Access

Introduction

I believe that it is my role as an educator to expose students to viewpoints, experiences, and texts that they may have not previously seen in their academic careers. This belief provided the backbone of research for creating impactful classroom experiences that widened my students' access. This section of my Capstone discusses the access-related opportunities I researched and executed for my students as well as my long-term family engagement plan and evidence of consistent communication with families. The Access opportunities included below are a virtual field trip to South Africa and a project that connects reading in the classroom to reading at home for students and families through a virtual library app called SORA. The following sections will be organized according to the table of contents seen above.

Virtual Field Trip to South Africa

Virtual Field Trip to South Africa: Introduction

The virtual field trip to South Africa worked as the culmination of our unit on Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. This field trip fits into our unit by providing students with an opportunity to extend what they have learned from Noah's personal experience and connect it to history and primary sources that they will view in the museum exhibitions. Students had previously read a great deal about Noah's description of South Africa and the neighborhoods and homes he grew up in, but had not been able to have visual scaffolds readily available through virtual exhibitions or access Google Earth. This connected students with visual aids to understand the settings and characters discussed in the text as well as the larger geographic area at play. Students had not previously been exposed to the concept of apartheid nor the cultural groups involved, so the unit involved a lot of visual scaffolding that remained visible in my classroom throughout the unit, as is shown on the left. This section will include my research and execution of this field trip, ranging from the stages of creating the field trip and reflection questions to students participating in and completing the activity.

Research Process: Virtual Field Trip to South Africa

When creating the components of this virtual field trip, I used the following framework to guide my research of opportunities. I wanted my students to walk away with a deepened understanding of the following components of our unit and South Africa:

Trevor Noah's personal experience
The geographic locations that are relevant to the text
The history of apartheid through primary sources

From here, I directed my research toward finding the following opportunities for my students: a visual aid of Trevor Noah discussing the book or his childhood, a way for my students to explore neighborhoods in South Africa, and a virtual connection to historical documents detailing apartheid. I first looked to the resources from The Daily Show and opted to include a segment where Noah interviews his maternal grandmother in her Soweto home about her first-hand account of living through apartheid, which is linked below. This video will help students both understand the impact of apartheid through a primary source as well as provide a visual aid for the setting discussed in Born a Crime and the geographic area of South Africa that is relevant to Noah's childhood, Soweto.

Clip created by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and was shown in class as an introduction to the field trip.

In order to provide my students with a visual and interactive way to explore the neighborhoods and larger geographic areas discussed in Born a Crime, I first thought of the Street View feature on Google Maps, but also wanted to ensure that I was not overlooking a useful alternative. I contacted one of my colleagues, Sam, who had mentioned that he created a virtual field trip for his students last year as a means of researching the most effective instructional aids, to which he confirmed that he found Street View to be an effective means of exploring a neighborhood virtually. Sam also suggested the game GeoGuessr to allow students to explore Johannesburg, which I added to my field trip. This demonstrates collaboration and research beyond what I had initially knew or expected to be valuable instructional tools, and will also hopefully increase student engagement. Evidence of that email exchange is included below.

From there, I created a way for students to explore both Soweto, where Trevor and his Black family members lived, and Cape Town, where Trevor's white father lived. Students were then asked to reflect on the physical differences they observed from interacting with the residential neighborhoods I pinned on Google Maps. Screenshots of the Street View of the Meadowlands neighborhood in Soweto where Trevor's maternal side of the family lived and the neighborhood in Cape Town that Trevor's father lived in are included below. Students had the ability to interact with these locations on Google Maps and navigate the areas. Students also played the Johannesburg GeoGuessr game, which has been linked below as well. These components allowed students to deepen their understanding of the geographic areas relevant to the text, the history of South Africa, and what they would see later on the field trip, which is aligned to the second goal I created for this experience.

Meadowlands, Soweto Kirstenhof, Cape Town

Johannesburg - Map - GeoGuessrA map of the greater Johannesburg area - GeoGuessr is a geography game which takes you on a journey around the world and challenges your ability to recognize your surroundings.

Finally, I researched opportunities to connect my students with museums or other ways of connecting with primary sources. I first explored the options located in South Africa through Discovery Education and PBS, but found that these field trips were more aimed at wildlife than history. I then found a suggestion from We Are Teachers to visit museums virtually using resources provided by Google Arts and Culture.

From here, I found two impactful and interactive experiences to provide for my students through Google Arts and Culture. The first is through the Nelson Mandela Museum and is a virtual exhibition on the history of Mandela's life. The second virtual exhibition I included was provided by the Robben Island Prison Museum where many political prisoners, including Mandela, were unjustly incarcerated during the apartheid years. These exhibitions provide students with a number of primary sources and first-hand accounts curated by each museum on the impact of apartheid for Black South Africans, which is aligned to my third goal for this field trip.

Snapshot of an interactive slide of the Mandela Museum virtual exhibition, included on the left.

The Robben Island Prison Museum virtual exhibition takes visitors through the physical tour as though they were visiting the museum in person. Included to the right is a snapshot of what visitors would see as they disembark from the ferry and arrive at the prison.

The last virtual exhibition I provided for my students was through the Apartheid Museum's information on its permanent exhibitions. While this site is less interactive and does not provide the same "tour" experience, I wanted students to have an element of choice in their exploration to learn more about specific aspects of apartheid that are interesting to them as individuals. This provided a self-directed component of the field trip where students were asked to make a choice about their learning and then reflect on what they learned about a specific aspect of the history of apartheid. This page is included below. Finally, I also included students with Google Maps pages to explore the outside of the Nelson Mandela Museum and the Apartheid Museum to provide a visual aid for what physically visiting the museum would look like.

Evidence of Learning: Field Trip Pre-Work

Evidence of learning prior to the virtual field trip was aligned to our unit on Born a Crime and understanding the meaning and impact of segregation and the systems of racial subordination in place during apartheid in South Africa. There were a number of visual aids in the classroom throughout the duration of the unit to help students understand the meaning of apartheid and what it looked like, as are included in the photos below.

Additionally, vocabulary acquisition was aligned to Born a Crime and I used excerpts from the text to scaffold vocabulary words, such as the metaphor Noah wrote to explain what it felt like to meet other biracial South Africans who had fled the country during apartheid, which felt like a relatively painless option that Noah was unaware was a possibility.

Students also submitted a great deal of pre-work as they read the text and reflected on the themes of Noah's experience growing up as a biracial child during apartheid. Examples of student work and students interacting with the text via Google Classroom that demonstrate mastery of relevant vocabulary and historical topics are included below. Student names have been obscured to protect student privacy.

Implementation: Virtual Field Trip to South Africa

My students completed the virtual field trip in class time on September 29th and 30th. The physical layout of the classroom was divided into four stations that allowed students to complete each part of the field trip in small groups. As students entered the classroom, they were clearly aware that the physical layout of the classroom was different than the norm and that we would be doing something new during class. This created a level of excitement and engagement in what was to come. As I introduced the virtual field trip, students were particularly enthralled by Trevor Noah interviewing his grandmother and many students asked to watch more videos of Noah's work. Students were engaged with the video and reacted appropriately, both as Noah made jokes and his grandmother discussed the traumatic details of what living through apartheid was like. Students also particularly enjoyed the ability to use Google Earth and GeoGuessr to explore the neighborhoods discussed in the text, and every period was able to correctly recall that Noah had grown up in the Soweto neighborhood of Johannesburg.

The order of the stations rotated for each student, and the components of the virtual field trip are such that any order the students completed the stations in resulted in the same degree of knowledge acquisition. The stations were color and number coordinated, so Station #1 was green and started with part 1 of the field trip assignment, which was also green, and so on for all four stations. There were also five final reflection questions that students completed after they had finished all four stations.

Photos of the layout of the classroom and students working in stations are included below.

Pictured Below:

Students working in a small group on the Nelson Mandela Museum exhibit at Station #2. Faces have been obscured to protect student privacy.

Student viewing the permanent exhibition on "The Rise of Black Consciousness" in South Africa, via the Apartheid Museum's virtual exhibitions. Students were free to choose which exhibitions to view and write about.

Student interacting with the geographic landscape of Johannesburg at Station #1 via GeoGuessr game.

Students working in stations as the University of Pretoria's Youth Choir's performance of traditional South African music and music by contemporary South African artists plays in the background. Both pictured below. Faces have been obscured to protect student privacy.

Students interacting with the graphic animation of Nelson Mandela's life, provided by the Nelson Mandela's virtual exhibit on "Madiba's Legacy," both pictured below.

As students worked in groups, I played a variety of South African music in the classroom, some of which can be seen on the board in the photos included. I showed students a video of the University of Pretoria Youth Choir singing a traditional South African song named Ingoma, which translates from the Zulu and Xhosa languages to mean "song." After this, I also exposed students to contemporary South African music and showed them how to access the "Made in South Africa" playlist on Spotify. Both of those sources have been included below.

The worksheet provided for students to navigate the links associated with each field trip station and to complete the reflection questions is included below (click on the pop up window to see both pages and the final reflection questions). The questions in each of these exhibit sections aim to expose students to new content based on what they can find in the opportunity. This asks students to familiarize themselves with the opportunity and new knowledge before asking students to describe the value of the access opportunity in the final reflection section. The final reflection section asks students to tie the new content into what they have already learned from Born a Crime and extrapolate the value of being able to see exhibits based in South Africa. Student work samples of the reflection questions are also included below.

Greenberg Capstone Evidence: Virtual Field Trip to South Africa

Student Responses: South Africa Virtual Field Trip

Group 1: Reflections on Injustice and Violence

Group 2: Reflections on Nelson Mandela's Legacy

Patterns In Student Responses:

I have grouped the above student responses into two categories: responses that demonstrate reflections on injustice and violence and responses that demonstrate understanding of Nelson Mandela's legacy. This was the first time we dove into the historical aspect of apartheid and the importance of Nelson Mandela as its own lesson as opposed to using the two as a scaffolding tool to understand something mentioned in Born a Crime. For the most part, students had not worked through the history of apartheid nor the importance of Nelson Mandela in class, and certainly had not done so in depth. As is demonstrated above, students wrote insightful reflections on the injustices of apartheid and were able to make explicit connections between the systems of oppression used during apartheid, racism, and the history of the United States. Beyond this, students were also able to connect the things they had learned about apartheid to the ways that the virtual field trip helped them understand the setting and historical importance of Born a Crime.

Next, students also demonstrated the ability to work in small groups in a self-directed manner and learn about Nelson Mandela and his legacy through the Mandela Museum exhibition. Nelson Mandela had not been a central figure of our discussions previously, as we used Born a Crime to discuss storytelling and personal narrative approaches, as opposed to the history of apartheid. Students were able to extrapolate details about Mandela, his life, and his massive importance for South Africans and the fight against apartheid. This represents the way in which this opportunity exposed students to outside opportunities and also gave students the space to describe the value of an opportunity of this nature. Students were able to reflect on the function and importance of the individual exhibitions as well as the entire field trip as an activity. The questions asked students to look into the content provided by each exhibition, such as Mandela's legacy, the institution of apartheid, political imprisonment, and the geographic layouts of Soweto and Cape Town. These questions asked students to directly reflect on the outside nature of each exhibition and the ways in which the virtual format of the museums allowed students to interact with content and artifacts that would not be feasible as a physical field trip.

The student responses included above are aligned to the Access portion of this portfolio by displaying the ways in which students were exposed to experiences, stories, and history that is not already included in their curriculum. Students were able to interact with museums and geographic locations through the use of virtual instructional tools that they would never have been able to physically visit. It is clear that these opportunities created invaluable avenues for students to extend their learning, both related to Born a Crime and personal narratives and to the historical importance of apartheid and racial injustice across the globe. The nature of each of these opportunities also demonstrates my own outside research completed in order to provide students with outside opportunities that they would not typically have access to,

Sora Informational Sessions and Reading Project for Students and Families

Sora Sessions and Project Introduction

The second access opportunity included in my portfolio is a project that connected both students and families with the Sora App, which is an online library provided through the Hawai'i Department of Education. The mission of this project was to connect students and families with reading opportunities and outlets (such as public libraries) outside of the classroom and spark enjoyment in reading based on personal interests. Students explored Sora and learned how to access it in class time, and then signed up for the Quarter 2 #808Reads Challenge through the Beanstack app. I then conducted an information session for families and asked for family reflection and collaboration throughout the project. This portion of the project will provide the family engagement aspect. Finally, students made posters for the local library to advertise Sora and their reading to students at other schools.

Sora Project and 808Reads Challenge: Research

The research element of this opportunity included ensuring that both my students and I had access to Sora through our HIDOE accounts. In order to do so, I logged in successfully to the teacher version of the app and was able to access my rosters, which has been omitted as evidence included below in order to not show student names.

From here, I contacted the school librarian, Caroline, to ask if she was aware of previous successful techniques teachers or students have used to connect classrooms and families to reading at home. Evidence of that correspondence is included below. Caroline then suggested having students participate in the 808Reads Challenge through Beanstack and provided a guide for me to send home with students to show their parents and access Beanstack in case they forgot how to log in.

Evidence of correspondence with school librarian that connected me with the 808Reads Challenge and student access to Beanstack.

#808READS_STUDENT_QUICK_START_GUIDE_v1.pdf

The document provided by the librarian to give to students to have a visual guide for accessing Beanstack and a physical tool to take home and show families.

Additionally, I conducted research on techniques to include families in student reading. I found a program of guidelines, The Learning Coalition, provided by University of Hawai'i Manoa's College of Education. Though this page gives suggestions for increasing family engagement in homework assignments, and this project would not be assigned as homework, I still found the suggestions to help establish a learning environment at home and set goals with families as helpful guides for my information sessions with families. I will include these suggestions as key talking points in my first informational session with families. The Learning Coalition's site has been included below as a resource for my portfolio.

Sora and 808Reads: Implementation

Accessing Sora, Beanstack, and 808Reads Challenge
Choosing a Text
Family Information Session
The Reading Process
Family Reflections
Library Connections

Accessing Sora and the 808Reads Challenge

I first introduced students to Sora and Beanstack (where the 808Reads Challenge is located) during class time. I went through the following slides with students and also posted them in Google Classroom in case they forgot how to access either app and needed guidance at home. I also printed the handout provided by the librarian and sent each student home with a copy. We also discussed as a class that this reading is for personal enjoyment but also part of the 808Reads Challenge where students could earn badges and recognition as part of a statewide competition for reading. The target for this project was for students to read at least 10 minutes a day or a total of one hour a week in a book of their choosing at home. This is an outside opportunity because students do not participate in this challenge as a school-wide initiative and also gained access to the challenge and to a large range of texts through non-traditional instructional tools such as Sora and Beanstack.

Familiarizing students with a new platform always takes a significant amount of class time and patience. I ensured that each student was able to navigate Sora, Beanstack and Clever by circling the room and checking in on each student's progress. I helped students navigate the login websites and provided students with their login information if they forgot their student IDs or any other piece of information. I also projected my own Beanstack account on the board and provided a visual of setting a timer and logging reading as I walked students through this step.

Visuals provided for students that show my own Beanstack account that was projected as I walked students through how to log their own reading. I typed in my own reading time for the book I am reading and showed students how to access the area of their Beanstack where they can log their own reading. As students log their reading it automatically logs their minutes as counting toward their Quarter 2 goals and time in the 808Reads Challenge.

Choosing a Text

Next, we discussed as a class strategies that students can use to identify a text that would interest them. I gave students thought starters by having them reflect on stories that had interested them in the past and looked back on exercises where students examined books they had read outside of class and identified the elements of the story that intrigued them. I also circled the room in this time and helped students individually if they were unsure where to start. I first helped students select a genre that they were interested in by asking questions such as "Do you like to read scary books?" or "What is the most recent book you've enjoyed?" This helped students refine what genre they wanted to read and gave them a much more narrow starting point to begin their search.

Slide that was discussed during class time and displayed on the board as students browsed Sora. This opened a whole class discussion of what elements can make texts interesting to individual readers and how to figure out what your reading interests are. I also helped students individually as some were overwhelmed by all of the options and unsure where to start their search.

A student browses book options organized by genre on her Chromebook.

A student samples a book on Sora about discoveries made by women.

Exit ticket instructions displayed on the board as students began reading their books in the first lesson.

Student exit tickets that report what texts students selected to read. These exit tickets demonstrate students' ability to select and engage with texts that were not available to them in the classroom or through the school library that also catered to their interests. Students were able to extend reading in series they had already been interested in (such as Judy Moody and Percy Jackson) and extend their personal interests in manga to texts they had not yet read before, such as Dragon Ball Z.

Students were instructed to take 5-10 minutes to browsing Sora to select a text. This gave me ample time to circle the room and help any students who seemed to be unsure where to begin. After the 10 minutes was over, students were instructed to have a book selected and to spend the rest of class reading the book and familiarizing themselves with it. I also made clear to students that they were not locked into their selection and could choose a different book if they found their first choice to be uninteresting. Students completed an exit ticket that asked them to write their name, the title of the book they chose, and the number of minutes they logged in Beanstack for their reading during class. This counted as students' first homework assignment of logging 10 minutes each night.

Family Information Session and Newsletter

Newsletter sent home to families informing them of the expectations and goals of the 808Reads Challenge taking place in class and at home. This aimed to increase family engagement and also inform parents of at home expectations for student reading.

808Reads Info Session part 1

808Reads Challenge Info Session part 2

Recordings of the information session conducted to engage families in the learning process and explain the goals and expectations of the 808Reads Challenge. This session was attended in real time by ten families and also posted in Google Classroom for all students and guardians to view, as is shown below. This allowed me to connect with families and also explicitly align content and discussions to involving families in student learning and the learning environment of the challenge. This session was successful and also allowed families to have spaces to read together and discuss the texts students have been reading. Additionally, this session was recorded and posted on Google Classroom for families to access through the guardian viewing option if they wanted to review the information or were unable to attend the session.

This session was attended by 10 families, as is shown in this meeting report generated by Google Meets. I also posted the recording of the session to Google Classroom so that families who missed the session were able to view the information.

The initial email and reminder was sent to all families informing them of the information session and how they could view the recording if they were unable to attend.

The Google Classroom topic for the Reading at Home Project, where students and families can view the recording of the information session and any worksheets or assignments related to project.

Information sessions posted as material in Google Classroom for all students and their families to view asynchronously.

The Reading Process

Students were instructed to read at least 10 minutes a day at home each weeknight and collectively over the weekend, adding up to at least one full hour of reading each week. This was reading specifically of a text chosen by students and any text-specific readings assigned as ELA are not part of these ten minute nightly reading goals. Students were given class time to read their books and reflect on their reading as well in addition to the nightly reading targets. This gave me time to check in individually with students about how they felt about their books and the reading process. Multiple students finished more than one book!

Students reading during class time. Pictured above is a student reading a Manga text and a student reading a chapter book of a series she had started at home. This is evidence that this challenge and Sora granted students access to texts that were not previously readily available to them and worked to enhance their learning and enjoyment of reading.

A student's individual reading log that shows the titles and minutes they logged on each day. This allows both me and the student to see an in-depth look at their reading history. This student read for approximately three and a half hours at home over the span of two weeks and completed three different books. This demonstrates that this student had the capability to take advantage of the opportunity given to them and read multiple books that were not accessible through our school library.

Students and teachers can also see an overview of each student's reading log and progress with the 808Reads Challenge. This student has completed 444 reading minutes in the Quarter 2 reading challenge, demonstrating that they are taking advantage of the texts and challenge opportunities provided through the 808Reads Challenge and Sora.

Students also receive logging and challenge badges for their reading accomplishments during the challenge. This helps incentivize reading and also provides students with a positive motivator to take advantage of the opportunity provided to them. Pictured above are two students' badges, both earned for enrolling in the Q1 and Q2 statewide reading challenges and for completing 60, 120, 180, and 240 minutes of reading. The badges are also aligned to the statewide and Hawai'i specific reading challenge and are all named after Hawaiian plants, people, concepts, and animals.

Reading at Home Reflection 1

About midway into the project, students had additional time and space during class to reflect on their texts and continue reading. This was completed using the worksheet assignment attached. Students completed this worksheet during class and it provided the ability for students to take advantage of the access opportunity and describe it in their own words. The questions are also aligned to ELA content such as story elements that hook a reader and if the author of their book had been successful in doing so. Additionally, this worksheet provided students and myself with the opportunity to check in individually and address any misunderstandings or needs for RTI related to reading at home or incomplete reading activities. I used this worksheet to have individual conferences with students in class about how they liked their book, if they wanted to switch books, how many books they had read, and how I could best work with the student and their family to help them read at home.

Note: the first question was explained to students as minutes in the current week they had logged, not total minutes.

A student reflection detailing their reading of Captain Underpants and reporting some issues with accessing Beanstack and logging their reading. This response helped me redirect the student and solve the technology barrier so that the student sill had access to the opportunity and could take full advantage of their access to the book and challenge.

A student reflection on their reading of a book about the mystery and history of the Bermuda Triangle. This student was able to identify the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle and the way the book details its history as an "intriguing" detail, demonstrating student ability to describe the value of the opportunity and use ELA content to identify beneficial aspects of the assignment.

A student response detailing their reading 60 pages of Big Nate Makes a Splash. This student was on target for the reading minutes and was able to identify the book's humor as part of what made it interesting and engaging.

This student chose to read a book on Ancient Greece. This was a particularly important demonstration of expanding students' access to learning and enrichment opportunities because this book was chosen by the student prior to her Social Studies class studying Ancient Greece, meaning that this project allowed her to connect with content and vocabulary before it was ever incorporated into curriculum she received.

This student reported that they have maintained a regular reading schedule and have made progress in Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo. This student noted that they often have time to read during their Advisory period and that they are enjoying the book because they were already interested in the Percy Jackson series.

This student reported that they forgot to log their reading but have been reading a Minecraft book at home. This student was also able to describe the value of the opportunity by remarking on the way their chosen text "has balanced amounts of talking and action."

This student chose to read Judy Moody: The Doctor Is In and reported that they were already close to finishing this text. This student noted a specific part of the text that was interesting to them. I was able to connect with this student about their book and hear more in depth about how much they were enjoying it. This student stuck with this book, finished it, and then completed their poster for the library to advertise this book.

This student reported and reflected on their reading of The Ickabog by JK Rowling. This student was enjoying the dark and suspenseful aspects of this book and reported that she typically reads at home and alone. This student came into the classroom with an already established routine for reading for her enjoyment. The goal of this project for students who fit this reading routine was to encourage reflection on their reading processes and further involve their families in conversations about their reading, since these students are likely to be confident and independent readers.

Family Reflections

A key part of this project was the ongoing family involvement. As one of the final homework pieces of this project, students and families collaborated on a brief worksheet and discussion assignment.

[Template] Reading at Home Worksheet Assignment

This worksheet asked students and families to first take a Google Survey together reflecting on the project. This survey gave both students and family members individual and collaborative spaces to respond to prompts about student reading. After this, students and families were instructed to read together for ten to twenty minutes and then have a discussion using the question starters provided. Finally, students and families were told to collaborate and write a one paragraph summary of their discussion and reading time.

Parent and student responses to the reading discussion completed by a general education student who lives with his mother and completed the assignment with her. This student was able to connect the way that the book introduced him to new vocabulary which demonstrates the ability for students to describe the importance and value of the access opportunity in their own words.

Reflection summary completed by a student who lives with her grandparents. This student's interest in Roald Dahl books was sparked through the 808Reads Challenge, and her family later told me that afterward they surprised the student with a Roald Dahl collection they got at Costco. This demonstrates the way that this opportunity connected students with interests and access to texts that they had not previously encountered and also allowed them to build on these interests to understand their own reading styles.

This reflection was completed by a student with an IEP and his mother. It is clear that his mother provided assistance with his writing and there was collaboration on this part of the assignment. This is a positive aspect of this work and demonstrates clear family involvement in student learning and growth at home.

This reflection was completed by an ELL student and his father. This reflection is particularly pertinent to this section because it demonstrates the way that intentional family engagement can uncover points of growth and collaboration for students and families. For instance, this student's parents may have not set a new reading target of a more difficult text had this assignment not asked students to share the book and have a discussion with families.

Student and family responses to the Google Survey linked in the assignment. This student and parent both commented on the way that it would be helpful for the adult to work through sounding things out with the student when they struggle. This is an important connection for students and parents to make and work as a unit to enhance student learning.

A student and parent response submitted by a student who is reading above grade level and her mother. This pair commented that the best way to aid this student's continual growth is to help her expand her knowledge of genres and range of books that she reads.

This response was completed by a student and her mother. This student's mother noted that her involvement in her student's reading was minimal. This is important information to gain because not only does it provide students and families with a reflection space, but also allows me to monitor the need for RTI for specific students. It is also particularly salient that this student's mother noted that her next steps for her student's reading are to access the reading materials and online library. This demonstrates the value in this opportunity because student access to Sora, Beanstack, and the local library specifically addresses this need and will allow this student to take advantage of access to new texts.

Response filled out by a student with an IEP and her mother. This student is reading slightly below grade level and is being raised by a single mother, so the mother's limited ability to read with the student makes sense. This is also the type of insight into students' personal and home lives that can be gained through consistent family communication and engagement, which also helps me plan instructional and ensure that I support this student's ability to read new texts and take advantage of the access opportunity in class.

Library Connection

I also wanted to provide avenues to connect students with their local libraries as well. This was an important piece of continuing to connect students with reading opportunities outside of school and the academic resources I connect them with. My initial goal was to connect students with a friendly face at the Ewa Beach library, so I reached out via phone to the Youth Services Coordinator and asked about his availability to make a quick video to do so. We then switched our correspondence to email and continued to discuss ways we could achieve this goal. Evidence of this correspondence is included below.

The initial email I sent to Mitchell, the Youth Services Librarian at the Ewa Beach Public Library.

Unfortunately, Mitchell was tasked with many projects at the time and felt unable to complete the video in the timeline needed for the Quarter 2 808Reads Challenge. We instead landed on creating an infographic for students to take home to their families to sign up for a library card and students creating posters advertising their reading and Sora for the youth bulletin area at the library.

This infographic was created in collaboration with the Ewa Beach local library and my classroom for students to have a step by step guide to show adults at home to sign up for a library card. This infographic was printed and sent home with each student and posted in Google Classroom for guardians to view. This represents an outside access opportunity that builds upon the work we had already completed with the 808Reads Challenge. This also works to continually connect students with reading opportunities and access to texts outside of academic spaces. We also worked to make this infographic as digestible as possible with minimal text and explanations of acceptable forms of ID and proof of address. This was important because some of my students' families do not speak English at home and I wanted this to help all students connect with library opportunities.

I also had my students make posters for the local library to celebrate and advertise their reading and the 808Reads Challenge. The lesson slides projected as students began this project are included below.

On the first day of the lesson cycle, I explained the goals of the project while showing this slide to students. I instructed students to create a design or graphic that represents what they read, whether it is specific to their book or an advertisement for Sora. I then told students that they should add a few words or sentences explaining why a different middle school student should read the book or use Sora as a reading tool. I told students that our end goal was to hang these posters at the library and get other students at other schools involved in reading in the same way that we are.

On the second day of the lesson cycle, I gave students additional time to work on their posters and refined the instructions to ensure students included design elements such as color and outlines and had a strong statement that would convince another student to read their book or use Sora. This was the condensed slide that was projected as students continued working on their posters.

A student works on tracing the cover of a Naruto book for his poster during class time. The poster project allowed this student to have an opportunity to describe the value of his access to Sora and interesting texts by advertising his ability to read Manga to other students.

A student working on her poster during my after school tutoring program. This student is performing above grade level and enjoys school and asked me if she could continue to work on the poster during the after school program. This not only demonstrates this student's ability to describe the value of her access to Sora and a wide range of texts, but also her desire to do so and to expand this access opportunity to students at other schools as well.

I also communicated with the school and local libraries to coordinate hanging student posters in visible locations to advertise reading and Sora to other students. Included above and below are my emails to the school librarian. I later dropped the posters off in her mailbox and she hung them up in the library and on student bulletins.

Examples of completed student posters that were posted on the student bulletin at Ewa Makai. I worked with the school librarian to hang student posters in and around the school, as is shown in the above emails. These students advertised both their books and Sora as a reading tool. These posters also demonstrate the variety of texts that students have access to and chose to read for the 808Reads Challenge. These posters are also clear evidence of students demonstrating the ability to take advantage of the opportunity provided and describe its value by crafting convincing visual and written arguments for other students to read books for their enjoyment and use Sora as a reading tool.

Students' posters are also on display at the Ewa Beach Library as one enters. I coordinated this effort by visiting the library and speaking to both Mitchell (the Youth Services Coordinator), and the Library Manager, Shari-Lynn, about the best area to hang the posters and the timeline of displaying them (so that students can keep their work and take it home eventually). Shari-Lynn said that she wanted the posters highly visible for members of the community to see and that she would like to keep them until at least the end of winter break so that students have ample time to visit the library and see their work on display. Photos above provide a lens into what the posters look like as one enters the library and a close up of some of the posters.

Included here is a follow up email I sent to Shari-Lynn after putting the posters on display to thank her and maintain consistent and professional communication.

Finally, I also made students aware of their posters being on display at the library during class. Included here is the announcement I put in the daily slides making students aware of the poster display and encouraging them to visit the library and view their posters. This acts as an additional incentive and means to connect students with the library, which is an outside access opportunity that exists beyond my curriculum and classroom.

Long-Term Family Engagement

Long-TermFamilyEngagementPlan_GreenbergCat.docx

The document included on the left details my plan for family engagement throughout the semester, beginning in September and culminating in December. This plan aligns elements of my second access opportunity with communication efforts with families. Evidence of family contact, including newsletters and a parent communication log, is included below.

Included below is an example of my parent communication log, where I include all parent communication that I initiate or communication initiated by parents that required action-items (such as devising an RTI plan with families). Student names have been changed to initials of pseudonyms in order to protect student privacy.

Additionally, part of my long term family engagement plan is to ensure that I am adequately creating and participating in an response to intervention (RTI) process for all of my students. I collaborate in team efforts to create a successful RTI plan for students on my team with the other core and elective teachers on my team to discuss student progress and any concerns we may have, and then all interactions and concerns are logged in our RTI tracker. The tracker is divided into behavioral, academic, and benchmark concerns, as well as screening reports, which can be seen as links in the screenshot included below.

Finally, I also conduct student and parent surveys throughout the semester as a way to engage families in student learning. I believe it is important to allow students space to complete surveys with families as well as space to complete surveys on their own. This gives students the chance to bring up any concerns about their home lives that they are not comfortable sharing on a family survey. Evidence included below is for the beginning of year surveys sent to students and families. I will also include evidence of the end of Quarter 1 survey responses that will be sent out during the week of October 4.

Student survey responses from the beginning of year "Get to Know You" survey are included below.

Examples of information gained from family surveys that were sent home throughout the year is included below. These responses helped inform my teaching approach for these students and helped me develop modifications (such as preferential seating and quiet work environments). Student names have been obscured to protect student privacy.

Access Section Conclusion & Reflection

In sum, my vision of access for my classroom is informed by my belief that it is the teacher's role to expose students to a diverse range of ideas and experiences, especially those that they may not have previously been exposed to. In many ways, the innovation in classrooms built from the constraints of COVID-19 were a gift (though of course, also an obstacle at times). The restrictions in place allowed space for me to create virtual opportunities that never would have had an analogous physical experience, such as showing my students neighborhoods in South Africa and exhibits from three museums also located in South Africa. I am grateful for the wide range of virtual experiences in geographic locations thousands away from the walls of school, as they have provided effective and impactful instructional tools for student learning. That said, I also wish there was more opportunity for me to conduct home visits and in person meetings with families. While I attempted to bridge this gap in my family engagement component of the 808Reads Challenge, participation and connection via Zoom is always markedly different from that of in person contact. Both of these opportunities worked to expand my students' access to outside opportunities and learning environments. Students were able to interact with content and goals that were not ordinarily available to them and required my own outside research. Students were clearly able to describe the opportunities through the reflection prompts in both opportunities and were able to take advantage of individualized content empowered through student choice in each opportunity.

The virtual field trip to South Africa was largely successful and students demonstrated new information and knowledge acquisition, as well as the ability to make text-to-text and text-to-world connections based on Born a Crime, the information presented in the field trip, and their understandings of their own worlds. In terms of improvements, many students misunderstood the question asked and reported that it would have been more engaging had we been able to visit the museums in person. While I agree with this, I was instead looking to field responses on how to improve the virtual experience. Rather ironically, it is clear that an improvement that could be made would be clarifying the reflection questions, particularly the final question. Additionally, the field trip experience felt like a lot of time spent at computers, and I think it would have been more engaging to alternate between self-directed stations in small groups and whole class experiences. I will also consider moving this field trip to a different point in the unit, perhaps even the beginning, to see if students have the same experience and if it could even enhance their understanding of Born a Crime. My takeaways from this experience are that students are able to grapple with complex historical information and make explicit connections in a self-directed environment, and increasing their access to outside opportunities such as museums in South Africa enhanced their ability to extend their learning. Students were engaged with the information presented and genuinely excited about the experience of virtually visiting museums in South Africa, a place they had heard much about but not been able to visualize.

The 808Reads Challenge was successful in encouraging students to read outside of the texts assigned in class. Many students increased their typical outside reading by multiple hours and were able to finish at least one whole book. Students also refined their abilities to choose texts that interested them as well as their ability to develop a framework to help them choose future texts. This opportunity was also successful in involving families in student learning and connecting them with the classroom. Typically, family contact with teachers is on a holistic basis about an individual student or used as an intervention method. In this scenario, families became important players in student growth and had a role in aiding student learning instead of just retroactively receiving updates about student growth and learning. This opportunity also lent itself well to the reflection of students and families and provided spaces for students to advocate their needs or desires for family involvement as well as for families to create action steps for future involvement in their child's reading. Each of these pillars ensured that families were actively engaged in the learning environment over the course of the opportunity and over time in the class.

Access References

Apartheid Museum - Permanent Exhibitions. Apartheid Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.apartheidmuseum.org/permanent-exhibition.

Google. (n.d.). 2 Hampshire Cl, Kirstenhof, Cape Town, 7945, South Africa. Google maps. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.google.com/maps/place/2+Hampshire+Cl,+Kirstenhof,+Cape+Town,+7945,+South+Africa/@-34.0752261,18.4544902,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x1dcc4193daf20d89:0xc1e858c6500c8b6d!8m2!3d-34.0752306!4d18.4566789?shorturl=1.

Google. (n.d.). 2825 Mohajane, Thulani, Soweto, 1863, South Africa. Google maps. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.google.com/maps/place/2825+Mohajane,+Thulani,+Soweto,+1863,+South+Africa/@-26.218416,27.8301676,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x1e95a161cbbd12f7:0xc6525e34aafb6c69!8m2!3d-26.2184208!4d27.8323563?shorturl=1.

Google. (n.d.). A brief history of Nelson Mandela's life - the nelson mandela foundation - google arts & culture. Google Arts and Culture. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/a-brief-history-of-nelson-mandela-s-life/dALiEWID5fOgLA.

Google. (n.d.). Robben Island Prison Tour - Robben Island Museum - Google Arts & Culture. Google Arts and Culture. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/robben-island-prison-tour-robben-island-museum/mQIim-e6wopSJw?hl=en.

Johannesburg - Map. GeoGuessr. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.geoguessr.com/maps/5eaca2b56ea5108dbce143d1.

Trevor Chats with His Grandma About Apartheid and Tours Her Home, “Mtv Cribs”-Style. (2018). The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Ways to Engage Families at Home. AFFECT - Learning Coalition from UH Manoa. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://affect.coe.hawaii.edu/lessons/engaging-families-in-school-work/.

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