Language Arts / Social Studies

Project LEADER is an Early Reading First grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This three-year project will provide an intensive professional development program in early childhood literacy for staff in Lowell’s Community Teamwork Inc. program. The program includes credit-bearing courses in language and literacy, use of formative assessments to inform instruction and science; in addition, teachers will receive instructional coaching throughout the program.

Young American Heroes, a project of Docere Palace Studios, is one of seven prototype projects funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s $20 million American History and Civics Initiative to develop multi-platform interactives that will engage youth in deepening their knowledge of history and civics. Young American Heroes takes a narrative approach, in which filmed biographical dramas about historical figures are interrupted at key decision points so that students can debate their own choices and tell their own stories.

Mission America: The Road to Revolution (working title) is an adventure game (the first in a proposed series of ten) that immerses middle school-aged students and game players in historical events and personalities in colonial Boston during the years leading up to the American Revolution. The game is one seven prototype projects funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s $20 million the American History and Civics Initiative, which seeks to develop multi-platform interactives that will engage youth in deepening their knowledge of history and civics.

Writing the City, a Web site developed by Teaching Matters, enables middle-school English language arts teachers to quickly and safely publish their student’s writing in an online eZine format, privately for just their class and parent community or generally for the public. Through the site, students get an opportunity to share their work with a wider audience. CCT is conducting a three-year evaluation of the program.

EDC is developing a series of model online workshops in math, English Language Arts and science for the eight state E-Learning for Educators collaboration funded by a five year U.S. Department of Education Ready to Teach grant. These workshops will offered throughout the eight state consortium (Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) and will be used in large-scale experimental research on the impact of online professional development which involves elementary and middle school teachers in each of the states.

CCT is conducting a formative evaluation of the Reading Companion, a Web-based literacy initiative that uses voice recognition technology to help children and adults learn how to read. Developed by IBM researchers working in partnership with schools and not-for-profit organizations, Reading Companion assists individuals as they learn to read by ‘listening’ and providing feedback, enabling emerging readers to practice reading and their English pronunciation as they acquire fundamental reading skills.

CCT is evaluating the implementation of a three-year project to provide at-risk middle and high school students with in-depth experiences in traditional American history, funded by a U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant.