Mirrors and Windows: A Library Full of Potential

Funded Dec 10, 2019

I am deeply in your debt for your extremely generous donation that funded a diverse collection of books for my K-5 ESL students. You have truly brought the title of my project into my classroom: mirrors, windows, and a library bursting with potential for me and my students.

Most of the students I work with are recent immigrants, children of immigrants, and refugees. The effects of trauma and the effects of being woefully underserved in other schools has made learning to read a painful thing for my students...until now. They have been pleasantly surprised to see themselves in the many picture books you helped us purchase. My two Egyptian girls both said "Ms. Rodrigues, Yasmin looks like us! And like you! And she mixes her languages when she talks, like us!" Those girls along with my Syrian refugee brothers were SO excited to see all of the Ramadan books you helped me provide, and my Dominican newcomers are in love with the Latino/a books and English/Spanish bilingual picture books we now have.

I have a mixed grade level group for Level 1 students: kids in 3rd-5th grades who are all newcomers, somewhat recent immigrants, and refugees, all reading and writing well below grade level. Two of the texts we purchased-"Quest" and "Return" by Aaron Becker-truly transformed our work. The beautifully illustrated books are wordless, which allowed us to do a lot of discussion about reading skills such as predicting, sequencing and retelling story events, and describing characters and settings, without needing to actually read words. Even our new arrival from the Dominican Republic-who does not speak English yet-was able to fully participate with us, and did so with great excitement. It gave these students an incredible opportunity to work on grade-level skills in a different way-one that truly empowered them.

But the biggest hit with my students has been the big Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. Trying to get older students to read lower-level books can be extremely difficult: if they are too "kiddie", they get turned off, but many age-appropriate texts are just too complex for them to read independently at their current level. The Elephant and Piggie books have been true "game changers" for these students. The texts are simple but hilarious, and the students love to read them in the character's voices. My Syrian refugee boys even accepted invitations to read a story of their choice to a group of very supportive peers and their pull out teacher. Now they frequently request time to read the stories over and over, even asking to read them as a calm down tool when they get overwhelmed.

I may be a "language teacher", but there are truly not enough words to thank you for your generosity. Your donation has brought something invaluable to my Kensington ESL community-windows, mirrors, and opportunity.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Rodrigues