Teaching Red Scarf Girl: Exposing Middle Schoolers To Global Literature
My students need copies of Red Scarf Girl in order to diversify their perspective and learn about a fundamental moment in twentieth century global history.
The majority of our students come from low income families. However, we are also a model of true diversity, hosting students from a wide range of socioeconomic, ethnic, and national backgrounds.
Our diversity is one of our greatest assets as our students and their families bring a wide range of experiences and perspectives into the classroom.
By reading Red Scarf Girl, students would expand their perspective beyond the lived experiences of their peers, transporting them into a unimaginable world in which a country was taken over by a revolutionary leader, and all that individuals knew to be true was one-upped.
My Project
I teach a diverse group of thoughtful, energetic learners with a wide range of reading abilities at a low income urban school. Our school is a small K-8 with close ties to the surrounding community. My students are a group who have struggled to maintain investment in school in the past, especially during a tumultuous fifth grade year, in which they had nine different teachers.
This year, my students have firmly decided that they want their reputation to be that of learners and scholars, and they have shown their investment by embracing project-based learning, staying after school to finish incomplete work and homework, and committing to independently reading 30 minutes a night.
My students especially love making connections between literature, the world, and their own lives. They frequently raise their hand to share a "connection." They thrive when the curriculum acts both as a mirror into their own lives and a window into the lives of others. Copies of Red Scarf Girl would provide a mirror, because it is the story of a girl their age, yet also a window into the life of a girl experiencing a totally different reality: that of the Cultural Revolution in China.
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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. Daniels and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
