Learning Does Not Stop in May...

This year Jones Elementary students will continue learning ALL summer long.  Announcements were made, notes were sent home, and parent meetings were held to make all families aware of summer reading activities at school and even in the community. The most important thing for students to do over the summer is READ! Throughout the school year the students were given 25 books through The Home Library Project. To continue this reading momentum, students received reading logs to document their reading progress over the summer.

Jones Elementary is a school site for the district summer lunch program.  All students under 18 can eat lunch for free Monday-Friday at the school throughout the summer.  Having students in the building for lunch was an opportunity we could not pass up to encourage summer learning. A book swap is held each Wednesday before they begin serving summer lunch.  During this time, students bring back any book they have finished and swap it for a new book.

An additional way to encourage summer reading is a book fair. In a few weeks, students will bring their reading log to school and be given "reading bucks" based on how many books/days/minutes they have read over the summer.  Students will be able to purchase new books with the "reading bucks" they have earned.

Another exciting incentive to read will take place in August.  The local fire department will be coming to do a fire hose spray event.  Students will use their reading log as a ticket to enter the event. Students will be able to run through water and enjoy popsicles together.

Families were also informed about how to sign up for programs at the Springdale Public Library over the summer. Registration forms were distributed for the students and sent over to the library once completed.

Exciting times are in store for Jones' readers of all ages. Doesn't this excitement make you want to begin reading???

The Home Library Effect | How a simple idea is transforming the lives of at-risk readers

The Home Library Effect

How a simple idea is transforming the lives of at-risk readers. 

June 8, 2015

By Justin Minkel (AR ’06)

Think back to your first memory of reading. Did the memory involve someone you love—your mom or dad, grandma or grandpa—perhaps a big brother or sister?

Children living in poverty don’t always get that early experience of reading with someone they love. For these children to someday live the lives they dream of, we have to close the book gap in their homes. 

When I started the home library project five years ago with my second-grade class, it transformed the worlds of 25 children. In 2015, the initiative will impact 2,500 at-risk readers.

The idea for the project was simple.

Problem: Many children who live in poverty have few books at home.

Solution: Provide those children with their own books to keep.  

How to make it happen: Make sure each child has a place in his or her home for a growing library—it can be a bookshelf, a plastic tub, or even a shoebox decorated with stickers. Over the course of the year, help the students choose 10 or 15 books at their reading level. Then, watch as their world changes.

When I began the project, I was amazed at the impact on reading development, family literacy and love of books.

One of my second-grade students was reading at a kindergarten level, and no one in her home was literate. She made two full years’ reading growth that year. When I asked how she had done it she said, “Well, you know those books you gave me? Now when my mom and little sister and I are watching TV at night, they say, ‘Melinda, read to us.’ So I do.”

The project has grown gradually during the past five years, but its roots go deep. What started with one classroom became a third-grade project with three other teachers and later expanded to 13 teachers at our school— Harvey Jones Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas.

This year, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Farmers Insurance Dream Big Challenge, every teacher at our school became part of the home library project. We also held two family literacy nights for children and their parents to choose books from a Scholastic book fair, including many titles in Spanish.

A mom came with her daughter, and she thanked us for the project. “I know how important it is to get books for her,” she said, “but after rent and groceries, we just don’t have anything left.”

We have expanded the project’s reach to two nearby elementary schools with high levels of poverty. We have also partnered with a community group called Bright Futures—a non-profit dedicated to the success of all children—and the University of Arkansas Center for Community Engagement, which have brought the project to two additional schools in the district and several rural schools in the region. 

Educators from all over the country have reached out for ideas on starting their own home library projects, ranging from a kindergarten teacher in Oakland to a child development professor in Texas. The Center for Teaching Quality, a national education non-profit, is working with us to develop a digital platform that will feature contacts, resources and a starter kit for anyone who wants to start a home library project in their own classroom, school, or district.

We live in a time when amazing things are happening in classrooms all over America, led by truly talented teachers. In too many cases, their innovations never reach beyond their own classroom walls. The home library project is a powerful example of teacher leadership taken to scale: a simple idea with profound impact on students.

Home libraries have the potential to shape our national approach to literacy for at-risk readers. There are times when effective classroom instruction is not enough to move a struggling reader from frustration to confidence. In these cases, providing a child with great books can be a potent intervention with greater impact—and a lot more joy—than summer school or conventional remediation.

By the end of 2015, this effort will have put 50,000 books into the hands and homes of children who need them. These children will become more confident readers, inquisitive thinkers and compassionate human beings as a result.

Justin Minkel is a 2006 winner of the Milken Educator Award and 2013 Lowell Milken Center Fellow. He teaches second-grade at Harvey Jones Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas. 

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Filling the Gaps | CTQ Posted by Justin Minkel

Filling the Gaps

Posted by Justin Minkel on Tuesday, 03/17/2015

This week Scholastic delivered 10,500 books to our school for the first book fair of its kind. Two things make this book fair different from most:

• The kids don’t have to pay for the books.
• The book fair is tied into six family literacy nights planned by every grade level, kindergarten through fifth grade.

Every child in every class gets to choose five books to add to their home libraries, and the children who come with their parents to a family literacy night get four additional books to take home and keep. 98% of our students live in poverty, so providing the books free of charge makes a huge difference in the number of books going into children’s hands and homes.

Today at our book fair, I saw Jasper—a little guy from the Marshall Islands who wears comically big glasses—moping around as the other students chose their books. I asked him why he wasn’t picking out any books and he said in a forlorn voice, “I don’t have a dollar.”

When I explained that this book fair is different, he doesn’t need money to pick out books, he grinned and set out to make his selections.

Angela held up a book and told me, “I picked this one for my brother.”

On our way back to class, Sala said, “When I get home, I’m going to teach my little brother to read.”

Read more at  Filling the Gaps | CTQ

We Read Because We Believe We Can Read

I teach all content areas in 5th grade and very much enjoy the variety of content I get to work with in doing so; however, teaching literacy to English Language Learners is the single most rewarding thing about my job. Saying that is actually quite surprising, seeing as I personally struggled with reading in school.  Being a native English speaker from a middle class family is a blatant cultural difference between me and my 27 students, but the fact that I struggled with reading as a young learner is one connection we most certainly have. Because of this, when I see them succeed in literacy I very much understand what that accomplishment means to them and their life and the freedom they will experience because of it.

When I start each new school year I ask my students what their favorite subject is and what their least favorite subject is. This is a part of an interest inventory that I conduct in order to learn a little more about my students.  The underlying question there is “what is your best subject and your worst subject” because I've found that they enjoy what they believe they are good at. This year the data collected wasn't much different than in years past.  22% of my class reported that reading was their favorite subject. Twenty-two percent. That’s only 6 out of 27 students. What I see in that number is loads of opportunity. When I was ten, I would have been right there with them. It wasn't until I no longer feared reading that I actually succeeded. It is my goal for each of my students to leave my room with confidence in their ability to read and to no longer fear it but embrace it.

One of the methods I use to develop a love of reading among my students is Close Analytical Reading.  The purpose of close reading is to teach students to access complex text no matter their reading level.  This has been extremely successful in my class especially with the implementation of digital text. Only 30% of my class started the school year at or above grade level in reading; yet, daily I challenge them to read above grade level, complex text.  The key has been scaffolding, asking text dependent questions aimed at pointing my students directly to evidence in the text that I want them to attend to and having open ended discussion about the purpose and meaning of the text. Some days this process is brutal, but I live for the moments in the day when I see wide-eyed “Ah-Ha”s all across the room. As the year goes on, those moments come more frequently and students begin to believe they can read whatever I put in front of them.  Once that transition occurs, there is no longer a ceiling on what we can read and the depth at which we can understand it.  Some days I look out at my class and think, “Are you really ten? Can this really be?” The reality is, not only are they ten, but most of them are still learning English! They inspire me beyond words and I am truly lucky to witness their strength and determination daily.

Below is copy of a close read we did last month, an excerpt from a letter that Leonardo da Vinci wrote to the Duke of Milan… it has been one of my students’ favorites!

“Most Illustrious Lord: Having now sufficiently seen and considered the proofs of all those who proclaim themselves masters and inventors of instruments of war, and finding that their invention and use of the said instruments are nothing different from common practice, I am emboldened, without prejudice to anyone else, to put myself in communications with Your Excellency, in order to acquaint you with my secrets, thereafter offering myself at your pleasure effectually to demonstrate at opportune times all those things which are in part briefly noted below:

I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy.

I have kinds of mortars, most convenient and easy to carry, and with these can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these causing great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.

I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great that they would break them.

In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type. Where the operation of bombardment should fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi (trebuchet) and other machines of marvelous efficacy and not in common use.

In short, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.”

Ms. Browsberger Good Choices Book Grant

We Can Make Good Choices!

Ms. Brownsberger's books project at Jones Elementary 

Completed!

October 23, 2014
$234 given

We begin each day by talking about our group goals that the students will be focusing on that day. The students love to help each other to get better with both behavior and academics.

I teach a kindergarten classroom of twenty students from low income households. I want to teach my students the value of being a good person, friend, student, and citizen. Kindergarten is a very important grade for them to learn and utilize these skills

I have requested books like How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?, Recess Queen, Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully, and Time to Say Please. My students will use these books to learn and discuss important character traits that will help them to be better students, friends, and people. We will read the books as a group and will discuss the important lessons the books are teaching. The students will use these books to set personal and group goals to improve their behavior at school.

This project will help my students understand the importance of making good choices and how their choices will influence their lives. I want my students to take ownership of their decisions and begin to think more carefully about their choices. My students need books to help them learn the value of manners and being a good friend and student.

I am so excited and grateful for your donation to our class project! My students are going to be elated to hear that we are getting new books for our room to learn about manners and making good choices. As you know, my class consists of mostly English Language Learners and we have recently begun learning new English vocabulary related to manners and being polite. These books are going to be an incredible resource that will help instill these behaviors and vocabulary into my students daily lives. I am hoping this new language will transfer to situations outside of the classroom as well as outside of the school. I am immensely grateful for your donation, and I know that it will have a positive impact on the lives of my students!

With gratitude,
Ms. Brownsberger

Arkansas' First Lady Visits Springdale Elementary for Reading Record - NWAhomepage.com

Arkansas' first lady Ginger Beebe helped our school participate in a world record today and break the world record for reading the same book on the same day. She read  "Otis" by Loren Long to an audience of students, teachers, and administrators. 

Arkansas' First Lady Visits Springdale Elementary for Reading Record - NWAhomepage.com

Family Literacy at Jones

Here is a story published by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette with background on how the Toyota Family Literacy Program came to be at Jones Elementary.

AR: Language learning helps entire families

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

• By: EVIE BLAD
• Organization: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
• Link: http://www.nwanews.com

SPRINGDALE - A woman who could barely speak English a year ago stood before a room of peers Tuesday to share how the success of conquering a second language seeped into other areas of her life.

During school days, Raquel Perez, a permanent resident from Mexico, sat alongside her son Brian in his kindergarten classroom at Jones Elementary School. At night, she attended classes as part of the first year of the Springdale School District's Toyota Family Literacy program.

The work helped her learn the language, a necessity to obtain citizenship, and gave her skills to help her support her children's education, Perez told a group of 70 other participants and educators at a celebration of the program's first year, held at the Jones Center for Families.

"I have learned to help my children with their school work," she said. "I have a better understanding of what they are required to do at school."

Three elementary schools - Jones, Lee and Elmdale - joined the national program in the fall, and quickly set an example for other schools across the country.

Inspired by the success of parents like Perez, the district will seek funding and staff to add five elementary schools to the program next year.

The program, built on the idea that parents' literacy and involvement contribute to their children's success, targets Hispanic parents whose children aren't fully fluent in English. It's financed through a $600,000, three-year grant from the Toyota USA Foundation and in-kind and financial contributions from community organizations.

Springdale was one of five districts selected nationally from 191 proposals to share in $3 million from the foundation.

Through the program, parents take part in their children's lessons in the classroom, attend night English classes coordinated by Northwest Technical Institute and Ozark Literacy Council, and participate in meetings designed to address education and family concerns.

Successful parents and program administrators have been featured in Education Week and Parade, said Emily Kirkpatrick, vice president of the National Center for Family Literacy.

"You're setting the example for other districts and other families," she said.

A 2007 study by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation found that 82 percent of Arkansas' immigrant children from Mexico and Central America have at least one parent with limited English proficiency, and 58 percent have both parents with that designation. The study notes that a lack of conversational English skills limits a parent's ability to be involved in their child's education.

Mary Bridgforth, the district's coordinator for English as a Second Language programs, said children with participating parents had noticeable gains in classroom performance throughout the year.

She plans to study standardized test data of affected students to determine how much their parents' involvement influenced their achievement.

"We truly believe that it is making a huge difference," she said.

Participating schools have recruitment and retention plans to fill open spots for parents throughout the year, a task that has become easier as news of the program's success has spread.

At kindergarten registration this spring, mothers who participated in the program, once nervous to enter the school building, helped interpret for other parents and encouraged them to join.

"There are so many wins in this model," Superintendent Jim Rollins said. "There are so many people who benefit from it."

To contact this reporter:

eblad@arkansasonline.com

More information can be found here about Toyota Family Literacy Program in Springdale.