New Opportunities for Diverse Learners!

Funded Sep 23, 2023

Thank you so much for your contributions to expand our reading materials in our MultiCultural Literature class for juniors and seniors in high school. The students favorite read was "Don't Ask Me Where I'm From" by Jennifer DeLeon. It was very relatable to my students as it is set in an inner city high school. The hot topic of immigration and deportation was the main idea so students were able to gain a new perspective. The students loved reading and discussing in reading circles and then created a "book quilt" as a final project at the close of the novel.

The students were required to choose favorite quotes from the novel and explain why it was their favorite and how it applied in their life. This is a great skill to teach text to real world connections as well as empathy for others. My students are students with learning disabilities and have reading and/or writing goals. We do a lot of guided reading in the classroom, and then we 'waterfall' read, so they jump in and read aloud portions of the text that they are confident in reading in front of peers. This builds their self confidence and we stop and share out to higher level questions I pose to the class. I can check their understanding of plot events and they love hearing classmates perspectives on the events. My students do a book walk and vote on the novels they want to read, and this really creates 'buy in' as they had a preview and say in the curriculum.

We appreciate your generosity to our classroom. Due to photo restricitions, I am not allowed to take student photos. I wish I could show your their enthusiasm that went along with this novel. They would often report to class that they had read ahead to see what was going to happen. This shows the positive impact on struggling readers!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Dicus