Literacy Strategies for the Multi-Ability Classroom: Part III

This week I’m beginning a new series of workshops for teachers from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services – a dedicated group of teachers with a strong commitment to helping their students build motivation, positive self image and academic skills. The goal is to share strategies for working with struggling readers in multi-ability classrooms in juvenile detention facilities around the state. This is the first of a three-part series designed to address the wide variety of student reading levels in their classrooms. They will return to two follow up workshop in March and April with samples of student work to assist us all in discussing what worked and what was less successful. As an incentive for their students, we will “publish” samples of student work in a showcase booklet. We strongly believe that we can motivate struggling readers through the use of student publication projects.

In preparation for the series I have done classroom observation and teacher training at one of the facilities.  Learning specialist, Suzanne Meyer, has observed classes at two others and worked with teachers and students there to complete a sample “student showcase” project. We have worked with Patricia Martin, an ELA / Reading specialist to select 18 learning strategies designed to simultaneously work with three common types of struggling readers you have in their classrooms
“Non-readers”  who lack decoding skills (430KB pdf)
“Word-callers” who can decode, but lack comprehension skills (358KB pdf)
“Turned-off readers” who have the decoding and comprehension skills, but lack motivation or engagement (389KB pdf)

For an earlier draft with more strategies see: Literacy Strategies for the Multi-Ability Classroom: Part II also find tri-fold guides at: Literacy Strategies for the Multi-Ability Classroom, Part I

For more information on my training workshops for students of all ability levels visit my site: Content Reading Strategies that Work

In Search Of the Rigorous Classroom

desks full

It seems that politicians have suddenly discovered that we’re suffering from a high school rigor deficiency. Driven by the economic competitiveness of the “flat world,” numerous states are considering mandates for more rigorous core curricula and increased graduation requirements. New federal legislation puts the US Secretary of Education in the business of setting standards for recognizing “rigorous secondary school program of study.”

Let’s be sure that high school reform isn’t just “more of the same” formulaic and predictable seat time that can already make high school the least engaging part of a student’s day. Graduating with more credits won’t do much for a student’s employment prospects unless high school reform redefines who’s doing the thinking in the classroom.

A competitive workforce is made up of people who can think independently in complex and ambiguous situations where the solutions are not immediately obvious.  Meaningful high school reform must include freeing teachers from mindless test prep. Educators need resources and training to craft a rigorous learning environment where students can function as 21st century professionals – critical thinkers who can effectively collaborate to gather, evaluate, analyze and share information.

image credit: flickr/dcJohn

Ninth Grade Academy Planning Workshop – from “Idea to Implementation.”

There is a growing recognition that ninth graders flourish in the unique environment of a Ninth Grade Academy. These small learning communities improve freshman transitions with a supportive environment, dedicated faculty, counselor and administrator. (Note: See my more recent NGA blog post updates 2007 and 2010. )

Recently, I offered a one-day planning workshop for a consortium of high schools in eastern and central Kentucky. The session was sponsored by the Pike County Schools and the Kentucky Department of Education. The goal of our workshop was to guide NGA design teams from “Idea to Implementation.”

I was joined by Matt Laniak, principal of Eastridge High School at East Irondequoit CSD. Matt and I had collaborated in the design and launch of the NGA – Matt was the it’s founding director and I was then serving as the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Instruction.

Our workshop perspective was "from the frontline,” with activities, resources and discussion to help participants address planning elements – Making use of data, Selection of faculty, Fostering faculty teamwork, Working with feeder schools, Professional development, Curriculum development, Scheduling, Physical plant, Student conduct, Support structures, Partnering with parents, Working with stakeholders.

Participant evaluations suggest it was a highly successful session –
“The workshop had a tremendous impact on our planning, it gave us a blueprint to go by – thank you so much.”
“Engaging, interactive, informative, and very motivational.”
“Real life case studies from presenters who have walked the walk."
“I am so excited to implement the NGA at our school after this workshop. – thank you.”
“Well-organized, the presenters have actually faced the problems we have. So many ideas to make our planning easier.”

Workshop resources include:
Participant Planning Guide 39KB PDF
Q and A – launch a NGA 53KB PDF
PowerPoint Handout 1.1MB PDF

For more resources visit my Small Learning Communities Website and see video interviews with the Ninth Grade Academy students and teachers.

Here's a 55 minute RealPlayer video of a conference presentation I did for the Oregon Dept of Eductation called "9th Grade Academy – A Small Learning Community that Works."  If you need RealPlayer click here.

So why aren’t your students publishing their own books?

We all struggle to create authentic writing experiences for our students. Imagine if they had an opportunity to see their work in print – and we’re talking about a real paperback.  Let them go through the process of writing, co-editing, illustrating and designing a book. Rigor and relevance meets motivation and self-directed study. I’ve gotten so excited by the results that I’ve done workshops to train teachers. You can see material and sample student books at my website Read > Think > Write > Publish.

I recently discovered Lulu.com – a print-on-demand publisher. I’ve used it to publish five books for a dear friend and author – Abe Rothberg. He wrote the manuscripts. I formated them in Word and converted them to a PDFs. I designed the covers in Photoshop and converted them to a PDFs. I uploaded the PDF files to the Lulu website. Cost so far – nothing!

Lulu doesn’t actually produce any books until one is ordered. Then the magic starts – Lulu takes my PDF files and produces a perfect-bound book and ships it to the buyer.

The money side at Lulu is pretty straightforward. No charge for uploading a book. (If you want to give it an ISBN number, that’s $35). Book production costs are $4.53 per book plus .02 per page black and white (.15 per page color). Example: a 50 page book with b/w text would cost you $.5.53 plus shipping. No costs are incurred until a book is ordered.  As a book author you can limit sales to only yourself, and buy unlimited books at cost (with a break on author’s orders of more than 25).  If you want to offer the books for sale to the public, you can set the price. You get 80% of the mark up over production cost. Lulu keeps 20% and sends you the royalty checks. They will also host your book as a downloadable e-Book for free.

BTW -  Abe has had a distinguished career as a journalist, university professor and author of seven published novels, two books of history, a collection of short stories, two children’s books, and a volume of literary criticism. His previous work was published by mainstream publishers and has been favorably reviewed in NY Times, Harper’s, Time Magazine, and Publishers Weekly. He’s also a dear friend and mentor whose previous work had gone out of print. We decided to cut out the middle man. For more on Abe go to his website – Abraham Rothberg

PS – I don’t work for Lulu

Literacy Strategies for the Multi-Ability Classroom: Part I

I recently presented a workshop for teachers from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. The goal was to share strategies for working with struggling readers in multi-ability classrooms in juvenile detention facilities around the state. I used reader profiles to guide teachers through identification of struggling readers and appropriate learning strategies. Here are tri-folds of three types of struggling reader. Non-Reader, Word Caller and Turned Off. (each a 200kb pdf) Print them out back to back. Developed with Pat Martin. Reference: Differentiated Instructional Strategies for Reading in the Content Area, Carolyn Chapman and Rita King

I was joined by Suzanne Suor, a learning specialist who focuses on motivating struggling readers through the use of student publication projects. This spring we will be working with OCFS teachers from across the state in staff development training. We plan to collect samples of student work to review the impact of our literacy strategies in the classroom. We’ll combine strategies, student work and teacher reflection in publications to share with the students and their families. 

This dedicated group of teachers has a commitment to helping their students build motivation, positive self image and academic skills. They already have many great project ideas for student publications – example teen fathers writing and publishing their own books for their children. For more on professional development with a product see PowerPoint overview. (400kb pdf)

For more strategies see: Literacy Strategies for the Multi-Ability Classroom: Part II