My students need excellent nonfiction texts - not watered down, sterile series targeted for younger readers, but the nonfiction equivalent of the meaty, challenging novels they are reading. They deserve award-winning, modern, relevant literary nonfiction.
We have an amazingly diverse cohort of students, many of whom came from our elementary program. We are a small middle school program designed for public school children who wish to continue with the "constructivist" (discovery/inquiry) learning that is the hallmark of our school. Many qualify for free- and reduced-lunch.
Our students and their families are committed to academic success and work incredibly hard to attain it.
In my 25 years in education, I have never worked with children so willing to try new and difficult things. Our growth on our state test last year (in both reading and writing) garnered notice from the school district. We are just getting started!
My Project
I have been bulking up our classroom fiction library based on my students' recommendations and my own finds. I need your help, however, with our nonfiction selections.
The nonfiction library I inherited is not aligned with my students' reading levels and interests (being mostly high interest - low challenge series aimed at a younger audience).
We have relied on online articles to develop our skills in reading nonfiction, but the children deserve to have great nonfiction in their hands!
The 50 memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, and essays I've chosen for this project (classics and modern titles) reflect the beautiful diversity of my students and provide models of excellent nonfiction writing that will help them in high school, college, and career. (I've selected the paperback edition where it was available to stretch your dollars further!)
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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. P. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.