Kindle Classroom Project

Reading is believing!

Students who like to read do better in school and in life. Plus, reading is cool.

That’s why I founded the Kindle Classroom Project. The program promotes the love and power of reading by distributing Kindles and good books to high school students in Oakland and the Bay Area.

2012 Advisory Dinner 2012How did the Kindle Classroom Project begin?
Years ago, I launched an independent reading program as part of my curriculum. Influenced by reading gurus Nancie Atwell, Donalyn Miller, and Kelly Gallagher, I built a classroom library of 500+ titles and encouraged my students to read books they liked.

For the most part, the experiment worked. Reading went up, and my students started to say they liked to read. But not all students felt the same way. To them, no matter what I tried, reading was boring. Many said they couldn’t remember the last book they finished. I needed to reach these students, too.

One day, likely out of exasperation, I lent a student my Kindle Keyboard, told him how to change the font size and set up text-to-speech, and let him go. He read. He couldn’t contain himself. “This is so much better!” he exclaimed. At the end of class, he asked whether he could take my Kindle home for the weekend. I said yes. The next Monday, he’d finished Monster, his first book of the year.

Stock-KindleWhat does the Kindle Classroom Project do?
In partnership with dedicated teachers who care deeply about the love and power of reading, the Kindle Classroom Project distributes Kindles to high school students.

Students may bring their Kindle home, keep it over weekends and vacations, access an extensive e-book library, and request books they would like to read.

What’s the impact so far?
+ Generous supporters have donated 2,500+ Kindles and 2,500+ e-books to the project!

Check out these pictures of happy students with their Kindles!

Don’t they look happy? It’s clear that Kindles help students reclaim their love of reading.

What next?
I have three goals for the 2020-21 school year:

  • Make sure all 2,500+ students have unlimited access to the books they want to read.
  • Deliver books that students want to read within 12 hours of their request.
  • Expand the program to at least one elementary school.
  • Build the KCP website to improve the experience for students and teachers.

What can you do?
If you’d like to support the Kindle Classroom Project, check out the Donate page. If you have a Kindle to donate, go to the Donate Kindle page. Or you can check out the program’s Amazon Wishlist for chargers, batteries, and other key items to keep the KCP going. And please follow the KCP on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

You can also stay in touch with the KCP by subscribing to the KCP Newsletter!

Also, feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, and ideas.

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(Thank you for the kind words!)

1 Comment

  1. Great idea. I’ll have said OLPC will have been a better option, but considering the reasons you initiated the project (encourage students to read more books) I believe Kindle (or other e-book readers) is the best choice (as it allows for more restful reading).

What do you think?