I love the relationships created within our site. Our students come from a rural, small-town environment. It is an economically depressed area where very few parents of these students have graduated from high school, and they can not help their children academically. The small student to teacher ratio results in a close bond between teacher, student, and parent.
My students are special to me because during discussions, they share their "life experiences" of hunting and fishing with the same joy I share literature.
Their eyes light up when they explain their recent exploits in the woods or on the bayou. When I introduce them to characters in literature, they connect with a larger world, and their eyes are opened to possibilities they never dreamed.
Great literature will ignite the light of learning and keep the flame stoked in their imagination and hearts. Books in the hands of these students could open doors which may have otherwise, been forever closed.
My Project
Some of the resources I have chosen for my project include Newberry Award winning books. Students will be encouraged to read at least 10 pages per day from these library books. When they encounter a word they do not know, they will write the word on a sticky note along with its definition. For each page read, students will write a one sentence summary on an additional sticky note. Our school awards prizes monthly to students who reads and responds to the most pages in elementary, middle and high school. Everyone who has read, has increased their achievement on standardized test scores.
Last year, our 21 students in this tiny, rural school, read over 28,000 pages.
In addition, they documented their love of reading. They have exhausted most of the books in our small, hand me down library. New books will increase their excitement! By reading award winning books, our students will increase their skills as their imagination soars to places these rural students may only visit in literature. In addition, a document camera can assist with guided reading and writing instruction.
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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. Buisson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.