The New Action Plan for Literacy

As many of my loyal readers know, I have been especially interested in combatting low literacy among my students. It has been a problem for me since I began teaching at my school. Every year, I have to check the "promotion in doubt" box on a majority of my report cards because my students do not progress sufficiently in reading. My class is comprised of a majority ELL population, but the interesting part of the problem is that often times it is not my ELLs (from Spanish or Mixteco-speaking homes) who are at-risk in literacy, but my students come from English speaking or bilingual homes who have either passed the LAB-R or are only classified as ELLs because of low overall language (i.e. they are not strong in Spanish either), not just low levels of English. It is this population that I have found to be most at-risk in my class over the years. Last year was as especially taxing year on me in terms of the academic levels of my students and the effort I put into providing intervention for these students within the regular classroom setting. Despite my efforts, many of my students were promoted to second grade that were reading at level C (they are supposed to be at J). To me, this was completely devastating. A good 50% of my class went to second grade without having learned how to read.

During the past 2 years, one of the interventions I tried was using the Fountas and Pinnell "Phonics" curriculum during extended day to supplement Words Their Way (which was our primary word study program). The first year I used "Phonics," I saw phenomenal results among the 6 students who received the instruction. At one point in the year, my intervention group had surpassed students in my class who were not receiving intervention. Last year, I used it again during extended day, but I only saw my group 3 days a week instead of 4 and I had 10 students instead of 6. The ten students I had were extremely at-risk for "reading failure" and were difficult to manage. Needless to say, I did not see the same results during my second year. I also did not see results from Words Their Way.

This year, as many of you know, my school has decided to implement Fundations as our sole and primary word study program. I read through the teachers guide over the summer and just felt so strongly that I couldn't picture using this program. It seemed so scripted and procedure-oriented. The lessons didn't have clear objectives. I kept an open mind until I was sent to their training (which was confusing at best) and that was when I decided that I just couldn't see using it in my class. It is so scripted that there is almost no room for differentiation. It's like your providing the intervention that 30% of your class actually needs to the whole class. I just can't waste the other 70% of my students' time like that. Also, I found their lessons just plain boring and completely lacking in context (which for ELLs is sooooo important).

So, here is my plan for this year: I am using some of the Fundations materials (which I actually think are excellent) to implement Fountas and Pinnell "Phonics." My students have word study groups which allows me to differentiate on both an individual and group basis. It also provides so much context for the lessons through shared reading poems and literature that I really see my kids mastering the skills and strategies. I have to say that my favorite part of the day is first thing in the morning when I arrive and I prep their notebooks (which I designed!) for the day's word study lesson. My students are doing so well this year with the curriculum. They are so independent in their work and are truly grasping the concepts on a deep level (i.e. no gaps in their learning). I have seen so much progress and it's only November!!! I have kids who came without letter-sound recognition who are tapping out sounds to spell new words on their own. The children who came in with more skills are challenged to go even further. Everyone is so motivated during word study time!!! For my real strugglers, I reinforce the lessons during extended day using supplemental materials such as magnetic letters (I don't have enough for the whole class) to really be secure in their understanding. I am so motivated right now by this program and I wish it were more widely used in the NYC public schools. I tried to share it with my colleagues, but they all decided it was too much prep (which it's really NOT). If I can just get one person to try it, they will see how amazing it is!!!

Thoughts on this year

It's no secret that I have been down at work lately.  I think that part of it is that I take things so personally and internalize the suffering of my students when in reality, I can't change their home lives and I can't make up for years of neglect and abuse.  Two things happened this week that almost brought me to tears.  They may seem ordinary to you, but they are so representative of the suffering of our city's children.

1.  One of my students, Marisol, a girl of indigenous Mexican descent brought a book to school to share with the class.  Sometimes when we are lined up for dismissal I let the kids quickly share something and since this book was so beautiful, I let her share it.  The book was called "Pancakes For Supper," and had beautiful illustrations and interesting characters.  I asked her why she brought it in and she said because it was special, her Pre-K teacher had given it to her. Indeed, inside was a message from her Pre-K teacher.  It said something like "To Marisol on your birthday, may you always enjoy reading, love Ms. ___".  Then I asked her (a level I reader), to tell us the title.  She looked at me with a puzzled look and said "I never read that part before."  Something about the inscription and the fact that this child had never really read the title before made me want to cry.  Her Pre-K teacher had put so much love into this gift and this child treasured it, but didn't understand what it was really for.  Although she could read the title, she never did, it was as if she didn't even know how to interact with this book.  I wished I could sit down with her and read it with her and let her point to the pictures and make comments like little kids do, but I couldn't, I had a whole class standing there with their bookbags on ready to leave.  I can read them stories, but I can't make up for the fact that their parents can't or don't read to them.  

2.  In my classroom, we have been talking about endangered species of animals.  This conversation started with a study of animal diversity in the rain forest habitat.  We spent about three weeks reading different books about the rain forest and making a web of life project.  We also talked about rain forest destruction and how that affects the animals.  This led us to explore other habitats like the arctic, the desert, the mountains, etc.  We made a chart of different habitats and started listing endangered animals from each.  Then we perused our available books for researching endangered species and my class voted on an animal they want to research as our shared writing.  They chose the giant panda.  Today, we got our our chart where we had collected key words and written facts about the giant panda on post-its, a project we have been working on for little over a week.  I also got out the chart with the endangered animals from different habitats.  I asked the students to talk with their partners (as they do EVERY TIME we get out the chart) about what is an endangered animal, what does that mean?  As I made my way around the rug listening in, I found partnerships who had no idea what it meant.  What was so telling though and the reason why I'm even writing this is because I had a visitor in my class, a student from our gifted and talented program was with us because his teacher was absent and they broke up the class.  While some of my students had no idea what we were talking about after so much scaffolding  visual support, even rainforest audio, and charts and everything I can pull out of my bag of tricks, all they could muster as a definition of an endangered animal was, "animal is extinct."  Great, they acquired a vocabulary word, but had no idea how to even use it.  I prompted the child who said this with "the giant panda is extinct like the dinosaurs?"  to which he replied "Yes."  Other kids said "NOOO!"  so I called on someone else to add an idea.  "The can make extinct like the dinosaurs because they dying," said this child.  Okay, I thought, now we're at least getting somewhere.  Then I saw Max, the G&T visitor who didn't even have the months of read aloud, shared reading, shared writing, etc. on the topic had his hand up, so I called on him.  He said something like this:  "Well, endangered means that animals have low numbers like the Cheetah.  There are 15,000 or so cheetah's left and they are dying out because they are being poached by hunters who want to sell their hides."  My mouth gaped open, not because I thought what he said was revolutionary, but the ease in which it rolled off his tongue and the quickness of recall he showed was nothing like anything I EVER see in my classroom and it made me sad.  This child is not a genius nor would I even say gifted or talented.  Yes, he tested into the program, but in talking to him and observing him throughout the day, he just seems like a normal kid whose parents engage him in conversation and encourage him to be curious about the world.  He reminds me of my cousins' children.  Anyway it made me sad, and made me reflect on my teaching.

I've pretty much concluded that I spend almost the entire morning convincing my students that they are not the scum of the earth and that they are valid human beings with ideas and that they don't have to be mean to each other, that kindness is possible.  I even have to trick them into forcing a smile upon entry to my room.  They think that because they move their mouth that they are greeting me with a smile, but with some of them it is so fake, and so devastating.  After I convince them that they are not scum, we can learn a little bit, not a lot because their minds are spinning and their bodies are in constant repetitive motion.  They are more enthralled with the laces of their shoes and pieces of paper that have fallen out of kids' word study notebooks than the topic at hand.  It doesn't really matter what the topic is, many of them are not "with us" in conversation.  I have students that despite excellent attendance have retained very little over this entire academic year.  Some students have not gone up even one reading level.  During my extended day group, I had to repeatedly remind them (I can't believe I had to do this at THIS POINT IN THE YEAR) where their eyes should go when they read.  They always have their eyes on me, looking like scared puppies for my approval, but I want their eyes on the words actually looking at the sounds and trying to make meaning.  

The truth of the matter is I don't know how to make them want to learn.  I try my best to make our work as engaging as possible, and I get validation that what I am doing is interesting and working from many children, but not all of them and not as a whole.  In prepping them for our upcoming trip to the Museum of Natural History, I told them that I don't want to hear empty comments like  "AHHHH T-Rex," or "Whoa!" like I always do.  I want to hear questions and curiosities about the world like "Why are the dinosaurs extinct?" or "How does a blue whale grow to be so big."  When I said this, their interest peaked for a second and then they went back to head bobbing and playing with laces.  

Illiteracy, still

This past week went pretty well despite the fact that most of my students probably spent their entire vacation with NO STIMULATION at all. As usual, the kids were very out of it and had to be re-introduced to classroom structures. I spent almost 10 minutes one day trying to get my guided reading group to sit in a circle on the rug. They couldn't figure it out on their own (despite the fact that we have been following this SAME structure for 2 MONTHS!) They were back-to-back, in a line, just really awkward with their bodies. Even after I drew a circle on the floor with my finger and showed them, one of them went back to his reading spot (I wanted to scream and pull out all of my hair), but instead, I calmly asked another child to go retrieve him and then I stood them out and pointed to where each one should sit. Okay. Deep breath. I did the guided reading lesson and it went okay.

Administrators don't realize all that we have to do to get our students to read. This year, I have been focusing on reading so much more than in years past because of the needs of my students. With Promotion In Doubt parent-teacher conferences coming up in February, I decided to start the DYO assessments for all 19 out of 26 kids that were PID in October. So far, I have been able to assess 3 kids during extended day. All I can say is that I AM SO DEPRESSED about it. I have worked with these kids in guided reading and strategy groups consistently for 2 months. I have worked with them doing a phonics intervention program during extended day (which takes a LOT of planning), and I have been doing shared reading at least 4 times a day. So far, NONE of the kids have gone up. Two kids stayed at LEVEL B!!!! and one kid (I have to fight back the tears for this one) who reached level C in October, went back down to B. He couldn't recognize the word "In." He kepts saying "A-y-n, A-y-n" and rambled off sounds that made no sense when he was reading. "Are you kidding me?" is all I could think. We have been doing so many comprehension strategies and so little decoding that I can't believe a child in my class would think this kind of "reading" would be okay. We have also been highlighting, writing, and wearing our sight words for months. What is going on with this kid? I just can't fathom how this has happened.

After talking about it with a colleague, I decided to ask the literacy coach to come in during my reading workshop to observe what the kids are doing, and to observe my guided reading lesson. I really want to know what else I can do. I'm hoping that having her come in will also expose the upper levels of school administration to the real issues that are happening in our classrooms. Administration comes to my room and they see me teach and are satisfied. I get complimented for my structures and teaching, but it's not enough. My students need real intervention. Just because a teacher is competent doesn't mean that the children don't need more.

Illiteracy update

For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know that I am really concerned about literacy with my first graders. Some of you who have followed my blog from the beginning might remember a post where I talked about being trained for a one-to-one tutoring program that we were supposedly going to implement for at least 30 first graders this year. I remember when I posted it, feeling so hopeful that maybe, just maybe we were finally going to do something to help our strugglers. In the back of my mind, I worried that it wouldn't happen, that it wouldn't get scheduled. Everytime I had my doubts, an administrator would say "we're still ranking the kids," or " don't worry, it's all taken care of," etc.

It's December. This program was supposed to start the first week in October. We still haven't started. I am so desperate to get it off the ground that I have repeatedly inquired about when I am tutoring and which kid I will be tutoring. I even made up a possible tutoring schedule using times when a school aide could be with my class (like right when they come up from lunch), which I now can't even offer because I need to use that time for oral storytelling. I offered for them to pay off my preps and tutor then. I have tried all I can so that this training, which probably cost at least $15,000 can actually be put to some good use. Why does administration waste our time and money like this????? It's ridiculous. It makes me so angry. I can't count on administration to do ANYTHING for my students EVER!!!! It's all up to me. That's the honest truth.

Goals goals goals

I can't believe that a whole week has passed since I last posted. This past week was one of the busiest ones of the entire year. So much happened!!!! I was at school until 8PM every night for a committee, a district meeting, the SLT, Parent-teacher conferences, and we even had the first grade parents visiting our rooms on Friday morning. I really tried to pump myself up last weekend and I made a huge pot of homemade chicken soup. It worked. Somehow, I got through this week virtually unscathed both physically and emotionally.

That's not what I really wanted to post about though. We have been told by our administration that we need to come up with our own professional goals and to help our students set their own goals in all subject areas. At first, I was really annoyed that they were saying this with the upcoming parent teacher conferences and all of the stuff I had to do, but I have to say that really thinking about my goals has given me a little push to do better (not that I'm not doing everything that I possibly can each day!!!), but somehow this process got me doing more. I decided that my goal for this year was to send all of my first graders to second grade reading at least close to the June benchmark (level I). Believe me, from past experience, and based on where my kids are right now, this is no easy feat. I have a room full of B and C readers and it is November. I had to tell those 19 out of 26 parents at parent-teacher conferences that their children are promotion in doubt and that they need more support at home. We will do our best at school, but the parents need to provide the basics at home: a quiet place to do homework, a homework routine, take their children to the public library---I even gave them the forms to fill out for a library card and the addresses of libraries in the area. Even the parents who don't read or write can do these things to support their children (they will need support filling out the form, I should make sure they get that help). They all promised to do their part and understood the importance of literacy for their children.

Okay, now to my part. For the past couple of years, I have been working with small groups in reading within the reading workshop. I have done guided reading and strategy lessons, but I haven't been consistent and I haven't used a structure that is predictable to my children. For all of these years, I have attended calendar days at TC and we have had staff developers at our school, and we have had support for planning for small groups, but there was one big missing key--- how to make it sustainable and functional within the classroom structure. You see, TC teaches you to group kids fluidly, which is great. It's true, not all B readers need the same thing, and not all kids are using the same strategies. This idea of fluid grouping was the factor that prevented me from implementing any sort of consistent group work. I was always stressed out about what I would teach, who would be in the group, how I would take notes, which guided reading book was perfect for teaching that skill, how I could confer too, etc.

This year, I just decided, "F--- it!" My kids aren't reading, they're not moving up levels, I am going to make a groups chart (that is not fluid), and I am going to do guided reading with one group each day according to the chart. They will be grouped according to reading level, and THAT'S IT!!!! Also, that guided reading library that I had been hoarding because I didn't know now to catalogue or level the books came out. I dumped all of the books onto a big table and sat there for two hours leveling them and organizing them into leveled bins. It's amazing that after 3 and a half years teaching first grade, I can level books like a machine. I'm pretty confident that I can accurately level at least A-H books myself.

So, I put the chart up with the groups, and we did a shared reading of the chart so the kids could see what color group they were (I labeled them by colors). I told them that I would meet with one group each day and that they would get to read some of these new books (as opposed to the nasty old ones that populate my classroom library). After the oooohs and ahhhhs were over, I did the mini-lesson, and just as I had instructed, the red group stayed on the rug. They made a little circle and put their baggies behind them. I took out the leveled book that I had just organized at their instructional level and I did a guided reading group. I didn't worry about if I was doing it right or not and I didn't pressure myself to teach sight words or this or that. I had changed my whole view of it. I gave the students what I thought they would need to read the book and a little more.

For example, one of the D level books we read had the word "Takes" in it a lot. So before we read the book we talked about a word that they know "cake" and how if they can read cake they can read a tricky work that they will see in the book. I put the word "take" on my little white board and they all blurted out "take." Then we added the "s" and got "takes." I asked if anyone could find the word "takes" on the page, and the lowest of the group pointed to it. When they were reading, a couple of kids forgot our good work and said "tacks." All I had to do was point to the chart and they remembered "takes."

Anyway, this week I met with five groups and I have to say that this is more than I ever did before. I took a step back and somehow brushed off all of that pressure and TC ickyness, and really looked at the big picture. I still don't have time to confer (and that's okay), when they are in those small groups, I am working so closely with each one, that I can confer with a couple of them right there. The other kids are still not reading, but that's okay too. As we cycle through these guided reading groups and as they get more of those scaffolded books in their baggies, I really think that their stamina will improve.

This is like my little mini inquiry for the year. I'm very curious how this will impact their reading if at all.

Field Trip!

I'm feeling less frustrated today.  I took the kids on a field trip on Friday and it really helped me to enjoy them and spend some time getting to know them in a more relaxed atmosphere.  The trip went very smoothly.  I got two very capable parent chaperones (be careful who you pick to accompany your class) to go with us and we had great weather.  Everybody paid, brought in a signed permission slip, and no one forgot their lunch. (Can you believe it?!?!)

It always amazes me when I see how the kids react to going on a field trip.  The things that really interest them are not always what we expect.  For example, while we were waiting outside the school for our bus to pick us up, I was pointing up to a tree where the leaves had turned yellow and I was asking the kids about the changes we have studied in the Fall.  While we were talking, an airplane flew high in the sky overhead.  The kids started saying that it was a rocket.  "Look at the rocket" they kept saying over and over again.  Then another kid said, "It's not a rocket, it's a jet." (Thank you smart kid!!!)  and they were all like a chorus repeating over and over again "Look at the jet, look at the jet, look at the jet."  It was like a broken record.  

Then the bus pulled up.  For most of the kids, especially new arrivals to the country, the yellow school bus might as well be an amusement park ride.  They've seen it on TV, but they've probably never ridden it themselves.  They are so excited to climb up onto the bus and sit down with their partner and buckle their seat belt.  Then when the bus moves, they clap and squeal and I have to remind them that the driver needs to concentrate.  

Finally we arrive at the destination and all they can think about is eating their lunch.  For them, bringing a bag lunch is a novelty.  I always have to remind them before we leave that we are not eating our lunch on the bus or when we get there.  The teacher will tell them when it is time to eat.  We see a few exhibits, spend about 10 seconds at each place, and tour large museums and zoos in record time.  Then it's time for lunch.  That's when I get to see who eats junk and who eats healthy food.   It's amazing the direct correlation between Doritos, blue "juice," and low academics.  It's always the kids with the sandwich and apple who are more awake and aware at school.  

On the bus ride home, about 1/3 or the class falls asleep and I have to gently wake them upon arrival.  Then we go into the classroom and resettle into school life.  Sometimes we just sit on the rug and listen to songs while I send them all to the bathroom and to drink water.  Sometimes we do a project about the trip, it really depends on how worn out we all are.  The trip on Friday was pretty tiring so we just relaxed for the last 20 minutes before they had to go to the library prep. and then it was time for dismissal.  

On Monday, we'll do some shared writing about the trip and just keep trucking along with literacy.  I know that experiences like field trips can make all of the difference for kids in their writing especially.  I hope this helps them make those connections that are so necessary to be literate.  

P.S. I tipped the driver $10.

Backflips and sirens

Seriously.  I wanted to pull all of my hair out today.  My class is not a behavior problem by any means, but they are just so "low" as we teachers sometimes say.  It's not just low skills (which is a HUGE problem this year), it's a complete lack of attention in addition to beginning pre-k level skills (I teach 1st grade).  Their heads bob and twirl.  They play with little pieces of scrap paper that end up strewn all over the rug.  More recently, a whole group of them have begun to rip the elastic strings out of their socks.  Their eyes don't seem to focus.  When we do shared reading, they look at ME if they are paying attention at all.  I always say, "eyes on the words, not on me!"  They make mistakes when we drill the alphabet, and cannot identify all the letters let alone basic sight words (like "a" or "I").  As we are kicking off a new reading intervention program, the administration actually looked at student assessments for the first time EVER and concluded that our kids need a LOT!  DUH!  How many years have we been saying this?  

Anyway, we decided that we need to really focus on making them aware of basic sight words (since a large majority are currently unable to pass list 1 which is mid- kindergarten level on our sight word assessment).  So, we decided that we the teachers would wear sight words on our shirts.  I wore the word "the" today.  This is a word that has been tripping up my little ones on their assessments along with "in," "is," "it," and you can forget about "here," nobody knows that one (except for my little group of 3 kids who read at level K... which is light years away).  So, I'm wearing this word all day and we're talking about it every chance we get.  The kids are noticing it for the first time ( I know, how many times have we written it and read it, etc?!!!!!) in print around the classroom.  We did a shared reading of a kid's story that I put on chart paper.  I covered up all of the parts where "the" appears with a post it.  Then I had kids come up and write "t-h-e" on the post-its.  Then we re-read it again and again (imagine the bobbing heads and sock play).  Then we read the B level big book "Going to school," which we have read for shared reading so many times that some kids have memorized it and listened for "the."  Long story short, when I asked them how we spell "the" at the end of the day and pointed to the card on my shirt, I got "h-t-a" from a kid (which is fine, not everyone gets it I know), but the fact that most of the kids didn't respond or gasp or anything or even realize that it wasn't right shows me that they are just not CONNECTING!!!!  Thinking about getting them to the level I benchmark or even getting them to have half a chance of ever being literate is a huge burden.  I don't know how I am going to do this considering I have 26 kids in the class.  Out of those 26, 3 are grade level or above, 5 have potential to really progress soon, and the rest are head-bobbers and sock-players.  I feel like I could do backflips and let off sirens and still, I would get nothing.

Illiteracy and homework help

For those readers who are not familiar with the New York City public schools, we are really BIG on homework. I know districts outside of the city who do not begin sending homework until 3rd grade- not the case in the city. My students take home three assignments each night. They read the book in their baggie and fill out a Reading Log with a really simple task for each day. Since they are almost all ELLs I have them write 5 words from their book one day and draw a picture of their favorite part the next. They do one of these activities for every day of the week. It is very simple and follows the same format every week. They change their books every two days. I change the activities to be a bit more challenging in January and again in March. They also do an activity in their homework notebook. It is usually phonics related and reinforces our work in word study. I send a science or social studies activity on occasion in the notebook instead of phonics. Everyday before we pack up, we do the homework together on the board as practice so they know exactly what to do when they go home. I also tell the parents that I basically teach them how to do the homework each day so there is no excuse for saying "I don't know." Most of my students are able to do their homework by themselves. I designed it this way so that parents could provide the structure (i.e. time, a place to do it, and to check that it was done) without actually being required to help their children. I know that most of my children's parents do not speak English at all AND are illiterate in their first language. The third piece of homework is where we run into a lot of trouble-- Math. Each day the children take home Everyday Math Home Links, the homework book provided by the Everyday Math program. Each lesson has a corresponding homework assignment. If I teach lesson 2.1, then the children do the homework for 2.1.

There are several problems with Everyday Math Home Links and the Everyday Math program in general.

• To start off, it is not designed for children with low skills. I have children in my class who cannot count to 20, cannot accurately count out 10 objects (including their own fingers), and cannot write their numbers. The program is designed for children with grade level skills and above. If you actually analyze the majority of activities that correspond to the lessons, they are so far above the state standard for the grade, it is no wonder our children can't do them. To their credit, they did add a small section at the bottom of the homework assignments to practice basic skills.
  
• The second issue is that often the homework assignment does not necessarily correspond to the lesson that was taught in the classroom (although the latest addition has improved slightly in this respect). I have to spend 20 additional minutes teaching the children how to do their homework.
• The third issue is that Everyday Math is so different from the way many of my students' parents learned math that they are unfamiliar with the vocabulary and the structure of the program.
• The fourth issue is the "spiral" format of the curriculum. You jump from one concept to the next "exposing" them to a wide range of concepts that then get revisited later. The children never feel successful during this "exposure" and don't get enough practice with basic skills.
• The fifth problem (I feel like I'm going on forever!) is that the homework assignments are very dependent on parents READING the instructions. If most of your children's parents are illiterate, how are they supposed to manage this?

The result: Many students either do not do their homework at all, someone else does it for them, or they do it so painfully wrong that it doesn't seem worth it. For example, an activity made to reinforce basic skills (usually an add-on at the bottom of the actual homework assignment) might look like this:

Count back by 1s.

_10_ _____ _____ _____ __6__ ______ _____

This is what I get from the kids:

__10__ __11___ ___12___ ___13___ ___6___ ___7___ ____8___

You can only imagine what the actual homework assignment looked like if this is how the basic skills part came out. I really think that Everyday Math NEEDS to rethink how it designs curriculum and homework. They need to really think about parents who CANNOT help their children.

Illiteracy

The reading training I had last week really impacted me.  Before we started the training we looked at statistics of illiteracy in America.  So much of it I already knew, but it's always shocking to hear it again...that 1 in 5 high school graduates cannot read their own diploma, that 80% of single mothers are illiterate, etc. etc. etc.  My assistant principal (the same one who yelled at me in front of the kids earlier this year, but who I now REALLY respect and like) started talking about all of the different kinds of diplomas the NYC public schools were literally handing out to high school "graduates;" diplomas that won't even serve to let them sign up for the Armed Services, apply for community college, let alone get a job.  I had no idea there were so many "grades" of diplomas out there.  I thought there was a general one and a Regents one, but no, there are so many new ones.  

Then we started talking about the children at our school, the struggling readers.  You know, the ones who get stuck in level B, C, and D for the entirety of first grade.  I have to admit, I have seen MANY students like this.  In fact, despite my best efforts (and BELIEVE me, I have REALLY tried and will continue to do so for as long as I can), I would say that a firm majority of my students do not benchmark level I at the end of first grade.  Most of them end up at around level F.   Add on summer loss, and they show up for second grade reading level E.  There are a lot of factors that contribute to this.  Almost 100% of my students are beginning or intermediate ELLs.  Most of my students have parents that are functionally illiterate.  Okay, so two strikes against them....BUT... they come to school every day.   As my Assistant Principal said, "If a child comes to school every day, there is NO reason why they should not learn to read."  It's true! They deserve the support they need to read on grade level.  

For the past 3 years at my school, we have not had ANY reading intervention for the lower grades.  Seriously, NOTHING.  No passport, no reading recovery, not even AIS.  None of the K-2 teachers have AIS. In fact, I didn't even know what AIS was my first year because I had never been serviced and I have still NEVER had AIS in my room.  And I tried to get my kids reading.  I had strategy groups, ESL groups (I'm bilingual certified, so my students do not receive additional ESL pullout), and guided reading groups.  We had our "Just Right Baggies" and our mixed level bins and a print-rich environment.  We did "Words Their Way" which I adapted for ESL, Fountas and Pinnell "Phonics," etc.  We did shared reading, interactive writing, shared writing, etc. Read aloud with "stop and jot," accountable talk, and whole class conversations.  I was doing everything I had been taught to do, but it wasn't working for everyone.  Of course I have seen kids go from not being able to write their own name to reading level H by the end of the year, but it's not all kids.  We have usually 5 or 6 real strugglers (levels B, C, D, and E), 10 who progress but still end up below grade level (levels F, G, and H) , and about 5 or 6 who benchmark or exceed the benchmark (levels I, J, K, L).   This is unacceptable, especially knowing that statistics show much higher high school drop out rates for students who did not read at grade level by the end of first grade.  

The trainer from the reading program really honed in on what we as teachers already know.  All teachers are important and can make a serious impact, but some grades have higher stakes (not like testing, but for life).  First grade is one of those "make it or break it" years statistically speaking.  First grade teachers are some of the most important people in a school.   She also admitted that Balanced Literacy is great for the kids who progress, but it does very little for the strugglers.  That's why I always see that group of 5 or 6 who seemingly make little or no progress throughout the year.  They need intensive one-to-one instruction.  I really can't wait to get this program up and running.  I would be so ecstatic at the end of the year if I could send everyone to second grade reading on grade level (or at least close!).