Challenging Readers with Sunshine State Young Readers

School:: Lake Park Elementary
Subject:: Language Arts
Teacher:: Kristin Merrill
Students Impacted:: 50
Grade:: 4
Date:: August 14, 2022

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Glenda Struthers - $187.43

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 38

Our school participates in the Sunshine State Young Reader program which curates a list of 15 recommended chapter books each year for students to read. Our librarian does a fantastic job orderirng books for our students, but due to many new legistalations around books, she has not been able to order as many copies, or get them into our library as quickly. This grant provided my students with the selectioin of books to read as they challenged themselves throughout the year. We had over 10 students readd all 15 books and watching them receive their trophies was so inspiring. The entire class met the school goal of reading 3 or more of the books and thus they were all able to participate in the state-wide voting day. More importantly, these books inspired my students to be readers and helped them grow their love of reading. We thank you so much for investing in the education of our 4th grade students and for making reading fun, exciting and most importantly--accessible!

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

The Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA) Program is a statewide reading motivational program for students in grades Kindergarten through 8, sponsored by the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME). Sunshine State books are selected for their wide appeal, literary value, varied genres, curriculum connections, and/or multicultural representation. As a reading teacher I love to model reading through class read alouds and each year I enjoy reading books from this list as my students work towards the completion of reading all 15 books.

What will be done with my students

This statewide program is run through the schools and gives students the opportunity to read through the selected list of books while earning recognition and awards along the way. Students who read through a certain number of the listed books also get the chance to participate in a mock voting experience at the end of the year in addition to earning their own trophy upon completion of reading all 15 titles.

Benefits to my students

The purpose of the SSYRA Program is to encourage students to read independently for pleasure and to read books that are on, above, and below their reading level in order to improve their reading fluency. By having all of the books available to students, it allows them the opportunity to read from the selected list as they choose.

Budget Narrative

This list includes one of each of the books included in the 2022-2023 SSYR book llst for our class to share.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston	$8.99
2	The Beast and the Bethany by Jack Meggitt-Phillips	$11.65
3	Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Doom by Matthew Swanson	$12.99
4	Carry Me Home by Janet Fox	$8.99
5	Distress Signal by Mary E. Lambert	$17.99
6	J.D. and the Great Barble Battle by J. Dillard	$6.99
7	Julieta and the Diamond Enigma by Luisana Duarte Armendariz	$18.95
8	Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable	$12.99
9	Leonard (My Life as a Cat) by Carlie Sorosiak	$17.99
10	The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L Holm	$8.99
11	Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte	$12.99
12	The Million Dollar Race by Matthew Ross Smith	$9.95
13	Mystery on Magnolia Circle by Kate Klise	$16.99
14	Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer by Gillian Goetz	$12.99
15	Stella by McCall Hoyle	$7.99
	Total:	$187.43

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