Progress Report

Project MORE: Progress Report

July 2002

July has been a busy month for us! Here are the highlights:

The biggest news this month is that the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA, formerly OBEMLA) of the U.S. Department of Education has renewed funding for Project MORE for the next fiscal year. We thank OELA for giving us this opportunity. We are excited to continue the work on this initiative and look forward to another year of successful collaboration with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System.

The second meeting of the CMS focus group was held on July 9. In attendance were Boyd Davis, Lisa Russell-Pinson, Anita Moss, Kim Bailey, Dawn Abell (kindergarten teacher – Lake Wylie), Renee Flash (Media Specialist – Sedgefield), Mattie Mitchell (Media Specialist – Martin), and Jennifer Pearsall (ESL/Foreign Language Program Assistant – Walton Plaza). The group discussed the second set of materials created by the development team. The activities in the materials were well-received but it was decided that more explicit directions on how to use the materials need to be given to the teachers; after the meeting, Ms. Abell and Ms. Flash collaborated to create some instructions and teacher resource materials for the website. In addition, the participants viewed the Project MORE website and gave feedback on it.

The final summer meeting was held on July 30. Boyd Davis, Lisa Russell-Pinson, Anita Moss, Theresa Perez, Kim Bailey, Dawn Abell (kindergarten teacher – Lake Wylie), Mattie Mitchell (Media Specialist – Martin), Tanya Shank (Department Head for Science - Cochrane) and Jennifer Pearsall (ESL/Foreign Language Program Assistant – Walton Plaza) participated in this meeting. We discussed a new initiative, suggested by Ms. Shank, to help CMS teachers to create translated classroom brochures in multiple languages; such materials would allow parents who may not be literate in English to have a document containing classroom policies in their native language. Drs. Davis and Perez and Ms. Russell-Pinson will discuss this further in August and pilot a Spanish version later this year. Dr. Perez described how she will train her class of prospective ESL teachers to deliver complex instruction so that they can pilot the materials created from the project in Spring 2003. Finally, Ms. Abell suggested that Project MORE email interested CMS teachers cultural tips of the week to further sensitize teachers to their students’ cultural backgrounds.

John Gretes and Meihsiu Chen continue to develop prototypes for the website.

Lisa Russell-Pinson and Kim Bailey have completed the first revision of the transcriber procedural manual; they will conduct a resocialization meeting for transcribers in the fall.

Boyd Davis, Lisa Russell-Pinson, John Gretes and Jennifer Pearsall are planning a one credit-hour technology in-service to be offered to CMS teachers in the fall or winter.
Boyd Davis and Lisa Russell-Pinson have been invited to present a roundtable discussion at the First Annual Conference for Educators of Newcomer Students in Washington, DC at the end of September. The presentation will center on how the Project MORE narratives are used to create teacher training and classroom materials. Sabrina Hafer (International Center at CMS) will be accompanying us to the conference.

Boyd Davis and Lisa Russell-Pinson are preparing their SETESOL paper based Project MORE. This presentation will be made in September.

Lisa Russell-Pinson, Project Manager