Past projects 3
Teach Living Poets
Funded Oct 13, 2022Thank you so much for the opportunity to share the works of these living poets with my students! Poetry can be very daunting, especially when it is full of archaic language or references. These texts not only allowed my students to demystify poetry, but the opportunity for choice within these lit circle texts gave them the agency to select the poet that spoke most to them in their lit circle teams.
When it comes to poetry analysis, many students are hesitant to believe in their ability to identify theme successfully. Having them tackle a full collection gives a more clear picture of unifying themes from the poet, and it really builds the confidence in themselves to be able to find those larger ideas in a text. They also get more familiar with the style of an author as they see if throughout the collection.
Thank you again for these resources!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barnes
This classroom project was brought to life by The Arizona Department of Education and 7 other donors.Rediscovering Reading
Funded Mar 20, 2022One of the biggest challenges in education today is showing students that their every day life and their academic lives have so much in common with each other and many overlapping skills. Students today are constantly reading, writing, speaking, listening, and evaluating a variety of "texts," without even realizing it! From composing a caption, capturing a text, and commenting on a post, to critically consuming TikToks, binging and analyzing the latest show on Netflix, or reading fanfiction online, students are always engaging with communication.
Having these updated texts added to the classroom library has made reading more accessible and more similar to the kinds of texts students gravitate toward outside of the classroom. This is helping to bridge the reading gap between academic reading and everything else! It also validates the different kinds of reading styles and preferences these students have. Above all else, having these kinds of materials allows us to celebrate reading and communication at its finest--that is, when it's something we love to do and get excited about sharing with others.
We have small bursts of no-strings-attached reading (10-15 minute sessions several times a week) where students are free to select the reading materials that speak to them, and they only have to finish the texts they prefer. With these new additions, students are finding even more options that they like and want to stick with, which is helping build our reading skills and reading stamina, as well as to show students that everyone really IS a reader--they just have to find the right text for them. The graphic novels and manga especially speak to students, and those things are usually first to go in the school library, so they are extra excited to have more access in class.
Thank you again for making this new reading opportunity come to life in our classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barnes
This classroom project was brought to life by Arizona Department of Education.Empowering Students Through Graphic Novels
Funded Jan 19, 2016The inclusion of these graphic novels to the curriculum this year was greatly appreciated by both me and my students. Sophomore English focuses on world literature, and some of the mandated texts aren't as exciting to read for the students. These graphic novels allowed my students to not only get excited to read stories about other cultures, but to also experience a refreshing medium in which to experience those stories. We were able to discuss racism, prejudice, religious freedom, and stereotypes with these two graphic novels. The students found they had a lot more in common with the protagonists than they initially realized, and we had a lot of interesting conversations about the reading.
In addition to reading and discussing these graphic novels, my students also wrote about their own internal and external struggles in graphic novel form. They told their own stories in black and white like Persepolis or in color with more visual metaphors like American Born Chinese. The students, though worried at first about their own artistic abilities, rose to the occasion and told their personal stories in very creative ways.
After an entire semester of very depressing and sometimes hard to read texts, my students were happy to continue reading more contemporary content with the same important messages. Thanks to your support, these sophomores have gained even more insight into human nature and continued to discuss ways to make the world a better place.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barnes