Mixing it Up in After School

Format

Poster Presentation

Presenters

Simone Danielson, Georgia Department of EducationFollow

Location

Harborside Center East and West

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance

This presentation relates to Strand I -“HEAD: ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT & LEADERSHIP CLOSING ACHIEVEMENT GAPS AND PROMOTING LEARNING FOR ALL CHILDREN AND YOUTH ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH-POVERTY POPULATIONS” by providing the participants with a diverse repertoire of instructional strategies that will engage students in a manner that promotes critical thinking, technology, and creativity in the areas of reading and writing across the curriculum and working with English Language Learners

Brief Program Description

This workshop will provide participants with a diverse repertoire of instructional strategies that will engage students in a manner that promotes critical thinking, technology, and creativity. The targeted participants are those who are leaders and educators in Title I schools. You will stroll down Technology Lane to learn about free and minimal cost websites that allow students the opportunity to utilize their creativity, improve reading and writing skills, and engage in activities for English language learners. Take a ride on Activity Highway where you will participate in hands-on activities that promote critical thinking and creativity, detour down Standards Based Path and learn how to unpack the standards to help English language learners, and meet at the Rest Stop to share best practices.

1. Provide participants with activities that increase student engagement.
2. Provide participants with methods for integrating technology into their programs.
3. Provide participants with strategies to implement reading and writing across the curriculum and working with English Language Learners.
4. Provide participants with an opportunity to share best practices.

Summary

Creating an after-school environment that is engaging while also providing meaningful learning experiences is the desire of all after-school programs. In order to foster that desire, this workshop will provide participants with various engaging strategies that will keep students wanting to be a part of your program and also promote critical thinking, technology integration, and creativity in reading, writing, and working with English Language Learners. As many programs work with diverse populations, it is important that they continue to seek methods to reach those populations. One of those methods is the integration of technology. The students we serve are “plugged in” to technology so any program serving students in after-school should be seeking various methods to integrate technology. In this workshop, participants will take a stroll down technology lane to learn about various free to minimal costing websites that will allow student the opportunity to utilize their creativity and improve reading and writing skills. There will also be websites that will provide engaging activities for English Language Learners. After their stroll down technology lane, participants will then take a ride on the activity highway. On this trip, participants will be directly involved in hands-on activities that will promote critical thinking and creativity. These activities will focus on reading and writing across the curriculum which will also incorporate English Language Learners. Participants will gather a rest stop to share what they have learned with each other. These activities will be linked to Blooms Taxonomy and Phil Schlechty’s Engaging Qualities to provide the participants research-based instructional strategies. Participants will have an opportunity to detour down standards based path where they will learn how to un-pack the standards to help English Language Learner understand what they are supposed to be learning. Another detour on this journey will by the path of reading and writing across the curriculum with special emphasis in mathematics. Oftentimes, reading and writing in math are not thought about very much however, before participants return to the path, they will learn how to think outside the box in the area of mathematics. For the last leg of this journey, participants will take flight to their final destination which will be an activity for them to synthesis the information presented and develop a plan of implementation for their respective programs.

Evidence

Oftentimes, educators think that if they offer an afterschool program to middle schools students that will help them academically, the students will automatically come. According to Jones (2008), Afterschool programs across the country face a unique challenge when it comes to middle schools students. These students aren’t as easily engages as younger ones, and they often are less disciplined. In order to ensure participation and success, afterschool programs must find activities that appeal to these students while acknowledging their new and unique developmental needs (p.1). Afterschool programs providing middle school students must increase their toolbox of strategies to recruit, engage, and retain the middle school student. When looking at serving English Language Learners in the middle school, statistics show that this population of students is ever increasing within our schools and the needs to provide them with services is increasing as well (Pray, 2011, P. 1). Afterschool and summer learning programs are playing a larger and more significant role in addressing the academic, linguistic, and social needs of ELL children and their families……. Since English language acquisition is an active process requiring frequent, purposeful interaction with English content, the most useful afterschool activities will be meaningful and closely tied to real objects and enterprises in the students’ world to provide a concrete context for words and ideas. To the extent possible, activities and support should be provided to bridge the students’ primary language, while simultaneously giving students authentic opportunities and encouragement to practice responding in English (Pray, 2011, p. 6) It is critical that schools employ various methods in their afterschool programs that engage the middle school student and diversify methods for reaching English Language Learners in the middle school as well.

Biographical Sketch

Simone Danielson has over 20 years of working with youth. She has a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Master’s in Education. She has served as an 8th grade math teacher, lead teacher in mathematics, and as an instructional coach in mathematics. She has conducted numerous professional development sessions for teachers on how to improve mathematics instruction and creating an engaging classroom. She is a National Board Certified Teacher in Early Adolescent Mathematics and currently serves as an Education Research and Evaluation Specialist with the Georgia Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program serving region 2 which covers the metro Atlanta area. Simone enjoys seeing the light bulb come on in the minds students and works to assist the stakeholders who work with students in “flipping that switch” to “on” in the minds of students in ways that are creative and engaging.

When she is not working, Simone enjoys spending time with her husband and children, roller skating, and reading.

Keyword Descriptors

After-school, 21st CCLC, English Language Learners

Presentation Year

2015

Start Date

3-3-2015 4:00 PM

End Date

3-3-2015 5:30 PM

Recommended Citation

Danielson, Simone, "Mixing it Up in After School" (2015). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 185.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2015/2015/185