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 The following is the grant request submitted to the Kroger
Foundation:
November 13, 2009
Kroger Central Division
5960 Castleway Drive West Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46250
Dear Kroger Charitable Committee:
The third, fourth and fifth grade teachers at Washington Monroe
School in Lincoln, Illinois, wish to submit a grant proposal that we
believe will greatly impact reading competency improvement in our
classrooms.
We work hard to keep up with current best practices in education,
and are committed to giving our students the best chance possible to
be successful readers.
Research shows that it is important to
devote as much direct instructional time teaching this age of
students how and what good readers "think" while they are
reading as teaching "decoding."
In order to do this we instruct our students in mini-lessons
throughout the year in which we teach about reading metacognitive
strategies such as questioning, connecting, inferring, visualizing
and synthesizing.
After each mini-lesson we give our students time to apply the
strategies we have taught while they read trade-books at their own
level. It is important that students apply what they have learned
in their own chosen reading selection.
In order to give students this opportunity, we are in the process of
differentiating our classroom libraries by including many genres and
levels of trade books that will appeal to our students.
We began working on improving our classroom libraries two years ago.
We sorted, leveled and collected as many books as possible. Our
third and fourth grade students have been given time during our
school day to read self-selected trade books while being held
accountable for using strategies they have learned.
As a result, we have changed the whole culture of our classrooms. Students value reading time and are quick to share ideas of what to
read to each other. They read every available minute that they
have. If they finish an assignment, they pull out their books to
read.
Our fifth grade teachers noticed immediately that this year's
students were constantly reading and have been struggling to find
enough books to keep them satisfied. Our third and fourth grade ISAT reading scores improved greatly last year. We strongly believe
that what we are doing is working.
In order for our students to continue to flourish, we need to
supplement our classroom libraries by adding new genres of books.
Graphic novels and non-fiction books are very attractive to many of
our boys. Our third grade classes need to add lower leveled books as
many of our students are currently reading below grade level. We
need to supply them with books at their independent reading level so
that they can improve.
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Some of our books in fourth grade are worn out and need replacing.
Our fifth grade classrooms need to add books of all kinds to meet
student demand. We would greatly appreciate your help in funding
this process. We are enclosing classroom wish lists that our
students have created.
Our school is a poverty school. Many of our students live in
government subsidized housing one block away from our school. This
grant would give allow them to have many books on hand that are at
their level and that they are interested in. That opportunity is
invaluable to them as they work to increase their reading abilities.
Thanks very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
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Mary Clark
Title 1 teacher |
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Gail Zimmer
Third grade teacher |
Debbie Turner
Third grade teacher |
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Bev Wunderlin
Fourth grade teacher |
Leslie Singleton
Fourth grade teacher |
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Cara Gunning
Fifth grade teacher |
Kate Ewing
Fifth grade teacher |
Budget
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Mrs. Zimmer's third grade class |
$186.16 |
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Mrs. Turner's third grade class
|
669.46 |
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Mrs. Wunderlin's fourth
grade class |
505.70 |
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Mrs. Singleton's fourth grade class
|
263.19 |
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Miss Gunning's fifth grade
class |
924.29 |
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Miss Ewing's fifth grade class |
366.68 |
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Total |
$2,915.48 |
[Text from file received]
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