Jr. Hope Squad Text Sets

Applicants Beliefs About Literacy: This year 3 of our 13 elementary schools are piloting Jr. Hope Squad (funded by Elyssa's Mission & District 203's Student Services). Next year, the goal is for the other 10 elementary schools to implement Jr. Hope Squads. Jr. Hope Squads are teams of students (4th & 5th graders) overseen by trained school staff dedicated to the program (advisors). Advisors conduct curriculum based lessons with Jr. Hope Squad members during monthly meetings. The purpose is to provide elementary age students with training and information on how to identify and help peers who are struggling emotionally and/or socially. The members receive training on being a good listener, not bullying, understanding warning signs of peers who could be struggling and how to seek help from an adult. Jr. Hope Squad members will be learning the core phases of promoting Hope and Student Empowerment throughout their school community. This is a school-based peer-to-peer program empowering "squads" of students mentored by "advisors" to take action to improve the school community. Jr. Hope Squad utilizes a "literacy" component in each phase & lesson. They suggest ways to invite the entire school and parents to read along with some of the book titles. This reading program helps create a school-wide understanding of the topics. The suggested book titles/picture books for each phase/lesson include guided discussion questions to reinforce lesson concepts with squad members and the school community.

How does this grant promote the development of literacy for learners?0

Please clarify your personal belief system about literacy and learning that is reflected in your practice?Student Survey - February by Jr. Hope Squad Members Student Survey - May by Jr. Hope Squad Members

Assessment PlanWe are attaching 2 budgets. 1 - 2019-2020 budget for 3 schools currently piloting to purchase 2 - 2020 budget for remaining 10 schools to be purchased in May 2020

Itemized & Detailed BudgetRead alouds with picture books are powerful because they serve so many instructional purposes—to motivate, encourage, excite, build background,develop comprehension, and assist children in making connections. Harvey and Goudvis (2005), from the In the Comprehension Toolkit, write that everything we read and learn is colored by our background knowledge. Read alouds give teachers a wonderful opportunity to directly scaffold learning for all students who lack the background for deep understanding of topics before we move them into more complex subject matter. In classrooms, we read aloud to open the day using stories to convene the community and celebrate what it means to think together and be together. We read aloud to embark on shared adventures, to explore new worlds together, and to place big ideas or sensitive topics at the center of our community. Cynthia Rylant states when discussing the importance of reading to children, "Close the final page of the book with the same reverence you feel when you kiss your sleeping child good night. Don't talk the experience to death. Shut up and let those kids think and feel. Teach your children to be moved." We read not only because it is good for our children as readers, but also because it is good for all of us as people. We read because this is the best way that we know to come together in a caring community.