Teacher needs online votes to win grant
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 7, 2011 1:46 PM
Like on any good reality show, Gregg Brown, reading specialist at North Drive Elementary School, is relying on online voting to help him win a mini-grant.
Brown and his school are the only representatives from Wayne County, and one of five from the state, in the running for the Brightpoint Literacy Grant, aimed at providing resources to enhance the education of male students.
"Brightpoint Literacy, an educational publishing firm in California, is promoting this grant in hopes of increasing the engagement and achievement of boys in literacy learning," Brown said. "Boys are typically reluctant readers in elementary schools."
North Drive Principal Carol Artis thought the mini grant might be a good opportunity to motivate males at the school, Brown said.
"She shared her ideas on which materials might appeal to the young men from our student population and then she let me run with it," he said. "I wrote the grant and we chose titles from the Brightpoint catalog that would be appealing to our elementary age boys. Many of them enjoy mysteries and adventures. Reading materials with comic book-like illustrations are also favorites."
Brown's project is entitled, "Here Come the Judges." He said the aim is to empower boys by providing them with real opportunities to make decisions about the books they read.
"Boys from all grade levels, K-4, will be divided into teams called Literacy Evaluation Clubs," he explained. "Based on the genre of the Brightpoint book received, each team will develop their own criteria/standards for rating their literacy selection, proving, or disproving, that you can't judge a book by its cover. Each team will read their book and rate it."
Brown said he is proud to have his school represented in the competition and hopes the community will help.
"This is one of those things you win by getting the most votes online," he said. "Voting ends Sunday -- it is sort of like American Idol for educators."
It costs nothing to vote, but does require an e-mail address. The website is www.brightpointliteracy.com/content/literacy-classroom-mini-grant.