Janet, a teacher, established a literacy development program at her elementary school to increase students' reading outside of school and improve their test scores. She formed a team consisting of a parent, teacher, and librarian. Their projects included a reading competition between classes and family literacy workshops. Despite initial lack of support, the team persisted and gained support from local businesses. The program was successful, with increased parent participation and improved reading logs. The principal recognized the program's success.

1. UWF EVT 6664 Chapter 4 Building Capacity for Successful Community Partnership By: Anthony C. Grant

2. Table Content Establishing a Literacy Development Program … Page 3 The Goal ……………… Page 4 The Team …………….. Page 5 The Project …………… Page 6 Community Partnership . Page 9 The Results……………. Page 10 Chapter 4 Lesson ……… Page 11 References …………..... Page 16 Scholarly Resources…… Page 17 Chapter 4 Questions ….. Page 22

3. Establishing a Literacy Development Program Design & implement a variety of community partnerships that will help to achieve a vision of excellence. Schools need the components of success: A high-functioning school A student-centered environment An effective partnership team Principle leadership External support

4. The Goal Janet a dedicated teacher-leader, decided to establish a literacy development program for an elementary school that is economically struggling. This school compared to other schools in the city is neither highly dysfunctional nor highly functional. The school made moderate but steady gains in student testing scores since the state established a curriculum-driven assessment system. 2004-2005 school year began; the school did not have in place certain components like an effective partnership team, external support, & student-centered environment. The principle approached Janet about leading a team that will be able to increase students reading outside of the school & ultimately increase their performance on the state reading assessment.

5. The Team Janet compiled a team that consisted of individuals who would provide diverse perspectives & share the responsibilities as well as the potential successes & failures of the project. This team will be able to make the literacy project a success in her eyes. The three members of her team consisted of a parent volunteer, a teacher who is a close friend & colleague, & the school librarian who is very interested & knowledgeable about the literacy development in children. Even though the principal had some draughts in the program & offered little way of resources, advice, or encouragement. The principle also did not attend most of the bimonthly team meetings, but she did serve as an ex offcio member.

6. The Project Focus was not only on the interest in teachers & students but also in the families & the community as well. The two components that the project team focused on are: Increasing students’ reading outside of the school through a statewide competition. Organized monthly family literacy workshops.

7. Increasing students’ reading outside of the school through a statewide competition. How the team can up with a plan through a statewide competition & to increasing students’ reading outside of the school by: Send out reading logs to the homes Families were asked to document the number of books or book chapters read to & read by the children during the non-school hours. Log each week & chart the progress of each class. The class with the greatest progress will receive a pizza party.

8. Organized monthly family literacy workshops The team organized monthly family literacy workshops by focusing on topics like: Learning styles Motivation Vocabulary Comprehension The parent were encouraged to attend the workshops in order to learn more about supporting their children’s literacy development at home. The team also discussed how to give incentives when the student performs & parent’s attentiveness. With limited school funds & support the team needed the community support in order for that component to work.

9. The Community Partners The school did not have community partnerships or was not provided a listed when the team requested it from the principle. Before the first workshop the team visited several business by advising & promoting the program & requesting support of incentives for the program. That first outreach was not successful, not on the part of anyone’s fault or effort it was the factor of bad timing. This did not discouraged the team members they pressed on & by the second workshop they had established some supporting business that would support the program by giving incentives & food to the students & parents. To show appreciation the team member sent out letters of appreciation & gave update on progress of the program to the community supporting business.

10. The Results There was a big increase in attentiveness of parents from the first & second workshop. The principle donated desserts to support the program & invited central office personnel to witness the success of the project. Faculty, students, parents & principle viewed the literacy project as a major success. The project was so successful that the next PTO meeting that averaged four parents now jumped up to thirty-five parents. The results of the test were not in as of yet but the reading logs showed & provided the school with useful data.

11. Chapter 4’s Lesson This lesson taught me a better understanding of: School Priority Work Collaboratively Be Persistent Communicate Regularly & Widely

12. School Priority School priorities are important to know because it shows the direction of the school & what goals need to be accomplished. This goal can be a number of things like: Improve attendance Improved student performance on state standardized assessments Increased parent involvement Or other quality measures

13. Work Collaboratively Work collaboratively is very important if you have an: Effective leader Team support Team expertise Energy needed to carry out the project. A collaborative leader will keep the team: Focused on the goal Keep momentum & energy for the project Ensuring that the team members had a manageable task & responsibilities Resources & support to carry out the task Creating a climate of cooperation & encouragement

14. Be Persistent Being persistent is the key to successful goal achievement. Being able to take rejection, keep a positive attitude, & drive to finish the job. You are going to run into people in important position that are non-supportive because of fear of failure. Obstacles come in different shapes, forms, & ways but being persistent will help you overcome these obstacles & help you achieve your goal.

15. Communicate Regularly & Widely Communicating regularly & widely is a great tool to use if you want support from others & to keep everyone on the same page. What I received out of this section is if you start as a team, you move forward as a team, & you finish as a team. Even if some of the team members are not as active as the others. Keep an open line of communication with all parties because you don’t know when or if there support is going to kick-in. As a result of Janet keeping the principle in the loop & updated of what is going on, she receives noticeable recognition for the effort, results, & gains of the work that the team did on the principle’s invitation of central office.

16. References Building School-Community Partnerships Collaboration for Student Success Mavis G. Sanders Foreword by Joyce L. Epstein Copyright 2006 by Corwin Press

17. SCHOLARLY RESOURCES Literacy Development Program

18. Literacy Development Literacy develops over time as students progress from emerging to skilled readers who can comprehend and analyze complex text. Reading for understanding requires an active thinking process that is influenced by the reader's prior knowledge and experiences (National Reading Panel, 2000). Current national efforts aim at helping every child read independently by third grade. HTTP://WWW.NETC.ORG/FOCUS/CHALLENGES/LITERACY.PHP

19. A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy is a comprehensive 2004 report to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. American youth need strong literacy skills to succeed in school and in life. Students who do not acquire these skills find themselves at a serious disadvantage in social settings, as civil participants, and in the working world. Yet approximately eight million young people between fourth and twelfth grade struggle to read at grade level. Some 70 percent of older readers require some form of remediation. Very few of these older struggling readers need help to read the words on a page; their most common problem is that they are not able to comprehend what they read. Obviously, the challenge is not a small one. http://www.all4ed.org/publications/ReadingNext/ReadingNext.pdf

20. Dr. Lesley Morrow on Literacy Development Dr. Morrow is a professor at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Education where she is coordinator of the literacy program. Her area of research deals with early literacy development, and the organization and management of Language Arts Programs. Her research is carried out with children and families from diverse backgrounds. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =c8A38PdipDc Dr. Lesley Morrow - Literacy Development

21. Family Literacy Professional Development Project Supports Program Success By Rose Gioia-Fine The Pennsylvania Statewide Family Literacy Professional Development Project offers comprehensive, coordinated professional development training services for practitioners and administrators who provide family literacy services to Pennsylvania families. www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/.../fn06flprofdev_pdf

22. Questions about Chapter 4 Literacy Development Program

23. Literacy Development Program Chapter 4 Questions Do you thing Janet & the team would have been that successful if Janet’s leadership skills was not as developed? Even thought the principle did not have a strong presence or participation in the project. Do you think that the principle had a lot of confidence in Janet’s ability to excel when she gave Janet this project? Do you think that _______ is the main reason why the parent’s participation increased greatly? the incentives & food the persistence of the team & the children’s literacy advancement interest