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Quality Counts!
Tonya, an 8 year old in Dallas, entered her afterschool program and thought, "Today is art day, and I really hope we have a volunteer helper coming today! Art days are always more fun with a helper because we get to do more than just coloring sheets. Sometimes they bring us pom poms and jewels to decorate the pictures we draw on big paper. Sometimes there are scissors that cut designs instead of straight lines and sometimes there is even watercolor paint. I really hope today is a volunteer art day!"
How does the community see your program?
Could Tonya be thinking about your program? Whether positive or negative, afterschool organizations earn labels based on the programming and activities offered. High quality programming addresses many of the participants' needs in academic, physical, social, and emotional areas and is known for providing engaging, project-based, experiential, age-appropriate, and creative opportunities that support learning in a non-classroom way. DASN assists programs as they move toward higher quality programming, including access to curriculum and supplies. Take a microscope to your programming with the use of our Afterschool Quality Advancement (AQuA) Tool, available on this members-only page. What resources do you need to propel your programing to the highest quality possible? Let us know!
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Free and Easy
Practices that increase the quality of your program immediately:
1. Increase the effectiveness of your programming by varying your grouping strategies throughout the program day. Homework time is a good opportunity for kids to work individually, while outdoor or gym time can be fun in large groups. Other activities might be done in pairs or small groups. Making sure that children get to participate in a variety of group sizes throughout the day helps them develop strong social skills as well as independence and keeps them engaged in the activities.
2. Plan age appropriate activities and assess them while they are in action. Are children frustrated? If so, the activity may be too difficult. Reword the instructions, provide support or other materials, or stop the activity altogether. Are the children acting bored or unmotivated? The activity may be too easy. Adjust the activity by asking open-ended questions, changing the materials, or moving on to something more difficult. Make notes on your lesson plans so that everyone remembers the needed changes in the future.
3. Homework Help time can be challenging for staff, especially when children require strong support. There are four levels of help: I do, you watch; I do, you help; You do, I help; and You do, I watch. Some strategies to help include:
- Ask student to explain assignment in own words
- Have student write a problem in a different way
- Encourage student to estimate
- Break problems or tasks into smaller parts and steps
- Suggest trying to solve the problem in different way
- Model the problem with objects or using a different example
- Help clarify the portion of the problem on which student is "stuck"
- Have resources available for help: online as well as reference materials
adapted from "Afterschool Style in Practice"
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As Seen in Our Programs
Quality Advisors share exemplary practices observed in our member programs:
Play games that are fun and creative. Dice are cheap and can provide countless games and activities for kids with little no other needed supplies. Check out this 'funny bug' created by the participants at an afterschool program. They took turns rolling a die and drew a body part on the bug that corresponded to the number they rolled. For instance, if a child rolled a one, they would add another spot on the bug. If they rolled a two, they would add two legs, and so on. What picture could your young participants create?
(Find more dice games to support math learning by clicking here and here.)
Make math more concrete by using every day items, like cups, bottle caps, and ice cube trays or cupcake liners and marshmallows!
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Academically Speaking
Appropriate activities that support learning:
Need to find out what children are learning at school? Check out the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills here.
Slide down the page to see subject or grade level standards.
Make a Lava Lamp
This exciting experiment is fun to watch and teaches kids about density and polarity.
Things you'll need:
A clear jar or drinking glass for each group
Vegetable oil
Water
Food coloring
Salt
Have kids work in groups for this activity. Each group should start by filling their jar with about 3 inches of water. Have each group then make a hypothesis about what they think will happen when they add oil to the jar. Have children add 1/3 cup of vegetable oil into the jar and watch what happens. Discuss why the oil seems to 'float' on top of the water. Next, have the groups predict what will happen if they add food coloring and what will happen if they add salt. Each group can add a drop of food coloring to the jar and watch what happens. Next, have them shake a bit of salt into the jar. Discuss why the salt pulls the oil down into the water before the oil rises back up. Do these results match their hypotheses?
For more information on the science behind this experiment to use in discussion, visit Science Explorer. To try a similar experiment and compare results, check out this lava lamp made with alka-seltzer instead of salt.
Quiz-ketball
Review any subject with this team ball game. It's a slam dunk!
Things you'll need:
A ball
A hoop (a clean waste bin works fine)
A deck of cards
Chalk or pen and paper to keep score
Tape (optional)
Prepare for the game: Make two piles of cards, one with all the hearts and spades and the other with all the diamonds and clubs. One pile will help form teams, the other will indicate who will answer. To further prepare each pile, divide the number of children playing by two and take out all cards higher than that number. For example, if you have 12 children participating, keep the ace, two, three, four, five, and six for each suit and discard the rest from each pile. Also set up the 'hoop' with three lines of tape on the floor to make boundary lines for one, two, and three points.
To form teams, allow each participant to draw a card from the hearts and spades deck and go sit on the side of the room or the gym; one side for red cards and one side for black cards. Now ask any question on the topic you chose to review. Pull out a card from the diamond and club pile. If you pull the three of diamonds, the child with the red three (the three of hearts) gets to answer the question. If he or she gives the correct answer, he or she gets two chances to shoot the ball from whichever line they choose to earn points for their team. If he or she does not give the correct answer, the black three (the three of spades) gets a chance to answer the question and shoot, if correct. If both children get the question incorrect, explain the right answer and move on to the next question. Keep score for the teams, or have a participant keep score, and have fun!
Mix it up: Allow one child to work with the child whose card is one higher or one lower than their own. Or, have the whole team work together to answer the questions. Try to structure the activity into rounds of no more than 10 minutes each and then move on to another format.
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Behaviorally Speaking
Suggestions for Managing Participant Behavior
Make Activities Developmentally Appropriate and Engaging
When participants are busy in activities that provide them with an appropriate level of challenge, behavior issues are nearly non-existent. This is especially true if participants have had a choice in activity or project. Project-based learning is an incredible way to bring participants together to work toward a goal--a problem solved, a creation finished, or a community issue addressed. Search Project Based Learning online, and see the hundreds of resources to help!
...But when there are issues:
Green, Yellow or Red Days
Start a card tracking system to improve youth behavior. All children will start the day with a green card. If the child violates a afterschool program rule the cards will be replaced with yellow, and on to red depending on behavior. As positive reinforcement, allow the children to change the color of their card if they did something helpful or noteworthy during program time.
Promote Great Behavior Together
An entire group may have a particularly troubling behavior. When verbal accolades are not enough to steer the group another way, the leader may have to resort to tangible rewards. First problem-solve together about a behavior you would like to see disappear, such as taking turns talking in a group. Present this as a behavioral goal, and let children know you will reward them for times that hands are raised or no interruptions happen. Ways to track these rewards include marbles in a jar (filled to a certain point = extra time outside, etc.), paper cutout scoops on an ice cream cone (scoops reach so far or earn so many scoops = reward), or paper leaves that children fill out about positive behavior of other participants and put on a tree (X number of leaves = reward, but better-- just read and celebrate). Tangible rewards need to be short-term as children move to make good behavior inherently motivating, but sometimes it is where a leader must start.
Still have questions on how to handle a specific behavior? Get some quick tips on what to do from Discipline Help: You Can Handle Them All, a reference for handling 124 misbehaviors.
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It Takes a Bit of Work
These quality practices take a bit of time or money to implement:
Give your participants a chance to showcase their talents in theater, visual art, music, song, and dance. Host a family event several times during the program year for families and other community members to view what the children have worked on during the afterschool program. Try giving invitations made by the children, and offer light refreshments. In the performance pictured below, the kids even made a set to use for the play!
Moving Towards a Holistic Program
Ensure you are addressing the academic, physical, social, and emotional needs of the child in your program. The program should be designed in consideration of the whole child and incorporate a variety of activities and teaching styles into the daily schedule. This makes the program personalized for participants, and you will notice an increase in participant engagement. Resources to click on that can help you build the depth of your program include Links to Learning, a book from NIOST and Wellesley Centers for Women and more!
Research our Database
Remember to check our resource section on AQuA element 5 (members, click here) for dozens of links to activities and ideas.
Use an Outside Source
Many nonprofit and for profit agencies have curriculum available at different price points. If you have a specific curriculum need, contact DASN for guidance and references.
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Research says...
These pieces of research will help you explain the importance of quality programming to your stakeholders:
Special Report on Informal Science Education is an issue of Education Weekly completely devoted to science outside of a traditional classroom. Read articles about innovations and integration ideas backed by research.
Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning is a group of studies demonstrating how involvement with the arts provides unparalleled opportunities for learning, enabling young people to reach for and attain higher levels of achievement. Children gain an understanding of life long goals and how to contribute to the world around them. The arts play a role in youth learning how to learn and how they behave and feel. When the arts become the focus of a learning environment, the setting transforms into an exciting place of discovery!
If you need research to support the importance or cost of quality programming, please contact DASN for suggestions.
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For archived copies of Quality Counts!, click here.
Dallas AfterSchool Network is a 501(c)(3) organization comprised of more than 40 afterschool providers operating more than 450 afterschool sites and serving nearly 30,000 students in Dallas, Tarrant, Rockwall and Collin Counties.
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www.dasn.org
214-306-8400
2902 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204
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