Love and Literature!

Funded Dec 17, 2015

I cannot even begin to express the gratitude that I have for all of our donors and the Donors Choose Team! We have only had our new books for a short time but I have already seen great gains and improvement in my students academically and in their attitudes towards reading as well. Explaining to my students that there are people out there that CARE greatly about them and their education has influenced them so much and I couldn't be happier about that.

We have good and bad days in my classroom, like any other room, but the dynamics of a Special Education classroom can be tricky. It can be overly emotional, rowdy, and very very difficult sometimes. Most days the kids simply just want someone to show them that they are important and not just different from everyone else. By donating to our project, you have shown them love and respect and that's more than any teacher can ask for her students.

Our new books have helped us to improve our reading and listening comprehension, which are possibly two of the most important skills that are required of students at this level. I ask frequent questions about the stories and ask them to put themselves in the shoes of the main characters. We use imagery to visualize the stories in our heads and dive straight into what we are reading to become fully engulfed. The story that we have started,The False Prince, is an Adventure fiction/fantasy book. This book has my kids on their toes, asking questions, participating at a high level, looking for foreshadowing in the text, and reading for enjoyment and not just for the grade. We have truly had a great time enjoying books that my kids can feel comfortable reading aloud to one another. Let's just be honest, when a group of eighth graders walk into your classroom everyday excited to read, I call that a WIN!! Thank you all for donating to our classroom and for caring about my students! It means more than you could ever imagine.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Snow