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
In my fourth grade classroom my students are encouraged to expand their thinking, ask questions, and take ownership of their learning. I am constantly looking for new ideas and inspiration to engage my students. I strive to make my classroom a space where students feel safe and valued. My ultimate goal is for my students to leave my classroom at the end of the year with the skills and tools they need to be successful in their futures and hopefully to become lifelong learners.
My students are extremely diverse in both their cultures and their academic abilities, but what they all have in common is a genuine curiosity about the world.
My students want to learn! I work at a Title I school that is part of a very small, urban school district where every student receives a free breakfast and lunch. The resources available to both students as well as teachers are often limited by a lack of funding. Despite economic constraints, our students are full of pride for their school and community. They deserve the best education possible which I do my very best to provide for them every day.
My Project
This year my students are learning reading and writing skills through the use of mentor texts and mentor sentences. Each week we read a new story and use a sentence from that story as our mentor sentence for the week. We spend the week working with the sentence to learn about writing skills in context. This way, my students are learning about parts of speech, sentence structure, figurative language, and so much more in a meaningful way.
By using high-quality picture books, my students are able to expand their knowledge of reading, writing, and the world around them without even realizing it.
The books that I chose were recommended by experts in the field of mentor sentences. The texts are diverse and appeal to a variety of learners. Since I have started using mentor sentences I have seen tremendous growth in my students' writing. My students look forward to reading a new story at the start of each week and getting a new mentor sentence to work with. By expanding our library of picture books we will continue to grow as readers and writers all year long!
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Mohr and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
