Presentation from Illinois Reading Conference Fall 2014 Family Literacy and Grant Writing

2. IRC Grants to our district
Family Reading Night
2007 $1000
2008 $850
2009 $500
2010 $300
2011 $400
2012 $400
2013 $650
2014 $800
Presentation and In-service by Poetry Alive!
2010-$1000
Author Visit 2010-2011 $800
2013-2014 $600
2014-2015 $800
Baggin Some Books 2012-2013 Basham $440
Broderick $400
2013-Little Free Lending Library $300

3. Grand Total
In eight years we have received:
$9,240
Thanks in part to
Illinois Reading Council
Literacy Grants

4. How do you do it???
•Get a wonderful idea!!!!
•Go to Illinois Reading Council
website to get the grant form.
www.illinoisreadingcouncil.org
•Follow the rubric!!!
•Evaluation is an important
key component.

5. IRC Grant Guidelines
Needs Statement:
Explain why this project is needed, include
local statistics like test scores (ISAT,
MAP, AIMSWEB, etc.)
Special populations that will be included in
this project, trend data for your service
population.
Just stating low socio-economic level and
high mobility is not enough to justify need.

6. Sample Needs Statement
The area serviced with this Family Reading Night
is primarily a rural areas comprised of four
surrounding communities. The small Pre-K-3rd
buildings consist of approximately 300 students
of those roughly 53% of students are categorized
as low income with 35% being of Hispanic decent
according to the most recent school district report
card.
This event provides an outstanding opportunity
for language enrichment activities for our second
language learner population and their families.

7. Description of Project
•Project and timeline are well thought
out and implementation plans are
detailed.
•Scope of project involves:
school/institution and
family/community
•Lasting impact on literacy

8. Itemized Budget
•Budget is detailed and demonstrates
outstanding stewardship of funds.
•Be cost conscious, especially with
supplies and refreshments.
•Limit the number of incentives you
ask for-think of intrinsic values and
low/no cost useful items(homework
passes, pencils, etc. rather than
trinkets.

9. Sample Budget

10. Plans for Publicity
• Additional points on grant for local
announcements recognizing IRC as a
funding source
• Presenting at conference or writing an
article for the IRC Communicator
•Weekly teacher newsletters
• Raffle ticket for students to bring to event
• Local newspapers and radio stations
• Provide links to materials on teacher’s
website
• Twitter

11. Plans for Evaluation
•How will you measure success of
the project?
•Using rubrics
•Evaluation forms
•Unique evaluation process that is
described

12. Sample Evaluation Form
Family Reading Night Parent Survey
Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions.
Your input will help us make the program even better next year!
1.) Was this the first time you attended Family Reading Night?
Yes or No
2.) What was your favorite part of Family Reading Night?
_______________________________________________________
3.) Which guest reader did you like the best?
________________________________________________________
4.) What could be changed to improve Family Reading Night?
____________________________________________
5.) Will you attend this event next year? Why or why not?
_________________________________________________________
6.) Any other comments or suggestions?
________________________________________________________
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. We appreciate it!
Please return this completed survey to school by Wednesday,
November 24th. Your child will receive a special prize for turning this
in.

13. Other tidbits
•No identifying information!!!!!!
•If you have local support(of any
kind) state it in the application
•Have others read your application

14. Family Reading Night

15. FAMILY
READING
NIGHT VIDEO

16. Family Reading Night
Schedule of Events
3:30-5:00 p.m. Set Up
5:30 – Registration begins
5:30-6:55 – Open all evening
Craft in the gym
Reading Room - south end of cafeteria
Snack – north end of cafeteria
5:40-5:55 - First Session of Guest Readers
6:00-6:15 – Second Session of Guest Readers
6:15-6:20 – Passing Period
6:20-6:35 – Third Session of Guest Readers
6:35-6:40 – Passing Period
6:40-6:55 – Fourth Session of Guest Readers
6:45-7:00 pm-Return to Gym for Goodie Bags
7:00-7:30 pm-Tear down and Thank you gifts

21. Illinois Reads!

27. Poetry Alive!®
An IRC grant was written for a presentation
by Poetry Alive!®
This presentation helped to give our students an
appreciation of poetry as a performance technique.

35. Poetry Night
Gilman Elementary
As a result of our Poetry Alive Presentation in 2010, we decided
to have a Poetry Night to encourage students to use the skills they
learned after having Nadine and Ken visit.
The students used their poetry performance skills for a great
night of poetry.

38. Poetry Night has continued as an
annual event…

39. We All Get Into the Act…………

40. Poppin’ Into Poetry-2012

41. Poetry in Bloom-2013

43. Author Visit
In October, 2010 and again in April,
2014 we invited Alice B. McGinity to
our school to give presentations to
students in Kindergarten – Third
Grade.
Alice discussed her book writing process
and how she chooses topics to write on.
She also mentioned that she has
received many rejections before her
books have been published. Don’t give
up!

49. Projects from the Author Visit

50. Books in a Bag
•In 2012, we both wrote grants to create literacy bags
for our Title I students.
•Most books in the bag consist of two books on the
same theme with a fiction and nonfiction selection.
•Each bag has ideas for parents and additional
activities that coordinate with the books.
•All ideas were found at www.readingrockets.org

51. There are titles for
Kindergarten – Third Grade
We have 22 topics available
for students to share at home.

56. “Little Free Library”
What is a Little Free Library?
It’s a “take a book, return a book” gathering place
where neighbors share their favorite literature and stories. In its
most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where
anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back
another book to share. You can, too!
You can find more info on this at www.littlefreelibrary.org

57. Other Grant Ideas
•Local grants??? Check with banks
in your area.
•Target Corporation Grants Field
trips and Family Reading Night
$2000 in 2013
•Dollar General-various grants for
literacy. Awarded $2,225 in 2014
for tech resources for literacy.

58. Contact us at:
cbroderick@iwest.k12.il.us
cbasham@iwest.k12.il.us