Book Haters No More
Elaine Miskinis, Cynthia Freyberger, and Kathleen Vetter
"Why do we have to read?"
Educators hear that question more often than we can count. We try to offer interesting books and make our lessons engaging and inclusive of different learning styles. But in the end, we're often left with a handful of students who'd rather eat glass than read a book cover to cover.
So, how do we turn book haters into readers? Several years ago we (a teacher, a media specialist, and a curriculum administrator) sat down together to answer that million-dollar question.
We decided to tap into the social nature of teenagers by forming book clubs. But in a school of nearly 1,800 students, we faced this dilemma: If we limited the groups to individual classes, the clubs would be nothing more than another class exercise. No matter what books students chose, we'd face a forced march through each chapter. But if we opened the clubs to the entire student body, nonreaders would never willingly join up.
So we created book clubs that included our most struggling readers. As a pilot, we formed clubs of four to five students and two adults each, with all students in the clubs taken from one of Elaine's 10th grade classes; every student in that particular class read substantially below grade level. By asking these students to take the lead in everything from selecting books to constructing groups, we allowed them to own the activity.
We first sat down with a group of 12 students to discuss their positive and negative relationships with books. Several students mentioned that they didn't like to read because it was "too hard" or the books were "boring" or "stupid." As we encouraged students to talk about their interests and what type of reading they did enjoy, sports, adventure, forensics, mystery, stories about real teenagers, and any type of graphic novel surfaced as attractive options.
On the basis of this information, the library media specialist selected a variety of books for the teens to peruse. We gave students plenty of time to leaf through books and discuss them. The six titles they eventually chose ranged from manga to autobiographies.
We didn't want the clubs to include only teachers and students because we feared students would defer to teachers. So we invited the principal, coaches, counselors, paraprofessionals, and teachers from a variety of disciplines to join.
Book clubs met for six 45-minute weekly sessions during the students' assigned English class. Participants first met as a whole group for 10 minutes to enjoy refreshments and discuss any housekeeping matters; then the groups broke off to meet in small conference rooms, counselors' offices with comfortable chairs, or sunny corners in common areas.
Groups formed around the students' book choices, and each group designed its own agenda and ground rules. We asked students to bring questions to their groups as discussion fodder; a leader chose a question randomly if conversations stalled. After the first week or two, discussing the books became natural.
At the end of each six-week session, student and adult participants shared their thoughts on their books through an online collaborative application called VoiceThread. Students' comments illustrated that not only had they read the books, but they could also speak about characters, conflicts, and themes with an ease that indicated they had absorbed many of the works' nuances.
One afternoon, our media specialist ran into one of the book club students—a self-described "book hater"—and asked how his book was going. After thinking for a minute, he said, "You know that kid in the book? I think he just needs some nurturing." This comment—from a high school sophomore who, until this point, bragged that he'd never finished a book—led into rich discussion about how fiction authors reveal multilayered situations and personalities.
Our focus in forming book clubs was on creating enthusiastic readers, and, three years into book clubs, we see much that tells us this has happened. In an anonymous survey of book club participants, several students said the clubs motivated them to come to school; all participants said they'd like to be in a book club again. Our librarians noted an increase in students checking out book club titles after the clubs ended. We are now addressing how to formally measure the gains participating students make in test scores, school attendance, and literacy levels. Meanwhile, the joy of seeing former book haters bond into communities of readers who discuss surprise plot twists with the principal makes the effort worthwhile.
Math Camp: Promoting Persistence
Sylvia Turner and Veronica Tigert
Juan jetted across the grass, calling, "Go out farther .... I wanna see how far I can throw the ball." Juan knew he might fail—in front of his buddies—to throw a football as far as he hoped. But he took the risk, failed, shrugged it off, and tried again.
In the classroom, Juan was generally not the risk taker he was in sports. Yet as he participated in a weeklong math camp, Juan began to view mathematics as being like tossing a football: I might not get it the first time, but if I don't give up, I can eventually do it.
Math camp is an intervention for 4th–6th grade students developed by mathematics coaches in California's Lincoln Unified School District. It provides focused remediation for gaps in student knowledge. During the regular school year, 12 "campers" spend three to five days at a former elementary campus experiencing mathematics in a meaningful context. Teachers devise a work plan to ensure these students don't fall behind in the work they miss while attending camp.
At a time when schools are increasing instructional minutes for reading and math at the expense of time for music, physical education, and the like, educators need more effective ways to devote time to remediation. Typically, struggling elementary students are placed in after-school programs, summer school, or remedial classes (losing opportunities for enrichment courses). Within such classes, students all follow the same curriculum, as though they all need the same amount of remediation.
For example, before math camp, Juan attended an after-school program focused on fractions. He could hear the neighboring guitar class and soccer practice as he worked, and he felt he was getting punished for "being dumb."
Math camp is an alternative to this model. Teachers select students for the camp on the basis of their California Standards Test scores, district benchmark scores, and classroom assessments. They choose kids who are hard workers yet continue to fall behind; 89 percent come from low-income backgrounds. Once in camp, these students often respond well to challenging problems. When encouraged to collaborate, discuss, and present orally, they rise to the occasion.
The district's math coaches are camp instructors. Curriculum for each camp focuses on a single concept, such as fractions or proportional reasoning, and then progresses to teaching visual and notational representations connected to that concept.
Camp activities reflect different learning styles, promote mathematical discourse, and encourage collaboration. Campers might work in teams to design experiments and gather data about natural phenomena (such as shadows); debate solutions to challenging problems regarding ratios; perform fractional parts of jumping jacks; or play mathematics games.
The following interaction demonstrates how mathematical discourse gives campers an arena to discover and revise their thinking.
Teacher: What if I cut each of those tenths in half? What size piece would I have?Juan: Twelfths?Brenda: No, twentieths.Juan: Oh yeah, 'cause you cut each of the tenths in half so 10 times 2 is 20.Teacher: So two twentieths fit into this tenth and then all the way across 2, 4, 6 … 20.Juan: If you do that again it will go to 40.Teacher: How do you know?
Later, Juan used the knowledge he constructed about equivalent fractions to determine whether one-third is closer to one-fourth or one-half.
Outcomes so far are promising. A three-year comparison of results on the California Standardized Test and district benchmark assessments revealed a statistically significant increase in 276 math campers' scores, compared with nonparticipating peers. Teachers report that "campers" become better students overall: Students who were quiet or frustrated in class return from math camp believing that they are capable learners. As Juan expressed in his journal, "It's like I found my voice."
Built-In Remediation
David Nagal
Using formative assessment as the driver, technology as the accelerator, and extended time for targeted interventions as the road to follow, a Buffalo charter school is providing interventions that produce dramatic results.
The Charter School for Applied Technologies (CSAT) serves 1,600 K–12 students from 16 school systems throughout western New York. Eighty-five percent of its students come from Buffalo, one of the poorest cities in the United States; 82 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In 2009, CSAT posted a graduation rate of 100 percent, while pulling students from systems with graduation rates closer to 50 percent, and the majority of its students passed New York's high school exit exam The school accepts students by lottery, which raises the question: If CSAT has no achievement-based selection process, how do we produce stellar achievement results?
The key to our success is a required remediation period, which the school's dedicated staff implements with leadership from assistant superintendent Eon Verrall and with guidance from school development consultants from the Leadership and Learning Center.
Since 2007, teacher teams have worked together to create, grade, and analyze common formative assessments using the management software eDoctrina. The software provides immediate, specific feedback to diagnose learning gaps. Teachers manage data from a central location that they access minutes after students complete each formative assessment. The software frees up time formerly spent collecting, charting, or simply grading assessments.
Although this technology enhances the timeliness of feedback to teacher and student, it's the next step that allows feedback to drive changes in student behavior and, ultimately, in achievement. After teachers analyze assessments (which are given every two weeks), set goals, and agree on intervention strategies, they turn to a time-expanding innovation: flex time.
Flex time is a 45-minute period added to the end of the school day. School personnel expect all students identified as behind in work or skill proficiency to stay for flex time to receive the help they need. A daily and weekly list identifies students expected to stay with specific teachers for targeted intervention until they master the material. When students shirk an assignment or fail a test, they must complete the work or be retested during flex time. Thus, interventions are immediate and decisive. It's using a check-up to assign treatment instead of waiting for the autopsy.
CSAT's leaders made one "in-flight correction" after the first year because kids were viewing the intervention block as punitive. Everyone is now expected to attend flex time and leave school at 4:00. Only students identified as proficient at CSAT standards and caught up with their work can leave at 3:00. To be "blessed" as proficient at the skill or standard for which a learner received extra help in flex time, that student asks a teacher to give him or her a formative assessment covering that standard. (Teachers have a "bank" of many assessment items for each standard, so they can give students customized assessments at different times.) If the student shows the standard has been mastered, he or she no longer goes to flex time. Instead of being a punishment, flex time has become an opportunity to earn free time.
For example, as science teacher Jeff Black reviewed Tyrone's homework and assessment scores on eDoctrina, he noticed that Tyrone was struggling with the concept of identifying minerals. Black assigned Tyrone and a group of students struggling with the same concept to join him during flex time for several days so he could reteach this material. Black clarified mineral identification before these learners' grades suffered and serious skill and knowledge gaps grew.
Since adding flex time, the number of CSAT students passing the New York State Regents Exam has risen by 20 percent or more in all subjects. In 2009, 92 percent of students passed the exam in English and 97 percent in algebra. Says superintendent J. Efrain Martinez, "We're taking urban students and getting them to perform at suburban levels. That simply isn't done by chance."
Targeted Tutoring
John T. Roskosky
The accountability movement has changed U.S. schools. No teacher can now say of any student, "I taught it, but he just didn't get it." Teachers need to find a way to reachevery student, and that requires targeting strategies to students' individual needs. One practice I've seen schools use creatively is individualized tutoring.
I've used tutoring with great success both at El Paso High School, where I was principal for many years, and in schools at which I currently consult. The bottom line: Tutoring must be specific and targeted. Using generic materials for all students in a tutoring session is a waste of time, effort, and money.
At El Paso High School, we scheduled hour-long tutoring sessions before and after school, four days a week. We also had a tutoring period during the school day. As principal, I recruited the school's best, most student-centered teachers for each content area in which many students struggled and had those teachers facilitate a daily tutoring period for six weeks. We identified students who needed extra help and negotiated with each student's teacher in an elective to have that student released from the elective class to attend the tutoring period.
One school I now work with shortened each period of their seven-period day by five minutes to add a 30-minute daily tutoring period before lunch. Junior and senior students in good academic standing are rewarded with an hour lunch; all other students attend tutoring before their 30-minute lunch. The curriculum director assigns each student to a particular tutoring classroom on the basis of that student's grades in core subjects and areas of weakness determined through assessments. Some students rotate through all core academic areas, but if a student only has issues in one subject, that learner stays within that area for tutoring.
Creativity may be required to find enough tutors. One suggestion is tapping your local university. At El Paso High, we formally hired juniors and seniors from the University of Texas at El Paso to tutor our struggling students. We furnished an unused business lab with comfortable furniture, round tables, computers, and interactive whiteboards and set about training each tutor in study skills, standards, and learning objectives connected to our state's exit examination and in strategies to employ with individual students.
At first, we opened a tutoring center where students could go for assistance with any schoolwork throughout the day or before or after school. Student response was overwhelmingly positive. We saw many kids use the service to achieve greater success. We then became more focused. Teachers identified individual students needing help with specific learning objectives. We developed support strategies with teachers and tutors and assigned these students to the tutoring center. Tutors kept in close contact with the sending teacher to ensure that individual kids improved. The faculty was so impressed with the results that we began to assign specific college students to support teachers in their classrooms.
Targeted tutoring is not "education as usual." Established with individual students in mind, it allows schools to support each student as an individual and meet our sworn goal of providing an appropriate education for all.
