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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Cheby from Tujunga, CA is requesting a classroom visitor through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

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The Pen as Equalizer: Empowering Communities Through Poetry

My students need opportunities to connect literature to the everyday world. This project will bring poet, educator, and community organizer, F. Douglas Brown, to our school for the library's annual literary assembly, bringing literature to life.

  • $155 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

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Help Ms. Cheby

My Students

Our school is an urban high school in Los Angeles serving 1,400 students through our comprehensive program and our VAPA and STEM-Multimedia Magnets. A Title I school, almost 75% of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Our students come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse talents and learning styles. About 70% of our students are classified as Long Term English language learners, thus many struggle to keep up with today's complex literacy demands. Additionally, we serve about 100 students with Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) and about 100 students classified as Gifted And Talented (GATE).

In a world where students are increasingly bombarded with multimedia, they sometimes forget that there are creators behind all these messages.

By bringing in writers in different genres, our school's library is able to help students make connections between the texts they encounter and the intentions behind them.

As the writers share their own experiences and processes with writing and publishing, students are also challenged to see themselves as creators of media, not just consumers. We are lucky to live in a literary-rich city with prominent writers who are willing to come to speak to our students and to share their work.

My Project

This project will provide support for 2013 Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner, F. Douglas Brown, to come speak to our students about writing, literature, and culture. He will share his own relationship to literature and writing, information about the writing process and publishing, and make connections for students between writing as a tool for cultural dialogue.

This year's literary assembly - with the theme of Pen as Equalizer: How We Speak, Perform, and Stay Alive - will take place in the school auditorium, allowing up to 800 students to benefit from this program.

Mr. Brown will speak about his work as a poet, educator, and community organizer. He will share how and why he curates and hosts the ongoing Un::fade::able reading series in memory of Sandra Bland as a way to use poetry to build a community for healing and raising awareness of racial injustice. He will also share his own poetry and participate in the Q&A at the end of the assembly.

Mr. Brown will also lead a poetry writing workshop with one of our English classes. Specifically, he will prepare students to respond to the Big Read LA's 2018 selection, Citizen by Claudia Rankine. The goal is for the students to present their poetic responses in a Big Read LA event in the Spring.

Every year some teachers have students write thank you notes that reveal how meeting writers in person humanizes literature, which often is some abstract artifact for many students who have not met creators behind the pages. This assembly provides a rare chance for our school community to gather to celebrate the written word.

Ms. Cheby Verdugo Hills High School Grades 9-12

Equity Focus

At this school, more than 50% of students are Black, Latino, and/or Native American, and more than 50% come from low-income households. Learn how your donation to this school supports a more equitable education.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More about Ms. Cheby

Tujunga, CA View local requests

More than three‑quarters 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

999 students impacted 3donors

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Visitor Total
F. Douglas Brown $100.00

Visitor cost

$100.00

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$1.50

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$131.50

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$23.21

Total project goal

$154.71

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $154.71

3 Donors

-$154.71

Donations toward project cost

-$131.50

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$23.21

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

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 Ms. Cheby and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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