On Saturday, a Stamford non-profit, Domus, hosted a listening tour about Connecticut's complicated and persistent achievement gap. As part of the statewide Campaign LEARN -- the Campaign for Leadership, Education, Achievement and Reform Now -- legislators sought input from the public and organizations on improving the academic performance of black, Hispanic and poor students.
Wynne Parry in the her story, "State Leaders, Teacher and Parents Discuss the Achievement Gap" writes:
In Stamford, the school system has begun a reform effort that includes reducing the number of ability levels in middle schools and making them more flexible. State Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, applauded this effort and recalled being a substitute teacher in Stamford and hearing a student refer to her group as the "dumbest class." No child should have to face this stigma, Miller said. As a member of the state General Assembly's education committee, she called for bills to address the achievement gap...
When parents and teachers came to the podium, they brought up underlying issues, such as inequities in expectations from teachers based on their students' race and cultural attitudes toward education -- issues more difficult to address through legislation.Parents talked about holding all children to high standards and diversifying the staff. A teacher said that closing the achievement gaps was about more than education:
Closing the achievement gap is about more than education, said Richard Cheng, an eighth-grade science teacher at Trailblazers Academy, a charter school run by Domus.
"It's their mentality, their confidence level," he said of the students. In addition to teaching science, he said, he also teaches confidence and belief.
At Trailblazers, the school sets up students for successful learning by helping them work through some of the emotional baggage they may have brought to school through a structured greeting every morning. On Friday mornings, they also hold boys' and girls' discussion groups to work through issues, he said.I wrote about Campaign LEARN's initiative a couple of months back. I think it would be a great idea if Norwalk educators, politicians and activists could organize a similar type of discussion here in Norwalk.
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A Stamford Middle School is trying out a couple of furry reading coaches.
For the past six weeks, Eli, a black labrador, and Logan, a large English mastiff, have been reading coaches at the Trailblazers Academy, a charter school in Stamford.
According to an article in Tuesday's Advocate, "Dogs Help Kids Learn to Read Tales", the dogs are helping about 15 struggling readers practice their skills before "less intimidating" ears. One of the students said, "When you read in front of a lot of people, it makes me nervous, and he's a dog."
"It's been a really cool carrot for a lot of our kids, whether they are struggling with reading or it's a confidence issue," said Craig Baker, chief educational officer for Domus.****
Because the program is new, the school is still experimenting somewhat with the format. While the three girls shared one session and one dog, passing the book back and forth as they sat on a couch, other students read one-on-one with a dog and a reading specialist or high school intern.
Finally, I was wondering how Norwalk parents and schools have been reacting to the unbelievably tragic earthquake in Haiti. Many families in the area have been directly affected since Norwalk has a sizeable Haitian population. My own children have Haitian-American classmates who have yet to hear from their extended families. Many of the images on television and stories in the news have been haunting and undoubtedly the rescue and recovery effort will continue for a long time to come. Are you and your family participating in any Haitian relief efforts? How do we, as parents, explain such a catastrophic event to our children?
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The dogs are just another 'gimmic' that gets attention, but the effect of their presence doesn't last long. Teaching students who have problems reading is not a 'quick fix.' I am not saying that it isn't a fun idea to attract the attention of the students, but it isn't going to help in the long run.
ReplyDeleteAs for the discussion groups, well, students learn to want discussion group times more than classroom instruction time where they are seen as failures. If group time is after school, and is in addition to instruction time, I'm all for it.
Silvermine, like other schools in Norwalk, have staff members and families that are from Haiti and have many relatives still there who have been impacted. The school quickly organized a drive to raise funds, sending flyers home on Wednesday and talking with the children about what had happened, especially to relatives of the Silvermine school community. The goal was to raise $1000, but over $700 had been raised the first day, so they increased the goal. We have students whose parents work at Save the Children and at Americares who spoke to the principal about where the money could be donated.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own children's perspective, they came home that first day motivated to give money, because they wanted to help the families of people they knew and cared about and they wanted to learn more about Haiti.
You're entitled to your opinion, Anonymous #1, but the research shows that reading to/with dogs improves confidence, meaning kids are more likely to read. I'm sure the school doesn't think it's the only solution to helping low-level readers. I think anything that gets kids afraid of reading to read more and builds their confidence so they read more IS a long-term solution--one tool of many that schools use to help students with reading.
ReplyDeleteThe East Norwalk Library has the Dogs to Read to program. It takes place on Saturday mornings and reservations can be made. It's a very popular program. For more information contact the East Norwalk Library at 838-0408.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for covering our therapy dog project. We're thrilled about how our students are reacting to reading with the dogs. I've sat in on a few sessions, and it's great. One young man had never before read aloud, and he finished two books with Eli! He was so excited and now reads all the time. I'll emphasize that it's one of *many* tools we use to engage readers and improve their skills--we'd never rely on one approach as everyone learns in a different way. We don't see it as a gimmick but rather one more way we can get kids interested in reading--the more they read, the better readers they'll be. Ms. Noor, I invite you to come by Trailblazers some day to see the dogs in action!
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