I teach 21 2nd grade students in a low-income, rural setting. Almost one fourth of my class speaks Spanish at home. Half of my students live in poverty and receive free lunch. Many of my students lack the financial resources for enrichment outside of the classroom. The make-up of my classroom this year is about half gifted students and half struggling readers.
With the class that I have this year, reading skills are super important. I have such a dichotomy that I am faced with remediation and enrichment at the same time. I need some additional resources to make the most of my time with these youngsters. One way that I would like to improve reading skills is by integrating reading instruction with other subject matter like science.
Research states that children become better readers by reading. I want to give my students ample opportunity to read books of their choice and learn about some of the science concepts studied in 2nd grade. In 2nd grade we learn about life cycles. I have found a few items that would enrich this study tremendously. There is a set of life cycle vocabulary readers that would be awesome to have and also a set of stamps that depict the life cycles of a variety of living things: chickens, frogs, fish, plants and butterflies. One of our objectives is to compare the life cycles of different organisms. This would help a lot and be fun at the same time. I will have the kids use these stamps sets at a science/writing center. They will stamp the life cycle and then write what they know about each stage, integrating reading, writing, and science. That means success for all. The readers will be an awesome addition to our classroom. All kids are interested in animals and insects. Boys are particularly drawn to nonfiction books. The majority of my struggling readers are boys. So these materials would help a lot.
Without these materials, my resources are significantly limited for the study of life cycles. These books and stamps would make the study of life cycles come alive more and be more fulfilling. They would also help me incorporate writing into my reading and science instruction. We would really appreciate having these materials in our classroom.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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