Building a Reading Community

Funded Jan 24, 2023

I appreciate you have made an impact for my class community this year. They really enjoyed the magazines you have given to them to expand their reading awareness. Also, they enjoyed their increase of curiosity about living things.

My students were amazed when they finally got the magazines that they never even think that the magazines were considered appropriate reading materials that can be used in the classroom. I have a different range of students' interest in different genres in the beginning of the school year. However, when they were reading through the magazines; they learned to appreciate all the genres that they have read about. Also, when the whole class has the same text; it creates a mindful community that doesn't allow students to feel they are being judged at what reading level they are in. Especially how the friendly fonts and colorful illustrations were able to engage my ENL (English as a New Language) students in developing their language and reading skills.

We were not able to get the second set of magazines for some reason, so I decided to continue to engage in their learning in Science and Social Studies. Even though the Science and Social Studies curriculum did offer a variety of texts to engage the students learning in the concepts, however, the level of text is complex even for my students who are not reading on or above grade level. Since we were studying about living organisms in Science and studying about China in Social Studies, I decided to order silkworms for them to study with during those two subject areas.

It was nice to see their curiosity to figure out the "mystery objects" were when the silkworms were at the egg and larva stage. When they finally figured out they were silkworms, they were definitely really curious because these creatures are not something they have seen in their everyday life. At first they were hesitant to feed and/or hold them. However, they were so intrigued by them; they actually got over their fear. They were able to appreciate them even more since that experience. We were lucky enough that when the silkworms turned into moths that they were able to lay eggs and my students were happy that the new generation of silkworms can live on.

I appreciate you for giving my students the opportunity to open up their world of reading even more and appreciate living things that live on the same planet as human beings.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Chen