8/18/08
MULTIPLE ORGANIZATIONS WANT TO OFFER YOU FINANCIAL HELP! GIVE THEM A REASON WHY THEY SHOULD!
Did you know that you can order Word Web Vocabulary for your classroom or for your entire middle school or even for upper grades with the assistance of federal, state and local governments? These offices distribute billions of dollars in assistance to schools each year to help cover the cost of instructional materials, staff and professional development.
When we recently received a large order from a teacher who received a $5,000 innovative grant obtained through her school district's foundation, I went online and found that many states have these innovative grants which cover a multitude of educational materials. Whether your school is struggling to meet the standards of the NCLB, or you are fortunate enough to have a student body that already is a paradigm among similar schools, you can find reasons why your classroom or entire school needs Word Web Vocabulary. Improving students' literacy is high on the mandates of the NCLB, so regardless of your needs, Word Web can take students from fifth to tenth grades to ever-higher levels, challenging them along the way.
Many dollars are likely to be available to your school. Mentioning the funding for NCLB, which is working to raise student achievement and accountability, is a good idea. When you want financial support, contact your state's Secretary of Education who is responsible for providing quality instructional materials for every student.
Study other programs on the Internet, like The Striving Readers and Starbase, that may fund scholastic efforts in your state. Check out DonorsChoose.org, recognized as "America’s most innovative charity" by the Stanford Business School and Amazon.com, a not-for-profit business to which public school teachers can submit project proposals for materials their students need.
Even though you may already be using WWV, you should know the following: WWV meets and is correlated to standards in the fifty states and is currently in use in 300 locations in 44 states, Canada, Germany and Japan. WWV is available in three separate volumes.
Six lessons comprise a chapter, the first five of which introduce new words, while the sixth is a review. Each lesson lasts one week. Therefore, the six chapters in each volume cover thirty-six weeks, the length of most school years.
Word Web Vocabulary presents words in a web format at six levels of difficulty - each color- and shape-coded as to difficulty - to meet the needs of students of varying capabilities. This range enables teachers to match lessons to their students' needs and abilities.
Each of Word Web's lessons is rich with model sentences, graphic images and literary references. Its format is simple yet sophisticated, stimulating but serious and is lightened by its Cool Connections, 
Bonus Blasts, Awesome Associations, and other special elements. Go to Word Web's website for more ideas to include in your proposal.
So, go for a grant! It'll take a year before you receive the money, and for many of the grants, the deadline is either very close now or has already passed.
If you have any questions about this subject, feel free to contact me directly at elinormiller@seepub.com.
That's my word this time.
Ellie
