Inclusifiying Our Collections

Project manager:

Amy Luem

Email:

aluem@winchesterps.org

School:

Lincoln

Telephone:

949-331-8452

Additional applicant:

Name:

Jessica Callahan

School:

Lynch

Telephone:

781-721-7013

Name:

781-721-7012

School:

Ambrose

Telephone:

781-721-7013

Type of Grant:

Collaborative

Curriculum:

Literature

Target grade:

Grades K-5

No. of staff:

5

No. of students:

All Elementary Students

Start date:

10/1/2023

Grant proposal

Summary:

Libraries must be inclusive for all students. Each child deserves to feel seen, accepted, and celebrated in our libraries and in our books, regardless of their academic and/or physical ability. As we work to diversify our library collections, we are learning more about our students’ needs and how we can best support them. We are finding that many would benefit from the support of audio books. We’d like to collaborate as a team to select, purchase, and promote appropriate, high-interest Wonderbooks that would allow our striving readers, language learners and vision impaired students to increase their reading skills and build their love of reading. We are submitting a grant to the Rotary club as well, in order to increase the number of Wonderbooks that we will be able to purchase. We are hoping to establish a collection that will meet the needs of students in grades K-5 with a range of reading abilities and interests. Wonderbooks can be used in the lower grades to help support students just learning to read, help ELL students acquire new vocabulary, and help older struggling students read the same material as their peers. With the support of both organizations it would make it possible to buy approximately 5 Wonderbooks per grade level (30-40 altogether). Project Details: The details of this project include: Collaborating as a district Elementary Library team with WFEE and hopefully the Rotary Club to procure audio books for each of our school libraries We will collaborate with classroom teachers to create a list that will meet students’ academic, social, emotional and pleasure reading needs Wonderbooks will be purchased Students will receive instruction about the importance of recognizing and appreciating learning differences, as well as the importance of supporting all learners, regardless of ability. These lessons coincide with our district’s work with social justice and social-emotional learning! Displaying and advertising the audio books to increase student interest and circulation. Priority will be given to students who need audiobooks to be successful in the classroom.

GRANT DETAILS

Educational Issue:

As we work to diversify our library collections, we are learning more about our students’ needs and how we can best support them. Many of our students are striving readers or English language learners who would benefit from the use of audio books, which give students the opportunity to hear language, have proper fluency modeled for them, and build their reading comprehension skills. In addition to our striving readers and language learners, some of our students have vision impairments that limit their ability to enjoy many of our books. Many Wonderbooks come in large print, so a student who has vision difficulties would have the double benefit of hearing the language and seeing larger print on the page. This project would allow us to meet the following English Language Arts standards across each grade level, some Social Justice standards, as well as some of CASEL’s Social-Emotional frameworks: Massachusetts Frameworks for English Language Arts and Literacy Anchor Standards for Reading: Key Idea and Details 1. Read closely to determine what a text states explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from a text 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Craft and Structure 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10. Independently and proficiently read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts. Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening Comprehension and Collaboration 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. Anchor Standards for Language Knowledge of Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. Vocabulary Acquisition and Use 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate. 5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. 6. Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge. Social Justice Standards DIVERSITY Anchor Standards 8. Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded way. 9. Students will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection. ACTION Anchor Standards 16. Students will express empathy when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern when they themselves experience bias. CASEL FRAMEWORK Self-Awareness: Recognizing one’s emotions and values as well as one’s strengths and challenges Self-Management: Managing emotions and behaviors to achieve one’s goals Social-Awareness: Showing understanding and empathy for others

Goals & Outcomes:

Our short-term goals are to collaborate to create and purchase a robust list of high-interest collection of audiobooks for each of our schools so that we can further diversify our libraries to meet the needs of all of our students. The grant will allow us to have a viable collection that will give students a range of books at various reading levels. Our long term goals will include making additional purchases each year to build the collection.

Activities:

Activities to complete this project include: 1. Collaborating as a team to compile a list of appropriate Wonderbooks 2. Working with classroom teachers and English Language teachers to choose books that support the curriculum and prioritize students with specific needs. 3. Purchasing Wonderbooks 4. Prioritizing students with specific learning needs to check out the Wonderbooks that they need 5. Promoting Wonderbooks for all students who might be interested in them as a means to support our inclusion efforts 6. Modeling correct use and care for Wonderbooks so they last 7. Connecting, suggesting, and delivering Wonderbooks to lessons about diverse learning styles and needs. 8. Track check outs and Book Buzzes to gauge student interest so that we can build upon our collections in the future

Innovation & Collaboration:

Reading aloud to children has been proven to greatly enhance their comprehension, fluency, and love of reading. Wonderbooks are an innovative approach to aid our students in achieving these skills in order to become lifelong learners. Having Wonderbooks in each elementary school will provide classroom teachers with an additional resource to help their students succeed, and allow our libraries to be more inclusive for all students in our communities.

IMPACT

Publicity:

As soon as the Wonderbooks are available we will connect with teachers who have students that would benefit the most from them. It will hopefully be possible to show them to teachers at a staff meeting so that they can try them and see the ones that are available. After that, students in each class will get to have the opportunity to check them out. An announcement can be made through the parent associations to let them know about the new resource.

Timeline:

October/November- Create a list of titles by collaborating with classroom teachers, ELL teachers, and Special Education teachers, as appropriate in each building. December- Order books. Winter/Spring- As soon as we have them we will make them available to teachers and students. This may occur earlier in our timeline!

Evaluation:

The main criteria will be if they are checked out of the library. With our library software it will be quite simple to run a report to see how popular they are overall and specifically how many times each title is checked out. This data can be reported back to WFEE as needed. Additionally, each of us provides opportunities for students to recommend books to their peers via Book Buzzes. These can be informally monitored to track how often Wonderbooks are recommended!

Budget and Explanation

Supplies:

Wonderbooks are a Playway product in which a book and a ready-to-play audio book are bound together! Wonderbooks Average $45.00-$65.00. A Budget of $1,000 would allow each school to purchase about 18 Audiobooks per school.
$5000
Total Supplies :
$5000

Total

$5000

Budget Explanation:

The budget allows for each of our libraries to purchase approximately 18 Wonderbooks each.

Minimum Budget:

$4,000

Description:

If the desired amount is not available to fund this project, we will reduce the number of Wonderbooks each school purchases from approximately 18 each to approximately 10 each. $4,000 would be sufficient to ensure each school is able to purchase 10 of the audiobooks. We are grateful for any amount to implement this project at our elementary schools.