Seattle Public Schools, like many other urban districts, has developed a comprehensive, multi-year strategic plan that sets the direction for school reform. Titled, Excellence for All, the plan sets out how we build excellent schools, which will prepare every student to be college and work ready. Included in the plan are specific benchmarks to be used as measures of success. One such benchmark is ‘3^rd graders reading at grade level’.  As a district we have begun to make gains in reading achievement, however, there still exists a wide disparity in reading achievement between students who come to school with a rich literacy background and those who lack experiences essential to early reading development, such as time in books and the opportunity to hear books read aloud. Recently, the district has funded extensive independent reading libraries, kindergarten through fifth grade, and provided teacher professional development in this area.   Stocker Foundation grant dollars were used toward the acquisition of sets of guided reading materials for the five designated schools; professional development for teachers (See Appendix A) focusing on best instructional practices in reading, which included guided reading and effective use of independent reading time, with an emphasis on getting students into appropriately leveled books;  and acquiring Reading A-Z access to provide students online leveled books to be used in school and in the home.

Total Number of Students Served: 953

Anticipated Results as Outlined in Grant Application

1. The intent of The Stocker Foundation grant was to accelerate students in moving toward greater reading proficiency. By supporting students in small, guided reading groups, with specific skill and strategy instruction, and with additional support in independent reading using the internet-based Reading A-Z books, the goal was for students to make gains in reading levels as measured by the Teachers College Reading Assessment (an assessment that involves the teacher and student meeting one-on-one for an oral reading and comprehension check) Using a pre and post administration, it was expected that students would make the following gains: K-Students will be reading at levels C-D; 1^st-4 levels; and  2^nd-4 levels.

2. We also wanted to monitor how students felt about reading. For many of the students we targeted, reading was not a joy because they were not able to find success in the process. The Stocker Foundation grant allowed us to purchase trade books that were visually exciting and were supportive of the emergent readers we were targeting. There was an expectation that students would show more enthusiasm for reading and be excited about reading at school and at home.

3. A final anticipated result was that students would be accessing the online books from home. We arranged for school licenses for this online resource and the students could access this resource from home or a public library.

Reading Gains 

In order to assess the impact of the intensive guided reading and the accessibility to appropriately leveled books for independent reading, we used two measures, Measure of Academic Proficiency (MAP) and the Teachers College Reading Assessment, which has the student doing an oral reading of leveled passages and the teacher assessing for fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.  In the case of the TC Assessment, we have results for most classrooms, however, since it is not a mandated assessment we do not have them for every classroom.

MAP Results by School

Concord

Gatzert 

Dearborn Park

West Seattle Elementary

Hawthorne Elementary

As indicated by this data, there were consistent gains in RIT scores and at most schools a high percentage of students were meeting grade level benchmarks. For all schools, there was a lower percentage of students meeting standard at the 2^nd grade level.

Teachers College Reading Assessment Results

Results from this one-on-one oral reading, with a comprehension follow-up, reveal gains for all students. ELL students demonstrated one to three level gains. Levels referred to are the student’s independent reading level, where they can read with 96-100% accuracy, good fluency, and 75% or better comprehension, as measured on specific question responses. These gains are significant because they are an indication students are gaining more proficiency in reading, along with more stamina.

A snapshot of gains reveals the following:

Gatzert

Kindergarten

January: 23% of students were reading at or above grade level

June: 43% of students were reading at or above grade level

1^st Grade

January: 11% of students were reading at or above grade level

June: 59% of students were reading at or above grade level

2^nd Grade

January: 56% of students were reading at or above grade level

June: 75% of students were reading at or above grade level

Concord

Kindergarten

98% of students made a 3 level or greater gain on the Stage A Assessment by January (Stage A Assessment is a K Inventory administered to pre-readers)

1^st Grade

97% of students made a one level or greater gain between Fall and Winter assessment window

2^nd Grade

80% of students made a one level or greater gain between Fall and Winter assessment window

Hawthorne

Kindergarten

39 of 43 students demonstrated growth of half a year or greater between September and April

1^st Grade

27 of 40 students demonstrated growth of half a year or greater between September and April

2^nd Grade

Insufficient data from TC Assessment to make concluding statement

West Seattle Elementary

Aggregate measure

Kindergarten, 1^st, and 2^nd Grades

All students on track to grow one year in reading.

Dearborn Park Elementary

Kindergarten

56% of students reached the goal of level C or higher

1^st Grade

39% either met or were approaching standard on the TC Assessment

61% made significant gains in levels (2-4 levels) but did not meet standard on TC Assessment for K

2^nd Grade

34% met or exceeded standard on TC Assessment

27% were approaching standard on TC Assessment

39% made gains of 2 to 3 levels but did not meet standard on TC Assessment

Reading Volume Using Reading A-Z Data

In order to assess the amount students were reading, we tracked usage of the resource, Reading A-Z and RAZ-Kids (comprehension focus). The results are as follows:

Raz-Kids, 11,815 books either read, listened to or the comprehension quiz taken.

Reading A-Z, 957 books printed, projected for reading or reviewed by an educator.

Vocabulary A-Z,  37 weekly lesson plans printed out.

Results from December to June on downloads of books indicates the following:

Gatzert-- a total of 2,560 books and materials printed, projected or read online.

Hawthorne-- a total of 2,123 books and materials printed, projected or read online.

Concord-- a total of 483 books and materials printed, projected or read online.

Dearborn Park-- a total of 1 (have changes recently been made here?)

West Seattle Elementary-- a total of 3,052 books and materials printed, projected or read online.

“You don’t have to be an elementary school teacher...

I must confess:  I am NOT a reading specialist.  I’m not even certified in elementary education.  My 35 years in education started with direct responsibility for teaching in grades 7-12.  However, I have a sister who IS an elementary educator with vast experience and expertise in teaching reading who shares often with me, and I’ve been privileged to have many experiences in the past 3 years writing grants for literacy and interacting with other practitioners. I have learned MUCH about both the challenges of teaching today’s youngest students to read and write AND the strategies and approaches that help meet those challenges.

“Albuquerque Reads” is a program launched 8 years ago by a partnership of our large school district (Albuquerque Public Schools, population 89,500) and the city’s Chamber of Commerce.  Exemplary classroom teachers built the curriculum and accompanying materials for kindergarten students, and the Chamber recruited and helped train a cadre of adult volunteer tutors to provide individual support to young readers. Following the students on through grades 1-5, evidence showed an on-going success rate of up to 80% for some cohorts!

With the support of The Stocker Foundation and the relentless commitment and efforts of the Albuquerque Reads kindergarten teachers (as well as the continuing support of the Chamber), two additional initiatives have been launched with the program.  The first is to expand the program to a new school site.  Our question is:  “Will the program be as successful in a setting and with teachers not involved in its creation?”  The variables of curriculum, training and support will remain constant, and a new school program will begin this fall.  Stay tuned for our results!

The second initiative is based on teachers’ determination to reach the bottom quintile of readers—that 20% that continue to struggle despite the same approaches and support other students get.  For this, the “Leveled Literacy Intervention” (Heinemann Publishing) was selected by teachers at the lead school.  These teachers had pursued initial materials and training through other grants.  (Always, always…above-and-beyond efforts!) Stocker Foundation funds helped provide additional materials and stipends for the teachers to train further, prepare and then meet students 20 minutes before school 3 days a week.  This work began mid-March, and within 2 months, the participating students had advanced up to 7 program levels! 

Observing struggling readers who LOVED their time with the program was quite a tutorial for us as non-elementary teachers.  How magical that students could WRITE pages even when to READ a few pages in a small book overwhelmed them!  (“Encoding” being easier for them than “decoding”, we learned.)  How fun that high-interest books kept them motivated to move through the words for “the rest of the story”—even if it was time for the bell!  And how absolutely wonderful that going to a teacher’s room for MORE work in reading was experienced as a reward (for students AND the teacher)!

While there are many great curricula and fine materials and books, the REAL magic behind helping struggling readers move ahead and embrace reading and writing is the ADULTS who connect with those students—teachers going the extra mile(s), volunteer tutors, grant writers, foundation directors or board members, or donors of any kind!  “You don’t have to be an elementary teacher…” to experience the wonder of helping kids read.

J  Jeanne Forrester, Ed.D.

Grant Development Specialist

Albuquerque Public Schools Education Foundation, NM

6/30/11

If education for the past 40 years had been comprised of teachers using music and art forms to teach academic content, there would still be 5 percent of the students who say, “Could you please just stand up there and lecture to me?”  But the reality is that lecture-based instruction is the norm, and for today’s low-income students, a lecture cannot complete with the confusing reality of their daily lives.  Teaching academic subjects through music and the arts is the pea in the mashed potato.  If we want to improve student performance, we need to interact and appeal to students in a way that engages them.

Roots of American Music seeks to change the format of academic instruction through music to immerse students in learning that taps their creativity and inspires their natural love of learning.  Music that the students create and perform is engaging, attention grabbing.  ROAM serves thousands of students every year through music residency, assembly, interactive workshops, after school and summer programs.  Academic gains are assessed through pre and post tests including an evaluation of student writing products and performance. 

A classic example of this approach was used in a program called “Literacy Through Songwriting” which was conducted at Toni Morrison School in Lorain County, Ohio and funded by the Stocker Foundation in 2010.  The program was designed to improve the literacy outcomes of students in grades 3-5 through a combination of music, African storytelling, student written lyrics, and performance of their written work for an all school assembly. 

Students met with two teaching artists during eight visits to learn the elements of writing, vocabulary of writing (draft, edit, revise, proof) and about story form.  The Third grade class brainstormed the similes and word choices together to create this exciting performance poem.

“The River Moves”

The river drifts and bubbles

It swerves and curves as the water doubles

It sparkles and glistens

It looks like a rainbow

It brightly shines like a diamond’s glow

The river is peaceful with small waves

The water moves like a swirly maze

Slow like a dove, the water glides

As schools of fish swim side by side

Students in Fourth grade collectively wrote and edited: 

“The River is More”

The river’s a ghost,

He floats and he hides.

He sounds like rain,

Swishing as he flies.

The river’s a gator.

He bites and he snaps.

He’s quick and he’s strong.

He’s fat and he’s long.

The river’s a tornado.

He spins and he whirls.

He sounds like swoosh.                      

As he turns and he swirls. 

This is work that draws the creative energy from students, calls upon them to work in teams, and brings out leadership qualities. Artists demonstrate the original music with instruments, drums and vocal harmonies. Then students model their writing after existing poetry and song verses from traditional African and American music.   

On the final performance day, as the students stand before the student body and staff, they sing and recite their songs backed by musicians.  Their work is memorable and their interest in reading, writing and making powerful word choices is heightened.  

Does this approach make a difference in student outcomes?  On post-tests of both the arts and literacy content, students made tremendous gains:

• The number of students correctly identifying the narrator of the story increased to 60%
• Students improved their understanding and interpretation of text by 16%
• 100% of students wrote and performed songs achieving arts benchmarks
• Students improved understanding of elements of writing and revising vocabulary by 20%

Students learned that collaborative writing and sharing their work is fun.  Bringing down the barriers to self-expression was made possible through an interdisciplinary approach to the content. 

Some intangible gains are always made.  Teachers reported that the pride students felt in their work could not be quantified, that students looked forward to the lessons, and were exposed to many different instruments and artists broadening their view.  Such a multi-faceted approach to teaching reaches students on many different levels and offers learners of all different styles a chance to grow and benefit.  Let’s not forget the benefit to teachers who can extend the approach after the artists are gone with their own artistic flair and creativity - be it in poetry, song writing, or storytelling backed by simple rhythmic accompaniment. 

Sheela Das

Director of Development

Roots of American Music

3109 Mayfield Road, #205

Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118

Work (216) 321-9353

Cell (216) 372-6268

www.rootsofamericanmusic.org

Roots of American Music provides arts-integrated programs to youth and our diverse communities, using traditional American music, in order to enhance educational outcomes and enrich people’s lives.

At Mission Learning Center in San Francisco California, we believe that child by child, family by family, literacy strengthens our community. In this post from MLC, our executive director Alexis Filippini discusses some big ideas behind our educational philosophy. These ideas are grounded in the interactive view of literacy (see Lipson & Wixson, 2009 for a great reference book grounded in this view). The video clips are from April 2011 keynote presentation at the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association at San Francisco State University.

Introduction

Provides context for the full-length talk to speech/language pathologists who teach literacy skills to students with disabilities including autism, speech & language impairments, specific learning disabilities, and others.*

*To see slides from the full talk, go to www.mlcsf.org.

(download)

Click here to download:

Intro_NSSHLA_2011.mov (2.86 MB)

Shares compelling information about long-term outcomes for children with learning disabilities, 80% of whom have reading difficulties, such as dyslexia. At MLC, we think about our children's lifetime trajectory - not just their test scores at the end of this school year, but their happiness and success in adulthood.

(download)

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Sense_of_Urgency_and_a_Vision_NSSHLA_2011.mov (6.95 MB)

Outlines a framework for thinking about literacy performance as an interaction between learner attributes and context. How an individual reads or writes is the product of not only their own skills and knowledge, but also of the context in which they are reading and writing. Context includes text difficulty or readability, interest level, format (e.g., print, audio, braille), and more.

(download)

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Interactive_View_Defined_NSSHLA_2011.mov (1.58 MB)

This spring, Ohio legislators overturned the unfunded mandate from former Governor Ted Strickland’s administration that required school districts to offer full-day kindergarten by July 2010.

H.L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

Is part-time kindergarten the wrong answer?

Join the discussion!

Question: At a time when economists such as Dr. James Heckman, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, are highlighting the economic return on investment from early childhood programs, do the educational and financial benefits of full day kindergarten offset the cost of offering the program?

As it currently stands, the State of Ohio requires schools to provide 12.5 hours of kindergarten instruction per week.  How districts provide it is up to them.  This puts the decision on whether or not to offer all-day kindergarten at the local level.  As a result, school districts struggling with decreasing revenue streams are considering cuts to kindergarten programs despite the fact that research shows, for every dollar invested in quality early education, taxpayers save up to $13.00 in future costs.

The Literacy Cooperative is currently working with three school districts in Cuyahoga County to offer SPARK*, a home visiting program designed to prepare preschool age children for kindergarten success through lessons aligned to the Ohio Early Learning Content Standards and Benchmarks.  We already know there are many children unprepared for kindergarten and there are serious consequences for those children who are not prepared. The Annie E. Casey EARLY WARNING! KIDS COUNT report states, “Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is a crucial marker in a child’s educational development.  Failure to read proficiently is linked to higher rates of school drop-out, which suppresses individual earning potential as well as the nation’s competitiveness and general productivity.”

Based on KRA-L (Kindergarten Readiness Assessment - Literacy) scores in Cuyahoga County, we know children are entering kindergarten without the skills to succeed in reading.  In Cleveland in 2009, 41% of kindergarten students were assessed as requiring broadly intense instruction and another 41% required targeted instruction.  Only 18% of all children entering kindergarten in Cleveland were assessed as possessing the literacy skills to succeed in school.  That means 82% of children entering kindergarten in Cleveland were behind on the first day of kindergarten.  And children who begin behind tend to stay behind.

Our school districts are struggling with significant budget issues and are looking at full-day kindergarten as a way to save money. This raises a number of questions, including:

At a time when we should be focusing our efforts on strengthening birth-to-third grade supports through programs such as SPARK to increase reading proficiency by the end of third grade, should part-time kindergarten even be an option?

Will half day models or alternating day kindergarten models provide our children with the educational foundation they need to be successful?

The Ohio Early Care and Education Campaign took the following position:

“Full-day kindergarten isn’t just smart education policy; it’s smart economic policy.  And it benefits everyone: children, parents, schools, and businesses.”

What do you think?

*SPARK is a kindergarten readiness program that helps prepare children for school and works closely with families and schools to ensure smooth transitions.  SPARK is a home visitation model that uses trained parent partners to deliver individualized learning plans aligned with Ohio’s Early Learning Content Standards.  Children and families in the program receive books, supplies, and learning materials.  Children who receive SPARK services show improved results on the KRA-L, on-time grade promotion through third grade, and higher reading and math scores on Ohio third grade achievement tests in reading and math based on an on-going evaluation being conducted by The University of Akron.

 For more information about SPARK, please visit www.sparkohio.org

The mission of The Literacy Cooperative is to advance literacy through an effective service delivery system reflecting the highest standards in the field.  Our vision is that all children and adults in the Greater Cleveland region will reach their highest literacy potential for employment, self-sufficiency and lifelong learning. 

For more information about The Literacy Cooperative, please visit www.literacycooperative.org

Poetry Inside Out

On a quiet afternoon in seventeenth-century Japan, a wandering poet sat by a pond. A frog leaped into its still and ancient waters with a splash, startling the nearby poet, who wrote:

            古池や蛙飛び込む水の音
            furu ike ya/ kawasu tobikomu / mizu no oto.

 Four centuries later, on a foggy morning in 21st century California, elementary school students who don’t know Japanese are reading and translating (with the help of a glossary) that famous haiku by Matsuo Basho:

            Ancient pond alert
            frog catapulting in pond,
            sound of the water

             —Translated by Willie Q., 4th grade

             Legendary pond!            
            frog flies into
            sound of water

             —Translated by Jesús F., 5th grade

 Which leads the class to the very interesting discussion of which is the correct translation of furu ike ya?  

(a)  Ancient pond alert

(b)  Legendary pond!

 Standardized tests suggest that every question has one correct answer. Translation, on the other hand, teaches that every problem may have a variety of interesting solutions. Such an approach empowers children to seek divergent and creative possibilities, a strategy that better prepares them for the complexities of making real-world choices. When they translate poetry, students must consider shades of meaning, rhythm and rhyme, and other attributes of the original version, and make choices about which ones lend themselves to effective expression in English.

 Translation and poetry combine to form a powerful synergy—translation is the deepest possible reading of a text and poetry packs a lot of meaning into a small amount of text. In the Poetry Inside Out literary arts program at the San Francisco-based Center for the Art of Translation, students are given intriguing, accessible, and challenging work by some of the world’s master poets. Students read poems to themselves, chant them aloud, and examine each word as they translate, then turning the structure and phrasing of their model “inside out” to create their own real, fresh, and deeply felt poems.

 Founded in 2000, Poetry Inside Out fosters imagination and builds students’ problem solving, critical thinking, and literacy skills through the translation and composition of poetry. A typical 16-lesson residency teaches students basic literary translation skills, poetic structure, form, and figurative language, and highlights revision, editing, and performance. Poetry Inside Out works with poetry from across the world, having developed a World Poetry curriculum with poems from nineteen languages, as well as Spanish and Chinese curricula for elementary, middle, and high school students. Any classroom, regardless of its linguistic background, can participate in Poetry Inside Out.

 A further benefit of Poetry Inside Out is that it teaches bilingual students to see their native language as an asset, not a handicap; they learn to express themselves better in both languages. By translating great world poetry into English, they become inspired, capable, and adventurous enough to compose their own creative works. Monolingual children benefit similarly—their problem-solving, critical-thinking, and literacy skills improve as they puzzle over words, lines, cadences, and structure in an unknown tongue and relate them to their own.

 Here’s how Poetry Inside Out students in Oakland, California made the haiku assignment their own:

 Las margaritas
en el pasto, las estrellas
detrás esperando su turno

 —Karen G., 4th grade

The daisies
in the grass, the stars
behind waiting their turn

 —Translated by Diana R., 4th grade

The green grass
going into my face like
fish into water

 —Lizbet S., 5th grade

Who am I
am I a shadow creeping
or am I nothing?

 —Sandra Z., 5th grade

 Life is around you
it shivers as hard as a snake
you are what you are

 —Jannett C., 5th grade

As kids translate poems, they become aware of complex verbal possibilities. Instructed by the poems they study, they learn to apply figurative language to their own thoughts and feelings. The process of translating and then writing poetry builds connections, stresses original thinking, and develops the muscle of the imagination. This sequence, repeated over the length of an instructional series, greatly enriches students’ language arts skills.

 Poetry Inside Out brings great poets like Basho, Ovid, Neruda, and Quasimodo into California classrooms, which have been hit particularly hard by budget cuts, and are typically underserved by traditional language arts curricula. We strongly believe that given the truly interesting and challenging work of debating at a high level in two or three languages about synonyms for a verb, or learning a text so intimately that they can read it without looking at the page. All students will excel.

 In the trenches of the classroom, we see incredible transformations on a daily basis with students like Zae’Quan, a fourth grade Poetry Inside Out student in Oakland. Zae’Quan is a physically imposing but shy boy who went through six lessons without writing a word. We tried to draw him out, with no results. Blank pages. He scored a zero. Why? Was he anxious about getting it wrong, making spelling mistakes? Had he nothing to say? Had people told him to be quiet too many times in his life? Finally, he wrote four lines of a poem. We printed it for the weekly post that goes on the bulletin board and is read aloud to the class. The next week, Zae’Quan wrote and wrote, asking for spellings, not for ideas. Here is his poem:

I am a river down in the valley
I am a vision and I see clearly
I am that star in the sky
I am that mountain peak up high
I am the world’s greatest
I am that little bit of hope
when I’m up against the ropes.

 —Zae’Quan W., 4th grade
 
With the support of The Stocker Foundation, Poetry Inside Out has worked with low-income schools in Oakland like Zae’Quan’s, strengthening the reading and writing abilities of disadvantaged youth.

(download)

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Poetry_Inside_Out.zip (2.74 MB)