Past projects 4
Marvin Redpost, Harry Potter, and Me
Funded Dec 9, 2010It's a little odd, if you stop to think about it: According to the kids, Learning Teams is the most fun part of the day, a special treat, almost like a little break.
Why is this odd? Because from a teacher perspective, Learning Teams is our most intensely instructional time. We break the kids into small groups based on their individual reading needs and then we work on those skills in the simplest and most direct possible way. There are no tricks, no gimmicks, no games, no breaks. The kids read in pairs, and help one another find meaning, and we move from pair to pair to support and push them.
Watching them with their new books, though, their pleasure makes perfect sense. The books are deliciously shiny and new. ("Look, Ms. Almagor, no pages falling out!") They are at exactly the right level of difficulty; some sentences pose a little bit of a puzzle, but it's the sort of challenge you can figure out with your partner if you're trying hard, and the story is so delightful and funny that it rewards your efforts immediately. ("This book is perfect for the kind of book I want to read!")
You aren't frustrated and embarrassed (as our most struggling readers sometimes feel) nor bored and uninspired (as our strongest readers sometimes feel.) You're perfectly set up for the joy of really learning -- and the joy of a great book.
Your donation removed obstacles so our students could experience the purest and most focused learning. And according to them, that's the funnest part of the day. Makes sense, if you think about it.
Thank you so much for giving this opportunity to them.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Almagor
The Right Book Changes Everything
Funded May 13, 2009KIPP schools are rightly celebrated for our nifty innovations in getting our low-income and minority students on track for college. We use chants to teach kids math facts, play games to get them thinking deeply about history, and structure our whole school culture around positive habits.
BUT... the one area for which we haven't discovered any special KIPP fairy dust is in teaching kids to read. There's no formula, no program, no song, no slogan, no gizmo. As far as we can tell, the only thing that really makes a kid a better reader.... is really reading. Independently, seriously, joyfully, for extended periods of time, with comprehension. A kid who's reading his book under his desk instead of paying attention because he wants to find out what happens next: that kid is FOR SURE getting smarter.
In some ways, this makes my job very simple; all I have to do is get kids to read books.
Simple, but hard. If reading has always made you feel stupid; if you've hated all the books your teachers assigned; if it takes you three minutes to sound out one sentence; if none of the books you know have anything to do with the issues you care about; being told to read sounds very much like being told to stare silently.
That's why your gift to my kids was SO POWERFUL. You filled my classroom with new books that are DELICIOUS to children. They're about kids like mine; they're not too hard to read; and they offer rewards, humor or drama or scariness, frequently enough to be fun for even beginning readers. Even just the fact that they are shiny and new, that they LOOK desirable, changes how some kids feel about them.
Dozens of kids are going home with a brand-new book tucked carefully in their backpacks this weekend. They'll read it and enjoy it and finish it -- and they'll ask for another one like it -- and they'll be on their way to becoming readers.
Thank you so much for making what is, after all, fairly magical, happen for my students. ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Almagor
Keep Our Bright Lights Burning!
Funded May 4, 2008Thank you so, so, so, so, so, so much.
I feel totally overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel as though I'd been to see the Wizard of Oz. (The real one, not the little man behind the curtain.) Most of all, I feel enormous relief. I don't have to worry and hurt a little every time I turn on my projector any more.
Your gift will mean so much to my students: videos of faraway places and of science experiments we can't do in school; study games and activities we can play as a class; collaborative writing exercises wherein they can actually read what I'm putting on the board; even just the occasional photograph of what we're studying. You're connecting them to all the information that's out there.
It's also inspiring and encouraging just to know that there are so many people out there who care about my kids and want them to succeed.
I don't know who you are, but if you know me, please don't hesitate to get in touch so I can thank you more personally. Either way, thank you, again, for caring about my students. With your help, they can fulfill their own hopes for the future rather than the oppressive stereotypes that surround them”
With gratitude,
Ms. Almagor
Then the Best Friend Hit on the Boyfriend, But He Said--
Funded Dec 16, 2007THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! I want you to understand just how grateful I am, so let me paint you a little picture:
We only have one more week of school before winter break. The kids are tired and cranky; they tell me they've already read everything they feel like reading in the library... but for once, I'll have a brand-new box of brand-new paperbacks to share.
They'll get ready to bicker over who gets them first... but for once, I'll have enough for every kid who needs one.
And when they're home for their two-week vacation -- when other kids are watching hour upon hour of brain-cell-squishing TV or hanging out on the street getting into trouble -- my kids will be curled up on couches with the paperbacks YOU bought for them.
They're honestly desperate to find out what happens in the rest of the Bluford Series, and I can't imagine any better way to keep them reading over the holiday. I can't imagine a better holiday gift for them, or for me. I so appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness.
(: (: (”
With gratitude,
Ms. Almagor