Soundtrack to Success

School:: Freeport Elementary
Subject:: Literacy
Teacher:: Jessica Varner
Students Impacted:: 37
Grade:: 3
Date:: October 1, 2019

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

CHELCO - $119.94

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 37

To whom it may concern, at both, Chelco and Walton County Foundation,

Thank you so much for making this opportunity available to my students and I. All year long we worked together to build our stamina in reading groups to prove that we could be successful in using our individual CD Players to listen to stories and learn on our own levels. I had big plans for the fourth quarter of the school year. Plans for students to learn on their level without other students noticing the difference. Plans for students to become successful AR takers, more fluent readers, better comprehenders, and for them to finally earn their reward. Unfortunately, Covid-19 hit the same week my order came in. My students heard about this wonderful gift the entire third quarter, just to have it taken away from them amongst so many other things. Sadly they didn't get to benefit from this grant, but I will put in place all of the plans come day one of next school year. Adding a step of wiping down after each use of course. Thank you again and I hope you understand the level of regret I have of not putting the CD Players into place much sooner. I will forever be grateful for all both of you do for our community.

Sincerely,

Jessica Varner

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Our classroom goal is to not only become better readers, but to also comprehend the books that we read. As of now, my at grade level and below grade level performing students struggle with independent reading. Individual CD players will help close that gap by exposing students to unfamiliar texts and help build their confidence for future assignments. With these CD players each and every student will confidently read and comprehend each text they are assigned without worrying if they can pronounce each word.

What will be done with my students

Each CD player will have its own bag and will hang in our technology corner in our classroom. Each bag will contain a CD player, headphones, disinfecting wipes, and a book. Students who are assigned to CD players will grab a bag from the wall and go to their designated area in the room. After cleaning the headphones, students will place their headphones on their head and curl up with their book. Students will then listen to the story, reread the story, then answer the exit ticket provided. Once students are finished with their center, they will place everything back into the bag and return it to their hook.

Benefits to my students

Currently I have students who dread independent reading solely for the fact that they know that they are behind. Some of my students get frustrated with reading because they cannot pronounce words, follow the different fonts and placements of words, and/or cannot independently drowned out the sounds of small groups going on in the background. These CD players will bring comfort to those who cannot read on grade level texts they need to be exposed to. They will also provide a quite, safe place for students to listen to texts assigned to them by muffling the noise and providing a loud, crisp version of the text assigned. Finally, CD players will be an easier way for student to complete a text more than one time in a short period of time, will relieve students from focusing so much on the skill of reading and more on comprehending what is going on, and are compact enough to not crowd the room.

I also believe that CD players are a wonderful alternative to iPads for my own students. Now a days students can navigate through technology like the back of their hand. We struggle in our classroom with students only wanting to have computers as their center each day. Once students are on technology I have to constantly monitor their activity because of misconduct, misuse, or the simplest “wrong click” leading to inappropriate websites. CD players eliminate these troubles. What is more rich than a book in a young minds hands? Centers would be much more simplistic and we could dance to the soundtrack of success!

Budget Narrative

Each CD player will cost $19.99 plus shipping and handeling, therefore, the total would round out to be near $215.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Craig Portable CD player with Headphones and LCD screen	$19.99
2	Craig Portable CD player with Headphones and LCD screen	$19.99
3	Craig Portable CD player with Headphones and LCD screen	$19.99
4	Craig Portable CD player with Headphones and LCD screen	$19.99
5	Craig Portable CD player with Headphones and LCD screen	$19.99
6	Craig Portable CD player with Headphones and LCD screen	$19.99
	Total:	$119.94

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