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Quality Counts!
Maria is a fourth grader enrolled in an afterschool program that offers homework help as a portion of the day. While that is not the most fun part of the day, afterschool staff help her understand the work she has to do. Her mom does not speak enough English to help her at home, so this time has become important to keep her grades high. "I wouldn't be able to have As and Bs without their help," Maria reports. "Work used to be harder and I wouldn't do it, but now I get it finished on time."
Does your program offer homework help for participants? Read below to find more ways to support school day learning in afterschool.   
 
High Quality Programs Link to the School Day
Afterschool organizations traditionally incorporate homework time into programming, but high quality programs take the extra steps to be sure academics are directly supported. How well does your program link to the school day? Use the Afterschool Quality Advancement (AQuA) Tool Element 6 to assess your quality level in this area, available on this members-only page. What resources do you need to propel your programing to the highest quality possible? Let us know!
Free and Easy
Practices that increase the quality of your program immediately:
 

1. Familiarize yourself with state and local performance standards and benchmarks. The Texas Education Agency lists TEKS standards online to provide easy access for teachers and providers. Want to know more about STAAR testing or End of Course (EOC) assessments? Click here. Examples of Dallas ISD curriculum guides can be found here.

 

2. Organized and well-managed homework help time can make all the difference in the success of this portion of your program. SEDL's website will help you assess your program space and schedules and suggest changes to increase effectiveness.

 

3. Track your participants' academic progress. Ask them to turn in report cards as they receive them and make notes of academic growths and challenges. Contact DASN if you have questions about curricula to support growth and bridge skills over challenges. 

 

4. Is your afterschool program based in a school? If so, sit down with the principal to make sure he or she has a clear understanding of the importance of your program and how you help support the participants' academic learning. If you don't have one already, put together an agreement for the commitment of space and other resources from the school to make sure you are both on the same page. Need an example of a Memorandum of Understanding for connecting to a school campus? Download one here.

 

Academically Speaking

Appropriate activities that support learning:

Find links to curriculum and activities that directly relate academics on the members-only AQuA resources, Element 5 and 6, by clicking here.

 

Social Studies: Community Mapping for Kids

Create a map of your community with a focus on what kids love to do. This is a great project for small groups to learn about math, science, and their community. Have your group brainstorm different ways that kids get around. Do they walk, bike, take public transportation? Interview other kids about how they get around the community. Have the group create a map that includes all the information that kids would need to get around and that highlights points on interest for kids. Once you have a final product, the kids could distribute their maps to schools and community centers so that other kids could benefit from all their hard work!

This is a great opportunity to get outside and explore the community on foot and through public transportation. You may also consider inviting someone from DART to speak to the kids about safety and getting around on the DART system. Check out the DART curriculum online that could easily be a great addition to this activity.
 

Ideas for the Future: I Want To Be A...!

Host an afterschool career day to give children a glimpse of the opportunities available as an adult. Invite multiple professionals to your program to offer information about their occupations. This event will not only bridge the gap between the school and your program, but also help involve the community. Exposing children of all ages to the world of work can help broaden their view and may spark a hidden interest!

 

Because these professionals will be speaking to children as young as 5, make sure to select speakers whose occupations may be more understandable. Consider speakers like the following:

  1. Police officer
  2. Firefighter
  3. Principal
  4. Teacher
  5. Toy designer
  6. Lawyer
  7. Doctor

Be sure to discuss after the presentation. What did the children learn? Ask the children to reflect about their favorite jobs; have them draw pictures or write short essays about their profession of choice.

  

Engagement: Create Your Own Project 

Survey your kids to find out what their real interests are and create a hands-on project based of off those topics. Great projects cover several subject areas, allow for many approaches/solutions, and are founded on kids' interests and issues. Project-based learning is engaging for participants, allows them to problem-solve in their own way, and work towards a final product they can be proud of. Once you have an idea for a project, take a look at the Project Worksheet on the DASN resources page to make sure that it is right for your program.

 

For more resources on developing projects, homework time, and incorporating academics into afterschool, read Academic Content AfterSchool Style: A Notebook and Guide by Claudia Weisburd, Phd. This incredible resource is available online here. 

Behaviorally Speaking

Suggestions for Managing Participant Behavior

Programs that incorporate effective programming rarely have behavioral issues to manage. Be sure to monitor activities for appropriate levels of difficulty and engagement. Make changes as necessary to keep children engaged and learning.

 

Keeping the Peace in Your Afterschool Classroom

1. Make contact with each child who walks into the program, as in, "How was school today?"

2. Post behavior expectations throughout program space and refer to them.

3. Role play some common behavior situations before they occur during program time. Discuss options for handling these situations.

4. Circulate through the program space. Your proximity will make them less likely to misbehave.

5. Say please and thank you.  Model manners if we would like for the children to show theirs. 

6. Post your daily schedule.

7. Praise the students positively and directly; "Suzy, Thank you for sitting down quietly."

8. Always have a plan B, C, and D in case of those unexpected events.

 

Linking Up     

Use this fun visual to share positives! Post this poem by the first paper link:

 

For all the nice things people say, I'll add another link today

And when the chain and the floor meet, you will receive a treat!

 

Cut 1" strips of construction paper and staple the middle to create links. Each time the children are observed being good, helpful, or nice to others you can add a new link. Once the children are able to reach the links, they can add additional links themselves. This will encourage the students to work together to earn the prize. If you want to start out small, place the artwork lower so the chain does not have as long to touch the floor. Later consider raising the artwork if you want to lengthen their time of meeting the goal. Treats can range from afterschool grab bag items to a pizza party depending on the length of the links.

 

Cool-Down  

Cool-down periods are vital to establishing and maintaining positive discipline. When a participant does something wrong and you stop them, he or she will likely be angry. At the same time, you will be less than pleased about the situation. Instead of butting heads and engaging in an anger-driven feud, build in cool-down time. Allow the participant to sit in a quiet place, giving them an opportunity not only to think about what they did wrong, but also to let the anger dissipate. As they cool down, you do the same, allowing yourself to approach the situation more positively and with a level head.

 

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.  

It Takes a Bit of Work

These quality practices take a bit of time or money to implement:


Communicate With School Staff

Ensure you are meeting with school staff regularly to communicate about academic and behavioral strengths, growth, and challenges of your afterschool participants. These discussions should focus on supporting the child's achievement. 

 

Join Your Local SBDM  

Are you on your local School Based Decision Making (SBDM) Council? This is the perfect opportunity for you to connect with schools in your service area. Speak with the school principal about possible membership. These schools would love to hear more about your program and how you can support the school day. This gives you the chance to mingle with parents, teachers, PTA boards, grade level chair people, funders, and more. These meetings typically take place before monthly PTA meetings. If your school does not have a SBDM, perhaps there is a community liaison or other strategic relationship to be made.

 

Introduce Your Program

Make sure the schools are aware of your organization and the programming you offer. Ask to attend a staff meeting at the schools your participants attend; present your program and show the impact it makes on children's lives. 

 

Links to Learning

This curriculum planning guide for afterschool programs, produced by National Institute on Out-of-School Time (Wellesley Centers for Women), help in planning your lessons with focus on the arts, math, problem solving, technology, fitness and nutrition, social competence, science, and literacy. For more information and to purchase, click here.

Research says...

These pieces of research will help you explain the importance of quality programming to your stakeholders:

 

In the research brief Afterschool Fosters Success in School, we see that afterschool programs not only help the children they serve academically, but are safe havens for the participants as well. These programs help children develop the necessary social and emotional skills to excel in their daily lives, especially during the school day. We see that when the child is successful outside of the classroom, this leads to great success in the classroom. These afterschool programs offer a variety of enrichment activities that are connected to but different from the school day such as art, community service, music, dance, and sports that lead to great academic success.

 

Extended Learning Time is the trend in afterschool. Read about the importance of making it appropriate in this piece by the Forum for Youth Investment. 

 

If you need research to support the importance or cost of quality programming, please contact DASN for suggestions.
 
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 400 afterschool sites and serving nearly 30,000 students in Dallas, Tarrant, Rockwall, Denton and Collin Counties.  
www.dasn.org
214-306-8400
2902 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX  75204