Past projects 16
Experimenting with Memoir
Funded Mar 15, 2025Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity! I'm confident that Machado's memoir will inspire my students to find their own unique approaches to telling the stories that have made them who they are. I couldn't provide such dynamic reading experiences without your help. I appreciate it more than I can adequately say.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Reading America in a Year of Political Upheaval
Funded Jul 31, 2024Thanks to your generosity, my students are spending this quarter thinking critically about how our current political moment fits into a broader historical framework. They are thinking about their own lives, the lives of those they love, and the realities of strangers on the street as they consider the following prompt:
Place yourself in conversation with John Freedman's argument [that America has "shattered" its "compact with American citizens"] and develop your own position on the state of America's "brokenness," based on the class readings, your own experience, and your knowledge of the world around you.
Students are responding to this question in an essay that will ultimately run 9-12 pages, incorporating elements of narrative, analysis, and research in their attempt to arrive at an understanding of where we currently are as a nation of disillusioned and despairing citizens. What they are discovering, I'm pleased to report, is that with a careful consideration of things as they are, hope is not out of reach. Thank you for giving them the chance to realize this.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Putting a Spotlight on Asian American Experience
Funded Sep 2, 2024Thank you so, so much for your help in getting this project funded in just three days! I am truly overwhelmed by your generosity. I can't wait to explore Yu's novel with your children in the spring, and my opportunity to do so is entirely the result of your kindness and support.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Diversifying the Coming of Age Narrative
Funded Jul 21, 2023My students have benefitted tremendously from reading actual, physical copies of both The House on Mango Street and Brown Girl Dreaming. We wrapped up our study of BGD just today, and now they're prepared to adapt the coming of age narrative they wrote after reading THOMS into a long poem, or a series of poems, using BGD as a mentor text.
I'm so excited that we're beginning the year this way, with students focusing on their own stories. This has allowed them to see that their lived experiences are interesting and worth writing about. Adapting those stories into poetry will also develop their love of language and help them to see that the best words can come from inside of them — rather than through a machine generating them in response to an algorithm.
Thank you for everything you've given my classroom, Mr. Mei's, and Ms. Morick's.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Language, Courage, and Tenderness
Funded Jun 28, 2021In my class, we are using the Morrison and Baldwin texts to broaden and expand our thinking about ideas related to the theme of social justice. After having read essays by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Atul Gawande; and Bryan Stevenson; The Fire Next Time and The Source of Self-Regard are providing important additional perspectives as we consider the gap between the world as it is and the world as we wish it to be.
In a week, students will respond to the following prompt in an argument essay: In "The Nobel Lecture in Literature," novelist and essayist Toni Morrison observes that language "can never 'pin down' slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable."
Consider Morrison's characterization of the role of language. Then write an essay in which you develop your own position on the ways in which written and spoken communication are both limited in their power and essential to our survival. Use appropriate, specific evidence to illustrate and develop your position.
This prompt comes directly from one of the essays in the Morrison text, and it is through our reading of both Baldwin and Morrison that students will be able to successfully, and with greater sophistication, articulate their own ideas about racism in America, the path forward to greater equality and justice for all, and the power and limitations of language itself. Thank you for enriching this unit of study for my students.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Whose Story Am I Missing?: Understanding the Legacy of Slavery
Funded Aug 10, 2019Thanks to your contributions, the ninth-grade students at my school have developed a clearer understanding of the damaging effects of slavery across generations and within the modern-day, global community. During our study of Yaa Gyasi's text, we engaged in thought-provoking discussions of the impact of racism, sexism and gender stereotypes, colonialism, and cultural erosion. In my racially diverse classroom, the text encouraged an empathetic response from each of the students.
Gyasi's stylistic risks were also instructive for my students. Her choice to write her story through the lives of fourteen interconnected characters made the legacy of slavery and systemic oppression easy for my students to understand. They could see the ripple effects, across centuries, of policies and practices carried out with financial gain and material greed as the only motivating forces.
This world is plagued with problems, but you should know that the students who read Gyasi's text in my classroom will be looking at these social ills with new eyes going forward. They will not forget the experience you provided for them.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
We ALL Will Be Citizens: Equity Through the Drama Lens
Funded Nov 12, 2018Because of your generous donations, my students' yearlong English experience will culminate in a reading of Angels in America, one of the greatest American plays of the twentieth century. All year, we've been reading texts that attempt to answer questions such as, What does it mean to live in America? For whom is the American dream most fully realized (and for whom is it not)? What needs to change in order for our democracy to achieve its fullest potential? To that end, we've read the novels There There by Tommy Orange and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and shorter texts written by the likes of Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and dozens of others. Tony Kushner's Angels in America will allow us to revisit these ideas and themes one more time, within the confines of a play that truly changed my life and will no doubt open the eyes of my students a bit wider.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Keeping Native American Culture Alive (There IS a THERE There)
Funded Aug 15, 2018It is so critically important that students read books that speak to the world as it is now, that give voice to the experiences of those who live on the margins. They need to be exposed to writers who use language in innovative ways and who warn of the dangers of believing that there is only one single story to tell. Tommy Orange, in his novel There There, achieves all of this and much more, and I know that my students will be newly awakened to the experiences of other people in this world as a result of reading this work.
In my class, we read to understand what is possible in the English language. In stories that remind us of our own attempts to navigate this life, books allow us to gaze into mirrors. But they also allow us to peep into windows, teaching us about the hopes and heartaches of others. With your generous donations, you have allowed us to continue this work. I can't thank you enough.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
Let East Harlem Actors Be Heard! (Part 2)
Funded Jan 1, 2010Thank you so much for enabling me to supplement the original number of microphones I received. This will enable more students to use the microphones at once, which is crucial considering the nature of the piece we've chosen.
In The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman, the dramatic thrust comes from hearing dozens of residents of Laramie, Wyoming reflect upon their experiences in the aftermath of Matthew Shepard's brutal murder, a crime borne out of the fear and homophobia felt by the perpetrators. The more microphones we have, the easier it will be to make sure all of those voices are heard.
Thus, you're not only helping my students' voices to be heard, you are instrumental in helping broadcast the voices of Americans who are dissatisfied with the hate and homophobia that continues to pervade our nation.
Thank you again for your kind contributions.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones
This classroom project was brought to life by Dorothy and 6 other donors.Performing The Laramie Project
Funded Aug 3, 2009This is the second time you've come to the aid of my students; as we read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by Himself, I am reminded that, two years ago, it was you who funded the purchase of that set of texts as well.
How can I properly thank you? With two extremely generous donations, you have contributed greatly to my students' understanding of the damaging psychological consequences of oppression. First, you opened their eyes to the horrors of slavery, and now you've given me the chance to show them the evils of homophobia. I can't thank you enough.
I hope to see you in the audience when we perform The Laramie Project in late March. It could never have come to fruition without you.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Jones