Our classroom family is a community of serious readers AND serious writers. My 31 students buzz with excitement when they hear me say to grab their partners and meet me at the meeting area with their reading books or notebooks.
My third grade class consists of 31 energetic, curious, motivated and insightful learners.
My school is a Community Learning School which means we provide resources to meet the needs of the entire child and family. A parent once described our school as a dream in the midst of a nightmare. We serve approximately 800 students with over 175 living in temporary housing. Many come from tough circumstances and have developed extraordinary resilience. Despite many of their outside situations, when they enter the building and my classroom they become scholars exploring a world of possibilities. My classroom is saturated with books and my students are exposed to a wide range of information to reach a wide range of interests.
My Project
To break up the monotony of the day and to address the needs of my energetic, kinesthetic learners, our class meets In our literacy meeting area for reading workshop and writing workshop. The class size is large, so I also meet with small groups of students who need additional support in the meeting area for small group instruction. The area I use chart paper as a visual aid that I write or sketch on and that the children also write and sketch on. In writing workshop, our class collaborates to develop and write stories together in the meeting area before students go off to work independently. I hold the chart paper pad in my arms as I write on it and when students write on it. With an easel it would be easier for myself and the students to hang up and write on the charts. It would also encourage more student participation. My small groups would also have a board to use during instruction instead of relying solely on auditory instruction.
The dry erase board would improve my student learning by allowing instruction to be more interactive.
It would enhance instruction for my kinesthetic and my visual learners. The easel would be in use by my 31 students this year, next year, and the next year potentially helping bring literacy to tens of hundreds of children. Using the dry erase board would reduce our carbon imprint by limiting the amount of chart paper that we use. The students, the environment, and I would be so grateful.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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