BY TIFFANY MacCALLUM, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, JAMESTOWN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Walk into Washington Middle School in Jamestown on any given day, find rooms A-11 and A-27, and you just might be surprised to find students reading … and liking it! Mrs. Amy Anderson, a Reading Specialist, and Mrs. Priscilla Menzies, a Special Education Teacher, are making it their mission to academically and emotionally empower those 5th and 6th grade students that normally struggle with the majority of their educational experiences.
As a fellow teacher and PG contributor, I had the opportunity to ask these two veteran teachers a few questions about their successful classrooms, in hopes that their successes might be contagious.
TM: Can you explain how your classrooms are different from regular education classrooms?
PM: When students reading ability is 2 or 3 levels below their present grade level, they cannot read independently any of the text presented to them during the school day. Good readers read, but if the level is too difficult a student will continue to slip farther behind.
TM: How do you identify the students that need to be placed in your classrooms?
PM: There are a variety of assessments and information we use to place students in this type of classroom. In past years ELA scores, other reading assessments, IEP (Individual Educational Plans for Special Education students) and 504 plans were all considerations. We must have information to show that the student is reading well below grade level.
TM: Obviously placement is a thorough process based upon extensive documentation. Knowing that these are the students who struggle the most, in your opinion, how do these students feel about their academic abilities? And how does that affect their educational experience with you?
AA: Typically these students have struggled all of their lives with academics, so by the time they get to 5th or 6th grade they start to fully realize they DON’T understand things as well as their peers. Often they have low self-esteem and are afraid to “take risks”. They don’t want to answer the questions or read out loud.
TM: Fear can be so debilitating! What are you doing differently this year to provide these high needs students with opportunities for success?
PM: We are using the program, Language!, an intervention program based upon thorough assessments that determine the students’ reading level and thereby indicate the specific instruction they need.
AA: The program itself has an initial assessment piece that determines if the child would benefit from this very instruction. It is designed to work specifically with students who are two or more years behind in their reading abilities.
PM: Grade level skills are embedded in text that is decodable by the student.
TM: Students are learning grade level appropriate skills but through texts that they can successfully and independently read, sounds like the road to achievement!
AA: Language! contains the 6 Components of Literacy – phonemic awareness/phonics, word recognition and spelling, vocabulary/morphology, grammar and usage, listening and reading comprehension, and speaking and writing. All components are taught on a daily basis in a way that spirals and moves at an accurate, quick pace.
PM: In the past we used a wide variety of materials and incorporated all components into our instruction, but they were not necessarily connected to each other. This program is organized and deliberate.
TM: What would your students say is the best part of their time in your classrooms?
“Everything!” – Brett
“The arm motions and movements!” (used during phonemic awareness) – Ian
“Learning all the sounds in words and stories revolving around a theme.” – Jessica
“Learning more things…especially in reading!” – Samantha
TM: Finally, how can we as parents, relatives, friends, and teachers encourage these children to succeed? Most importantly, how can we keep them in school?
AA: Read WITH them and TO them. Be willing to mentor these students, they need someone who is willing to make personal connections with them on a daily basis. Talk to them about their every-
day life experiences and be willing to share your own life experiences, good and bad alike. They need someone to care about their personal and emotional needs, as well as their academic needs.
According to the National Institute of Health, ten million of our nation’s children (approximately 17 percent) have trouble learning to read!
Today teachers are left with the task of weeding through all of the newest ideas and programs designed to help struggling readers, hoping to find one like Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Menzies, one that works! If you have a child who is struggling, please talk to your child’s teacher, they have a wealth of knowledge and they need your help. You also might want to check out this well-reviewed book: Parenting a Struggling Reader by Susan Hall and Louisa Moats. It offers specific ways to bridge the gap between the home and the classroom.
I wanted to leave with you with some remarkable, profound quote that eloquently summed up the limitless power of reading, but decided to leave you with this simple one instead …
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
- Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"
Tiffany MacCallum is an elementary teacher for Jamestown Public Schools. She received her Masters of Science in El Ed from Alfred University in 1999 and is planning to pursue her doctorate in early childhood this coming fall. She is presently on maternity leave, enjoying her time with her 20 month old daughter, Allison.