Mrs. Nolan's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 4

• O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? Hopefully Our Classroom!

  Funded Mar 27, 2018

  Romeo and Juliet is arguably one of the greatest books written. Yet Shakespeare's English is very hard for today's students to read and understand. Because of your help and donation, my 8th graders are able to read both the original Shakespearean text as well as a modernized version. This is the best way to help students who would normally be intimidated by Old English, come to love Shakespeare's storytelling.

  This project of easy to read Shakespeare books allows students to read in a way that they can grasp the timeless themes and make it their own. This is especially important for my ENL students. For these students, English is not their native language and makes the nuances of Old English even harder to understand. But thanks to your generous donation, they are able to read either a modern version or a graphic novel edition of the story to help support their understanding.

  This project has allowed students their first taste of a true classic and allows them to leave middle school and enter high school more prepared for analyzing complex and classic literature. Thank you again for funding this project and helping my students.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nolan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and 2 other donors.

• Extreme Makeover: Classroom Library Edition!

  Funded Mar 27, 2018

  Is there anything better than opening a book that has never been read before and being the one to crack the spine for the first time? Students, like all of us are visual people and attracted to a new book with a modern cover over the dusty yellowed pages of an older book. The books I was able to purchase for my classroom library, thanks to your generous donation, helps inspire my students to try a new book for their independent reading. My 8th graders were in need of new, higher level books and fresh titles. Thank you for funding my project and giving them the opportunity to read titles we did not have access to before.

  I am fortunate that our class schedule allows students the opportunity to independently read every day in class. This means we need to have a lot of titles in our classroom at any given moment. Students gravitate toward the books that are newer and more modern looking so I try to balance their natural tendencies with making sure they are also reading books of quality and ones that teach themes that will stay with them throughout their education careers. To Kill A Mockingbird, Animal Farm, 1984 and Night are some of the classics that my 8th graders are currently reading thanks to your generous donation. They are reading these titles in book clubs and discussing the progression and development of the characters and themes in the novels.

  Because of your help, they are able to read these classics and others and carry with them, the messages for a lifetime. Thank you again for funding this project!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nolan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and 2 other donors.

• Help Us Access the World!

  Funded Dec 22, 2017

  Thank you so much for all your support and funding my project. Your help provides a valuable tool in my 8th grade ELA classroom.

  Reading is so important and while many kids read fiction, less are likely to read non-fiction. Even with the world at our fingertips, the students in my classroom do not read the news daily. Reading about what is going on in the world is so important for today's youth as many of the issues affect them or will in the near-future. With so many news outlets, it is hard for pre-teens and teenagers to navigate the access they have and get the news presented to them at a level they can comprehend. Scholastic News magazine presents various news stories focusing on teenagers and issues in our society such as child amnesty, politics, school shootings and more. The articles are written at their level and present both pro and con sides for many issues, so students can read about topic objectively. For many, this is their first real exposure to reading articles about topics and then forming their own opinion. This resource is extremely valuable to have in my classroom.

  At my school, we are fortunate to be able to provide students time every day to independently read and encourage at least one of the days of the week to be a non-fiction reading day. The magazine subscription provides news articles every month for the students to choose from and read during their reading time. The students have about 20-30 minutes of daily reading and then are encouraged to write about their reading. The magazine also provides multiple choice questions and some open-ended questions for the students to think about as well. My co-teacher and I have also used the articles in small group instruction to help support students in not only understanding what they are reading but writing about what they have read and use the text details in articles to support their thoughts.

  Overall, the students have enjoyed reading the magazines and they are easier to navigate for some of our English Language Learners as each article is supported with pictures and images as well as charts or other text boxes. This format is one that supports all students is learning and reading informational texts in an easy and fun way.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nolan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Anonymous Donor and 2 other donors.

• Help us read the Classic Novel: Lord of the Flies

  Funded Dec 25, 2017

  Thank you so much for funding this project. Exposing students to the classics is a passion of mine and one I think is vital as the 8th graders I teach will enter high school in the fall.

  I truly believe reading is important in every classroom and I am fortunate to have the ability to provide my students with 20-30 minutes of daily reading time. Many of my students use this time to read contemporary young adult fiction. And while I find a lot of these novels full of rich, vivid characters and themes, in my experience all students should be reading more classic literature. I have made it part of my class reading that all students read at least one classic novel this school year before they enter high school. Your donation of Lord of the Flies helped supply my students with the opportunity to read one of the greatest classics ever written. The story has an appeal as the characters are teenagers just like the students and the themes are ones they can recognize from other novels we have studied. They read in book clubs and work together on recording their ideas through jots while reading and writing responses every week. They discuss the ideas they are seeing in the novel and I can guide them to think at the text in a deeper, more analytical way. Symbolism and the idea of mob mentality is something we focused on with this novel as well as the treatment of others. One group even mentioned in a discussion they had the idea that people only behave when adults or authority are present and very early into their reading of this novel, they could see that left unsupervised, people can be quite savage.

  This novel was for some their first attempt at reading such a classic, high level text. Because of your help, they will hopefully keep reading more challenging texts both with me this year and beyond their whole reading lives.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nolan

  This classroom project was brought to life by Anonymous Donor and one other donor.