Suncoast Credit Union

Goals
Quill.org –
To establish an avenue for students to advance their writing, grammar, proofreading, and typing skills. Unlike the free version, Teacher Premium offers teachers access to reports on concept mastery based on common core standards, download and print reports, community workshops, and priority support.

Merriam Webster Intermediate Dictionary –
To implement a vocabulary rotation that explores dictionary skills and practices vocabulary strategies, which will align to the Language Arts Florida Standards: 8.L.1.2.c; 8.L.2-3.

Scholastic Scope Magazine -
To expose students to a high interest, kid friendly, and timely magazine with a concentration on current affairs and contemporary understanding through multi-genre literature and differentiated instructional support that is aligned to the standards.

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Essentials for Memorable Reading

grant photo
School:
Manatee Middle 
Subject:
Language Arts 
Teacher:
Viola Garcia 
Students Impacted:
59 
Grade:
8 
Date:
August 11, 2019

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

 

Women In Naples Giving Support - $760.66

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Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 60

The use of Quill.org has been beneficial to me as an 8th grade English teacher primarily because I spend less time creating and grading grammar activities and can use my time to provide one-on-one guidance and instruction. I have always seen a direct correlation to my students’ FSA scores on the writing and language subsections of the assessment. I also believe there is an impact on their future college and career readiness on high school standardized benchmarks. However, this year, I will need to take a leap of faith, that they will still see the influence of quill.org in their high school educational path, without witnessing what could have been great results on this year’s FSA, because the cancellation of standardized assessments - due to the Corona Virus 19 pandemic.

 

My students have always enjoyed quill.org, especially this year. It was comforting for them to get assignments on quill.org because it was familiar to them, in a time of great uncertainty and knew my expectations. This year, with the grant assistance, I was able to pay for additional services, which provided detailed reports on how my students were doing on specific skills. Students constantly ask for assignments in quill.org and inform me that they always learn something new or are glad for the review in grammar skills (that not many teachers facilitate anymore). I enjoy witnessing how easily they devour all the hidden skills needed to excel in quill.org like, capitalization, spelling, typing, spacing, word recognition, and the difference between informal and formal language. As a teacher, I am glad to see these assignments always turned-in on time and with high scores, which I find as a blessing to grade during our online instruction. (Please see attached online learning lesson plan attached.)

 

As for the impact of Scholastic Scope Magazine, it is a revelation on two counts to my students whenever I do assign it. They have access to a myriad of genres of literature and many have informed me that they read articles not assigned, especially about health and the infographic about washing their hands. As an educator, I rely on the fact that Scope aligns all their articles and lesson plans to the Common Core ELA standards (TEKS too), so I never have to worry about meeting the standards for my instruction. Due to online learning, another added benefit, is that I am able to utilize all that Scope has to offer, especially when I need to align Scope articles to the CCPS 8th grade required reading of the HMH Collections Online Textbook.

 

On the other hand, the Scope learning curve took some time, but I saw some improvement after a few screenshot videos showing students: how to access the magazine online using the password, how to use the pdf file worksheets, and how to save a pdf worksheet with the print icon. Again, I greatly appreciate the fact that I do not have to create and plan the lessons, I just have to implement, provide feedback, grade the work, and provide added support for those student who need it. I had no idea I would have to rely on these online sources as much I have, due to the current situation with online learning. (Please see attached online learning lesson plan attached.)

 

Unfortunately, the grant assisted in the purchasing of brand new Merriam-Webster Intermediate Dictionaries that have all remained in the classroom, during these last few months of online learning. I was able to utilize them a few times during weekly vocabulary activities. However, the dictionary lesson plans that I planned for, a small group rotation, never came to fruition. I do plan to implement these at the start of the new school year in my Intensive Reading classes along with Read 180 rotations. I have plans to utilize the dictionaries for skills that will support word recognition, pronunciation skills, affixes, base/root words, syllabification, word ladders, multiple meanings, related words, and synonym/antonym skills.

 

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Goals
Quill.org –
To establish an avenue for students to advance their writing, grammar, proofreading, and typing skills. Unlike the free version, Teacher Premium offers teachers access to reports on concept mastery based on common core standards, download and print reports, community workshops, and priority support.

Merriam Webster Intermediate Dictionary –
To implement a vocabulary rotation that explores dictionary skills and practices vocabulary strategies, which will align to the Language Arts Florida Standards: 8.L.1.2.c; 8.L.2-3.

Scholastic Scope Magazine -
To expose students to a high interest, kid friendly, and timely magazine with a concentration on current affairs and contemporary understanding through multi-genre literature and differentiated instructional support that is aligned to the standards. 

 

What will be done with my students

Quill.org -
- The free version was utilized in the computer lab weekly, whereas Teacher Premium can be utilized daily, as homework, and classroom instruction with Quill Lessons.
- practice basic grammar skills, from comma placement to parallel structure.
- determine which skills students need to work on with diagnostic activities that allow for skills to be individually targeted.
- assessment drives instruction with passage editing and receiving personalized exercises to each students’ needs.
- work with partners to solve problems

Merriam Webster Intermediate Dictionary –
- learn basic dictionary research skills by looking up words, used in conjunction with word maps or other graphic organizers.
- explore differences in multiple meaning words based on connotation with the use of connotation activity (paint chips).
- utilize dictionaries during reading text to build comprehension.
- teach their peer about unfamiliar words and acquire words from each other.

Scholastic Scope Magazine -
- participate in differentiate activities in a group atmosphere through center rotations.
- complete assessments
- determine differences between literature genres, becoming knowledgeable of set criteria.
- read and interact with a periodical, physically and digitally.
- apply understanding and comprehension of literary elements and informational text structure in center rotations based on differentiated needs.
 

 

Benefits to my students

Quill.org –
- advanced their critical thinking skills through the written word.
- receive instant feedback and personalized instruction with automatic grading of the writing as they work.
- participate in whole-class and small group writing instruction.
- gain the ability to express complicated thoughts in writing.
- produce new knowledge through writing.

Merriam Webster Intermediate Dictionary –
- practice basic dictionary skills that transfer to the use of other reference books, students will use in the future to conduct research or find information.
- acquire a broader vocabulary.
- learn correct spelling and spelling pattern.
- practice reading comprehension with multiple meaning words.
- discover multiple words, meanings, uses, and other information by looking up just one word in a dictionary.


Scholastic Scope Magazine –
- develop technology literacy critical to academic and career success.
- use engaging, complex texts to: develop critical-thinking skills, expose students to high-quality model texts; inspire students to view reading as an enjoyable and worthwhile activity
- use guided writing activities to write well-structured essay and experience writing as a rewarding and useful activity.
- use context clues to learn new words, explore meaning between similar words, connotations, and words with multiple meanings.
- use content class debates that emphasize logical thinking and supporting ideas with evidence.
 

 

Budget Narrative

All the resources are class sets of 26 (except quill.org), but I do plan to make use of them for many more years. And I plan to search other websites to find the best prices for Merriam-Webster's Intermediate Dictionaries, so I can acquire more copies for the money provided. 

 

Items

# Item Cost
1 Quill.org year subscription $80.00
2 Scholastic Scope Magazine year subcription $285.71
3 MerriamWebster's Intermediate Dictionary $394.95
  Total: $760.66

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