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Dorian Aldrege
Over the course of the program, they read and analyze a wide range of texts in genres including poetry, novels, plays, biographies, nonfiction narratives, speeches, and films. They also learn to write in forms including essays, personal narratives, argumentative texts such as editorials, and research papers.
Each grade level uses complex, grade appropriate texts that allow students to examine an idea from multiple points of view while working with a variety of genres. Students progress from guided reading through collaborative projects to confident, independent work.
I hope all is well since we last spoke! I know our (insert summer or afterschool) programming is still being decided, but I wanted to share some info about an organization called Springboard Collaborative. Springboard provides summer, afterschool, and in-school programming to help kindergarten through third-grade students read on grade level. What sets them apart from other supplemental literacy programs is their focus on family engagement.
All of their programs are backed by a methodology called the Family-Educator Learning Accelerator (FELA), which helps teachers and families build relationships and host workshops to support student learning. They even have an open-source toolkit available for download. Moreover, their programs are designed with as much (or as little) management support that teachers need to implement the program and connect with families. And they have the research to back it up!
An externally-advised study shows that 80% of Springboard students made significant gains in literacy outcomes and 11% of students moved from reading below grade level to at or above grade level after Springboard programming.
Based on our current programming needs, I believe Springboard would be a solid option to consider for our teachers, families, and, most importantly, our students. I highly recommend (insert name of district or school) schedules a call with their partnership team.
SpringBoard Mentor program is the community-supported mentor program in Spring Branch ISD for students in 3rd through 12th grade. This program is grounded in extensive research affirming that all children and young adults benefit from the consistent presence of a caring adult serving as a role model, advocate and friend.
The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) 2014 report, "The Mentoring Effect" states that the experiences of the young people surveyed showed significant positive outcomes for those who had a mentor.
At-risk young people with mentors were more likely to aspire to attend and to enroll in college. They were more likely to report participating in sports and other extracurricular activities. They also were more likely to report taking leadership roles in school and extracurricular activities, and to regularly volunteer in their communities.
SpringBoard and Pre-AP are both College Board programs that offer grade-level instruction backed by a robust menu of resources and professional learning. Both focus on getting students ready for college and careers. Both focus on performance-based assessments rather than grades.
SpringBoard ELA supports Pre-AP in unique ways. Schools that select SpringBoard ELA as a primary resource have access to lessons and corresponding student materials that follow the Pre-AP unit structure.
In English 1, the first lessons in each SpringBoard unit share the same texts and overall lesson flow as the Pre-AP model lessons. The remaining SpringBoard lessons serve to continue and extend the learning while maintaining the unit goals and preparing students for success on the Pre-AP performance task. English 2 follows the same structure, though some texts vary between Pre-AP and SpringBoard.
As a child, I was lucky in that my early education and storytelling experiences included a great deal of folklore, from fairy tales and nursery rhymes to myths and tall tales. When as an adult I began writing my own stories for children, I often found myself drawn to these rich characters and time-tested plots. Ancient tales are some of the ultimate spooky stories.
I spent a great deal of time researching the Three Sisters legend and the Dreamtime tales of the Australian Aborigines. I even contacted a native tribal leader to learn their version of the Three Sisters story. However, the Aborigines guard their cultural stories closely within their community, passing them down through the generations primarily by word of mouth. Thus, I could not retell their story. But I could use the popular legend of the Three Sisters. It was a composite of local and European lore created by the early settlers. The legend still made for a magical, creepy tale of evil versus good with a quirky twist at the end.
In light of my experience of using folklore in modern tales, I thought it would be interesting to see how two of my author friends, fellow Sweet Sixteeners, relied on ancient myths in their spooky middle grade novels. Below are their answers to my questions.
I did a lot of research, especially for the second, when I took a trip to Japan. Otherwise I read a lot of books about Japanese mythology, samurai code, and then specifically Japanese monsters.
The original story has Momotaro with three friends, a dog, a pheasant, and a monkey. In my book, the dog is a dog but two humans represent the others with attributes of those animals. And the fact that he fights Oni is also the same.
In my book, Momotaro is a half-Japanese, half-Irish boy living in San Diego. I wanted to have a character who is mixed like me and straddles these different worlds as well as the different worlds of magic and humanness.
Cynthia Reeg is the author of FROM THE GRAVE and INTO THE SHADOWLANDS, middle grade monster adventures. Halloween is her favorite holiday. Check out the spooky jokes on her website: www.cynthiareeg.com.
Springboard launched an internal study in Summer 2021 to examine the impact of its various offerings: Flagship programming, SLA, and FELA Consultancy. While the impact of Flagship in Summer 2018 & Summer 2019 has been explored in the past (See Springboard Summer Reading Report), this is the first exploration of impact in SLA and FELA Consultancy.
In order to fully understand the impact of programming on student reading outcomes, this study specifically examined growth in reading assessment scores achieved by 2,445 students who participated in Springboard summer programming in 2021 across 65 Springboard sites. As part of the study, the Evaluation team posed six research questions (see page 3) and conducted a set of t-tests and regression analyses to understand
Students who participated in the one FELA Consultancy program that was explored in Oakland Unified School district demonstrated the greatest reading growth (3.5 months). It is important to note that this was only one site and that it was a returning flagship partner. The finding illuminates the strong potential of FELA Consultancy as an offramp from Flagship for partners who seek lower cost and more flexibility in how they support their students and families.
Overall, analyses found that students from all three offering types achieved significant improvement on their reading assessment scores after participation in Springboard programming. Across all grades, on average:
Figure 1 demonstrates, on average, Flagship participants, within each grade, all showed significant reading growth after summer participation. Students who just completed 4th grade demonstrated the greatest reading gain of 3.8 months.
Figure 2 shows, on average, SLA participants from pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade all demonstrated a significant improvement in reading after summer participation. SLA participants from 4th grade and 5th grade reported experiencing positive reading growth; however, the growth is not large enough to be considered statistically significant.
Figure 3 indicates, on average, FELA Consultancy (in Oakland) participants across all grade levels all showed significant reading growth after summer participation. Students who just completed 2nd grade showed the greatest reading gain of 3.9 months.
The quality review is the result of extensive evidence gathering and analysis by Texas educators of how well instructional materials satisfy the criteria for quality in the subject-specific rubric. Follow the links below to view the scores and read the evidence used to determine quality.
High-quality texts for ELAR instruction are included and cover a range of student interests. The texts are well-crafted, representing the quality of content, language, and writing produced by experts in various disciplines. Complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse, multicultural texts are included.
A variety of text types and genres across content that meets the TEKS requirements for each grade level are included. Literary texts include those outlined for specific grades. Informational texts include texts of information, exposition, argument, procedures, and documents as outlined in the TEKS. Materials include print and graphic features of a variety of texts.
The autobiographical excerpt from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass closes with a color lithograph showing readers that Frederick Douglass and President Lincoln conversed during the Civil War.
The Unit 3 excerpt from Do Something! A Handbook for Young Activists is listed as Overall: Accessible, Quantitative: 820 Lexile, Qualitative: Low Difficulty, and Task: Accessible. Summary notes add few qualitative details but describe the text as user friendly and topically relevant. Qualitative Considerations Purpose notes acknowledge how point-of-view reveals the text goal while Structure acknowledged that subheadings make reading easy. Language observes that the conversational and literal tone and familiar vocabulary target a student audience. Knowledge Demands recognize the text as informational, and Task Considerations cue teachers that this text lays a foundation for later work on the Embedded Assessment, where students design and share a multimedia campaign.
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