Supporting Struggling Readers with Culturally Relevant and Emotionally Responsive Texts
Help me give my students access to texts that will build both their empathy and their foundational reading skills!
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Gushwa's classroom raised $468
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Project
I'm a Literacy Interventionist at a middle school in South Central Los Angeles, and I work with students who have gaps in their phonics and decoding knowledge and are thus 3 or more grade levels behind in their vocabulary and reading comprehension. Because of this, my students have a difficult relationship with reading. Some of them have been in reading intervention since they were in elementary school and have self-esteem issues related to their reading abilities. Some of them have never read a book for fun.
In my intervention groups, while we're building students' decoding and comprehension skills, I want them to feel the joy of connecting with friends and strangers through books.
The books I'm requesting represent the perspectives of many different types of people on difficult and relevant topics like bullying, police brutality, racism, and civil rights. We will do partner reading to build fluency, partner and whole-class discussions to develop their confidence and critical thinking, and syllabication and vocabulary activities to make sure they can decode new and unfamiliar words. Underlying all of these activities will be a dedication to developing empathy and connection among learners, so they leave my classroom not just better able to read, but better able to connect with and understand others.
Nearly all 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
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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. Gushwa and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.