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 Students
Imagine what it would be like to move to another country. Your everyday routines are completely different. All around you, people are speaking a language you don't understand.
I work in a public K-8 school with a high immigrant population.
My students come from Cape Verde, Haiti, Ethiopia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. Most have been living in the United States and learning English for less than a year. They are striving to learn to read, write, and speak English while also keeping up in their English language content area classes.
My Project
Many people associate shared reading with big books in early childhood and primary classrooms. However, even for students in the upper elementary or middle grades, shared reading is a powerful literacy experience, particularly for English learners. My students are at the beginning stages of learning English, and do not yet have the vocabulary and comprehension skills they need to independently read grade-level material. Participating in shared reading gives my students the opportunity to follow along closely as they listen to a grade-level text being read aloud.
We are eager to explore books that inspire our imaginations and provoke conversations.
Front Desk, by Kelly Yang, is the story of a young Chinese immigrant and her family, and the community they build while working at a California motel. A Long Walk to Water tells the parallel stories of two young people in Sudan - one a Lost Boy making his way to a new life, and one a young girl in the present day. They Called Us Enemy is a new graphic novel (a favorite medium among my students!) based on George Takei’s experiences in the Japanese concentration camps during World War II.
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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. Wise and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.