Project Overview 

The everyday practices of traditional education have drastically changed over the last fourteen months. What teachers and administrators across the country have learned and experienced, in trying to create and sustain quality teaching and learning in the midst of a pandemic, will permanently impact the return of in-person instruction. Despite the many challenges that were faced by teachers, students and families, particularly in underserved communities, there were several accomplishments derived from the remote learning environment. The use of an online learning platform combined with technologies that served a variety of modalities, gave all students opportunities for learning by discovery and provided a continued drive for engagement. One of the most significant drawbacks of virtual learning were choices and/or technology obstacles that restricted students from sharing their camera and voice during synchronous learning sessions making it virtually impossible for teachers to assess the learning and for students to have any meaningful interactions with their peers. “Where Do We Go From Here?” honors lessons learned and attempts to reconcile the challenges faced by creating a blended learning approach focused on the integration of the arts and literacy across core subject learning to support culturally linguistic relevance in a project-based learning environment. The project will be conducted in three Amityville Union Free School District (AUFSD) schools: Northwest Elementary School, designated by NYS for Targeted School Improvement (TSI), Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School  and Edmund W. Miles Middle School, a NYS designated Comprehensive Support and Improvement School (CSI). Four nonpublic schools have also agreed to participate. The AUFSD serves a community of 73.2% economically disadvantaged students. “Where Do We Go From Here?” will impact 95 classroom teachers, 3 library media specialists and at least 2400 students, grades 2 through 8, over a 3-year period. 

Digital Age Learning (DAL), a NYS M/WBE provider, will work collaboratively with all participating teachers to develop a team-building approach for instruction where students participate as designers, documenters, and strategists creating multimedia projects that integrate creative arts and literacy aligned with core curriculum standards. The project will focus on three phases of planning, implementation and dissemination leading to the building, curating and publicizing of materials and artifacts including teacher and student digital portfolios featured on a district website, monthly school-based news casts highlighting current events and made public on a YouTube channel, and the creation of digital media projects aligned with core curriculum. DAL will work to develop a cadre of expert teachers to build capacity for turn-key training and bring the project to scale for implementation throughout the district, beyond the grant period. “Where Do We Go From Here?” will develop a scaffolded approach to  project-based literacy and arts integration fostering the 4C’s of 21st Century Learning: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication as a pathway to college and career readiness . 

Project goals are:

• To provide ongoing, sustained professional learning opportunities to targeted administrators, teachers, and specialists that build capacity to offer a standards-based blended learning approach that integrates arts and literacy with the core curriculum

• To build student voice and  21st century learning skills using digital media to address students’ academic needs and develop evidence- based projects that integrate arts and literacy learning in science, social studies and mathematics.

• To develop and disseminate instructional materials as regional and state-wide public resources supporting the expansion of a blended learning model that integrates literacy and arts-based learning throughout the core curriculum.