This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
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Many students enter high school classrooms eager to read but are soon discouraged by the outdated selection of literature available in our budget strapped schools. Some teenagers who were once avid readers, now hardly ever open a book, or some students never liked reading in the first place.
My 11th and 12th grade Exploratory Literature, Gifted and Talented 12th grade English and 9th grade Honors English classes include a wide range of reading interests and abilities.
I teach in an urban inner city high school located in a culturally diverse part of the country. The diversity of students from Hispanic to Anglo to African American to Native American is what attracted me to this school. Students in my classes come in with a wealth of information in their cultural and technological "banks", but usually are from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Often times they have not had extensive exposure to good literature or good books. My teaching style is student centered. I prefer to be the "guide on the side" rather than the "sage on the stage. My goal is to encourage all students to read and my challenge is to ensure that I can find and recommend books for the variety of reading interests and abilities.
My Project
We all know that reading is important, and obviously we want to ensure that all teenagers grow into adulthood and are ready for the college classroom or their career choice with all the skills he or she needs to succeed. My goal is to help teenagers decide for themselves that reading is important to their lives and to build reading and writing skills necessary for higher education. I am building a classroom library of high interest books from all genres that will encourage students to read. My plan is to find at least one book of interest that students choose to read in my English classes per quarter. People who like to read do it because reading does something for them. It sends chills down their spine, brings tears to their eyes, or turns on the light bulb in their brain. My intention is to find books that will do this for each student in my classroom.
Unfortunately, our school library has been unable to stock the most contemporary and captivating teen reads.
Using recommendations from the American Library Association, The National Council of Teachers of English and the advice of local bookstore owners and local authors, my students and I have put together this wish list of books that we would like to add to our classroom library.
More than half of 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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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 Ms. Erickson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
