Listening Center

Funded May 11, 2013

I would first and foremost like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. The generosity that you have shown both my students and myself is truly awe inspiring. I cannot begin to describe to you the excitement that occurred in my classroom when the listening center arrived. My students have been looking forward to that component of the Daily 5 for months and now we finally have the materials to make it happen. When I explained to them that there are people out there who do not know us but cared enough about us and our education to give us this great gift, they truly could not believe it. These kids are not used to receiving that type of generosity. The looks on their faces and their reactions brought tears to my eyes. Upon receiving this gift, they took a vow as a class to take extra care of it because it is so special.

As I have previously stated in past letters, in my classroom we use the Daily 5, which is comprised of five different components all aiming towards fostering literacy development. One of those components is listening to reading, which until recently we were not able to do because of lack of resources. We now have the listening center up and running very smoothly. We now use the Daily 5 everyday and the students rotate between different stations throughout the classroom period. I can tell you with absolute certainty, that the Listening Center is without a doubt their favorite station. The goal of the Daily 5 and my own professional goal as well is to facilitate the development of lifelong readers who have a love of reading. I truly feel that this listening center is helping to attain that goal. The students constantly ask for the Daily 5 and when we have run out of time for the day, they always want to keep reading, which is something that is remarkable. Many of these students have a lot of struggles in their lives that no child should have to deal with, and with their language barrier, reading is not something that comes easy to them. But to see them work at it and want to keep improving, is something that teaches me a lesson each and everyday.

This project has without a doubt helped my students exorbitantly. Their reading levels have gone up and their fluency has become much better. This year in my classroom we have two students who have recently come to this country and to see them listening to the English language and repeating the words back as they hear them on the Cd is a wonderful thing. This not only helps them with their language acquisition but it also allows them to feel part of the team as well. This project has enabled my students to keep going when in the past it was easier to give up. Majority of my students are not reading on grade level and a big reason for that is their lack of vocabulary. In the past when they tried to read grade level books (books that interest them) they came to those big words, could not read them and gave up. Now as they listen along to the Cd, they have an aide right there with them so that they can keep on going. Once again my students and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts and just know that this project will be taken care of and continue to help students for years to come.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Mancusi