Hawthorne Elementary
Grant Project: Multisensory Programs and Activities for At-Risk Students

Applicant Grant Summary: As a school we have been charged with identifying at-risk students, and providing interventions that will target their areas of need in reading and math before they are referred for Special Education evaluations or after they have been identified as needing Special Education Services. By providing these at-risk students with balanced, multisensory programs and activities in class, at home, in Labs, and individual therapy, we will be prepared to meet the national reading and math objectives of No Child Left Behind, Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills, and OKC Public Schools District Benchmarks. Using a multi-sensory approach incorporating auditory, visual, tactile, and verbal components, students will work toward mastery of reading, math, and language skills as identified in the general Oklahoma PASS Skills curriculum with technology and materials that adapt to students' skill levels and rate of progress, allowing students to work at their own pace in the classroom, at home, in Lab, or therapy sessions. As a Response to Intervention Team our goal is to address literacy and math problems and increase student engagement by providing systematic instruction in the regular classroom, at home with parent involvement, and in various Special Education settings when needed. As a team we want to share professional development and curriculum resources by requesting these programs and materials based on current scientifically based research.

Capitol Hill Elementary
Grant Project: Recipe for Success

Applicant Grant Summary: Take 20 bright students, add 10 gallons of fresh air, 2 tons of sunshine, and a lesson on the parts of a seed, cultivate the knowledge, and watch the comprehension grow. Our grant request is to fund an outdoor classroom. Sarah Mahoney wrote an article in the Prevention magazine titled The Fresh Air Fix, the simple way to boost brainpower and improve health and feel great. She wrote, "Kids today spend 7 hours more on academics and 2 hours less on sports and outdoor activities per week than they did 20 years ago." Our idea is to combine the necessity of class work with fresh air and sunshine. We'd like to take a corner of our playground and create a classroom. We would start by ordering 5 picnic tables. Mahoney also sited that students who were involved in growing plants scored 12% higher on academic tests, so a lesson involving the parts of a plant would also include growing plants. We found that the PASS objectives related to Physical Sciences could certainly be taught using this outdoor classroom, but it would not only be used for Science. A writing lesson about clouds could be taught outside, as could a number of other things. Studies have shown for years that experiential learning is the best way; why not take this one step farther and add the benefits of sunshine to the mix. This outdoor classroom is something that would benefit all of the children of Capitol Hill Elementary.

Coolidge Elementary School
Grant Project: Bridges in Mathematics

Applicant Grant Summary: Nationally and locally, too many students struggle with learning mathematics at high levels of understanding and achievement. To better address the teaching and learning of mathematics schools must change the ways math is taught and what it means to master mathematics. Coolidge is working to better address students' math education needs. With initial grants from the Oklahoma State Department of Education, Coolidge is implementing "Bridges in Mathematics" (K-5), a standards based math curriculum developed by The Math Learning Center in Salem, Oregon. (See: www.mathlearningcenter.org.) Bridges fosters the development of children's mathematical thinking and reasoning abilities by providing age-appropriate problems and investigations in all areas of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the Oklahoma Math Standards - PASS. Bridges makes consistent and effective use of increasingly complex visual models of mathematics: seeing, touching, working with manipulatives, sketching ideas, to create pictures in the mind's eye that help students explore, develop, understand, test, discuss, justify, and apply mathematical understandings. Funds from the State Department of Education Grants were used to purchase the initial curriculum materials and extensive professional development. This year, (2008-09), is the second year for Coolidge to use the Bridges math curriculum. Therefore, it is natural that with daily use some of the necessary manipulatives are being consumed or lost. For the 2009-2010 academic year, Coolidge requests Great Ideas grant funds, to replenish consumable materials, lost manipulatives, and duplicating supplies -- laser ink cartridges and copy paper. A Great Ideas grant would address these imperative needs. (Note: Funding from other sources will be sought to continue in-depth and intensive professional development.)

Heronville Elementary School
Grant Project: Teaching/Learning resources for English Language Learners

Applicant Grant Summary: The English Language Learners (ELL) Department of Heronville Elementary is requesting a ...grant to purchase teaching/learning resources to be utilized on a daily basis with approximately 110 of our neediest Hispanic students. The needed resources include language development games, manipulatives, interactive listening/learning programs, graphic novels, book stands, and organizational equipment for storage and display. Heronville Elementary is now 90% Hispanic due to Oklahoma City's explosive growth in Hispanic population. The majority of newcomers are from homes that are Spanish-speaking only. With this changing demographic is the transition of becoming a school serving pre-kindergarten through 6th grade. Our present 550+ enrollment will increase significantly and bring more students into the ELL program. While our ELL department has received recognition for having the best organized system of operation, we are under-equipped with the needed resources that are most effective in teaching English to ELLs. Test results have shown small-group instruction with varied techniques/resources is the most effective method for elementary-age students to learn the language. Rather than paper and pencil instruction, these children learn best using hands-on materials. Small ELL classes also offer a non-threatening atmosphere to practice speaking and oral reading. The benefits of adequate proficiency in language acquisition are two-fold: a child's level of language mastery in the lower grades greatly influences his success in the higher grades. Our school district is grappling with the large drop-out rate of Hispanic high school students. Research has identified the absence of English language proficiency as the major contributor to the problem. This same research has shown a pattern of non-recovery in middle school and high school if a child is lagging behind. Elementary ELLs must have adequate English language skills to be successful in the upper grades. Having cutting-edge resources will enable our department to reach students with varied learning styles to bring them to higher levels of language acquisition.

Taft Middle School
Grant Project: Taft CSI Unit

Applicant Grant Summary: Murder, intrigue, sinister plots, and crimes of passion. How does this relate to science? That is the resounding question that we hope will be answered in the Taft CSI unit! Several challenges in middle school teaching are to develop lessons that not only teach the PASS objectives, but also engage the active and lively minds of adolescents. With this in mind, our team of 8th grade science teachers is planning a unit designed around crime scene investigation. Data shows that interdisciplinary teaching has an extremely high propensity to increase student retention of new material, and our unit incorporates many interdisciplinary objectives. Beginning in March, 8th grade students will be engaged in crime scene investigation that follows the suggestions of real CSI investigators. Using the ideas in Partners in Crime, students will hone their language arts, math, and science skills as they investigate mock crime scenes. Students will have to focus on the practical application of critical thinking, problem solving, and nonfiction expression to solve a crime using the skills of forensic science. The activities will also help build valuable connections within and out of the school as students will meet new people when interviewing suspects and witnesses. Additionally, they will be encouraged to meet and interview local law enforcement agents to build and expand their career inventories.

Prairie Queen Elementary
Grant Project: Classroom Performance Systems and LCD Projectors

Applicant Grant Summary: The fourth grade team at Prairie Queen Elementary School would like to better serve our students with a system that will motivate them to learn and lessons that are engaging. We would be able to achieve this goal with the purchase and implementation of two sets of Classroom Performance Systems and two LCD projectors. This project is important because the questioning techniques that we use today do not let every child participate. With the CPS system all students can process the question and participate in the learning activity. Students who are motivated to answer questions are more likely to learn the concept. The CPS system provides motivation for every child to learn and also has a group incentive for processing and answering questions. We could say that if the group cumulative score for the learning session is above 80 we could have 10 minutes of extra recess. One of the target areas that we would like to improve is student comprehension of core learning concepts. The CPS system would allow us to use various questioning techniques that would promote more effective learning by allowing the student to be actively engaged, be focused on specific objectives, provide opportunities for repetition and have instant feedback that allows them to understand why they missed certain questions. All of these things would promote student comprehension in core learning concepts.

Lee Elementary
Grant Project: Shoot Pictures, Not Guns

Applicant Grant Summary: Shoot Pictures, Not Guns is a multidimensional project that will develop the children's ability to talk to their parents about what they have been seeing/doing/learning at school and their ability to write about what they are seeing/doing/learning at school. Children need prompts to elicit language and to extend their language. They often forget what goes on at school and cannot share what happens. This project places a digital camera in their hands to record what is going on in the classroom. After printing the pictures on scanners, the students can write about the pictures. The pictures and writings can be shared at home with parents and can be displayed in an art gallery at school. Talking and writing about their pictures with guided writing/interactive writing/shared writing at school gives students the language practice to share with their families at home. Photographing their daily activities provides a creative springboard for speaking and writing-both of which are basic PASS Skills for all grade levels in the Oklahoma Public Schools. One other goal is to introduce these children to a positive and creative outlet while they are very young. We want our kids to shoot pictures not guns.

Van Buren Elementary
Grant Project: Radical Rainforest

Applicant Grant Summary: Our project is called Radical Rainforest. This project is innovative in that it offers our students the opportunity to see, hear, taste, and experience the rainforest right here at Van Buren! Our project will provide the opportunity for our children to learn about distant places as well as expose and/or refresh PASS objective skills that include classifying, graphing, perimeter, measurement, estimation, fine and gross motor skills, map skills, predicting, counting, letter writing, writing complete sentences and paragraphs, creating, technology, and the scientific method. With the variety of food, books, videos, instruments, craft kits, and technology, our students will have a Radical Rainforest Extravaganza! We are dedicated to not only sharing our academic knowledge with our students, but nourishing their dreams and ambitions as well. We hope that this project inspires some of our students to actually visit a rainforest.

Buchanan Elementary
Grant Project: Singapore Math

Applicant Grant Summary: Tom Deweese wrote an article entitled "The Death of Math in America." He states the greatest problem facing today's colleges and universities is lack of basic skills in the area of mathematics required to acquire a higher level of knowledge. (The Failed Federal Education Policy, Aug 2008). According to our schools overall performances on the comprehensive benchmark, our students are struggling with basic math concepts. Our 4th graders scored below benchmark in the following areas: 65% in number patterning, 83% identifying place value, 77% comparing and ordering whole numbers, 56% estimating and finding the product of 2- and 3-digit numbers, 69% mental math strategies. (May 2008). Further analysis of the data also indicated that our students in grades 2nd through 5th were struggling with numbers sense, skills in problem solving and using mental math strategies. Singapore math is a supplemental math program that emphasizes the development of strong number sense, mental-math skills, and an understanding of place value. The curriculum uses manipulatives then moves to a pictorial stage and finally into the abstract level. The Singapore approach also focuses on developing students who are problem solvers. It includes a strong emphasis on model drawing, a visual approach to solving word problems that helps students organize information and solve problems in a step-by-step manner. (http://sde.com/singapore-math/index.asp). It is the goal of our project to supplement our current curriculum with Singapore Math in order to strengthen our students? foundation in mathematics ensuring our students acquire the skills needed for higher level knowledge.

Northwest Classen High School
Grant Project: Water World

Applicant Grant Summary: Team C consists of Algebra I, Environmental Science, Geography and English teachers who work to engage and equip 9th grade students. Our team goal is to increase student engagement, deepen understanding of PASS skills and transition 9th graders to high school academics. As a team we plan assignments that connect subjects. Some of our past cross-curriculum projects include a renovation of the school's cafeteria and its food. Another project included discovering their carbon footprint which increased our students understanding of global warming. Water World is a cross-curriculum project where 9th grade students collaborate with classrooms from around the world to answer the question "How safe is our water?" Imagine discovering the water you drink every day may not be any safer than water on the street. What if the safest water is found in a river in Mississippi or Africa? Students work in groups to discover the answers to their water consumption but also how to correct the water problem of their area. Students are paired in teams and work with teams in other countries to understand the state of the water on the planet and ways we can improve our growing problem. This project allows students to connect all subjects to a relevant problem. As a result of this project, students will understand scientific inquiry, the creation and interpretation of graphs, explain findings through verbal and written communication and describe the environment of various geographic locations.