LITERACY PROJECT DESCRIPTION
For the past 5 years we have been doing a Literacy project for the students at Sun View Elementary School. Each year our Literacy project evolves based on the current needs of the Students at Sun View Elementary School. This year our Literacy project will include three different componants. Giving the gift of summer reading (2 books to each student at Sun View), supplying books for their "Sunny U" book cart and supplying books on Mythology which will help them achieve the new grade 3-12 standard.
For every twenty 9th graders, 6 drop out.
• Of those remaining fourteen students
o 6 graduates are work bound.
o 8 become college freshman
Of those eight, 4 are college drop outs and 4 are college graduates
Of those four college graduates, 2 secure high skills/high wage occupations.
• The other 2 are underemployed
Of the 300 students that attend Sun View:
• 74% are low socioeconomic status
• 45% are English Language Learners
• 21% are Special Ed (diagnostic)
LITERACY - SUMMER READING
Many children tend to fall behind during the summer unless they are given the attention and resources they need during these months. Having access to books during the summer helps to reinforce good learning habits and is critical to maintaining a child's achievement level. Children who lack the access to books and the opportunities to read will fall behind each summer. During the school year, lower-income children's skills improve at close to the same rate as their more advantaged peers - but over the summer, middle- and upper-income children's skills continue to improve, while lover-income children's skills do not. (Alexander, 2007)
It has been said that by the age of 9 children are learning to read...after age 9 children read to learn. Children that do not learn to read by age 9 often perform lower and become low achievers; don't go to college or even drop out of school. Because of this they are less likely to get jobs and may even turn to drugs or criminal activities. The purpose of the our Summer Reading Literacy Project is to promote literacy to our youth and encourage them to learn to read; with the hopes of having them learn to like or even love to read. To accomplish this our goal is to deliver Summer Reading "Gifts" to each student and have read aloud sessions to the students upon delivery.
Sun View Elementary School is one of the lowest performing schools in Huntington Beach. You often find that children that attend these lower performing schools can often come from lower-income families and they don't or won't have access to reading material over the summer. Here are the 2013 Sun View CST scores:
• Grade 2 English Language Arts - 43% proficient or better
• Grade 3 English Language Arts - 31% proficient or better
• Grade 4 English Language Arts - 76% proficient or better
• Grade 5 English Language Arts - 64% proficient or better
Here are the student counts for each grade level:
K - 60
1 - 41
2 - 40
3 - 45
4 - 40
5 - 40
We will be "wrapping" each Summer Reading Packet that will contain two books for each student with ribbon to create added excitement and show that it is "fun" to get books as gifts. By showing our children that it is fun to read (during the read-aloud sessions) and giving them reading materials that BELONG to them and that they can trade or borrow from/with their friends; we are encouraging the reading and learning process. In addition to the reading packets each book will come with a handout/worksheet that we will include in the gifts to help with reading comprehension.
LITERACY - LIBRARY SUNNY U CART
We are supplying 91 books to refresh the schools "Sunny U" Cart. Students earn Sunny-U's(instead of candy etc.) for doing good deeds, etc. When they collect 15 Sunny-U's they can redeem them from the Sunny-U book cart where whichever book they choose is now theirs to own. Supplying 91 books will benefit some of this years students as well as next years since our distribution is done at the end of the year. Books are always needed as books are earned and given to the students. We have rounded out the order to include all grade levels at the school.
LITERACY - MYTHOLOGY
The common core standards for grades three through twelve are to introduce additional skills and strategies for analyzing and comprehending literature. Standards call for the students to describe the structural differences of various forms of imaginative literature example myths, legends and fairytales. Approximately 130 students in grades three through five will benefit from a class set of mythology literature books to be shared among students in various grade levels during the core English language arts block as required by the common core State standards. We are suppylying for two classes to share with 32 for each class. We are also supplying 7 books revolving around Greek myth. These seven books will be for "literature circles" which is a teaching stategy of small group rotations of groups of 4 to 7 students. At this time the district does not have any books on mythology appropriate for third through fifth grade nor does the Sun View library own any. In order to teach the reading standards for literature they need to have the resources.
Upon approval of the grant we will order the books from Scholastic. Once the books arrive we will have members of our club assemble each Summer Reading Packet with the appropriate number of books. We tentatively schedule our book distribution for the end of May (delivery of the books must happen before the end of the school year June 2016). On this day we will "present" the books at their Flag assembly in which the entire school (students, faculty and staff) along with some parents attend. Following the assembly we intend to have "read-aloud" sessions to the grade levels as we pass out the books.
We plan to purchase either School Readiness Packs (5 books per pack) or STEM Packs (5 books per pack) and Fiction/Non-Fiction (10 books per pack).
It is our intent to stuff each book with its corresponding Think Sheet (a worksheet with activities/questions that pertain to the book to help promote reading comprehension) and "wrap" it in a ribbon (to promote the "gift" of reading). We will also be stuffing the book with a book mark with their school logo and the 4 way test on the back and stickering the inside of the book with their School logo. The bookmarks and stickers will be made and printed by one of our club members. Our club members will assist in stuffing, wrapping and stickering the books.
Our members will also participate in the book presentation. In May or June we will be at the schools Flag Assembly where we will be introduced, we will then have 3 read aloud sessions where members will read books to the students and pass out their gifts.
The new catalog is not yet available for the books, I am using and have included last year's catalog as I am informed by my scholastic contact that the prices of the packs will not change this year. I estimate that this project will cost $3,000.00.
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