Mrs. Breen's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 5

• An E-Classroom for ELLs Needs a Workable Computer

  Funded Apr 23, 2020

  I am overjoyed with your generosity, especially under such an unprecedented circumstance with remote learning. Not only do my ENL students in the upcoming year will have this laptop in the classroom for finding resources and completing assignments, they can also access to the Internet and complete tasks that they cannot do at home due to a lack of electronic devices. I am truly thankful for your kind act, and promise to utilize this amazing gift for enhancing students' personal and academic growths. THANK YOU!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Breen

• Spanish Books For Third-Eighth Beginning And Bilingual ELLs

  Funded Dec 2, 2015

  The day after I received the boxes of books, I asked my students to open them for me. When they noticed we were adding new books to our Spanish Library, they were overjoyed.

  For the last few months, my students made good use of the Spanish Book Library in our ESL classroom. They borrowed books from our library, and read them at home, and during the English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Their ELA teachers encouraged them to read in Spanish, and ensured that these English learners were continuously building their literacy skills using their Spanish texts. The variety of genres also interested different readers. Many of them enjoyed the pop literature, such as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and Eleanor & Park. They explained that they could connect with their classmates, as their classmates also had read the English version of these books. Others found the historical fictions and biographies useful for building their social studies knowledge. They really appreciated these donated reading materials.

  Thank you once again for your generous donation!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Breen

• Can you Hear the People Speak? Clearly?

  Funded Dec 18, 2014

  Thank you for your generous donation. All my English learners from kindergarten to eighth grade are very appreciative and made great use of the headphones in their learning. In my ESL classroom, I promote the learning of English through online educational programs and websites, such as achieve3000 (a reading program) and quizlet.com. These tools contains audios that aid ELLs in learning English. With the help of the headphones, my students are able to learn at their own pace and to focus on the pronunciation of words. These headphones also reduce distractions as no one is playing audio through the speakers. Quite often, I hear my students imitating the sounds or words from the audio to practice their speaking simultaneously.

  We are so fortunate to have received these headphones! Thanks again for your generosity.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Breen

  This classroom project was brought to life by Kia and one other donor.

• Spanish Books for K-8th Beginning ELLs

  Funded Nov 15, 2014

  The day after I received the boxes of books, I asked my students to open them for me. When they noticed that the books were in Spanish, they were overjoyed.

  For the last few months, my students made good use of the Spanish Book Library in our ESL classroom. They borrowed books from our library, and read them at home, and during the English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Their ELA teachers encouraged them to read in Spanish, and ensured that these English learners were continuously building their literacy skills using their Spanish texts. The variety of genres also interested different readers. Many of them enjoyed the pop literature, such as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and Judy Moody series. They explained that they could connect with their classmates, as their classmates also had read the English version of these books. Others found the historical fictions and biographies useful for building their social studies knowledge. They really appreciated these donated reading materials.

  Thank you once again for your generous donation. Even though we were told it was unnecessary to write Thank-you letters for this project, my students decided that they wanted to write and thank you all. I have attached photos of their letters in the Thank-you package. If you would like to read all of them, please contact me and I will certainly send them to you via email.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Breen

• Ebooks for Middle School Beginner ELLs

  Funded Jun 6, 2013

  Thank you for supporting my project "Ebooks for Middle School Beginner ELLs". My middle school students, who are English language learners (ELLs), absolutely adore them. With these ebooks, my students expressed that they are no longer embarrassed when they are reading lower grade level books in the class, since their classmates cannot see the cover of the books. Thus, their whole reading experience inside a classroom has changed considerably. They also mentioned that the dictionary in the Kindle is utterly useful. They use the dictionary not only for reading, but also for checking unfamiliar words during class time.

  Due to budget shortage, I have not yet purchased any books for the Kindle. However, thanks to New York City and Queens Public Libraries, my students are able to borrow books. My students enjoy shopping for ebooks from the library website because they can pick books according to their interests. Besides, ebooks are categorized in the Queens Library database, so my students can pick the appropriate books of their reading levels. Moreover, the fact that one book could be delivered to different Kindles allows my students to have a book club. They constantly have formal and informal discussions, and motivate each other to read.

  Because of the Kindles, my students are more engaged in reading. It is essential for ELLs to develop good reading habit as they were not used to read English books in their own country. As they read more, they persistently practice different reading strategies, and become stronger readers.

  Thanks again for your donation! It has created quite an impact in my ESL classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Breen