Plan+Description

= **The Shiloh After-School Homework Club** = = **Goals and Objectives﻿** =

Shiloh middle school's SIP identifies the presence of students who perfom below expected levels on the English Language Arts section of the Maryland State Assessment tests given every year in the 3rd through 8th grades. The MSA specifies three levels of achievement called performance level descriptors which outline the capabilities of a student performing at each level. The three levels are as follows: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. The ASHC, or after-school homework club plan specifically focuses on students in the 6th grade who have not met the level of proficiency on the MSA's reading section for at least one year. Because they have not met proficiency they have been identified for intervention and referred to an after-school homework club. The purpose of the after-school homework club is to assist students in completing homework assigned during the schoolday, and to work further on vocabulary and reading comprehension skills through completion of group work including vocabulary worksheets, a group digital story project, and assessments. The ASHC will be linked with another after-school homework club in a neighboring school with similar goals of improving MSA scores in the area of English Language Arts. For the sake of this assignment I will refer to the club at Shiloh as the Shiloh club and the other homework club as club B.

Prior to the start of the club, the teachers from each of the two schools would collaborate on the creation of a shared edublog which would be maintained and updated weekly by each club. The edublog would house posts done by students from each club as time allows about various topics related to reading comprehension and would provide a place for teachers to post links to websites or other online tools that students could use to help them as they work to improve their reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. Vocabulary worksheets would also be posted to the blog as well as group responses to the worksheets. Near the end of the ASHC, groups would post their completed group project to the edublog for review and comment by the other groups and club. A final assessment/google form involving demonstration of vocabulary use in created sentences and would also be posted to the blog and votes cast by club members to decide winning sentences.

Below is brief description of edublogs as well as some reasons why they are a perfect digital tool for collaboration in schools. (Text taken from the edublog website)

= Why blog in schools? =
 * "Blogs strike the perfect balance of providing information anytime and anywhere, social networking and interaction, and the ability to openly share thoughts and achievements.

One popular way to use an Edublog is to make regular updates about assignments, events, and anything going on in class. Blogs like these keep students and parents informed and extend the classroom to any place with access to the web. Students love to blog too, and doing so can engage students in their learning and extend collaboration with classmates and even people all over the world! Edublogs are great for group projects, ePortfolios, school newspapers, reflection journals, class websites, and much more!" ||

The homework club would meet 2 times a week for 50 minutes after school. The first 20-30 minutes would be dedicated to completing ELA homework, the rest of the time would be spent working on vocabulary worksheets, additonal activities, posting to the collaborative blog, and working on the group project. Club will be organized into groups of 3 to 4 students who will work together on a project designed to incorporate vocabulary and comprehension skills. The completed project will be uploaded and posted to the blog for both clubs to view. Groups will also work together completing vocabulary worksheets and posting results to blog. Groups will explore websites together and post findings to blog as time allows.
 * Specifics**

Students will explore websites to support their continued learning in the English Language Arts. Recommended websites include the following:
 * Additional Content Support Sites**

Study Island: State-specific curriculum guided activities make learning fun for students English Grammar 101: choose from a variety of mini-lessons to strengthen or learn new grammar skills

Vocabtest.com: Create your own quizzes on grade-level vocabulary words