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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Darcy Castellanos from Chicago, IL is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Darcy Castellanos is requesting

Inspired Readers Become Inspired Leaders

Help me give my students the ability to create and facilitate book clubs around a plethora of culturally relevant books based on themes of resilience, survival, and the determination to succeed in life while being true to yourself.

  • $1,467 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Keep the momentum going! Make a donation to Ms. Darcy Castellanos for her next project!

Help Ms. Darcy Castellanos

Keep the momentum going! Make a donation to Ms. Darcy Castellanos for her next project!

My Students

March, 2020: My current students went home as energetic, naive, “full of life” 10-11 year olds, and now 20 months later are just trying to settle into a new normalcy with masks by getting back on track and getting ready for high school, but for many of my 12- 13-year-old students, they are returning as more mature, some sullen, some withdrawn, and yet some energetic and excited to get back to “their lives”. In some of the most pivotal times of going through puberty and figuring out their identities as they moved into adolescence, they were faced with some of the hardest challenges of their lives.

Our students have spent 20 months trying to physically and emotionally survive, now it is time to get them back to an educational and emotional place for them to thrive!

My current students are the most culturally aware and politically correct students I have ever taught. Their thirst for knowledge and excitement over books are contagious. Let's get them back to their love of reading!

My Project

In my classrooms, the majority of reading is done through book clubs. Through book clubs, students have the freedom of choice to choose books on the specific unit topic that they want to read because they are interested in the topic or are connected to the storyline which already creates the motivation to read for even the most reluctant reader. The book clubs help our young adult readers foster their book clubs by sharing and arguing their opinions and supporting them with textual evidence while also analyzing the author’s craft and looking at how figurative language enhances the writing and enriches the text with more depth.

Along with choosing your own book, the socialization aspect of a book club is really the key component for learning.

Freedom to choose a book you feel comfortable reading helps to create a space where students control their own learning and helps push one another to look at various perspectives, which then allows them to alter their analysis or own thinking of situations that happen in the books, while also needing to address the teaching points of the day. The 7th graders will be using the fiction books from this list that have characters facing adversities on top of dealing with cultural or social issues. The 8th graders will be using the nonfiction books that are memoirs from the DonorsChoose list as their lens into learning the teaching points and literary elements. The memoirs all focus on real-life scenarios where the protagonists have faced life or death situations where their morals, culture, or survival skills have played a role in their persistence to rise above their situations. With all of these books, students are learning life lessons while also being inspired by many of these tragic tales of perseverance.

Ms. Darcy Castellanos Wildwood IB World Magnet School Grades 6-8

More about Ms. Darcy Castellanos

Chicago, IL View local requests 60 students impacted 38donors

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Darcy Castellanos is requesting.

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Rick • Amazon Business $15.99 10 $159.90
The Kite Runner • Amazon Business $9.87 10 $98.70
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box • Amazon Business $16.99 5 $84.95
Turtle Boy • Amazon Business $7.99 10 $79.90
Peacemaker • Amazon Business $15.29 5 $76.45
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson, 20th Anniversary Edition • Amazon Business $7.51 10 $75.10
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.) • Amazon Business $14.49 5 $72.45
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives • Amazon Business $12.88 5 $64.40
Into the Wild • Amazon Business $11.13 5 $55.65
Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board • Amazon Business $11.01 5 $55.05
Bad Boy: A Memoir • Amazon Business $9.99 5 $49.95
A Long Pitch Home • Amazon Business $8.99 5 $44.95
Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington's Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away; Young Readers Edition • Amazon Business $8.99 5 $44.95
Santiago's Road Home • Amazon Business $8.99 5 $44.95
Dear America: Young Readers’ Edition: The Story of an Undocumented Citizen • Amazon Business $8.99 5 $44.95
Child of the Dream (A Memoir of 1963) • Amazon Business $7.99 5 $39.95
The House on Mango Street • Amazon Business $7.28 5 $36.40
Four Perfect Pebbles: A True Story of the Holocaust • Amazon Business $6.99 5 $34.95
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution • Amazon Business $6.99 5 $34.95

Materials cost

$1,198.55

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$17.98

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$1,246.53

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$219.98

Total project goal

$1,466.51

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $1,466.51

36 Donors

-$1,349.38

Donations toward project cost

-$1,161.53

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$187.85

match offer

-$100.00

Match offer toward project cost

-$85.00

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$15.00

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$17.13

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

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

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DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

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. Darcy Castellanos and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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