Could You Survive High School Reading Like a Third Grader?

Funded Dec 21, 2015

Thank you. Two simple words are all that I have to express my gratitude for your generosity. How do put into words how humbled I was by your responses? Your donations helped build a classroom reading nook in my trailer at Morningside Middle School in Charleston, South Carolina. Your willingness to hold up the lives of children in another state... in another part of the country, is making huge gains to help shatter the mindset of too many of my scholars who mistakenly believed no one cared enough about them to give them games and books and tools to become independent readers. You sent culturally respectful materials into our classroom that allowed my middle school girls [who are at a pivotal time in their lives where peers can be supportive one moment and brutal the next], to be proud to share their heritage with their classmates. Books and stories that helped initiate talking points and genuine scholar led conversations about legacies that should not be lost to the next generation of empowered girls and teach life histories beyond those of Dora the Explorer and Civil Rights pioneer Rosa Parks.

In our class scholars work hard to earn independent reading time and LOVE to sink into the bean bag chairs to read books. Scholars make connections to text and are learning new vocabulary. Scholars popcorn read aloud to each other and we read together as a group. My young men are inspired by the three doctors from Newark, New Jersey who escaped the environment and the streets they were born into and dream about the time in their lives when they may do the same. Because of all of you, my young men and my young ladies are getting real time with eyes-on- text on a daily basis and the text they have their eyes on are the stories they have chosen for themselves.

My scholars are reading literature with purpose and understanding. They are questioning the tools and techniques used by authors and are finding evidence in prose to support their understanding of the story. They are sharing these stories with others outside of our class and I have students asking if they can join us. My scholars are learning to determine the impact of the author's word choice on meaning, tone, and mood. MY scholars are asking if they can read and sometimes...I actually have to ask more than once for them to stop. My scholars are making huge gains in their diagnostic testing thanks to you placing good book and reading tools into their hands.

Thank you for bringing more of the world into their mind's eyes.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Kyzer