Classroom Library Grants

The Classroom Library Grant initiative supports educators in building diverse, engaging, and inclusive classroom libraries that inspire a lifelong love of reading. Whether you’re starting from scratch or expanding your collection, this grant helps bring the power of books directly into students’ hands.

ELA Honor Society Classroom Library Grants are designed to enhance the Society’s goals of

• promoting interest in literature and language within ELA Honor Society schools;
• fostering all aspects of English study including literature, language, writing, and media;
• providing ELA Honor Society Chapter Advisors with a range of compelling literature to share with the students they teach; and
• giving students access to diverse, inclusive, and high-quality texts, particularly in areas where access to libraries or books at home may be limited.

Awards:

ELA Honor Society Chapter Advisors are eligible for awards of up to $400

Applicant eligibility:

• Applicants must be Advisors of active chapters in good standing with the ELA Honor Society.
• Applicants may only contend for this award once every two years and can only win the award once.

Application requirements:

1. All submissions must be made via the ELA AwardSpring platform.
2. Applicants must complete demographic data questions prior to submitting their documentation.
3. All applicants must include a brief biography and portrait photo.
4. All applicants must submit a text (in PDF format) of no more than 500 words that includes the following information:
   • contextual information about the school and the local area;
   • the level of access your students have to a school library (hours, number of books available that can be checked out per student over what period, or other relevant information regarding access);
   • the proximity of the nearest public library and information about its holdings, policies, and hours that might affect student access;
   • information about the local culture that may affect the kind of books students have access to in the home or through school and public libraries;
   • an explanation of how you envision a classroom library will support your students’ efforts toward literacy and a love of literature, language, and writing; and
   • if your classroom library will be shared with other teachers, please explain how that will work.
5. All applicants must upload a PDF wish list including 20-30 titles you plan to purchase with the Classroom Library Grant funds. You must explain the rationale for including the titles you have selected.
6. The application process will require applicants to provide a recommendation letter from a school administrator. The letter they provide should include the following information:
   • confirm demographic and geographic information about the school;
   • endorse your plans for using the library grant funds; and
   • include the writer’s mailing address, email address, and phone number.
7. Applicants must agree that, should they win an award, they are willing to provide a written report and photos detailing the impact the award has had on them, which can be used by the ELA Honor Society to promote this and other awards in future years.
8. Applicants must also agree that the Classroom Library Grant will remain the property of the applicant teacher while they are working at their current school and, should the teacher leave, will revert to being property of the ELA Honor Society Chapter at their current school.

Application Link

Learn how to submit using our Technology Guide

Evaluation process:

1. All submissions will be evaluated by the ELA Honor Society Advisory Council.
2. All applications will be evaluated against a rubric containing (but not limited to) the following categories:
   • lack of economic and geographic access to books at your school, or another demonstrated need;
   • the explanation of how the classroom library envisioned will support your goals in alignment with the goals of the ELA Honor Society; and
   • supervisory endorsement of your classroom library project.
3. Awards will be given purely based on merit, not based on the imperative that all funds should be spent annually.