This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
I believe--firmly--that any child who says, "I don't like to read" just hasn't found the right book yet. Even better if the right book is a series book, sure to hook the child on reading. My awesome students need access to high-interest, readable series books.
My students are wholly remarkable.
Never mind that 80% of them qualify for free and reduced meals, or that 25% of them receive special education services--they are still among the highest performing students in the state. Next year, they will move onto high school, and I am determined to see that everyone of them has functional literacy skills, and so are they. In fact, we are only four weeks into the school year, and so far, my students have collectively read, on their own, more than 425 hours. For all their success, though, many of my students read below grade level, and ten of them read dangerously below level. It is unconscionable to send them to high school reading like third graders.
My Project
This project is for my most reluctant readers, the students who believe that they do not like to read and the students who pretend to read the thick tomes that their classmates can comprehend. Series books are a boon to reluctant readers; familiar characters, settings and motifs free up students' minds to concentrate on comprehension. Furthermore, a child who enjoys one Joey Pigza book is likely to read the others, and a girl who falls for the Candy Apple series will find that there are 20 other books just like it for her to enjoy. The same holds true for the Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games series.
My students are smart, savvy, and able to perform any task that I put in front of them--so long as I put it in front of them on their reading levels.
I know that improved literacy is the key to my students academic--and therefore lifelong--success. It will help us come even closer to our goal of collectively reading 4,625 hours this school year. This is more than a donation toward books for a modest classroom library; it is an investment in the lives of amazing kids in a high-poverty school.
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 Ms. Lukaszewicz and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.