Global Grant Application

OBJECTIVES  GLOBAL GRANT APPLICATION

Professional development of teachers and educational leaders on effective literacy instruction Engaging local community and parents to support literacy initiatives in local schools Training community volunteers as reading coaches Working with local libraries to sustain literacy support Provide training to Literacy Leaders as identfied by the Ministry of Education Cayo District Office with an expectation that the trained teachers provide follow up support and training to other teachers who could not participate in the GG training initiaties. Develop expansion programs using trained local Literacy Leaders to support literacy enhancement in all Cayo district schools Design a Reading and Adventure Camp for students at risk of reading failure and train local educators and community volunteers on the reading intervention process which could be transferred to daily classrom use and could also form a framework for subsequent summer reading intervention programs for children.

Who will benefit from this global grant? Provide the estimated number of direct beneficiaries. Students in 32 Cayo primary Schools approx 2000 students Classroom teachers and identified Literacy Lead Coaches (32 schools) – a minimum of 100 educators Parents, community members: approx 100 citizens Educational leaders(approximately 30) Community members accessing local library services

Which of the following activities will this global grant fund? Humanitarian project;Vocational training team
Humanitarian Project Where will your project take place? Community: Cayo District, Belize City or Village: San Ignacio and Belmopan Country: Belize

When do you anticipate your project will take place?

From:2015-11-01 Until: 2016-08-0030 Outline your project implementation schedule. No. Activity Duration 1 Literacy training for Literacy Coaches two weeks 2 Resource Development to support literacy learning two weeks 3 Assessment and Data Collection two weeks 4 Training community reading coaches one week
5 Teacher coaching in remote village schools one week 6 Reading and Adventure Camp three days SUSTAINABILITY What community needs will your project address and how were these needs identified? Provide any relevant data or survey results -low literacy rates in primary schools -high numbers of teachers with little or no training in literacy instruction -reluctance of parents and community members to volunteer to be catalysts for increased literacy success in home communities -high rates of students not completing primary school successfully and dropping out of secondary school -a widening gap in effective literacy instruction in the small, remote village schools compared to the larger town centers where literacy professional development for teachers has been more extensive (enhanced from involvement in two previous Rotary Global Grant initiatives. All needs have been identified through national testing, local surveys, information collected in collaboration with the local ministry of education, local school leaders and junior college institutions involved in the training of teachers. ( Various data documents, including evaluations from previous literacy projects, are attached in the section of this grant titled Messages Seven documents informing positive changes to this project based on feedback and data collected from previous projects are included) Detail how your project will address these community needs. Training of educators and community members on literacy approaches provided by experienced educational experts in literacy Engagement of community stakeholders and training of volunteers provided by trained and experienced international community developers. Vocational training teams will work with local educators and community members to use local resources to create training packages for the coaching of primary school aged children in basic reading and writing. The November VTT (focussed on direct contact with remote village schools) will attempt to address the gap in opportunity for professionald development of teachers in these schools to bring them to a readiness level to meaningfully participate in the literacy improvement initaitives provided by the April 2016 VTT. Collaborartion with the Ministry of Education leaders will provide support for sustainability and strengthening of basic training and plans for literacy project initatives in schools How were members of the local community involved in planning the project? Does your project align with any current or ongoing local initiatives? For six years the Rotary Clubs of Cayo region and Alberta have worked collaboratively on various approacheds to educational improvement. In these previous projects extensive data was collected on the anticipated needs of educational stakeholders to sustain literacy support initatives and to examine more ambitious strategies to further strengthen student achievement. Data from survey and focus group feedback in previous projects provided the plans for this project proposal. In the spring of 2015 discussions were held between the Alberta team leads and the Cayo Ministry of Education to finalize the highest levels of need for this project. The Cayo Literacy Director and Regional manager had collected data and information and identified that the highest priority areas of focus would be to have the November VTT work in the smaller village schools to bring basic literacy
Global Grant Record – GG1529320 Grant Title – Literacy Alive III Status – Approved District Number 4250 (Qualified)
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training to these schools. Then, the April VTT could focus on bringing literacy leaders from all Cayo schools together and collectively providing training and coaching for community reading coaches. Further, the teachers and targetted students from the remote village schools could participate in the Reading and Adventure Camp. The community librarians in two large centres (Belmopan and San Ignacio) were involved in the previous GG and expressed interest in working with the project to increase the integration of school based literacy improvements with community based initiatives that could be coordinated by the local librarians to improve sustainability and expand literacy support to community members. This project aligns directly with the Ministry of Education literacy improvement initiatives under the direction of the Cayo District education office Literacy Director who is a key expert on the steering committee team for this GG project. The District Manager and Literacy Director ensure that all activities in the GG project are aligned with mandates of the national Department of of Education. They also assist in providing support to the VTT teams with arrangements for resources, access to facilities, resources and local businesses who can support the work of the VTT team. Further, discussions have included the national Director of Educational Professional Development who is reviewing strategies to send teacher leader participants to components of the April VTT program to expand the ‘train the trainer’ component of the program. Ongoing conversations with the Ministry, School principals and community Rotarians have continued throughout the past 18 months as plans unfolded in development of this global grant, Describe any training, community outreach, or educational programs, if applicable, and who will conduct them. How will recipients be selected? Ministry of Education offices (district and nationally) will communicate opportunities to educators both in the Cayo district and across Belize. Although the focus and priority is support for teachers in Cayo’s 32 schools, opportunities will be provided to include any/all interested educators to participate in the large group traiining sessions to be held as part of the country Continuous Professional Development program coordinated by the Ministry Dierctor of Professional Learning which involves ALL Belize schools. Training will be done by a specially selected team of Alberta literacy and community development experts — which includes a cohort of educators who have worked on previous Belize global grant literacy projects. Belize teacher participants will be selected through a process developed and coordinated by the Cayo District Ministry of Education office. Student Reading and Adventure Camp participants will be selected by a process led by school principals. Community Reading Coach volunteers will be recruited by the VTT community development experts in collaboration with school principals. A training orientation workshop will provide all VTT members with the values of the program and how essential the values are aligned with the realities of the culture of Belize and the context of education in local regions. This training will take place in two stages — one in Alberta during the preparation phase of the project and the second in Belize, provided by a senior local educational administrator and will target awareness and sensitivety to local realities, challenges and sensitivities. A three day Reading and Aventure Camp will be held during the Belize Easter vacation providing intense reading intervention
Global Grant Record – GG1529320 Grant Title – Literacy Alive III Status – Approved District Number 4250 (Qualified)
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for students identified as AT RISK FOR GRADE LEVEL READING FAILURE. The camp will be organized by Alberta teachers in collaboration with Belize educational leaders. VTT members will coordinate the camp and provide coaching and resources to identified Belize literacy leaders who will share in leading camp activiites. Fun will be integrated into the day with adventure activities led by community developers and other Alberta and Belize volunteers. The intent is to provide a model that could be replicated by Belize educators at other times during the year when school is not is session and students are available to specialized reading support. en regular school is not in session. Belize teachers will serve as protégées in the process and will be mentored and coached by the Alberta VTT members. Belize teachers will recieve professional development credits, through the Minsitry of Education, for volunteering as participants in the program.
Vocational training team Identify the vocational training team(s): No. Team name Type Location of training Departure Return 1 2 SUSTAINABILITY What training needs will the team(s) address and how were these needs identified? Provide any relevant data or survey results? -poorly trained teachers ( government feedback on employees) -poor reading progress by students (national achievemet data) -limited access to quality teaching resources (observation from previous programs) -assistance to school leaders to provide monitoring and support for literacy supported instruction (requests from previous program evaluations) -strategies to differentiate reading instruction to optimize student learning (feedback and observation from previous programs) Detail the specific objectives for the training, including expected positive changes in recipient knowledge, abilities and/or skills. -Objectives include a) increasing the awareness of all components of effective literacy instruction and leadership for literacy in public schools, b) modelling and implementation of strategies to engage community members and local libraries as essential supporters and catalysts for community improvements in literacy, c) providing quality professional development on literacy support strategies, d) providing leadership suppport to identified literacy coach educators who will provide ongoing professional development in their home schools, e) assisting Belizeans in how to use local resources to create quality reading/wirting center learning materials to support instrucitonal techniques provided as part of program training, and, f) model operation of a READING and ADVENTRE camp for students struggling with reading/writing success. Positive changes are inreases in knowledge and skills of teachers, community members and students in the areas of reading/writing literacy. How were members of the local community involved in planning the training? Does the training align with any current or ongoing local initiatives? -Educators and community members provided survey data and contributions through focus groups and interviews during a variety of former educational improvement projects developed in the past five years. (see more detailed descriptions in
Global Grant Record – GG1529320 Grant Title – Literacy Alive III Status – Approved District Number 4250 (Qualified)
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previous boxes of this application) How will you support training recipients so that skills received through training are kept up-to-date? Collaborate with the Ministry of Education and school principals to identify a schedule of review and enhance strategies in future professional learning activiies and as part of the supervision and evaluation of teachers. Expand the present WIKI site which is rich with support resources and serves as a tool for sharing resources and best practices and assists in conversations with a network of literacy educators.
Areas of Focus Basic education and literacy Which goals will your activity support? Involving the community to support programs that strengthen the capacity of communities to provide basic education and literacy to all;Increasing adult literacy in communities;Working to reduce gender disparity in education;Supporting studies for career-minded professionals related to basic education and literacy How will you meet these goals? Quality professional development and engagement of community in the literacy improvement process in primary schools. Also, assistance in the identification and development of school based student and teacher resources. How will you measure your impact? No. Measure Measurement Method Measurement Schedule Target 1 Number of benefiting school-age children Grant records and reports Every six months 1000-2499 2 Number of adults receiving literacy training Surveys/questionnaires Every six months 100-499 3 Other School identify the number of volunteer Reading Coaches that are utilized in their schools following recruitment, training and scheduling of Reading Coaches into the classroom reading support program. Surveys/questionnaires Every six months 20-49 4 Other Number of identfied at risk students attending Easter vacation three day READING AND ADVENTURE CAMP Surveys/questionnaires Every week 100-499 Who will be responsible for collecting information for monitoring and evaluation? Rotarian leads in consultation with Ministry of Education managers.
Participants
Primary Contacts Name Club Role Sponsored by Serving as Lynne Paradis Red Deer (Primary Contact) Club International Sheree Fukai San Ignacio (Primary Contact) Club Host
Global Grant Record – GG1529320 Grant Title – Literacy Alive III Status – Approved District Number 4250 (Qualified)
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Committee Members # Name Club Role 1 Akira Fukai San Ignacio (Secondary Host Contact) 2 Cynthia Reece San Ignacio (Secondary Host Contact) 3 Alfonso Ayala San Ignacio (Secondary Host Contact) # Name Club Role 1 Margaretrose Willms Red Deer (Secondary International Contact) 2 Donna Leontowicz Red Deer (Secondary International Contact) 3 Phil Pattison Red Deer (Secondary International Contact) No Rotarian who has a vested interest in the activity (e.g., an employee or board member of a cooperating organization, owner of a store where project goods will be purchased, trustee of a university that a scholar plans to attend) may serve on the grant committee. If any potential conflict of interest exists, disclose it here.