Seen, Heard, Represented, and Inspired by Literature
Help me give my students access to literature that feature characters and subjects that are more representative of who they are to promote our school wide push to increase literacy growth among our students.
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 Project
I love my school. I love my students. I love it all so much that I have spent the majority of my 20+ years giving back to the place that gave me the passion to pursue education, and motivate/mentor the youth to chase after their goals in life. I want to encourage our students to improve their literacy skills and experience success with our school wide initiative to improve student vocabulary and reading comprehension. The problem?
Our students want to read literature with characters who are more representative of who they are.
Most of our students are participating in our literacy push; however, the largest request I get from students is that they would love to have access to more literature they can relate to as young black youth today. Teaching in a relatively small school where funding is based on enrollment numbers, I am limited in the items I can purchase to make this wish come true.
The goal for this project is to create a special section within our library to highlight authors and literature more representative of my students and their culture. Our students are making great gains in improving their literacy through this school wide initiative, and exposing them to fiction and non-fiction that makes them feel seen and heard will, hopefully, make even greater strides in closing gaps they face in vocabulary, Lexile, reading comprehension, and access to quality literature.
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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. Ridenour and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.