Math and Literacy Outreach

One of my responsibilities as an Instructional Coach revolves around the area of parent and community outreach. Over the years I've used social media, brochures, and our Title I night to meet this responsibility. 

This year, I added a new outreach opportunity to my building. I received a grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to send home monthly math and literacy bags with every student. Each bag contains a new book, a reading activity, and a math activity that can be completed with a deck of cards. The cards were donated by Prairie Meadows. Students get to keep the resources, which means by May, we will have added six new books to every  student's home library. On top of increasing the at home access to text, we also encourage parent involvement in their child's math and literacy achievement through the activities we send home. There aren't any usage requirements, and students aren't rewarded or penalized if they don't complete an activity, these are simply resources. Overall, students are loving this new outreach initiative, and can be heard exclaiming "I love these bags!" when I drop off the box in the classroom each month. I've had several teachers tell me their students love taking the bags home, and have even had a parent contact me to say thank you for building up their home library.

I plan on continuing the math and literacy take home bags, and will be applying for the grant again next year. I also want to continue to expand the level and type of parent and community outreach I provide.