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.
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As an avid reader, I would love to host a book club for readers in my fifth grade classes. I plan to choose books very intentionally with absorbing plot lines and strong characterization to engage my readers as well as expand their background knowledge of the world. Another key quality of the books chosen is that they will be centered around characters that are diverse in order to build empathy.
Learning diversity through literature will help develop versatility and empathy in my students who are growing up in a somewhat isolated, very homogeneous community. My students are at a very sensitive age in which they are learning who they are and in which it is vital to develop this core life skill.
The books I am requesting (The War That Saved My Life and Hello, Universe) feature unique characters as well as diverse life situations that most of my students will never encounter in their everyday life. Because fiction helps to develop social and emotional skills in readers by helping them to build empathy, these books and discussion of the events and characters in them will help students learn to handle their own and other people's feelings.
Research has proven that empathy felt for fictional characters can essentially rewire our brains so that we learn to feel the same sensitivity towards actual people. Story-based questioning and discussion will help them build a language for their emotions as we work together to explore character actions, feelings, and the consequences for those actions and feelings.
About my class
As an avid reader, I would love to host a book club for readers in my fifth grade classes. I plan to choose books very intentionally with absorbing plot lines and strong characterization to engage my readers as well as expand their background knowledge of the world. Another key quality of the books chosen is that they will be centered around characters that are diverse in order to build empathy.
Learning diversity through literature will help develop versatility and empathy in my students who are growing up in a somewhat isolated, very homogeneous community. My students are at a very sensitive age in which they are learning who they are and in which it is vital to develop this core life skill.
The books I am requesting (The War That Saved My Life and Hello, Universe) feature unique characters as well as diverse life situations that most of my students will never encounter in their everyday life. Because fiction helps to develop social and emotional skills in readers by helping them to build empathy, these books and discussion of the events and characters in them will help students learn to handle their own and other people's feelings.
Research has proven that empathy felt for fictional characters can essentially rewire our brains so that we learn to feel the same sensitivity towards actual people. Story-based questioning and discussion will help them build a language for their emotions as we work together to explore character actions, feelings, and the consequences for those actions and feelings.