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
My students approach the acquisition of books with indignation. They are hard to come by here. Please help me to show them that books are about the relationship you develop with the story, & that they are capable of engaging with a book & completing assignments on their own outside of class.
My students attend a small high school of about 400 in rural north Mississippi.
They are mostly African-American, ages 16-17. The county is very poor and plagued with drug use and gang violence. We already have lost a student to gang violence this year.
My Project
We will read Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God as a junior class. I am excited to explore the themes of gender and race, and to discuss the writer's background following our reading of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. If every student has their own copy, we will be able to use class time to explore the story through out-of-the-box activities, such as acting out scenes in class.
This project is a critical first step in building full sets of books in my high school's "Book Room" so that each child can engage with a text the way that most high schoolers in our country do: on their own.
The first step in creating an "I can read this" book culture is putting books in the hands of every single student. I can tell them every day that they are capable, blossoming readers, but until they have books in their hands, they simply won't believe it.
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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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. Gilchrist and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.