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Goal

Florida wants its students to be the BEST readers they can be. We can get them there with a little help from books on the list of approved books from the state. These books provide a wide array of informational reading texts that students can explore vis a vis the Florida BEST Language Arts standards and benchmarks. These will be excellent tools for the fourth grade language arts teachers to help students meet these standards/benchmarks.
The fourth grade language arts teachers are responsible for teaching a wide range of reading skills. Among these are important skills that are utilized across reading genres – in all types of texts. To teach these skills, it is helpful to have specific types of texts. These skills include two in particular that the first progress monitoring assessment showed fourth graders were low in - comparative reading (comparing different accounts of the same event) and paraphrasing/summarizing.
In addition to being good choices for these two reading skills, the books purchased through this grant will complement the materials currently utilized by the district to add diversity to the types and levels of text so that students can be remediated and extended where appropriate. The books dovetail nicely with the social studies curriculum as well and aid in teaching the content/skills required in fourth grade social studies. In addition, the books will help students build important background knowledge that improves reading comprehension.
 

What will be done with my students

For each book, over the period of roughly two to three weeks, the students will participate in guided and independent reading with the classroom teacher and then engage in activities designed to master these “reading across genres” skills. For example, with the book William Shakespeare and the Globe, the students would engage in activities (working as a whole class, in groups or individually) in which they compare the author’s account of Shakespeare’s life and significance with other authors’ accounts of Shakespeare’s life and significance as well as video clips on the same topic. This would lead into engaging in similarly designed activities to determine the author’s perspective to be able to summarize the book. Finally, students would be asked to write about Shakespeare paraphrasing evidence from the book to support the points they make about Shakespeare. Later, after students have read the texts about Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Patrick Henry, students will analyze the subjects’ traits as explored by the various authors to make comparisons about the approach of each author to his/her subjects’ traits.
The books would be arranged in a manner whereby the texts increase in complexity and students would build on skills and concepts they are learning.
Fourth grade teachers would be responsible for the activities and the books when working with their students. The project is unique because it provides the students with a richer diversity of texts than presently available and builds important background knowledge that aids in comprehension. It also lays a groundwork for future grades when students read more about American history and begin reading the works of Shakespeare and from classical literature.
The materials will be for students from all of the Language Arts classes in fourth grade at our school – a total of approximately 180 students. They would be used by all of the fourth grade language arts teachers in their respective classrooms. The materials would be used each year with a new group of fourth grade students.
Students would use the requested books to focus on the following:
Aaron and Alexander: The Most Famous Duel in American History
• Informational Text comparing and contrasting the lives/personalities/political views of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton
• Reading Grade Level – 5.2
• Focus - Author’s Claim, Traits, Comparative Reading, Summarizing

William Shakespeare and the Globe
• Informational Text recounting the life of William Shakespeare and his impact on English literature
• Reading Grade Level – 5.5
• Focus – Author’s Perspective, Traits, Comparative Reading, Paraphrasing

Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
• Informational Text recounting the life of Patrick Henry and the personal events that led to his famous speech during the American Revolutionary Period
• Reading Level – 5.9
• Focus – Author’s Claim, Traits, Comparative Reading, Summarizing

Tales from the Odyssey: Part One
• Retelling of selections from the Odyssey
• Reading Level – 5.0-5.3
• Focus – Character Perspective, Paraphrasing, Summarizing
 

Benefits to my students

The project will be evaluated in the following ways. First of all, an analysis of students’ scores on the statewide language arts assessment will be made including a measure of growth from the students’ baseline scores (from the first administration of the statewide assessment) to their final scores on the end of the year statewide assessment. Secondly, an analysis will be made of the students’ performance on the district’s online language arts program MyLexia. Finally, students will be surveyed to determine if they felt these texts were engaging and helped them achieve the standards/benchmarks.
Objectives:
1. By May 2024, all students utilizing the grant materials will show at least an academic year’s worth of growth on materials on the MyLexia online language arts program.
2. By May of 2024, all students utilizing the grant materials will maintain or increase their percentile rank on the Florida statewide language arts assessment.
3. Eighty percent of students will report on surveys that the books were engaging and helpful.

Project Outcomes include the following:
1. Students will build their capabilities as they are challenged with a wider variety of complex materials that allows them to engage specifically with the standards/benchmarks with which they need the most support.
2. Students will gain important background knowledge and vocabulary that will enhance their overall reading capabilities.
3. Students will be more engaged in language arts activities since the materials will be diverse.
4. Students’ scores on statewide and district assessments will increase.
Project’s Outputs
Approximately 180 fourth grade students will benefit directly from this grant project. Each student will have a copy of each book (the copies of Aaron and Alexander will be added to a half class set already in fourth grade’s possession) while the book set is being used by the students’ fourth grade teacher. The books sets will be rotated among the fourth grade teachers. These books may be used year after year with the students in the fourth grade. The project will be evaluated as outlined earlier in this section.

Summary of items
4 sets of books – 25 copies of Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki, 15 copies of Aaron and Alexander: The Most Famous Duel in American History by Don Brown, 25 copies of Tales of the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne, and 25 copies of Where was Patrick Henry on the 25th of May/ by Jean Fritz.

 

Budget Narrative

The items purchased would be sets of four different books:
25 copies of Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki ($174.75)
25 copies of Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May? by Jean Fritz ($224.75)
25 copies of Tales from the Odyssey: Part One by Mary Pope Osborne ($199.75)
15 copies of Aaron and Alexander: The Most Famous Duel in American History by Don Browne ($299.85)
Total Cost: $899.10
 

Items