My students are a diverse group of kids living in rural Alaska. Most of them have known each other since preschool and will be friends for life. They have grown up fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping in pristine wilderness.
Though we are a Title I school where many students live in poverty, their kindness and generosity toward each other always astounds me.
We live on an island. This means that most of my students have spent their lives traveling by ferry or plane to visit family or to participate in sports, music, debate, and other activities in other towns around Southeast Alaska.
They may be savvy travelers and able to survive longer than most in the wilderness, but they lack educational opportunities that others take for granted because of our isolation.
My Project
With these books, my students will be participating in Classroom Literature Circles. Small groups will read the same graphic novel together and discuss its implications and meaning for our classroom, our community, and our world.
Regardless of a student’s reading skills or proficiency in the dominant classroom language, he or she can understand a graphic novel immediately!
The images in graphic novels convey a richness and depth that require interpretation and high-level critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation skills. The graphic novels will serve as an introduction into a deeper study of the Holocaust and can be used by students as the impetus for their research project on this unit of study.
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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 Mrs. Demmert and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.