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Mike Herrmann, Executive Director
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Welcome to the new Grantee Corner! We want this to become YOUR page and hope it will provide information that will help you serve your students and parents, as well as help you become acquainted with each others’ programs. Each of your programs brings a strength to Afterschool programming and you can share these strengths with each other. Also, you will find resources for lesson planning that will help you incorporate state academic standards in a way that makes both teaching and learning fun. Please use the navigation toolbar below to scan the information and make use of anything you find. Also, email any new ideas and useful sites and links to marla.smith@state.tn.us. Useful links, lessons, and ideas for the Toolkit Tip of the Month will be updated on a regular basis. We hope to alternate posting your sites and ideas to showcase your programs.
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Links to Tennessee Curriculum Standards and the Blueprint for Learning
Use these standards to ensure that your lessons are targeting the state assessed standards. Even “fun” lessons, like the one outlined just below the standards links can be planned with standards embedded. Some folks refer to this as “disguised learning,” but these fun lessons promote learning just the same.
Literature Circles (Sample Lesson)
Roles Students Can Play in Literature Circles Activity Goal: To understand and comprehend reading materials Academic Standard: Students will apply comprehension skills and strategies to content area reading. (The standard given is a seventh grade language arts standard. Others could also apply.) Materials needed: Books or other appropriate reading materials or assignments, notebook paper, pencils, blank sheets of paper for drawing, and colored pencils for drawing. Explanations/Student Roles: Discussion Director: Prepare questions to guide the group’s discussion. Possible questions: What did you like and dislike about the reading? What questions did you have about the reading? What do you predict will happen next? Passage Master: Choose several passages to read aloud to the group and tell why you chose each one. These passages might be interesting, powerful, or puzzling. Connector: Find connections between the reading and your world, including happenings at school or in the community, with other people, and in your own life. Illustrator: Draw an illustration about the text. It might be a picture or a diagram. The illustration might relate to a character, an exciting event, a prediction, or something else. Share the drawing with your group and have them talk about it before you explain it. Summarizer: Prepare a brief summary of the reading that conveys the main ideas to share with the group. Word Wizard: Identify four to six words from the reading to share with the group. Be prepared to explain the meaning of the word as it is used in the text. Assessment: Teacher observation of student responses, teacher scoring rubric, or student self-assessment rubric. Review/Remediation: Using tiered instruction, re-teach or review any ideas or terms that seem unclear to students. Enrichment: Those students who performed at a higher mastery level could be in the most advanced tier for enrichment purposes. Other benefits: The literature circle promotes teamwork, linguistic skills, artistic skills, verbal skills, and positive social skills. Adapted from Daniels (1994) and Tompkins (2000)
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Websites for Best Practices in Afterschool Academic Enrichment
The following sites provide information and ideas for serving students in Afterschool programs. The State Department of Education is not recommending purchase of any of the materials sold on the sites. However, the ideas presented do offer insight into best practices for after school programs.
The Math Explorer Book 
presents and explains 23 hands-on activities that make math real and fun.
Center for Hands-On Learning is a nonprofit corporation founded and run by teachers, dedicated to helping everyone keep learning. They create curriculum and materials that are educational, easy to use, and fun for after-school groups, classrooms, and schools.
The Promising Practices in AfterSchool (or "PPAS") System is an effort to find and share things that are working in AfterSchool programs. The PPAS website is for AfterSchool program directors who want to improve the quality of their programs. All sorts of other people will find it useful, too--people like program staff, volunteers, parents, community members, policymakers, funders, researchers, and anyone else who cares about children and youth. On the PPAS website, you will find tons of information that you can use in your own program.
Aha!Math’s rich, research-based curriculum enables the teacher to mediate how and when it fits best into the instructional day: whether to reinforce instruction with the whole class, or for use in group settings or with individual students. It includes the following: Instruction, Lessons, Activities, Games, and Quizzes.
Dawn education materials are written for educators to capture interest of students and the public by using the Dawn mission as a real-world link. Enjoy a variety of educational products for home and school, including online interactive simulations, teacher guides and activities, suggested assessments, and lists of additional resources and references. View current events and opportunities to participate in pilot and field testing. Participate in the excitement of the Dawn mission to the asteroid belt with Dawn Education.
This site contains a lesson on categorizing an object as a meteorite. This applies to the 6th grade earth science standard asking that students be able to categorize the components of the universe. For an example meteorite lesson click here!
The following report, NASA and AfterSchool Programs: Connecting to the Future , argues that the AfterSchool arena is uniquely suited for implementing science learning experiences that engage young people, build their capacity to succeed, and provide a continuity of opportunities to prepare them to participate in science, technology, engineering and math careers.
AfterSchool Universe is an out-of-school-time astronomy program targeted at middle school students. It explores astronomy concepts through engaging hands-on activities and takes participants on a journey through the Universe beyond the solar system. This program is now widely available to AfterSchool program providers to run in your local communities.
Toolkit Tip for Afterschool Teachers: Effective Recreational Activities
Suggestions for Incorporating Effective Recreational Activities into Your Program:
Offer a wide variety of activities.
Make sure your activities are age and ability appropriate.
Provide consistent challenges for your participants.
Learn what types of activities the community enjoys.
Respect differences between your students and yourself.
Be open to learning new things and activities from your students, and they will be open to learning things you have to offer.
Do not emphasize winning and losing.
Provide choices for your participants.
Let your participants lead and coach.
Participate in the activities with your students.
Be consistent and fair with your rules.
Teach the students to use positive self-talk in sports and life.
Reduce the focus on competition; instead, promote teamwork and leadership.
From page 200 of Beyond the Bell: A Toolkit for Creating Effective Afterschool Programs (3rd ed.) as quoted by Learning Point Associates.
Websites for Training and Professional Development
National AfterSchool Association Conference
This website contains information about the April 2009 National AfterSchool Association Conference to be held in New Orleans. More information will be added closer to the conference date.
The website contains online tutorials targeting mentors and volunteer tutors. The tutorials are user friendly and would also work for seasoned educators as a refresher on teaching and learning philosophy and strategies. This is an excellent resource for all educational programs, not just after school programs.
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