Past projects 12
Books for All!
Funded Jan 13, 2022Thank you so much for your extremely generous donation to our classroom library! You will never fully know the impact you have had on my students' lives. My students have slowly redeveloped their love of reading throughout the school year as we slowly moved away from the association they made between reading and having to complete school work with reading for enjoyment. Most of them have found the fun in reading again and have found themselves exploring new genres and new topics they never would have picked up before. Your donation has helped make that possible for them!
Every day we start class with 15 minutes of reading student-selected texts. Students pick a purpose for their reading that day. They may choose to examine the plot, characters, conflict, theme, text structure, character choices, predictions, and many other skills they have learned to apply to their own reading throughout the school year. While they read their chosen text, they apply their understanding of the skills to analyze the story. When we are done with independent reading for the day, students demonstrate their understanding of the text by creating a short answer response where they explain what they took away from their reading about their chosen skill and use evidence from the text to support their answer. I have found that this simple task has made students much better at reading comprehension, but it is not so overwhelming that they associate reading with having to "work".
On Fridays, we end independent reading time with "Book Talk Friday". Students are placed into random groups, and they have one minute each to discuss different aspects of the book they are currently reading. At the end of their minute, they tell their groupmates if they would recommend the book they are currently reading and why they would recommend it. Their groupmates then write down the title and author of the book if it sounds interesting so they constantly have a list going of books they want to try out. To me, this is their opportunity to practice the real-life application of a book club where people get together to discuss the books they are reading, what they like and dislike about the books, and hopefully leave with some new titles they want to try.
Research says to create the best classroom environment for independent reading to prosper, teachers need to have a minimum of 500 books on display for students to view and look through at any given time. As a teacher, it is very challenging to build a classroom library all on your own. This is where you and your donation came in. Without you, I would have to hear daily: "Ms! There is nothing to read!" "Ms! Nothing in your library looks interesting!" "Ms! I have read all these books already!" Thanks to you and your generosity instead I hear: "Ms! I can't believe you have this book!" "Ms! I have been wanting to read this book and now I can!" "Ms! I did not use to like reading, and now I do!" You have helped make that change happen, and I am so grateful for you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Damante
This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and one other donor.Learning About Real Life Through Nonfiction
Funded Apr 7, 2022Thank you so much for your generosity and investing in our love of reading! All the new books will allow us to continue reading while also giving us opportunities to explore an entirely new genre. Hopefully, these new books will get some fiction lovers to love nonfiction just as much! Thanks again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Damante
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose community & an Anonymous Partner and 4 other donors.