September 18, 2020

Comfort foods may be satisfying in substance, but sometimes we crave something different or exotic. The same can be said of program practices. How does your 21^st CCLC program build on the basics of substance while experimenting with new flavor combinations to bake up the perfect recipe for your afterschool program?

Keep the Cupboard Stocked

Whether you’re a new grantee or you’ve been in this kitchen a while now, it’s important to remember your fundamentals throughout the program year — the elements of running your program that can ensure its longevity. You have reporting responsibilities, and they all come back to doing what you said you’d do in your grant, which was based on the needs in your area. Depending on your state practices, that grant might have been written before the pandemic struck, but you can still track and report your data faithfully. Y4Y’s Tool Starter Set is the butter, flour, eggs and sugar that every 21^st CCLC program will need to ensure success. The Project/Program Planner brings you back to your goals in all you do. Keep lines of communication open with your state agency to understand how best to adapt and report on those goals. For this program year, that adapting may be the most important ingredient in your continuous improvement efforts.

Try Out New Flavors

Has your professional development this summer exposed you to new ideas you’d like to try in your program? Do you wonder if the time is really right to test something out? Without a doubt, you’ve come to appreciate the importance of multimodal learning, especially if you were limited to a single way of supporting your students’ learning throughout the exclusively virtual portions of your programming over the past six months. Hopefully you’ve now navigated how to support some in-person programming and can give thought to things like activities that include visual, audio and hands-on (tactile) opportunities, whether those activities are focused on STEM, literacy, health and wellness, or some other topic.

Don’t forget to fold in some new strategies for ensuring a positive learning environment. The program environment itself differs from in the past, so of course basic safety and interpersonal interactions have a new flavor. You can adapt the Y4Y Setting Up a Positive Learning Environment Training to Go to review the importance of this element of 21^st CCLC programming, then brainstorm together on how you can foster the warm fuzzies that are needed more now than ever. If your program is virtual, how can you individualize your welcomes like you once did as students walked through the door? What can you carry over from the old days to keep things as consistent as possible?

Be a Test Kitchen

During Y4Y’s summer webinar series on Strategic Partnerships, in Session 3 on Implementing Partnerships, guest speaker Ms. Marcy Richardson, Manager/Director of the Anchorage School District 21^st CCLC Program, shared her practice of partnering with the school district to explore innovative ideas and projects within their 10 program sites. Her background in business management and marketing prompted Ms. Richardson to use this unique approach to forming a strong, two-way collaboration. Her 900 highly diverse elementary students benefit from fresh ideas and resources that different district departments are considering for broad implementation, while the district gets a measurable “beta” test population before expanding to its 30,000 elementary student population. Examples of this kind of exploration range from new cafeteria menu items to robotics. It pays to bring those partners along on new flavor adventures!

Whatever your mix of staple ingredients and new mix-ins, being true to your audience of “taste testers” (primarily, your students) is vital to the success of your recipe for this program year. The best recipes nourish students’ bodies, minds and spirits. They satisfy students’ hunger for knowledge and connection, comfort them with routines that are familiar and safe, and introduce new “taste experiences” that challenge and delight.

Hats off to all of you 21^st CCLC chefs who are working so hard to keep students engaged and well nourished, in every sense of the word!

P.S. Y4Y would love to collect and share your best recipes for 21^st CCLC success. Sign into your Y4Y account and post your ideas, big and small, on the Y4Y “Recipes” discussion board.

March 21, 2019

“I’ve yet to see a kid jump for joy when homework is mentioned,” says Zelda Spence, 21^st CCLC program director in Plainfield, NJ. “But providing the right help at the right time can make a positive difference.” Here are some tips on becoming a good “homework mechanic” so studying runs smoothly.

Design a comfortable, supportive homework space. Spence says, “Our student-designed homework help space provides Chromebooks, bean bags, study center tables, carpet centers, manipulatives and supplies so that students feel comfortable, supported and engaged. They enjoy the stress-free environment, and most work in study groups, talk out loud, and solve problems together while eating a snack or meal.” Christen Peterson, Indiana’s 21^st CCLC grant specialist, suggests, “You can create stations for specific subjects, like a math station with calculators and graph paper, or an English station with a dictionary and thesaurus. Make sure there’s a quiet work space available, especially for students who have sensory issues. We have one program that uses a pop-up tent and noise-canceling headphones.”

Consider grouping students during homework time. Possible groupings include assignment type, subject or grade level. Or you might use a “buddy system” so that students can use their strengths to help their peers.

Check students’ understanding of their homework assignments. If students misinterpret an assignment, or don’t understand what they’re supposed to do, they can waste time and effort — and become discouraged.

Check with individual students every few minutes. Some may need help staying on track. Others may want and need help but feel self-conscious about drawing attention to themselves. Consistent check-ins with all students make everyone feel more comfortable about seeking help. Peterson suggests designating staff as experts for certain topics if you don’t have certified teachers to help. “For example, if you have a college student who’s a biology major working or volunteering in your program, he or she could be the official science tutor during homework time.”

Teach and reinforce good study habits and organization skills. Teach students how to use outlining, note taking, memory tricks, and peer discussion to help them learn and remember new content. Teach them how to keep track of their progress on assignments. Raquel Gwynn, 21^st CCLC education specialist in Oregon, says, “Having students track what’s due when, and prompting them to look at their homework binder, gets them thinking about planning ahead. As they master basic organizational skills, you can scaffold toward higher-level skills.”

Communicate with students’ school-day teachers. Spence says, “In Plainfield, we use a homework log, which we call a homework sharing tool. It’s updated weekly and placed in grade-level binders in the main office so school-day teachers can follow up on students’ afterschool homework patterns. This practice has enhanced communications between the 21^st CCLC afterschool program and the school day.”

Looking for more homework tune-up tips? See the Homework section of the Afterschool Training Toolkit.