Brand New Readers for My Aspiring Readers

Funded Mar 30, 2023

I was very moved to see the change that your donation made on my classroom of young readers.

What reading looked like before was much less interesting to the students. Either the books were outmoded, or frankly falling apart; or, we simply did not have enough at the appropriate levels, so the children were looking through books that were still too challenging for them. It was a problem. It was very difficult to get them to pay attention to what was happening in the text so they could learn concepts like differentiating between text and pictures; directionailty; recognizing the components of the cover and title page, let alone blending and decoding. Almost immediately, the children noticed the novelty and freshness of color in the new books. It was incredibly rewarding to see them get excited about Mondays (our library day), knowing that something new was going to be delivered to their little library bags. Even more so to see them clamor for more after going through what they had, asking for this one still in the box, or that one that a fellow student was reading!

But I think what moved me the most was to see the impact it made on my English language learner. It is said in the literature that the growth of phonemic awareness in the home language fosters or coincides with growth in the apprentice language. So, with a wider choice of Spanish language texts (we had practically nil), it was incredible to see that in actuality, as she read more in Spanish, how much more she improved in language and literacy in English.

Thank you for giving them more to hold onto in this subject.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Wicks