Past projects 42
Making Reading Cool Through Book Circles
Funded Oct 8, 2012Thank you so much for your contribution to my classroom. With your help in creating this Book Circle unit, I was able to assign books appropriate to each student's interests and needs. The students are eager to begin reading books that have been chosen for them in genres they may not have read before.
The students will be assessed on how well they can discuss literature with each other, and the final for this unit will be a focused 15-minute literary discussion for each group. Throughout the next few weeks, I will be teaching the students how to analyze literature through a variety of critical lenses. The students are free to pick whatever lens they feel is appropriate for their book and they will be encouraged to be creative with the way they approach the text. In any case, I am sure they will enjoy the books that you have purchased for them.
It is with your support that my students are able to develop their critical thinking skills so that they may put them to good use in the years ahead.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Okamura
Native Son for the Native Sons and Daughters of Oakland
Funded Sep 7, 2012Thank you so much for your contribution to my classroom. With your help in completing the class set, I was able to begin my unit on Native Son. The students are eager to engage in the most complex and difficult text they will have read in high school. This book will serve as a preview for the kinds of books my students will read in college, due to its heavy content and themes.
I began the unit by showing videos of interviews I have done of the other teachers at our school to showcase the reading strategies they have used to survive college when reading books such as Native Son. Every teacher interview yielded a different set of reading strategies, which will undoubtedly be helpful to the students, as they will read this book over the next 6-7 weeks. Armed with an array of strategies, my students have begun their journey of grappling with this 430-page story, and they will soon begin the laborious process of deconstructing the social inequities critiqued by the book's author, Richard Wright, and drawing comparisons to their own lives in the modern day.
It is with your support that my students are able to develop their critical thinking skills so that they may put them to good use in the years ahead. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Okamura