MLA Annotation

(Current Research)

1. Columnist, Aarica Marsh Opinion. “More than Rust: The Story of Ypsilanti.” The

Michigan Daily, University of Michigan, 5 Apr. 2016.

This source does a wonderful job at putting things into perspective. Since we are

focusing on Ypsilanti, this article gives us first hand stories of people who are living there

and people who have visited the place. Aside from that it analyzes the stereotypes and

stigmas associated with the area and the impacts of those stereotypes on the people living

there. They discuss how the media tends to speak of Ypsilanti in a more negative tone

and that it may result in many of the stereotypes associated with the area. It also

compares to Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor to help put things in perspective. I think the goal of

this source was to draw a picture of how much Ypsilanti has changed, how much it is

changing, and how big of an impact it is having on the people. I believe the Michigan

Daily is a reliable source because it is published by the University of Michigan, and have

been around since 1890. I thought this source was helpful because most of the volunteers

we are trying to get will be from the University of Michigan, and more broadly, from

Ann Arbor. Therefore learning about the setting and what caused it to get there provides

us a lot information about the current and past status of the area.

2. “Explore Holmes Elementary Learning Center in Ypsilanti, MI.” Parenting.

This source collected the reviews of people regarding Holmes Elementary school. These

reviews are mostly bad because of the current situation. Most of the reviews range from 2 to 5 in

scale of 10. One of the main concerns seems to be the test scores of the students — they are very
low compared to the State. Some of the other concerns were regarding equity and student

progress. Even though these information are noteworthy, they may be open to a lot of bias. For

example, not every may feel the same way. In fact, the child’s progress may depend on them

instead of the school or the class. Biases like these can be a disruption but it does provide a

general idea of the situation.

This source helps me project because it helps us learn more about the school we are

aiming to work with. This reviews serve as a motivation to bring the change we hope to see.

Most schools in Michigan are doing extremely well, however, Holmes elementary is not one of

them. Therefore, it needs all the help it can get — this source helps us establish that a little more

to why we chose this school out of all the others in Ypsilanti.

3. “Michigan's Literacy Crisis Is a Public Health Crisis.” Michigan Virtual, Michigan Virtual, 13

Dec. 2018, michiganvirtual.org/blog/michigans-literacy-crisis-is-a-public-health-crisis/.

The article discusses the poor literacy rates in the state of Michigan and provides a plan

of action to tackle this issue. The writers and many psychologists alike believe poor literacy rates

lead to further ineptitude in many aspects of life including health, family and etc. These trends

are mostly present in colored students and students belonging to low income families. To change

the paradigm of primary education therefore, a team of educators joined forces and came up with

essential practices to help students learn age appropriate literacy skills. The article is useful and

reliable because it presents statistics from nationwide data, and other factual information from

renowned psychologists and other researches to back up the argument. In addition, the presence

of a bias is not apparent. The article’s reliability can be further exemplified by checking its

publisher. The article was published by a .org which are usually non-profit organizations
providing information, thus making their sources credible.

Since our main argument is built around educating the youth of Ypsilanti, this source

plays a huge role in backing up to why we chose to work with Michigan. This source helps

highlight all the tragic things that might happen as a result of illiteracy. It helps us establish and

build our argument to why our program is necessary.

4. Slagter, Lauren. “Ypsilanti Superintendent: Black Students Should Be Considered 'at Risk'.”

Mlive.com, Mlive.com, 13 June 2016.

This article highlights the opinion that students of color, especially black students, should

be considered at risk. Michigan has an entire list of students they consider at risk, but black

students are not on it. It goes onto compare the achievement gap between Whites and African

American, and highlight the fact that is not only about their socioeconomic status because a lot

these African Americans come from a wealthy background. The NAEP test scores are provided

to show these differences. I think this source is reliable because it is being said by the

superintendent of community schools in Ypsilanti. He seems like a reliable source to be talking

about this area. However, it may also be biased because of the scores it provides on standardized

exams. As most of us now, they are not the best way to test academic achievement. The goal of

this source was to highlight this difference in achievement and to be able to do something about

it.

This source is really important to our project because majority of the population at

Holmes Elementary School are African Americans. Therefore, this source pushing at to intervene

and help make a difference in their lives. Our program could be a step towards closing that

achievement gap and treating everyone with the same care and attention.
5. “Ypsilanti MI Education Data.” Camp Lejeune UT NC Demographics Data with Population

from Census, Towncharts, 2017.

This source compares the Michigan education data of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It shows

that only 42% get a bachelor's degree or better education and 9% dropout of high school. Even

though these numbers seem somewhat decent, they are pretty bad compared to other places in

Michigan. The goal of this source to is to provide its audience with quantitative information

about the education in Ypsilanti. This source has no form of bias because they are all numbers.

Towncharts gathers their information from other reliable sources such as American Community

Survey and USGS. I believe this a reliable source for quantitative data. This source highlights the

importance of higher education in Ypsilanti. Many kids are also dropping out high school. Our

goal as an organization is to promote the importance of education. I believe this source is crucial

in giving us background to why we chose Ypsilanti out of all the places in Michigan.

(Past and Current Attempts)

1. Carlisle, Joanne F., et al. “Reading Achievement in Reading First Schools in Michigan.”

Journal of Literacy Research, vol. 42, no. 1, Mar. 2010, pp. 49–70.

doi:10.1080/10862960903583236.

This article’s research gathers that student’s test scores in first and second grades are

directly affected by poverty and student and teacher attrition. The fact that it states that third

grade scores are difficult to change made us decide to target first and second grade students in

the hopes that we will make the most impact in that area. We were already planning on targeting
an underprivileged school, so standardized test scores for the children that regularly attend our

organization’s events may be a good way of measuring our impact.

2. Duursma, E, et al. “Reading Aloud to Children: the Evidence.” Archives of Disease in

Childhood, vol. 93, no. 7, 2008, pp. 554–557., doi:10.1136/adc.2006.106336.

This article demonstrates that reading aloud to children has a direct positive effect on

language acquisition and literacy skills. It also references several other articles that make similar

statements, which shows that it is well-researched. Our goal is to assist in developing these skills,

so this article shows that if we go about it the right way, we will definitely be able to achieve

these goals.

3. Hume, Laura E., et al. “Children's Literacy Interest and Its Relation to Parents’

Literacy-Promoting Practices.” Journal of Research in Reading, vol. 38, no. 2, 2012, pp.

172–193., doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2012.01548.x.

The most prominent point presented in this article is that parents’ active engagement in

reading to their children increases that likelihood that children will develop an interest in

reading. The goal is to show that there is a direct correlation between literacy interest and

practices with young children. This helps us because we are also trying to make that point. Our

organization will have college-age adults reading to children and we will also be giving them

books to take home, and will stress to parents the importance of reading to their children.

4. McCool, Yvonne Donohoe. “Scientifically Based Reading Research Strategies in the

 Preschool Classroom: an Investigation into Quality Early Childhood Reading Practices

and Literacy Acquisition in One Northern Michigan Early Reading First Program.”

University of Michigan, 2013.

This research on early childhood reading practices shows that reading to children helps

with overall educational outcomes. It focuses on the benefit that it will have for children in the

future and lists several aspects of their lives that will be positively affected in the years to come.

This shows that our organization’s actions will be worthwhile because their long term effects

will be tangible.

5. Niklas, Frank, et al. “The Sooner, the Better.” SAGE Open, vol. 6, no. 4, 2016, p.

215824401667271., doi:10.1177/2158244016672715.

This article demonstrates that reading to children from a young age is important in

language development. While our organization is not targeting very young children, starting to

work with children in first and second grade is still better than doing so later on. At this point in

time, language skills are developing and one of our goals is to help them develop more easily

through reading.

6. Slavin, Robert E., et al. “Effective Programs for Struggling Readers: A Best-Evidence

Synthesis.” Educational Research Review, vol. 6, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–26.,

doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2010.07.002.
 This research makes the points that one-on-one reading practice for struggling readers is

the most effective method of impact. Small groups are also effective, but slightly less so. Our

original plan was to have small groups of five or so children to one volunteer, but upon reading

this we have decided that we will make every effort for one-on-one interaction, and will only

have two children to one volunteer if absolutely necessary.

(Details of Solution)

1. “Explore Estabrook School in Ypsilanti, MI.” Estabrook School, GreatSchools.org, ‘

www.greatschools.org/michigan/ypsilanti/3778-Estabrook-School/.

This link shows information for another elementary school with low ratings in Michigan,

Estabrook Elementary School. Great Schools is a non-profit organization that provides ratings on

schools based on information from credible sources such as state and national agencies. As stated

in website, Estabrook Elementary School is rated below average with just 2/10 on test scores.

English proficiency rating is 19% and Social Studies proficiency rating is 6%. This school will

be a potential target for our project expansion once the first phase of the implementation plan has

been carried out at Holmes Elementary School.

2. “Free Books for Read Across America Day.” Reading Resource Project, Literacy

Empowerment Foundation, www.lefbooks.org/reading_resource_project/.

 Literacy Empowerment Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to distributing

soft cover books free of charge for literacy programs. They will be an extremely prospective

partner as we seek to expand the reach of our organization to more elementary schools in

Michigan. We will only have to pay for shipping and handling fees, which is $0.88 per book.

This means that our yearly cost for children book in this first phrase will go from almost $3000

to just $320. However, since they are distributing on a first come first serve basis, our source is

not guaranteed so we still expect to use some combination of Barnes & Nobles and Literacy

Empowerment Foundation while we are working to ensure a cheap and reliable source from

Literacy Empowerment Foundation.

3. Kids Bestsellers, Barnes & Noble,

www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/kids/_/N-1fZ29Z8q8Ztu1.

This website gives lists of top 100 children book at Barnes & Nobles. Barnes & Nobles is

a very reliable and popular book supplier and their products are of high quality. Additionally,

these books do not only teach our participants vocabulary, but also instill important moral

lessons that will be of great significance to their development. In line with our plan, we would

give about 15 participants a book after every meeting as a way to foster their reading habit. The

cost of a children book will be roughly 8 dollars. With an expected 24 meetings annually, we

estimate the total cost of books to be approximately 2880 dollars.

4. Meeting Rooms. Ypsilanti District Library,

www.ypsilibrary.org/services/in-our-libraries/meeting-rooms/.
 This website contains information on capacity and reservation of meeting rooms at

Ypsilanti District Library. There are a wide variety of rooms with different capacities ranging

from 2 up to 18 people, which makes our project highly adaptable. As stated on the website,

there is no cost involved in the reservation and usage of these meeting rooms, which makes this

library a perfect location for our project. This library is also very convenient to our participants

as it is the closest library from Holmes Elementary School (2.4 miles) and is only 0.1 miles away

from the Ypsilanti Transit Center.

5. Pivot, University of Michigan Library, www.lib.umich.edu/database/pivot.

Pivot is a grant search engine with a large database, allowing our nonprofit organization

to look for grants with a strong focus on education in Michigan, offered by private as well as

state and national bodies. This will provide our organization with great opportunities to manage

the financial aspect of our activities especially in the face of the present literacy crisis in

Michigan. What’s more important about these grants is that they represent recognition from

reputable bodies, which would facilitate our negotiation process with our partners and help us

attract new participants by making us more trustworthy and reliable in the public’s eye.