Past projects 10
More Contemporary Poetry Books for My Students
Funded Oct 7, 2024My students have had an amazing opportunity reading contemporary poetry books. The fact that I was able to offer them the choice of so many collections really helped give them ownership of their learning. With your contribution, my students had eight different books for my three sections of English 12. We read the first poem of every collection and then each student chose the one book they wanted most to read.
Then students were grouped based on their selection and they worked with three to five other students. Together they read the poems aloud to each other and discussed the poems over the course of two and a half weeks. They did close analysis of a few poems in each collection and wrote a review of the book.
Though some students still say they don't really love poetry (like I do!), all agree that the experience of reading a recently published book of poems by one poet has changed their understanding of what poetry is in the world. Thank you so much for your support of this project.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 5 other donors.Contemporary Poetry Books for My Students
Funded Oct 3, 2024My students have had an amazing opportunity reading contemporary poetry books. The fact that I was able to offer them the choice of so many collections really helped give them ownership of their learning. With your contribution, my students had eight different books for my three sections of English 12. We read the first poem of every collection and then each student chose the one book they wanted most to read.
Then students were grouped based on their selection and they worked with three to five other students. Together they read the poems aloud to each other and discussed the poems over the course of two and a half weeks. They did close analysis of a few poems in each collection and wrote a review of the book.
Though some students still say they don't really love poetry (like I do!), all agree that the experience of reading a recently published book of poems by one poet has changed their understanding of what poetry is in the world. Thank you so much for your support of this project.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 10 other donors.Books to Develop My Students' Self-Expression!
Funded Oct 1, 2024My students have had an amazing opportunity reading contemporary poetry books. The fact that I was able to offer them the choice of so many collections really helped give them ownership of their learning. With your contribution, my students had eight different books for my three sections of English 12. We read the first poem of every collection and then each student chose the one book they wanted most to read.
Then students were grouped based on their selection and they worked with three to five other students. Together they read the poems aloud to each other and discussed the poems over the course of two and a half weeks. They did close analysis of a few poems in each collection and wrote a review of the book.
Though some students still say they don't really love poetry (like I do!), all agree that the experience of reading a recently published book of poems by one poet has changed their understanding of what poetry is in the world. Thank you so much for your support of this project.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
A Camera for Student Photojournalists
Funded Apr 8, 2022Thank you for supporting our journalism program by funding the purchase of two digital cameras. We are now in our second year of journalism and our student news website, pacernyc.com, is filled with important information about and for our school community. Most importantly, the cameras have allowed us to capture attention-grabbing images to go with our articles.
In one year--since we first went live last November--we've also built our social media presence on Instagram @pacernyc. With the excellent photos, we've already got 200+ followers, which in a school of 500 is stellar development and growth in one year.
Our photo editor has been instrumental in leading these projects. And because we run our news program out of our journalism course, she decided in October to start an after-school Photography Club for students interested in photography but who can't fit journalism into their class schedule. In other words, your contribution has enabled us to extend our photo program beyond our journalism class. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose community & an Anonymous Partner and 5 other donors.Pace Reads
Funded Dec 29, 2019The current Covid-19 pandemic in New York City interrupted my original plans to have Angie Cruz speak to my seniors. So many of my students' senior year activities were completely cancelled, so I vowed to try to salvage the event as much as possible for them. Luckily we had finished reading the book right before our last class on March 13, so with Ms. Cruz's cooperation and patience, we rescheduled the event as a digital Google Meet class three weeks later at on April 23.
Ms. Cruz met two different times in the day--in the morning and afternoon--and began by connecting the students' current situation being holed up in their apartments to the arrival of her character, Ana, to New York from the Dominican Republic. She read passages from the book and answered questions directly from students. The digital platform allowed students to interact with the author and have a personal and meaningful connection to her. Though the Covid-19 pandemic has take so much of my seniors' end-of-the-year graduation experiences, hopefully they will remember the digital meet-up with beloved author Angie Cruz as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
PACE Reads
Funded Dec 14, 2018It's been a couple months since you contributed to my book project so I wanted to give you all an update. The books arrived in January and my fellow 9th grade teachers and I have been finalizing plans for distributing them to our students and arranging the author event.
Shortly before our Spring Break in April, all students will get a copy of "American Street" in our advisories and we'll have two informal book club discussions about the beginning of the book. Students will be expected to finish the book over their break and participate in another book club discussion when they return to school. The following week in early May, Ibi Zoboi will visit the school and speak to the entire class about her book and her experiences as a writer. Students will also be posting reviews online at Goodreads.com. (The first 25 students who post their reviews of "American Street" will get a copy of Ms. Zoboi's second book, "Pride.")
All this to say, the project hasn't actually happened yet! Because Donors Choose asked me to provide pictures and write some thank-you notes, I pulled a box of books out of storage yesterday and talked about the project with my classes. I'm happy to report that the students are indeed excited about reading the book and most were genuinely irked when I told them the books had to go back in the box until April. One girl whined, "But Mr. Rohlfing, I want to read it right now! I don't know how I'm going to feel about reading it in a month!" Welcome to my world. It was all very sweet and encouraging. They want to read! Mission accomplished!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by Staples and 16 other donors.Poetry Books for Young Poets
Funded Oct 21, 2015Thank you for your generous book donations. I run the Poetry Out Loud poetry recitation competition in my school and teach 9th grade and 12th grade English. This year, I added Willie Perdomo's book "Where a Nickel Costs a Dime" to the senior summer reading assignment. Students read the book and wrote a critical analysis review or wrote their own chapbook collection of ten poems. Over two-thirds of the students chose to write their own poems and they submitted some amazing work. And the students who wrote critical analysis essays of the entire collection, proved their literary writing skills had developed enormously over the previous three years.
The books you helped provide for my classroom--including three copies of Willie Perdomo's new collection, "The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon"--will further develop the young poets' knowledge of American contemporary poets of color. Thank you so very much.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
Student Journalists Need Cameras
Funded Mar 2, 2010The school year is winding down, and my students are finally putting together our newspaper. It's due out next Monday! Because this was an introductory journalism class, my student not only had to learn a lot about news writing, but they were able to discover the basics of photojournalism and print media design.
Your generous donation allowed all my students to get a camera in their hands and look more creatively at the world. Each had a big (but basic) photography assignment to complete. Some discovered a curiosity in photography, and some weren't too interested in taking their own photos for their news reports. Nonetheless, your donation helped expose all my students to one of the many components of visual media.
Thanks!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 14 other donors.News Staff Needs a Camera
Funded Sep 24, 2009Thank you for supporting my students and the journalism program in our school. We are a new small school in New York City, and while our school focuses on providing students with a strong academic foundation to prepare them for college, journalism gives them a real-world literacy experience. In addition, two of the six juniors who took my class last spring and who contributed reporting and editorials to our school newspaper, tell me now they want to include journalism and mass communication in their undergraduate studies in college.
While last year's introductory journalism class focused primarily on writing, your recent donation for a camera, will enable me to teach the students more about visual literacy. Also, our newspaper will be much more interesting and engaging when students include powerful images with their news reports.
Thank you for your support of our journalism program.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and one other donor.Student Journalists Need Technology: Digital Audio Recorders
Funded Sep 24, 2009You helped fund the purchase of five digital audio recorders for our newspaper staff. Thank you so much. We've had the recorders for a few weeks now and the student journalists have enjoyed using the technology to help them when they go out and conduct interviews for their news reports.
The student involved in our after-school journalism club are working on putting out the newspaper this fall. Last spring they were in class working on the newspaper, so the fact that they're putting extra effort into the school newspaper on their own after school is exciting. Right now we're still working on the print version of the paper, but once we get the paper running smoothly, we hope to also have an on-line edition. At that time, we'll be able to post podcasts of interview and news reports.
Thanks for your support of our journalism program. My students and I appreciate it very much.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Rohlfing
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 4 other donors.