I teach at a large urban high school where there is a discernible inequity in access between students from different income backgrounds. Bluntly, students from the affluent downtown neighborhoods to our east often procure their own course books, notebooks, and class tools, while students from the lower-income neighborhoods to our north and west generally make do with the public resources. Just last week I had a student in one of my "non-honors" classes ask me, "Are we ever going to get to read a real book like the honors kids?"
It is for these classes of students I am hoping to obtain a course set of quality paperback texts, so that, at least once a year, they will have the experience of reading a single-title, dedicated published text. Or, as my student so aptly put it, a "real book." I am hoping for Gatsby for my 11th grade American Literature class, The Alchemist for my 9th graders, and Into the Wild as a nonfiction text to be used in both classes. In total, almost 4 sections of students would be served by these texts--about 160 individual students.
About my class
I teach at a large urban high school where there is a discernible inequity in access between students from different income backgrounds. Bluntly, students from the affluent downtown neighborhoods to our east often procure their own course books, notebooks, and class tools, while students from the lower-income neighborhoods to our north and west generally make do with the public resources. Just last week I had a student in one of my "non-honors" classes ask me, "Are we ever going to get to read a real book like the honors kids?"
It is for these classes of students I am hoping to obtain a course set of quality paperback texts, so that, at least once a year, they will have the experience of reading a single-title, dedicated published text. Or, as my student so aptly put it, a "real book." I am hoping for Gatsby for my 11th grade American Literature class, The Alchemist for my 9th graders, and Into the Wild as a nonfiction text to be used in both classes. In total, almost 4 sections of students would be served by these texts--about 160 individual students.
Read more