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2005 Central San Joaquin
Valley (Madera and Fresno Counties)
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| ELEMENTARY |
Music for All!
In many schools with tight budgets, the arts are often
the first element cut from the curriculum. American
Union Elementary School believes that the arts can be
effectively integrated into the core areas of math,
language arts, history, and science by using tools such
as CDs, instructional materials, and visual aids. As
an example, musical rhythms and notes are paired with
fractions in math, while classical music is played and
enjoyed as history is taught and brought to life. The
availability of these materials will bring music and
the arts naturally into the classroom on a daily basis.
Jenny Burrow
American Union Elementary School |
Reading Fluency for a Successful Future
Reading Fluency for a Successful Future is an intervention
program to help build the skills of struggling and underachieving
readers. The program will use the Read Naturally fluency
program, which uses three research based strategies
for improving fluency. Through repeated readings, tracking
the number of words read correctly, reading along with
a taped story, and finally reading independently, struggling
students will be able to not only improve their reading
ability, but see their progress tracked on a chart over
time.
Charlotte Nelson
Fugman Elementary School |
Lion Streaming Learning Lab
The Lion Streaming Learning Lab is designed to assist
at-risk students that do not qualify for Special Education
services. It is intended to be a short-term intervention
program that helps to bring skills up to grade level
in language arts by providing instruction in phonemic
awareness, auditory processing, decoding, and reading
comprehension. The Success Fund monies will be spent
specifically to purchase the Earobics Educational software
program to teach auditory and phonological awareness
skills. Students will be able to meet with a specialist
for 30 minutes a day, four days a week for eight weeks.
Denise Mendoza, Jamie Russell
Liddell Elementary School |
Growing a Kinder"garden"
The program will create a school garden and develop
related curricular resources in the areas of science,
math, social sciences, music, and literacy, tying in
the experiences of gardening with the core academic
areas of study. By providing a hands-on activity for
the children, they will be able to achieve another level
of learning through cooperation and discovery. Additionally,
fresh food that they helped to produce will be made
available to them.
Lynette Simon
Madison Elementary School |
Did you know...?
Maple Creek Elementary School aims to use various media
to teach science to their second-grade classes to spark
their interest and give them the appetite to actively
pursue knowledge beyond the classroom. Videos that align
with their topic of study, followed up with hands-on
activities will be utilized in the classroom. Areas
of study will include the moon, the stars, and the sun
over a three-week period of time.
John Parmer,
Rebecca Beltran, Rhoda Woo
Maple Creek Elementary School |
Mayfair Drama Club
The goal of this project is to increase and promote
social and emotional learning as a means of keeping
students interested in school and improving their academic
achievement by teaching students to resolve conflict
in a peaceful manner. Students in grades four through
six will participate in at least one fairy tale play
throughout the year. The Mayfair Drama Club will be
headed up by a student intern from California State
University, Fresno and the Literacy Coach at the school.
Maysee Yang, MSW
Mayfair Elementary School |
Accelerated First: Parent Education Component
McCord Elementary has four first-grade classes, and
is this year piloting a first-grade class called Accelerated
First. This new class is composed of students recommended
for retention in kindergarten and instead placed in
a first-grade classroom where they will receive intense
reading and oral language instruction. Such intense
attention at school will not be successful without the
support of the parents at home, however. In addition
to the Accelerated First class, a series of eight classes
will be available to parents to help them understand
the curriculum and encourage their children at home.
These classes will be taught in both English and Spanish.
Rachel Aguilar
McCord Elementary School |
Boxville/Agville
Boxville/Agville is an economics-based program where
students work with teammates to create a storefront
and product to market to first through third-grade students.
Additionally, they work together to make life decisions
involving insurance, taxes, utilities, rent, and the
keeping of a simple ledger of income and expenses. Students
live/work in corrugated boxes (storefronts) for four
to five weeks. Class work is completed insides the storefronts.
The San Joaquin Valley and agriculture will also be
incorporated into the program and the students will
have the opportunity to interview a farmer or retailer
who sells an ag product related to the students' products.
Ronald Dull
Red Bank Elementary School |
Kinder CSI: Creativity through Science Investigation
The Kinder CSI program will provide science and math
lessons to kindergarten students through hands-on activities
using thematic units, teaching science lessons highlighting
biology, the environment, anatomy, physiology, chemistry,
geography, and geology, while interweaving mathematics
and language arts skills. The hands-on experiences will
particularly benefit those beginning to learn the English
language. The students will benefit from the early exposure
and foundation building of scientific questioning and
observation, which will lead to a greater grasp of science
and math as their education progresses.
Kelly
Brundage, Patty Lennon, Ernestine McGuire, Sue Warner
Riverview Elementary School |
STudents Achieving Reading Success (STARS) Tutoring Program
The mission of the STARS Tutoring Program is simply
to help children learn how to read. Sixty-four percent
of the students at the elementary school are English
language learners; more than 50% of the parents have
limited English or do not speak English at all. Consequently,
reading proficiency is a major challenge. The majority
of the school's students live within walking distance
of El Encino Church, where the school has partnered
with the Fresno Covenant Foundation to provide after-school
tutoring classes. Additional classes will be held in
the library for those students that live near the school.
Lisa Drucks
Storey Elementary School |
Webster Wolverine Learning Center
Webster Elementary School is in a small, rural school
district with limited funds. A team of teachers, parents,
and administrators created the Wolverine Learning Center
to support the reading skill development of low performing
students. By enhancing the current Reading Intervention
Lab with the Soar to Success program, they will be able
to serve fourth-grade readers with appropriate curriculum.
Wendy Woods, Kathleen Gorman
Webster Elementary School |
| JUNIOR HIGH/MIDDLE SCHOOL |
Reyburn Folklorico
The Reyburn Folklorico Group is a performing group of
junior high students that continues to grow annually.
They seek to work in cooperation and collaboration with
community groups to foster an appreciation of Latin
American culture. Many of the existing costumes have
been donated or are now worn out, with students unable
to afford to purchase new costumes. The Success Fund
grant will be used to purchase items for new costumes
for the group as they continue to enrich their community
with performances throughout the year.
Ana Gabriela
Raya Frausto
Reyburn Intermediate School |
| SENIOR HIGH |
Madera Community Garden
To date, there are no schools in the district that actively
engage students in planned service-learning. Partnering
with a local community organization, the Madera Coalition
for Community Justice, the local continuation high school
will create a multi-cultural community garden in downtown
Madera. Students from all schools will be able to participate
in the garden's ongoing activities, classes will be
able to establish and manage their own plots, with the
entire garden planned and run by students. The garden
will be the link connecting school to community, neighborhood,
and home life.
Rachel Vasquez Moy
Madera Coalition for Community Justice
Mountain Vista High School |
Stepping Stones
For many of the students at Roosevelt High School, a
traditional classroom setting is not the best environment
for them to learn complex concepts in math and science.
Many students are still learning English and others
have learning disabilities. By building a greenhouse,
many of these students can start to learn about plants,
building, working together, and managing a budget by
experiencing it themselves. Other students doing well
in school will aid the other students, either by helping
them to understand what they are learning, or by interpreting
to those for whom English is their second language.
Rose Caglia, Maria Almanga
Roosevelt High School |
Michoacan Cultural Exchange
In the small, agricultural community of Selma, the high
school population is 78% Latino. A Mexican dance class
has been incorporated into the curriculum since 1977
and approximately 85% of the student body is involved
from the beginning to the advanced classes. This project
is a cultural exchange where a group of 20 students
will earn the privilege of participating in an exchange
program in Mexico, to be hosted by fellow dance students.
They will learn regional dances, visit historical sites,
live with families, and share their customs. The students
will also have the opportunity to study with Professor
Rumaldo Valenzuela, ethnomusicologist and researcher
with the National Institute of Dance.
Vicki
Filigas Trevino
Selma High School |
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