Past projects 18
Visualizing & Inspiring with Graphic Novels
Funded Oct 7, 2024The new books, ()especially the scary ones) inspired many of my students to begin reading. It is always a struggle, especially with the move to Chroembooks, to encourage students to pick up a new book and to read. Thanks to your generous donations, I have filled our library with many new and exciting choices that will hopefully lead to more reading
Marianna saw The Secret Garden's graphic novel form and told me how much her mother loved that book as a child! Marianna borrowed the book to read at home with her mom.
After a new days, Marianna had a better sense of what the book was about due to the graphic novels' focus on visuals and dialogue to tell the story. After finishing the graphic novel, she came BACK to borrow the full version
This is EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TO HAPPEN!!!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 7 other donors.Building a Classroom Culture Through Stations
Funded Aug 21, 2024My students used the new resources this past September to create an amazing classroom culture with built-in routines that inspire respect and freedom of choice. The brightly colored paper allowed me to print "Getting to Know You" sheets and Classroom Scavenger Hunts for supplies and resources. The sticky notes were used for exploring our classroom library and annotating the classroom syllabus to build comprehension!
The specific items you helped procure were instrumental in forming small groups. Over the course of the week, students annotated the class syllabus and collaboratively created class rules.
Your donation of highlighters enabled students to analyze the commonalities and differences in their classmates' likes and interests, fostering new friendships.
Each of these activities was designed not only to build classroom community but also to reinforce routines and familiarize students with the basic reading strategy we will use throughout the year: reading and reflecting through annotation. You made all of this possible!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
World Mytholgy and Allusions
Funded Nov 28, 2022My students love having access to a variety of mythology books. many of them, specifically my African American, Indiana and Muslim students, were so happy to see their cultures represented in our classroom library.
Additionally, all of the students enjoy reading these texts during independent reading time- sometimes it's even difficult to get them to stop talking and debating about their topics and get them back to reading.
I hear them discussing which gods/goddesses/monsters are "cooler" and they are comparing what they are reading to current pop culture references, such as Marvel and D.C- it amazing to hear them!
Many students have shown interest in reading Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and other mythological based fantasy books due to their new knowledge of various myths.
Thank you again for your generous donations.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
Challenging Texts for High Level Readers
Funded Sep 28, 2022Because these texts are referenced in or have recently been re-created in pop culture, students are very interested to read them.
Many have chosen these books as their Independent Reading books and are challenging themselves to improve their vocabulary, & challenging their comprehension.
The students loved the fact that the newest additions to our classroom were similar to the popular shows they see on T.V.!
A few students who are watching "Rings of Power" are reading Tolkien and the amount of vocabulary they are reflecting on in their Vocabulary Logs is helping them to grow improve as readers.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
COVID FREE Book Library
Funded Aug 12, 2021The scanner and sanitizing wand have allowed students to clean, check out and return books (many of which are from previous DonorsChoose projects) in a safe way that has prevented COVID, kept both students and books safe, and encouraged focused reading.
As of November, over 150 books have been electronically checked out by scanner wand, sanitized, and enjoyed by over 60 students!
The kids, specifically one class of sixth graders, love using the scanner to scan the barcode and have made a game of seeing how far away I can be to scan their book. They are currently trying to make up a Harry Potter spell to shout when I use it and have dubbed the scanner "Waring's Wand".
I am also able to enter the information into a database allowing me to see which books are most popular, as well as keep everyone safe!
The kids return their books to the bin and then after they are sanitized with the sanitation wand, the books are returned to be re-borrowed! They love knowing that the book they are taking home is clean and safe.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 2 other donors.Digital Reading Escape Rooms & Metacognition
Funded Mar 16, 2021The materials donated allowed students to explore a variety of topics, as well as compete to solve reading challenges! Not only did students improve their metacognition and reading skills, but also their grit and growth mindset as well!
Many students commented that they enjoyed the challenge and even when they struggled, they were able to use different strategies such as re-reading, skimming, creating a t-chart, and annotating, to determine the information needed to pass to the next level.
One student in particular explained how he wanted quit, but after some encouragement and help from his classmates (who reminded him about the strategy they used), he was able to finish and we all cheered!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.Social Justice Warriors
Funded Sep 30, 2020Thank you so much for your donations to this project!
Many of the students choose to read about Ruth Bader Ginsberg as well as the other Social Justice Warriors. Students first chose a page and used it to determine the text structure as well as the author's purpose.
They also identified interesting and new vocabulary words such as "jurisprudence" and "dissent" and then played competitive vocabulary games with these words from the texts.
After reading about RBG and being inspired by our class discussions about how her rulings and dissents (two new words they learned) helped shape views on gender and racial equality, many students asked to change the screen savers on their Chromebooks to RBG. It was a total success and it could not have happened without your generous support!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 4 other donors.The Hero Journey and Literary Allusions
Funded Oct 11, 2019Thank you so much for donating toward this project!
The students loved choosing their own mythological characters to read about! Kenneth and Sebastian loved reading about Theseus, Hercules, and Jason. Sohani loved reading about Aphrodite and many of the girls connected to Athena, goddess of Wisdom.
The students skimmed through all of the books and then decided on which character/myth they wanted to focus on to look for modern-day allusions and connections. They then read the book, summarized the most important event, symbols powers and "myth"/most famous story.
The students were surprised to learn that so many companies, products, songs, and other literature references to Greek mythology. Now during Independent Reading time, students are choosing to read more and more about the different characters so they can expand their knowledge base!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
"Getting Wild" About Reading Nonfiction
Funded Dec 17, 2018The new reading chairs and magazine racks have improved our classroom so much! When they first saw the new chairs, students were so excited that they rushed to sit in them. They are so happy to have additional flexible seating to relax and read! I even had to create a schedule to ensure that all the students had access to the new chairs.
The magazine racks helped me to easily showcase magazines for students to choose to read during their non-fiction choice reading time. Before the racks, students did not navigate toward them to read because they weren't showcased in a way that enticed their attention. Now- they LOVE to peruse the racks and can easily see the various choices they have.
Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring
This classroom project was brought to life by Someone Who Cares and 3 other donors.Characterization, Conflict & Comic Books!
Funded Sep 29, 2018Thank you again for your donation on comic books to help inspire my students.
Being able to infer characteristics based on minimal textual evidence (both the dialog and the pictures) is a very difficult skill for students to master. They normally fly through text without reflecting or thinking about what they have read. Sadly, not reflecting on that information will make a huge difference on their general understanding of the plot.
The use of comic books has slowed students down: they are choosing the tiniest pieces of dialog as evidence and using their inferential skills to draw conclusions about characters, make predictions about the plot, and evaluate the general themes derived from the text. Students are also taking the time to analyze the pictures (which so often they have glossed over) and are using that information to make inferences as well.
Some days I have to hide the comics because students are fighting over them!
The students are truly enjoying reading them! Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Waring