I am proud to call myself a life-long Brooklynite. I'm even prouder to say that I teach language arts and reading to a terrific group of 8th graders at a Title I middle school in beautiful Brooklyn, New York. Many of my students face challenges on a daily basis that most of us cannot even dream of, yet they are always looking to the future and for a better life. They know that with hard work and determination, they can make the world a better place.
My Project
The focus of our school's 8th grade language arts curriculum centers around respect for diversity and tolerance, the cornerstone of that being our annual reading of the classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by the late Harper Lee. As we are a Title I school, most students cannot afford to purchase their own book, which means that the students are forced to use the well-worn school copies. The school copies have torn covers and missing pages. In addition, my students are not able to annotate the text as they read, which severely limits their comprehension.
To say that these books have seen better days is an understatement!
My dream has always been for each of my students to have their own individual copies that they can annotate and keep, and last year that dream came true! Say what you want about today's students and technology, but NOTHING compared to the excitement they exhibited over getting a new book to OWN. "You mean we get to keep these? They're ours?" My students from last year kept asking this as I handed out books. The look of amazement brought tears to my eyes because, for some, this was one of the first books they had ever owned. It was so impactful that I knew I had to TRY to get my new students books to own as well.
This classic novel has taught important lessons about, race, tolerance and respect for others for generations. But these lessons will be better learned and REMEMBERED if they can take these books with them after they leave me.
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