COOL CLASSICS INC
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Mission Statement
Cool Classics! is an after-school program committed to improving literacy and reading comprehension in public elementary school students in underserved schools and communities, expanding their sense of the arts, cultures and humanities and creating readers, analytic thinkers and citizens while teaching critical thinking skills. We focus on transforming our students into lifelong learners who enjoy the pleasures of reading by creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere for beginning and early readers and connecting them in small groups with advanced readers from their cohort, parent volunteers, student helpers and program teachers. We use classic books to connect children to a unified world of reading, arts, humanities and ideas. We aim to expand participants’ sense of the world, improve their academic and analytical skills while building lasting communities of our students, their families, teachers and school administrators to ensure success as they continue their education throughout their lives.
About This Cause
Cool Classics! is a book-based, critical-thinking-skills program developed for public elementary school children by Mara Tapp, an award-winning journalist and educator. We are committed to improving literacy among underserved students, expanding their sense of art, humanities and culture and being a vehicle for creating readers and critical thinkers. Cool Classics! introduces children to the interpenetration of arts, culture, the humanities and the power of the intellect in communities that may lack such resources, seeking to frame, augment and enhance what teachers do in the classroom. The program is designed for schools that value but may have lost arts and culture programs and are too often overwhelmed by the demands of a test-driven curriculum. Cool Classics! is in alignment with the Common Core Standards, as well as Illinois Standards for English and Language Arts and for Fine Arts. A concise overview of our work is provided in our video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o0ytEjux_M&feature=youtu.be. Our website at www.coolclassicschicago.org/ offers more details on our approach, activities and benefits, as well as testimonials, outside evaluations, video clips and galleries filled with wonderful artworks by and photos of the children who have participated in Cool Classics! Cool Classics! was recently honored as one of 12 winners of the 2017 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. The award is given by the NEA, the NEH, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in cooperation with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. The award recognizes the country’s best creative youth development programs for using engagement in the arts and the humanities to generate a wide range of positive outcomes. The awardees—chosen from a pool of 350 nominations and 50 finalists—were also recognized for improving literacy and language abilities, communication and performance skills, and cultural awareness. Since our 2006 pilot program at the Walt Disney Magnet School, Cool Classics! has offered programming at two North-side schools – Horace Greeley Elementary School, where we are in our 10th year, and Jane’s Place at Nettelhorst. Our newest program is at Bronzeville Academy Charter School. We have offered programs at six other South-side schools – CICS Loomis Primary Academy; William C. Reavis Math and Science Specialty Elementary School; Jackie Robinson Literature and Writing Elementary School, Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School; Emmett Louis Till Math and Science Academy and The University of Chicago For more than a decade, Cool Classics! has been introducing elementary school children in underserved communities to the world of ideas. By focusing on close reading, rigorous discussion and deep analysis, we create a rich learning experience for our children that develops core competencies and enriches their understanding of literature, humanities, arts and culture while expanding their vocabulary in an engaging program. We hold our students to the highest academic standards and provide them with the tools for success. Various measures indicate that the majority of children who participate in Cool Classics! achieve: Increased reading skills, comprehension and analysis Expanded vocabulary Highly developed critical thinking skills Greater enthusiasm for reading Expanded understanding of: Literature, Humanities, Poetry, Art, Dance, Drama, Music Developed by Mara Tapp, an award-winning journalist and educator, Cool Classics! started with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, was incorporated October 17, 2007 and granted 501 (c) 3 status May 7, 2008. It has provided innovative, rigorously academic and effective after-school and classroom programming to Pre-K through 3rd grade students at eight seven Chicago public and charter schools on the North and South sides of the city. It also offered a Cool Classics! Summer Cool program as part of the Chicago Park District 2014 Summer Camps. Cool Classics! students were honored to record with Ella Jenkins, the internationally known children’s singer and musician, in 2009 for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. That CD, Ella Jenkins: A Life of Song, was recently released in connection with the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Alumni of the 2008-2009 Cool Classics! programs starred in videos, offering analyses of objects from the museum’s collection central to the “What Does It Say to You” exhibition at the Spertus Museum, which ran from September 2009 through June 2010. The work of Cool Classics! and its ability to offer its students alternatives to the violence too often happening outside their doors has been featured in various media outlets. We serve schools that have lost programs and are overwhelmed by demands of test-driven curricula. Our strategies include daily reading and discussion of the central text; introduction to, discussion about and art-and-writing projects connected to thematically related books; movie versions of these stories; lending privileges with the 1,500-volume Ella Jenkins Lending Library and oral book reports about the books borrowed from it; introduction to artists, poets, authors, composers and others whose work relates to the central text; visits from artists, scholars and experts and field trips. Our programs show participants the interpenetration of arts, culture and the power of the intellect by connecting groups of 20 to 25 elementary public school students to an imaginative world that links reading to the arts and humanities, to cultures and to ideas. Over a span of 20 to 25 sessions, each program focuses on one classic book, building a universe of art, culture and thematic ideas around that book. Each session begins with reading, followed by various activities – introduction to artists and experts, performances, projects and field trips – that spiral back to the central book's themes and create the multifaceted Cool Classics! experience. Cool Classics! offers a creative alternative pedagogy to reach students who do not learn in a traditional manner. It builds on what is learned in the classroom. We don't believe in lowering the bar because we don’t think that does our students any favors. Rather we provide them with the pedagogy, support and resources they need to succeed. This is based on our respect for their native intelligence and our belief in their ability to succeed. Cool Classics! curricula aim to provide our at-risk students with tools and a context for navigating the world. Common curricular elements include a Socratic teaching method that draws on students’ own experiences in discussions of literary, intellectual and cultural themes and ideas. We start with the literary arts and employ a central text for each of our curricula. Each book’s theme is explored through reading accompanying books and engaging in rigorous analytic discussion about them, as well as exploring their themes through writing and the creation of art about them; theater, dance and music workshops; art projects and special field trips. All programs start with a visit to the local Chicago Public Library branch, which later exhibits our students’ art, and end with a trip to Powell’s Books Chicago, where the children receive gift certificates enabling them to select free books. Other field trips to Chicago museums, art galleries, restaurants and theater, dance, and music performances relate to the themes of our central texts. Children from the diverse communities in which Cool Classics! is offered meet and learn about each other on joint field trips to age-appropriate theater, dance and music performances by some of Chicago’s best companies. By introducing children to others from different neighborhoods, and encouraging friendships through the shared experience of art, we hope to mitigate the intolerance and prevent future prejudice in a city famous for its segregation. Each program accepts 20 to 25 kindergarten through third-grade students, who are identified and selected by school administrators and teachers, working in conjunction with Cool Classics! staff, and are diverse in terms of grade, gender and ability. Programs run once or twice weekly for 20 to 25 sessions, depending on school schedules and available funding. Outside evaluations of the program indicate the successes of the program and its participants, regardless of ability or where they started. They are excerpted and also available in their entirety on the website at: www.coolclassicschicago.org/our-program/our impact. The belief at Cool Classics! is if we teach well, our children will test well. This is apparent in participants' academic and behavioral gains, as reported by their classroom teachers, school administrators and parents, and on standardized tests where they score ahead of their peers not in our programs. Exams and outside evaluations document the increase in Cool Classics! participants' comprehension and skills whether the students were labeled "special needs," "gifted" or at levels in between. Test results, the more canonical measures, have demonstrated improvement in our students' reading and vocabulary comprehension, accompanied by their increasingly sophisticated grasp of literature, art and ideas. Connecting with our students' families is an essential part of our programs. Cool Classics! serves as an advocate for its students and their families by creating a community through regular contact and communication and connections to children and families in schools in other neighborhoods. Our programs provide sanctuary to our children and offer solutions to many of the problems they face daily from the ugliness and terror of violence to the simpler tasks that can bring joy, escape and safety.