8.49 6 $50.94
Mexican WhiteBoy • Amazon Business $8.99 5 $44.95
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided • Amazon Business $7.49 6 $44.94

Materials cost

$646.71

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$9.70

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$686.41

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$121.13

Total project goal

$807.54

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $807.54

7 Donors

-$560.39

Donations toward project cost

-$516.08

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$44.31

match offer

-$200.39

Match offer toward project cost

-$170.33

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$30.06

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$46.76

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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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 Mr. Lewandowski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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