Classroom Library Grants

The ELA Honor Society offers Classroom Library Grants designed to enhance the Society’s goals of

• promoting interest in literature and language within ELA Honor Society schools;
• fostering all aspects of English study including literature, language, writing, and media;
• providing ELA Honor Society Chapter Advisors with a range of compelling literature to share with the students they teach; and
• giving students access to diverse, inclusive, and high-quality texts, particularly in areas where access to libraries or books at home may be limited.

Awards:

ELA Honor Society Chapter Advisors are eligible for awards of up to $400

Applicant eligibility:

• Applicants must be Advisors of active chapters in good standing with the ELA Honor Society.
• Applicants may only contend for this award once every two years and can only win the award once.

Application requirements:

1. All submissions must be made via the ELA AwardSpring platform.
2. Applicants must complete demographic data questions prior to submitting their documentation.
3. All applicants must include a brief biography and portrait photo.
4. All applicants must complete an online questionnaire which requires the following information:
   • contextual information about the school and the local area;
   • the level of access your students have to a school library (hours, number of books available that can be checked out per student over what period, or other relevant information regarding access);
   • the proximity of the nearest public library and information about its holdings, policies, and hours that might affect student access;
   • information about the local culture that may affect the kind of books students have access to in the home or through school and public libraries;
   • an explanation of how you envision a classroom library will support your students’ efforts toward literacy and a love of literature, language, and writing; and
   • if your classroom library will be shared with other teachers, please explain how that will work.
5. All applicants must upload a PDF wish list including 20-30 titles you plan to purchase with the Classroom Library Grant funds. You may reference this list in your narrative if you want to explain the rationale for including certain titles.
6. The application process will require applicants to provide a recommendation letter from a school administrator. The letter they provide should include the following information:
   • confirm demographic and geographic information about the school;
   • endorse your plans for using the library grant funds; and
   • include the writer’s mailing address, email address, and phone number.
7. Applicants must agree that, should they win an award, they are willing to provide a written report and photos detailing the impact the award has had on them, which can be used by the ELA Honor Society to promote this and other awards in future years.
8. Applicants must also agree that the Classroom Library Grant will remain the property of the applicant teacher while they are working at their current school and, should the teacher leave, will revert to being property of the ELA Honor Society Chapter at their current school.

Evaluation process:

1. All submissions will be evaluated by the NEHS Advisory Council.
2. All applications will be evaluated against a rubric containing (but not limited to) the following categories:
   • lack of economic and geographic access to books at your school, or another demonstrated need;
   • the explanation of how the classroom library envisioned will support your goals in alignment with the goals of the ELA Honor Society; and
   • supervisory endorsement of your classroom library project.
3. Awards will be given purely based on merit, not based on the imperative that all funds should be spent annually.