As a second grade teacher in the highest need elementary school in our district, my students need every opportunity to be successful! 40% of my students speak English as their second language and a majority of our students enter school significantly behind their peers.
From the first day of school I emphasize how important it is to read for at least 20 minutes per day. We do math problems to show how many words they will likely read if they focus for that 20 minutes. We brainstorm the benefits of this reading and what will happen to our learning if we do not practice this important skill. I also send math homework home for families to do that statistically shows how critical it is for students to read every night. Just think, if a student reads for 20 minutes a night and reads about 100 words in a minute, they would read about 10000 words just doing their homework Monday through Friday, but what about the students that don't do their homework or only read for a few minutes a night. This problem is significant for high need students as they are likely already behind and as their peers read those 10000 extra words a week they might get a few hundred. The achievement gap grows. As a teacher I have a critical role in motivating and inspiring children to become literate citizens, but my students don't even have books at their homes. They don't have timers to know if they have read for 20 minutes.
I have already purchased three cassette players, three timers for families that couldn't afford them and thousands of books to support my readers, but it isn't enough. I would like to provide equal support to all of my students and a take home reading program that would benefit every child that is in my classroom. I want to be able to safely send books from my classroom library home each night. If each student had a book tote that they could decorate themselves to house their "take-home" books and their library books, they would likely be more motivated to read at home because the resources would be there. In addition to the tote, I want every child to have a timer to develop an understanding of what twenty minutes of reading means. They would keep these timers in their book totes for at home reading and could also use the timer in school for a variety of purposes. These timers would be "on loan" to students for the school year and then collected for all of my future classes, no matter what grade! In addition to the timers and the totes, I would like to be sure that students that can't read for twenty minutes have an opportunity to be exposed to print as well by listening to books on tape.
Your help will put books into the hands of children that otherwise wouldn't be reading as much as they need to succeed. Your donation would help make it possible for these high needs students to catch up to their peers with more advantages. Maximizing the power of my classroom library, individualizing the at home reading and being sure students can time their engagement with books will foster their development as literate citizens! Thank you for considering this incredibly important project!
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 Mrs. C. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.