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This teacher needs your help!

Mrs. Saavedra from Sioux Falls, SD is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Mrs. Saavedra is requesting

Building a Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Classroom Library

Help me give my students books that represent their diverse cultures and languages. They deserve to have their identities validated on their journeys to loving literacy!

  • 8 donors
  • $303 still needed

expires Nov 05

  • 8 donors
  • $303 still needed
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My Project

My students come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, so why shouldn't the books in our classroom library represent who they are? I was inspired by the work of author Sharroky Hollie, who wrote the book Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning. In his text, Hollie urges teachers to intentionally use culturally authentic texts rather than just culturally neutral ones. The difference is that culturally authentic texts "illuminate a particular cultural group's authentic cultural experience- whether it addresses religion, socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, nationality, orientation, age, or geographic location" (Hollie, 2018). As opposed to culturally neutral ones that may feature diverse characters, but continue to use traditional themes or plots.

Literacy proficiency is a huge factor in determining students academic success, expanding across all content areas.

Currently, my students have an ever widening achievement gap in reading. There is a lack of desire to read for enjoyment and lack of motivation to read for academic comprehension. By engaging with culturally responsive texts, I believe my students will build a love for literature as they begin to see themselves in the texts they read. My goal is to validate the identities found within my classroom by giving them access to culturally and linguistically diverse books, supplementing these texts into our learning, and modeling fluency by using them for read-alouds.

This particular list of books is from a curated list by Lydia McClanahan, a collaborator with Sharroky Hollie's Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. Each text was carefully selected for it's representation of cultural aspects (listed above). They were also chosen for their diverse themes that touch on many personal experiences my students may have. The texts I am seeking were decided on based on the lives of my students, grade-level appropriateness, and variation of genres.

Mrs. Saavedra
Never Before Funded Grades 3-5

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Spanish - English Illustrated Dictionary: A Bilingual Visual Guide to Over 10,000 Spanish Words and Phrases • Amazon Business $19.59 1 $19.59
Hindi-English Bilingual Visual Dictionary (DK Bilingual Visual Dictionaries) • Amazon Business $16.99 1 $16.99
The Legendary Miss Lena Horne • Amazon Business $15.33 1 $15.33
Mission To Space • Amazon Business $15.31 1 $15.31
Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story • Amazon Business $14.46 1 $14.46
Gaawin Gindaaswin Ndaawsii / I Am Not a Number (English and Ojibwa Edition) • Amazon Business $13.43 1 $13.43
Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel (Max's Lucha Libre Adventures #1) • Amazon Business $12.95 1 $12.95
Farsi-English/English-Farsi (Persian) Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary) • Amazon Business $12.59 1 $12.59
Ellington Was Not a Street • Amazon Business $11.51 1 $11.51
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist • Amazon Business $11.44 1 $11.44
Firebird • Amazon Business $10.53 1 $10.53
Flying Lessons and Other Stories (paperback) • DonorsChoose Featured Favorites $10.00 1 $10.00
The Porcupine Year (Birchbark House, 3) • Amazon Business $9.44 1 $9.44
Zoe in Wonderland • Amazon Business $8.99 1 $8.99
The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond • Amazon Business $8.99 1 $8.99
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom • Amazon Business $8.95 1 $8.95
How I Became A Ghost — A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story (Book 1 in the How I Became A Ghost Series) • Amazon Business $8.29 1 $8.29
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Caldecott Honor Book) • Amazon Business $8.05 1 $8.05
Viva Frida: (Caldecott Honor Book) • Amazon Business $7.99 1 $7.99
Return to Sender • Amazon Business $7.99 1 $7.99
Kinda Like Brothers (Scholastic Gold) • Amazon Business $7.99 1 $7.99
Garvey's Choice • AKJ Education $7.95 1 $7.95
Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It • Amazon Business $7.95 1 $7.95
Diccionario Inglés-Español / Spanish-English Guadal Bilingual Dictionary (Spanish Edition) • Amazon Business $7.95 1 $7.95
Chickadee (Birchbark House, 4) • Amazon Business $7.89 1 $7.89
For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai's Story (Encounter) • Amazon Business $7.86 1 $7.86
Nelson Mandela • Amazon Business $6.99 1 $6.99
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground • Amazon Business $6.99 1 $6.99
Indian Shoes • Amazon Business $6.99 1 $6.99
The Game of Silence (Birchbark House, 2) • Amazon Business $6.99 1 $6.99
The Real Boy • Amazon Business $6.99 1 $6.99
The Crossover: A Newbery Award Winner (The Crossover Series) • Amazon Business $6.89 1 $6.89
The Red Pencil • Amazon Business $6.89 1 $6.89
The Birchbark House (Birchbark House, 1) • Amazon Business $6.89 1 $6.89
Tiger Boy • Amazon Business $6.79 1 $6.79
The Red Rose Box • Amazon Business $5.99 1 $5.99
My Best Friend • Amazon Business $5.99 1 $5.99
Amina's Voice • AKJ Education $5.83 1 $5.83
Merriam-Webster’s Arabic-English Dictionary - Bilingual, bidirectional dictionary, includes 43,000 entry words & phrases, & 22,000 translations • Amazon Business $3.49 1 $3.49

Materials cost

$364.12

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $20.03

3rd party payment processing fee

$5.46

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$419.61

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$74.05

Total project goal

$493.66

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $493.66

5 Donors

-$185.00

Donations toward project cost

-$158.50

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$26.50

match offer

-$5.00

Match offer toward project cost

-$4.25

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$0.75

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$1.47

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $302.19

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Saavedra and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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