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HELP ME HELP MY STUDENTS READ TO SUCCEED
A refresher to those who know me and an introduction to those who don’t but have somehow stumbled upon this page: I am Camille…these days I am more often referred to as ‘Miss Chavez’ or even just ‘Chavez’. I am a first year high school special education teacher to students with mild to moderate disabilities. One of my biggest goals as a teacher is to teach my students to advocate for themselves. This means doing their best, knowing and understanding their limitations, and attempting to communicate their needs to others. Today I want to practice what I preach and share with you how my students and I have been doing in our first year together, a few of the limitations we have been faced with, and what I have discovered we both need in order to make even more gains in our second year together.
Although English is not the only class I teach, it is arguably the most important for my students, and the one I want to talk about here. In my classroom there are many different faces. I could share each individual story and discuss the challenges and celebrate the successes each have faced this year, but I will try to do my best to generally and succinctly describe the differences of these students. I teach in a low income district. Over 80% of my students are males and all of them are between the ages of 14 and 19 years old. Some of them are English Learners and all of them have a disability. Their disabilities are as different as they are. There are students with Autism, ADHD, and Specific Learning Disabilities to name a few. Many of them come from broken homes. Some live within the foster system, others live with extended family, some in group homes, while one even lives in the homeless shelter. For many of the students, school serves as the one stable and safe environment for them. They all come together with their different backgrounds, experiences, and limitations to Room 316 for at least one period a day. They come here to read, write, improve, and explore. Did I mention that on top of all of these struggles and differences, the majority of the students are reading at a 3rd to 5th grade level with the class range spanning from 2nd grade to 8th grade in fluency and comprehension levels? Reading is a difficult and undesirable activity for these students.
As a first year teacher I have done my best to serve these students with limited resources. I was handed the keys to an empty classroom three days before the first day of school. I did not know my students or their needs before they arrived and I have worked tirelessly this year alongside my wonderful aides to foster an environment of learning and growing. We have all done our best. We have put in long hours and hard work to be the best readers and writers we can be. We have created a safe environment where students can try and fail without fear of rejection, and where successes no matter how small are celebrated and acknowledged. While my eyes well up at the side by side comparisons of student writing samples on the first day of school and their most recent essays, I know there is more growth we can achieve in Room 316.
At the end of my first year of teaching, I am looking towards the future with a better understanding of the students I serve. This includes their levels, preferences, and abilities. I am planning ways to better meet their needs and desires and have researched curriculum, books, and methods to help them get there. My hope is that next year will be even more successful than this year and that I can make my classroom visions become a reality for my students. I am writing today in hopes that you will consider contributing to the students of Room 316 as we prepare for our second year together and I work to create the environment I believe will be most beneficial for them with all of the resources this includes.
It is a continuous struggle to find stories and texts at lower levels that look age appropriate and are topic appropriate for a high school student. The students crave texts that are relevant to their interests and are accessible to their differing levels but do not look like they are geared toward elementary students. To prepare for the upcoming school year, I would like to expand my classroom library and resources available to students, aides, and myself.
All funds raised in this campaign will go towards classroom resources geared toward improving literacy in my students and creating the most conducive environment for all. This money will finance a Scholastic classroom magazine subscription geared towards high school students while written at a 3rd-5th grade level (25 copies of each issue for a 10 month period), a “reading” table for small group activities and instruction, group sets of leveled nonfiction text (books, leveled readers, comprehension folders, etc.) to improve reading comprehension, and texts/curriculum from Making Connections and Making Connections Intervention.
Though I am not the type of person to ask for help from others without being able to provide something in return, I have decided to ask for your help in order to better serve my students and attempt to provide them with better materials for instruction. Your contribution, no matter how small, will directly assist the students in Room 316 and impact their reading abilities. With your help, I hope to instill a new appreciation and joy of reading in my students through new and relevant curriculum. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my classroom and considering this request. Anything you can do to support us will be appreciated and I am so grateful to have the emotional support of so many wonderful people who have taken the time to read this and give me positive feedback.
A refresher to those who know me and an introduction to those who don’t but have somehow stumbled upon this page: I am Camille…these days I am more often referred to as ‘Miss Chavez’ or even just ‘Chavez’. I am a first year high school special education teacher to students with mild to moderate disabilities. One of my biggest goals as a teacher is to teach my students to advocate for themselves. This means doing their best, knowing and understanding their limitations, and attempting to communicate their needs to others. Today I want to practice what I preach and share with you how my students and I have been doing in our first year together, a few of the limitations we have been faced with, and what I have discovered we both need in order to make even more gains in our second year together.
Although English is not the only class I teach, it is arguably the most important for my students, and the one I want to talk about here. In my classroom there are many different faces. I could share each individual story and discuss the challenges and celebrate the successes each have faced this year, but I will try to do my best to generally and succinctly describe the differences of these students. I teach in a low income district. Over 80% of my students are males and all of them are between the ages of 14 and 19 years old. Some of them are English Learners and all of them have a disability. Their disabilities are as different as they are. There are students with Autism, ADHD, and Specific Learning Disabilities to name a few. Many of them come from broken homes. Some live within the foster system, others live with extended family, some in group homes, while one even lives in the homeless shelter. For many of the students, school serves as the one stable and safe environment for them. They all come together with their different backgrounds, experiences, and limitations to Room 316 for at least one period a day. They come here to read, write, improve, and explore. Did I mention that on top of all of these struggles and differences, the majority of the students are reading at a 3rd to 5th grade level with the class range spanning from 2nd grade to 8th grade in fluency and comprehension levels? Reading is a difficult and undesirable activity for these students.
As a first year teacher I have done my best to serve these students with limited resources. I was handed the keys to an empty classroom three days before the first day of school. I did not know my students or their needs before they arrived and I have worked tirelessly this year alongside my wonderful aides to foster an environment of learning and growing. We have all done our best. We have put in long hours and hard work to be the best readers and writers we can be. We have created a safe environment where students can try and fail without fear of rejection, and where successes no matter how small are celebrated and acknowledged. While my eyes well up at the side by side comparisons of student writing samples on the first day of school and their most recent essays, I know there is more growth we can achieve in Room 316.
At the end of my first year of teaching, I am looking towards the future with a better understanding of the students I serve. This includes their levels, preferences, and abilities. I am planning ways to better meet their needs and desires and have researched curriculum, books, and methods to help them get there. My hope is that next year will be even more successful than this year and that I can make my classroom visions become a reality for my students. I am writing today in hopes that you will consider contributing to the students of Room 316 as we prepare for our second year together and I work to create the environment I believe will be most beneficial for them with all of the resources this includes.
It is a continuous struggle to find stories and texts at lower levels that look age appropriate and are topic appropriate for a high school student. The students crave texts that are relevant to their interests and are accessible to their differing levels but do not look like they are geared toward elementary students. To prepare for the upcoming school year, I would like to expand my classroom library and resources available to students, aides, and myself.
All funds raised in this campaign will go towards classroom resources geared toward improving literacy in my students and creating the most conducive environment for all. This money will finance a Scholastic classroom magazine subscription geared towards high school students while written at a 3rd-5th grade level (25 copies of each issue for a 10 month period), a “reading” table for small group activities and instruction, group sets of leveled nonfiction text (books, leveled readers, comprehension folders, etc.) to improve reading comprehension, and texts/curriculum from Making Connections and Making Connections Intervention.
Though I am not the type of person to ask for help from others without being able to provide something in return, I have decided to ask for your help in order to better serve my students and attempt to provide them with better materials for instruction. Your contribution, no matter how small, will directly assist the students in Room 316 and impact their reading abilities. With your help, I hope to instill a new appreciation and joy of reading in my students through new and relevant curriculum. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my classroom and considering this request. Anything you can do to support us will be appreciated and I am so grateful to have the emotional support of so many wonderful people who have taken the time to read this and give me positive feedback.