Past projects 2
My Book Shelf Should Represent My Students' Backgrounds
Funded Mar 21, 2024I don't know how to begin to thank you for your generosity and support. This year has gotten off to a great start with our new books for the class library.
Research shows that reading for pleasure not only increases literacy but also empathy and understanding. Students at our school are culturally diverse but rarely run across literature in traditional classrooms in which they see themselves reflected and/or representing. These books have been a wonderful start to our reading journey this year, and I have seen several students choose these during SSR time (Sustained Silent Reading). SSR is a time when students choose a book that interests them and read for reading sake (no journals, no quizzes, summaries, etc).
Again, my students and I feel blessed and thank you wholeheartedly for your donations.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Posada
Reading En Español: We Need A Class Biblioteca
Funded Aug 8, 2023Learning a new language can be a daunting task-especially for students who often struggle with proficicnety literacy in their own language. Having a small class library of interesting, engaging, and "easy" books in Spanish at different reading levels this year has made a huge difference in our classroom.
Due to the number and variety of books donated, I have been able to introduce FVR, or "Free Voluntary Reading" into my Spanish 1 and 2 classes this year. Recent research has demonstrated that the best way for students to acquire language is through reading (see Stephen Krashen's book, Free Volunteer Reading for details). Stories of interest, written at or slightly above the student's level, make vocabulary and structures more memorable for students and lead to acquiring language and not just "memorizing" words for a quiz or test. I can definitely see the impact through the improvement in many of my students' speaking and writing skills!
One of the photos that I am sharing with this letter is of a bulletin board that four of my students are creating in my classroom based on one of the books they read. They volunteered to do this!! So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Wai'anae High School (actually, Wai'anae overall) often gets an undeserved bad reputation, and I love to see my students excelling and proving people wrong!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Posada