{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"Greenwood Leadership Academy","outOfStateSupporters":53.5,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":10560199,"projectId":10604017,"letterContent":"Stories of Us: Representation and Social Justice Through Reading\r\nAt Greenwood Leadership Academy, reading is about so much more than learning how to recognize words, sound out letters, or answer comprehension questions. It is about helping students discover who they are, understand the world around them, and recognize the possibilities that exist beyond their immediate circumstances.\r\n\r\nOur students come from diverse backgrounds and communities that have historically been underserved. Although Tulsa has a rich and powerful history, much of that history, including the stories, contributions, and experiences of the people who helped shape our community, is not widely known or shared. Through these new books, we have an opportunity to introduce students to stories that reflect their identities, celebrate their cultures, and expose them to experiences beyond their own.\r\nWhat are some of the skills or lessons introduced by these new texts?\r\nThese books introduce students to much more than literacy skills. They create opportunities to develop:\r\n- Identity and self-confidence: Students learn that their stories, families, cultures, and experiences matter.\r\n- Representation: Seeing characters who look like them and share similar experiences helps students feel valued and included.\r\n- Empathy and understanding: Students learn to appreciate differences, recognize unfairness, and understand perspectives outside their own.\r\n- Critical thinking: We encourage students to ask questions, make connections, identify problems, and think about how they can make a difference.\r\n- Historical awareness: Students begin exploring the history of Tulsa and the contributions of people and communities whose stories deserve to be told.\r\n- Vocabulary and comprehension: Students build language skills, strengthen their ability to retell stories, make predictions, identify themes, and connect reading to real-life experiences.\r\nMost importantly, students are learning that books can be mirrors, reflecting their own lives, and windows, allowing them to see a world of possibilities.\r\nWhat does reading look like in your classroom?\r\nReading in our classroom is interactive, engaging, and intentional. It is a time for students to explore, question, discuss, imagine, and make connections. We use read-alouds, partner discussions, small-group instruction, independent reading, and hands-on literacy activities to make reading meaningful.\r\n\r\nI want students to do more than simply read a story. I want them to see themselves in the story, connect it to their experiences, and understand how it relates to the world around them.\r\n\r\nWe celebrate new vocabulary, encourage students to share their thinking, and create an environment where every voice matters. Reading also gives us opportunities to discuss kindness, fairness, leadership, community, and the importance of respecting one another.\r\n\r\nFor our students, access to books is especially important. We are working in a community where resources and opportunities are not always readily available. Our goal is to ensure that a student's circumstances never determine the size of their dreams or the opportunities they believe are possible.\r\nAre there particular students who are especially enjoying the new books, and how so?\r\nWe are seeing excitement across our classroom, especially when students discover characters, families, and experiences that feel familiar to them. There is something powerful about watching a child recognize themselves in a book and realize that their experiences are worthy of being shared.\r\n\r\nSome students are drawn to stories about family, friendships, culture, and overcoming challenges. Others enjoy discovering people, places, and experiences they may never have encountered before. These books create opportunities for students to share their own stories, ask questions, and learn from one another.\r\n\r\nWhat makes this especially meaningful at Greenwood Leadership Academy is that our students are growing up in a community with tremendous potential, but not always equal access to resources and opportunities. We are determined to change the narrative. We want our students to understand that they are not limited by their zip code, their circumstances, or the opportunities currently surrounding them.\r\n\r\nOur hope is that these books do more than inspire a love of reading. We want them to inspire a love of learning, a stronger sense of identity, an appreciation for history, and the confidence to imagine a future beyond what they may currently see.\r\n\r\nTo our donors, thank you for helping us put meaningful books into the hands of children. You are not simply providing reading materials; you are helping children discover their voices, recognize their value, and see possibilities for their futures that they may not have imagined before.","fullyFundedDate":1791484652606,"projectUrl":"project/stories-of-us-representation-and-social/10604017/","projectTitle":"Stories of Us: Representation and Social Justice Through Reading","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Ally","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp10560199_orig.png?crop=768,768,x0,y156&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1785116427879","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/missally"},{"teacherId":1138366,"projectId":10343837,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for providing materials for our small-group dyslexia intervention lessons. My students were so excited to have hands-on materials to support their learning. \r\n\r\nThe globe has been particularly popular as we learned about the history of language - especially the English language - and tracked it across the world! We also made a timeline to accompany the project.\r\n\r\nStudents have enjoyed the manipulatives, like letter tiles and sentence-building puzzles. Having access to supports like these helps students experience success just like their peers. I love seeing the excitement on all their faces as they unlock new pieces of the reading code.","fullyFundedDate":1785368093648,"projectUrl":"project/different-brains-brilliant-readers-dys/10343837/","projectTitle":"Different Brains, Brilliant Readers: Dyslexia Support for Success","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Pepper","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp1138366_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1782142557246","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/1138366"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_121224","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":255,"numTeachers":null,"percentFrplEligible":95,"percentAsian":0,"percentBlack":65,"percentWhite":4,"percentIndigenous":2,"percentLatinx":6,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":19,"gradesServed":"Pre-K - 5","studentTeacherRatio":null,"demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":true,"metroType":"URBAN","ncesMetroType":"CITY_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":46.5,"schoolId":121224,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Greenwood Leadership Academy on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Greenwood Leadership Academy","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/oklahoma/tulsa-public-schools/greenwood-leadership-academy/121224"}