Sound It Out
Along with her background as a professor, researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
The "Mystery Reader" needs a book
My daughter's third-grade teacher does something called The Mystery Reader, which involves a surprise visit by an adult who comes in to read with the class. I'm the Mystery this Friday (shhhh…don't tell Molly!)
I'm looking for funny and engaging picture book read alouds for third graders. I've asked around my neighborhood and my teacher friends, and combed our own bookcases. I have a few ideas, but would love to hear yours!
Some possible titles are below; please tell me what titles have worked well for you! And, with our teacher's permission, here's more information about her "Mystery Reader" program:
The invitation and description
The reminder letter and request for clues
So far, possible titles include:
- Arnie, the Doughnut by Laurie Keller, about a doughnut shocked to discover his fate
- What To Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! "Theodore Roosevelt had a small problem. Her name was Alice. Alice Lee Roosevelt was hungry to go places, meet people, do things. Father called it running riot."
- Dolores Meets Her Match
"Until the arrival of Hillary, the new girl in the class, Dolores has been the star of Show-and-Tell and resident cat expert, accustomed to regaling her classmates with tales of her "amazing" cat Duncan. Now she is worried."
My fellow blogger on Page by Page, children's lit expert Maria Salvadore, gave me other suggestions, here are two:
- Ever wonder what writing instruments do when their kid snoozes? Well, Tony finds out in Arthur Yorinks' newish book Homework (published by Walker). Richard Egielski did the boldly outlined and colored illustrations just right for sharing to a group. (This is the author illustrator team that won a Caldecott for Hey, Al, though this is a very different book.)
- A chapter from a Gooney Bird Greene book (any of them) would read aloud well — and 3rd graders might enjoy recalling what life was in 2nd grade. My favorite chapter is in the newest book, Gooney Bird Is So Absurd (Houghton), in which Mrs. Pidgeon introduces the class — including the principal — to the fun of writing limericks.
Update 11/16/09
It was SO fun to be the Mystery Reader! The class caught me in the hallway as I was heading to the classroom, so there wasn't much of a "big reveal," but it was still tons of fun.
I ended up reading two books about writing: We started with Homework that Maria suggested, and then read Chester (that commenter Jaymie recommended - thanks Jaymie!)
The kids LOVED both books, I think Homework appealed more to the boys, and everyone loved Chester.
I almost went with one longer book, and had chosen Henry and the Kite Dragon, which is a book I still want to share with a group of kids.
THANKS for all your suggestions, both here and on Facebook. I really appreciate it!
Pictures in the Mind: Magicians and Elephants
Our new family read aloud is Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant. Although we're only three chapters in, we're all hooked. It's a great read aloud for my kids, ages 7 and 9, and I'm sure other ages would love it too.
An excerpt from Kirkus Reviews:
Ten-year-old Peter Augustus Duchene goes to the market for fish and bread but spends it at the fortuneteller's tent instead. Seeking his long-lost sister, Peter is told, "You must follow the elephant. She will lead you there." And that very night at the Bliffenendorf Opera House, a magician's spell goes awry, conjuring an elephant that crashes through the ceiling and lands on Madam Bettine LaVaughn. Reading like a fable told long ago, with rich language that begs to be read aloud, this is a magical story about hope and love, loss and home, and of questioning the world versus accepting it as it is.
The book's website offers Chapter 1 as an excerpt, as well as an activity kit and a reading group discussion guide.
DiCamillo's writing brings you right there: right to the fortuneteller's tent, right to the magician's prison cell. While the book includes a few illustrations, (beautifully done by Yoko Tanaka) the writing provides a perfect opportunity to help kids develop pictures in their mind while reading or listening. The National Reading Panel includes mental imagery as one of their "top 7" comprehension strategies, citing research that suggests imagery can improve memory, comprehension, and an appreciation for text.
I found two booklists with titles to use with young kids that provide mental imagery practice:
- Into The Book's list chosen by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- and this chapter from Stenhouse Publishing called The Power to Visualize (scroll to the end).
Let's make our own list of books to use with kids that provide powerful mental images, I'll start! You comment in with titles too!
1. The Magician's Elephant — perfect for grades 2-4, see above
2. The Wingdingdilly (by Bill Peet) — my second graders loved drawing their own creature as I read aloud
Managing instruction when kids are sick
Molly went back to school Monday morning after being out sick all last week. She had the double whammy of H1N1 and strep throat. It was a loooong week for her and me! She was miserable, feverish, and missed five days of school.
Flu-related absences present a real instructional challenge for teachers. After all, it's hard to run a reading group with half the group out sick. And what about that new science unit, or the concept in math you planned to teach? Should you hold off new content, or go ahead and teach it and plan to teach it again when the sick kids are back?
The U.S. Department of Education offers some advice in their document Preparing for the Flu: Department of Education Recommendations to Ensure the Continuity of Learning for Schools (K‐12). Included are recommendations that range from sending hard copy packets home to sick kids to recorded class meetings made available online or through podcasts to distance learning courses. Each recommendation seeks to keep the learning going, even when kids are out of school.
Molly's teacher used a simple paper form to communicate missed assignments. Every day she filled out the sections (math, science, social studies), and sent home worksheets and pages to read from the reading group's book. It worked for us, and it's what many teachers do during this time of the year.
For parents, kids under a blanket are a captive audience! Use this opportunity to start a new read aloud at home. Or, check out our booklist called From Book to Film. You can plan a fun day of reading a book and snuggling up for the movie adaptation.
Teachers: What are you doing to keep instruction going in your classroom? Please share your tips and advice!
Parents: What are you doing to occupy your sick child? Got any great tips or advice to share?
Reading at home: "You either get angry or you can bribe them"
Last week's blog post about Accelerated Reader generated some great comments, both here on the blog and also on our Facebook page. I love that the audience for this blog appears to be a combination of parents, teachers, principals, reading specialists, grandparents, special education teachers, graduate students….
A comment from last week's post inspired this week's title. Alex's comment was a dead-on piece of reality:
From a parent's point of view, when you are sitting with your kid and encouraging them to read, meanwhile they are tired and bored and guessing at words and making up games, what can you do? You either get angry and say, "just read this, I know you can and it's getting late and I'm tired!" or you can bribe them...."if you read this, you'll get some sort of special treat." I really haven't seen a deep discussion of how to help during those little times. No practical tips. I hear things like, "pick a regular time each day, continue to read to the kids, make it fun!" but not a lot of practical advice.
Haven't we all been there at some point with a reluctant reader?
Sadly, the "practical advice" needed isn't quick and easy to communicate, and it really is darn hard work. But, if I were to pick one piece of advice to help during those times, it would be this: make sure your child is reading at his or her independent level at home.
A child's independent level is the level at which the material is relatively easy for the student to read, and can be read with at least 95% accuracy. Books at this level aren't hard for the child to read, and dont require the child to sound out lots of words. Most of the words are read quickly and easily.
When a child spends time reading at his independent level, he's getting a chance to practice word recognition and word analysis skills (the ones hopefully being taught at school). Repeated readings of the same book over and over again enable each reading to become smoother. Soon, the reading will begin to "sound like talking." These are all important steps in becoming a fluent reader.
So, get ready to hear those favorite beginning reader books over and over again. Build up a basketful of independent-level books to be read at night, and then read 4 or 6 a night.
A side note: In our house, we "retire" a book when it can be read with eyes closed.
Related: How to Read with a Beginning Reader
Accelerated Reader is not a reading program
My friend B called yesterday to talk about her second grader. A former teacher herself, B was worried because she hasn't seen any language-arts related papers come home. When she asks her daughter about reading groups at school, her daughter simply says, "We don't do reading groups. I take tests on a computer."
Her daughter is right; she is taking tests on the computer. Her school uses Accelerated Reader, which according to the AR site is "the world's most widely used reading software." AR works this way: Student reads a book, student takes a quiz, teacher gets a report that outlines the quiz scores. Students' scores accumulate during the year, and the number of points available differs by book. The easier the book, the fewer the points. For example, in browsing the AR BookFinder site, I learned that Jerry Pinkney's Little Red Riding Hood is worth 0.5 points, Abel's Island (William Steig) is worth 3 points.
The What Works Clearinghouse review of Accelerated Reader found two studies that met the WWC evidence standards. Based on the data from these two studies, WWC concluded:
The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Accelerated Reader to be medium to large for comprehension and small for reading fluency and general reading achievement.
I'm okay with a school having AR in place, and using it for what it may be: a supplemental intervention that may encourage kids to engage in more independent reading. But a word of caution: the National Reading Panel's conclusion of programs that encouraged independent reading was "unable to find a positive relationship between programs and instruction that encourage large amounts of independent reading and improvements in reading achievement, including fluency." p.12), so AR really shouldn't be used as a large part of the LA block.
Accelerated Reader doesn't provide reading instruction. Teachers do. I've encouraged B to call her child's teacher and find out more about the 90 minute block of LA time. Chances are there's a lot more going on than B's daughter recognizes. Stay tuned, I'll let you know what B says when she calls me back!
The U.S. mail and teacher–student relationships
Oh, the wondrous things a postcard with a quick note from a teacher can do! Molly received this post card in the mail from her third-grade teacher. I wish Mrs. M could have seen Molly's face when she realized what the mailman had brought. She rushed in to show me, grinning from ear to ear. This small gesture from Molly's teacher did so much to further Molly's perception of herself in her new classroom.
Cognitive theorists consider learning to be a social event. Recent research suggests that both teachers and students pay the price if they fail to form warm, supportive relationships within the classroom. All kinds of behaviors can be associated with positive "attachments" in the classroom, among them: greater emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, and with lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which is associated with higher achievement.
Besides postcards, what can teachers do to enhance their relationships with students? According to research from the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, teachers can organize nonacademic extracurricular activities for students and teachers to participate together, have students and teacher eat lunch together in small groups a few times a week, have homeroom teachers act as advisers for students, and create an atmosphere of open communication.
What has worked in your classroom? How do you foster positive relationships with your students?
Building comprehension, one corpse at a time
A runaway train. A ticking clock. Two young kids on an adventure they don’t even know about. Sound exciting? That’s the premise of the first episode of the Exquisite Corpse, a new project sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
From the Exquisite Corpse site:
Ever heard of an Exquisite Corpse? It's not what you might think. An Exquisite Corpse is an old game in which people write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold it over to conceal part of it and pass it on to the next player to do the same. The game ends when someone finishes the story, which is then read aloud.
Teachers have used a similar strategy in the classroom for years, but I’ve usually seen it done orally. Kids sit in a circle, begin a tale, and move around the circle adding and shifting the storyline with each student. One lucky student gets to wrap it up with an ending that pulls it all together.
From a reading teacher’s perspective, this is great practice. To build a successful story, students have to pay attention, formulate their own storyline, and further the plot by providing information that builds on what they’ve learned so far. Sounds like great comprehension work to me!
Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, has written the first episode of this Exquisite Corpse, which is "pieced together out of so many parts that it is not possible to describe them all here, so go ahead and just start reading!" And that’s no joke. Scieszka drops hints about several interesting things that may unfold with the story, including an elephant clown party, real ninjas, fake vampires, a roller-skating baby and more.
There will be a new episode and illustration every two weeks, for a year. The readability seems to be around second or third grade, but the comprehension work can span into many other grade levels.
For teachers, The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and the Butler Center for Children’s Literature at Dominican University have developed a companion educational resource center to support the project. For this episode, the resources include a list of other cliffhanger books kids might like, activities for the classroom that focus on synonyms and antonyms, figurative language, a guide to the characters, and some information about the artwork that accompanies episode one.
Here at Reading Rockets, we have our own “Exquisite Prompt,” and you can learn more about the prompts, author/illustrator resources, and rules here.
I think we’ll be giving the Exquisite Corpse a try around our house. Care to join me?
Could've, should've, would've taught these contractions?
My friend's third grader came home with her word study list this week. On the list were the contractions could've, should've, would've and might've. My friend brought the list over to talk about it, and had real concerns about those contractions being taught. "I challenged [her daughter] to find any of those words in print. I know we use them when we talk, but I don't think of them as being real words that should be used in writing."
Grammar Central lists those contractions among its basics for communicating clearly, and those contractions are real words. But Grammar Girl agrees with my friend. Calling them "hazardous contractions," words on Grammar Girl's list include "could've," "should've," "would've," "might've," and "must've." What makes them hazardous is that they encourage people to believe the proper pronunciations are "could of" and "must of," rather than "could have," "should have," "would have," and "might have." According to Grammar Girl, it's better to spell these out when you are writing them, though she acknowledges that you'll probably find yourself using these contractions in regular speech.
Maybe those should be the two word study lessons for the week: (1) The "hazardous contractions" are formed with the word "have" rather than "of," and (2) Recognize that for clarity's sake, some words used in oral language are better left out of our written language.
What does your contraction curriculum include? Are these "hazardous contractions" included? And, if they are in there, how have you taught them?
Can't volunteer in the classroom?
Question: My son's teacher doesn't allow parent volunteers in the classroom. She says she has her schedule worked out and another adult in the room would make things too disruptive for the kids. I want to help in the room and like working with the kids, so now what do I do?
Answer: Thanks for the question! Volunteering is a great way to get involved at your child's school. If you read Freakonomics, you'll remember the part about "a child whose parents are involved in the PTA tend to do well in school." There's nothing magical about the PTA per say, it's the involvement and strong relationship to education that makes the difference.
Because you can't volunteer directly in your child's classroom, here are some other ways to get involved that can really help the school and the kids too.
- If you like working directly with students, ask if there is another teacher in the building who would like a parent volunteer. While your teacher might not want parents in the room, others might, particularly in the lower grades, like K and 1. Some schools actually have policies that parents can't volunteer in their child's classroom, but are assigned to other teachers.
- If you like working with groups of students, ask the music, art or PE teacher if they would like some help. This provides a great opportunity to see kids in a different setting. Specialists don't get offers to help nearly as often as classroom teachers do.
- Check out the library! The librarian, sometimes called the media specialist, is likely looking for help shelving books and assisting with check out. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with new books you can share with your own children.
- Ask if your school has a volunteer tutoring program like Book Buddies or the Howard Street Tutoring program. Research confirms that volunteer tutoring has a positive effect on student achievement. If your school doesn't have a program in place, the Washington Reading Corps Toolkit offers some terrific resources to get a program started.
I hope one of these sounds interesting to you, and I'm sure there are other opportunities at your school, perhaps through the PTO? I applaud your desire to volunteer at your child's school. I've always loved this quote from Elizabeth Andrew: Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.
You can't let your failures define you
"You can't let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time." What an important and powerful message for students from President Obama.
Persistence and perseverance are particularly important traits for students who struggle in school. The willingness to try, try, try and try again is so important. It's the motivation to do the repeated, guided, well crafted practice that can help students make the progress they need to make to learn to read. When I taught second grade, one of my favorite text sets was one I built around the theme of persistence.
What was in my text set on persistence? Here are five of the titles. What titles can you add?
Obviously, the Little Engine That Could. There wasn't anything fancy about my version, either. Just a familiar tale that started the theme off well.
Amazing Grace is the story of a beautifully imaginative black girl who desperately wants to play the role of Peter Pan in the school play. Undeterred by classmates' remarks, "Peter is a boy. You are a girl," and others, Grace perseveres and inspires others.
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. Cute, cute pictures and an adventure tale about a kitten who mistakes the moon for a bowl of milk. With a happy ending and classic Henkes appeal, a fun addition to the set.
The Carrot Seed. Classic tale of a little boy who plants a carrot seed and waits patiently for it to grow. This book was a great addition to the text set for years when the kids read the books (in contrast to using them as read alouds) because of its lower readability.
Tillie and the Wall. The story of the youngest mouse who is determined to see whats on the other side of a long, high wall. Through her determination and smarts, Tillie makes it to the other side. Beautiful pictures, well told. A wonderful read aloud.
Do you have any titles to add to the text set?
Choosing the year's first read aloud
An article in the New York Times, Choosing Summer's Last Big Read, describes how summer, with its illusion of more free time, means reading a certain kind of book. With my personal reading, I can definitely relate to leisurely summer reading. Other books are strictly winter reads, and sit collecting dust until cooler temperatures. I mean, who could read Tenderness of Wolves or Snow Falling on Cedars in the summer?! I can't really describe why certain books map to certain times of the year for me, but it's very real.
All this thinking about summer books made me think about books for fall, specifically that first read aloud you share with your new class of kids. What's the perfect first read aloud? I'm thinking beyond the picture book to a chapter book that the class has to commit to. My last post on read alouds listed some my favorites, and teachers and librarians commented in with their own favorites, creating a good list of its own.
My friends' kids are in classrooms with pretty predictable, solid, can't go wrong choices: The Hundred Dresses, The BFG, and George's Marvelous Medicine. In talking with my friends about these books, I realized no one mentioned any nonfiction — no autobiographies, biographies, or memoirs. I'm not sure what this means, but with wonderful nonfiction award winners like these I'm sure some nonfiction titles will be read soon.
Teachers, what did you pick for your first read aloud, and why that book? Parents, what did your child's teacher pick? How does your child like the book?
Looking at writing: An emergent writer
This writing sample comes from a 5 year old boy in my neighborhood, who happily wrote a big long message one afternoon. "Wow, Nelson! What did you write?" Mom asked. Nelson looked at it, scrunched his nose, and said, "I dunno. Something about a butterfly, I think."
What this sample tells me:
- This is a child who knows some letters! The sample contains just letters, no symbols or numbers mixed in.
- He's able to print letters, mostly upper-case, with two lower case i's also.
- This is a kid who's willing to write. That's a lot of work for a 5 year old.
- He knows that writing carries a message, and he had something to say.
Where to go from here, instructionally:
The next stages of Nelson's writing can be enhanced by instruction that focuses on two things: more letters being written that match the sounds in the words he wants to write, and the development of a concept of word. These skills can be developed using activities that focus on beginning sounds and tracking the match between speech and print.
Words Their Way is a favorite resource for activities and suggestions for learners in the emergent stage. I've trained lots of preservice and inservice teachers to use word study, and most teachers love it, once they get the management side of it down. The appendix has lots of pictures to use for sorts and games, templates for sorts and games, and other resources. From here you can download Chapter 1 of the emergent reader book, although the focus of that chapter is assessment.
There are lots of ways to develop concept of word that uses common, everyday materials. Simple sentences, cut-up into their individual words "The cat had a toy" provide opportunities for kids to manipulate individual words, putting them together to form sentences. In Buy My Sentence, students use a penny to represent each word in a sentence they say or want to write.
For a student like Nelson, simply writing a line for each word he would like to write will help him focus on each word, and he can begin the work of representing the sounds he hears in each word. Small group and whole class fingerpoint reading of familiar books and rhymes like "Five Little Monkeys" also supports the development of a concept of word.
(Thanks to the Nellie Edge site for the Five Little Monkeys image)
Do more than read…talk!
Teaching by Listening, a study from the July 2009 journal Pediatrics, is all about the contribution of adult-child conversations to a child's language development. This piece, along with other research, documents the effect of language in the home on a child's vocabulary. Without question, kids who hear more words spoken at home learn more words and enter school with better vocabularies. This word knowledge advantage pays off exponentially as a child progresses through school. Those who hear fewer words fall victim to "The Early Catastrophe", the 30 million word gap by age 3.
The study from Pediatrics confirms the value of language, but more importantly, it reminds us that parents can get a lot more mileage out of those bedtime books by adding in quality bedtime chats, about the book, or about anything!
Three of the authors' findings seem useful and important enough to share with parents during these first few weeks of school:
- Don't just read a book to your child. Engage them in conversation during and after the reading. Make sure the conversation is two-sided. The more "conversational turns" a child gets, the better.
- When you're talking to your child, adjust what you're saying based on your child's language skill. Your language should be neither too simple so that no new words are learned, nor so difficult that your child doesn't understand what you're saying.
- Get your child talking, a lot. The more talking a child does, the more they are provided with an opportunity to practice and consolidate newly acquired interesting words.
Some advice for those about to start kindergarten
Well, really this advice is for FAMILIES whose first-born child is about to start kindergarten. Two of my close friends fall into this category, and have been talking to me about their transitions. It's a big one! Some of the advice I've shared is below:
Kindergarten, at least at a public school, is not preschool. There will probably be more kids in the room, and at least at the beginning, the teacher will be really busy learning names and getting bus numbers committed to memory. Don't despair if you don't have tons of close contact with the teacher right away. He or she is incredibly busy helping kids get adjusted.
Second, there are LOADS of papers that come home the first day, really the whole first week. As a parent, take the time to sift through it all and return those that require returning. Your teacher will be keeping a checklist of papers returned — make sure all the papers get back! Most schools use a special folder or other system for important papers. Make a backpack check part of every day.
Third, although you're hoping for a full recounting of the first day (or week) of school, don't be surprised if your child doesn't blurt it all out right off the bus. Your child will surely be exhausted and overwhelmed from all the new "stuff." I've found that my girls talk more easily when they're distracted: by helping me prepare dinner, pull weeds, or fold the laundry. Those often become our closest moments of the day. Also, it helps when I remember to frame my questions in ways that can't be answered yes/no!
Fourth, plan to get involved. Your teacher may not want volunteers right away, but when things settle down, try to get in to volunteer. It's a great way to make sense of things you hear at home. "Oh! There's the beehive you told me about!" You can also meet your child's classmates and become a part of the school. If you're busy during the day, see if there are things you can do from home. Cutting out shapes and helping prepare big projects is hugely helpful.
Last, you know your child. If he or she has special learning needs, make sure your teacher knows about them right away. If your child seems really distraught or frightened about school, or comes home telling a story that makes you nervous, call your teacher. I wouldn't let anything linger that I wasn't comfortable with.
Sending your first-born off to kindergarten is an exciting and scary time. I'm sure other parents and teachers have good advice too. Anything you want to add to my list? Comment away!
What is the parents' role in teacher assignment?
"What teacher do you want this year?"
That’s the question heard over and over again in my neighborhood. Moms asking Moms, Moms asking kids, and even kids asking kids: Who do you hope you get this year?
At the core of parent requests, of course, are parent hopes that their child spends the year with a teacher who helps their child thrive cognitively, emotionally, and socially. Parents whose kids have spent a year in a less than optimal environment can tell you that a school year can be a VERY long time when the teacher-child match was bad.
But do parents always know best when requesting a teacher? Maybe not always.
Personally, our principal is amenable to parent requests, with one caveat: no specific teacher names tied to requests. Parents can write letters that describe what they feel is the right setting for their child – a more loosely structured classroom or one that’s more tightly run, a teacher with a particular passion (science, math, writing) or one with a higher or lower tolerance for noise, etc. The principal and teachers take these requests into consideration, and then they work out what they believe to be the correct placement for every child. I think a lot of principals use similar logic: seek parental input, and moderate that with input from school teachers and staff and the logistics of the grade level.
There’s no question that the way teachers and students interact impacts learning, and that parents need to consider their child’s unique educational needs. How do teachers help children feel comfortable in the classroom? How do teachers help children develop skills to get the most out of school each day? How to teachers support students through concept development, feedback and modeling? Recent research on teacher-child interactions suggests that several dimensions of teaching are directly linked to student achievement and social development, and that these interaction effects occur for children as young as preschool.
What do you think? What is the parents’ role in teacher assignment?
My newest hat: PTO President
I'm going to be wearing a new hat at our elementary school: President of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). I'm sure it's going to be great, and provide me with experiences I wouldn't otherwise have. I hope to share the highs and lows in some of my future blog posts; please chime in with wisdom and wit! Right now, the work is just a bunch of administrative things to get us ready for the beginning of school.
Some real PTO planning took place last spring as we thought through our fundraisers for this year. My hope is to have a "product-free" year where we're not hawking stuff families don't need, and aren't likely to buy given the economic climate. The only product-oriented fundraiser we're doing is a coupon book that has restaurant "buy one, get one free" coupons, and discount offers from our big box stores and local businesses. We rationalized that fundraiser because it's really easy to recoup the cost ($25) by using just a few coupons and the overall purpose is to help us all save money. Our major fundraisers this year will be a golf tournament, an adult evening event, and our spring fun fair.
A top priority for the PTO this year will be for us to help create a sense of community given our new large size. We're starting the year with a Welcome Back Picnic for the whole school community. There could be 1,000 people there! We're going to have live music, and most of the food is being donated by our local grocery store. We're also about to launch a new PTO website that families can use to access a school directory, sign up to volunteer, and sign up for our afterschool programs and classes.
It's sure to be a busy year with lots to learn: Robert's Rules, budget issues, and a mission statement that we care about. I'll be relying on the national associations (PTO Today, the National PTA) and you for help! What PTO works at your school? What flops?
School size matters
The elementary school my girls go to recently underwent a huge renovation to accommodate predicted growth in our area. In addition to the growth, about 100 kids are being redistricted to our school because the other local school is overcrowded. Our school will be opening with over 500 kids this fall, a much larger population than we've had in the past.
We'll have four or five classrooms per grade level, around 90 kindergarten students, and a bloated third grade with over 95 third graders. Any way you look at it, that's a big school, especially at the elementary level! On average, research summaries indicate that the most effective size for an elementary school is in the range of 300-400 students.
As an educator, I'm worried about my kids going to such a big school. I'm familiar with the challenges facing large schools, among them lower achievement, increased behavior problems, less opportunities for teachers to collaborate, less interaction between teacher and student. I know those problems are of greater concern for large middle and high schools, but they can be issues within elementary schools, too.
Our principal is great, and she's already thought through natural subdivisions across grades and physical spaces. The school will be divided into different regions, and the kids will interact mostly with kids from one or two other grade levels. Assemblies and performances will be divided into two sessions. Teacher planning time will be coordinated so that grade-level and cross-grade level planning can occur. I know she'll do everything she can to make this a smooth transition and a great learning environment for all kids. There's just so many kids!
Stay tuned this year as we experience this larger school setting! And please share any experience you've teaching or sending your kids to a large (or small) school.
Monitoring Student Progress
When schools undertake a Response to Intervention model, one important piece involves progress monitoring (PM). Conducted at least monthly, these assessments can inform instruction, estimate rates of improvement, and identify students who are not making adequate progress.
Each of those are important to ensuring that kids are getting what they need out of their reading instruction. There are several excellent resources that provide guidance regarding progress monitoring. I'll highlight two here.
The first is the IES Practice Guide, Assisting Students Struggling with Reading. This guide is structured around five RtI recommendations. Each recommendation is rated, based on the evidence, and for each recommendation roadblocks and suggested approaches are provided. Table 3 provides recommendations (based on research compilations) for target areas for early screening and progress monitoring.
For grades K-1, letter naming fluency and phoneme segmentation are recommended for screening, and for progress monitoring through mid-first grade. For grades 1-2, measures of word identification and oral reading fluency are recommended for progress monitoring.
The second resource comes from the National Center on Response to Intervention. It takes the recommendations in the Practice Guide one step further by reviewing specific PM tools. Using a Consumer Reports type of coding, various tools are rated on "technical adequacy standards." For example, each progress monitoring tool is rated for reliability, validity, whether alternate forms exist, whether end-of-year benchmarks are provided, and whether rates of improvement are specified. My review of the compiled chart suggests there are some tools worth looking at more closely, among them AIMSweb, CBM-R, and MBSP.
If your school division is moving toward an RtI model, or you're spending the summer thinking through your assessment plans, these two resources are worth checking out.
Looking at writing: What can we learn?
Readers of this blog know that I love writing samples. I've collected them from my kids since they started scribbling, and I often ask friends and neighbors if I can make a copy of their kids notes, assignments, or scribbles.
Children learn about reading and writing from the time they're born. When young kids watch parents and siblings use writing to communicate, they are learning about the purpose and value of writing. Many children become interested in making marks and scribbling on paper beginning around 18 months.
Teachers and parents can learn so much about a child's development by looking closely at a sample. Today's sample (I think I'll run this feature semi-regularly) is the gift card I got on a birthday present last year.
In this sample we can see a healthy use of sight words (dear, mommy, here is, hope, like). There's evidence of a concept of word, although the spacing is tight. The use of the phrase, "It works like a champ," is heartwarming to me, and reinforces the importance of a language-rich environment at home.
Oh, and by the way, that mixer really does "make cookies yummy!"
Year round school: What do you think?
I read with interest this story from the Washington Post that describes one family's experience with year round school.
As a Mom who juggles work and young kids, the transition to summer for my family is nothing short of absolutely chaotic. My house has become nothing but bags (one for camp, one for swim team, one for bug spray and sunscreen, etc) and wet towels from the pool. We've been out of school since June 5 and we've yet to find our summer groove.
From Schulte's Post article:
Both President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have called the traditional school day and school year outdated and inadequate for the demands of 21st-century life. Students in countries that routinely outscore the United States on international tests go to school for as many as 230 days each year, 50 more than kids typically attend here. "Go ahead and boo me," Duncan said in April to Denver students. "I think schools should be open six, seven days a week, eleven, twelve months a year."
And we know the effect of summer on kids at risk, the "summer slide" that eats away at the progress kids make during the school year. Year-round school doesn't have to mean the same thing every day all year long. As Schulte describes, her school uses intersessions, which are designed to be full of hands-on, big project classes.
Clearly this is a big topic, one I'm touching on too lightly to present all the issues clearly. But for me, this week, year round school doesn't sound half bad.
In case you're interested, Brigid Schulte did an online Question/Answer following the publication of her article.