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A schoolwide commitment to reading and writing strategies in all content areas has had a positive impact on student achievement at Herbert Hoover High School in san diego, California. The school's achievement scores have increased from an average 5. Grade-level equivalent to an average 8. Grade level equivalent.
A schoolwide commitment to reading and writing strategies in all content areas has had a positive impact on student achievement at Herbert Hoover High School in san diego, California. The school's achievement scores have increased from an average 5. Grade-level equivalent to an average 8. Grade level equivalent.
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A schoolwide commitment to reading and writing strategies in all content areas has had a positive impact on student achievement at Herbert Hoover High School in san diego, California. The school's achievement scores have increased from an average 5. Grade-level equivalent to an average 8. Grade level equivalent.
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A schoolwide commitment to readingand writing strategies in all content areas has had a positive impact on student achievement at HerbertHoover High School.
Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey,
and Douglas Williams
y all accounts, Herbert Hoover
High School in San Diego, California, was a school in trouble. Achievement scores were the lowest in the county -I and among the lowest in the state. Teacher morale was low; turnover was 4 I high. Crime, poverty, and basic skills o were the most frequent topics of conversation on campus. At one point, wanted literacy strategies in content- reading achievement, have increased a consultant suggested that we should area instruction to become common- from an average 5.9 grade-level equiva- not expect more from our 2,200 stu- place-across English, science, social lent to an average 8.2 grade-level equiv- dents: 46 percent of them are English studies, art, physica I education, music, alent. Although these scores remind us language learners, 100 percent qualify and shop. After the school's govemance that student achievement at Hoover stfll for free and/or reduced lunch, and 96 committee approved these strategies, has room for growth, we are encour- percent are members of minority we expected every teacher in our aged that the average student now reads groups. school to use diem. ' more than two gradelevels Wgher than We did expect more, however. Every Equafly important to the conu-nitment three years ago. In addition, we met our teacher at our school had been working from teachers was our conunitment to state accountability targets for the first hard to meet students' needs. We had a them. This school had seen many time in a decade. Califorriia uses its offi- health clinic, counselors, and a great reforin efforts come and go, and staff cial accountability score, the Academic library-but our students were not niembers were exiiausted from shifting Performance Index, to encourage achieving. Then, in 1999, we formed a priorities. We needed an unswerving improved school perforinance by staff development committee of focus. Over the next three years, we setting an accountability target for each teachers, administrators, and San Diego worked on a professional development school based on its assessment results. State University colleagues. Together, plan that centered on our adopted In 1999-2000, with a baseline score of we identified seven instructional strate- strategies, and the resWts seem to 444 and a target of 462, Hoover gies that would permeate the school.at support our efforts. achieved a score of 469. On another every level. We wanted the strategies to Our Gates-MacGinitie scores, for measure of reading scores, the Stanford 9, be transparent to the students, and we example, wliich we use to measure Hoover's 9th graders exceeded district
70 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/NOVEMBER 2002
growth between 1998 and 2001; the selections are not from the textbook; 'What did you learn about the topic?" district's scores increased by 1.5 instead, teachers select other materials As a way to open her unit of study on percent, and Hoover's by 2.5 percent. that build students' background knowl- the book Seedfolks (Fleischman, 1997), In other words, our students are edge, provide them with interesting an English teacher first asked her stu- catching up, and the gap is closing. vocabulary words, and ensure they are dents what they knew about commu- hearing fluent reading. nity gardens. Their responses included Seven Defensible Strategies For example, an art teacher recently "My grandma has one with lots of The link bcaween strategic teaching and read aloud the picture book My Name flowers," "We use them to grow vegeta- student learning is the keystone of our is Georgia(Winter, 1998) before bles," and "Poor people can grow some- professional deyelopment plan. displaying some of Georgia O'Keeffe's thing to eat." Teachers need ongoing professional Their responses to what they wanted development that allows for growth in to know included such questions as expertise across departments and with "Why do people like them?"; "What can years of teaching experience. All staff you grow in San Diego?"; "How much members need to study each strategy, land do you need?"; and "Are commu- practice it in their classrooms with peer nity gardens legal?" support, and eventually assume the When they had finished the book, responsibility for delivering future staff visited a comnnunity garden, and tried to development. grow their own plants, the teacher After reviewing research evidence on returned to the language chart and the efficacy of the strategies, teachers asked her students, "What did you quickly adopted the phrase seven defen- leam?" Their responses included such sible strategiesas part of the high comments as "It's not about growing school's lexicon. The specific instruc- food; it's about having space," tional strategies we selected were read- "Gardening helps you relax," "The alouds (or shared reading), K-W-L garden-was a-place for people to meet charts, graphic organizers, vocabulary and talk," "This writer's cool; he knows instruction, writing to leam, structured how-to tell a story," and "Growing food notetaking, and reciprocal teaching is really hard." Like many other teachers (Fisher, 2001). Teachers attended we have worked with, this classroom monthly preparatory meetings to read teacher reports that using K-W-L charts research reviews of the strategies, Students at Herbert Hoover High School helps students organize their inquiries. discuss the successes and challenges of have become engaged readers. implementing the approach, and use Graphic Organizers videotapes of their classes to model the Graphic organizers provide students strategies.for their peers. work. Nearby, a U.S. history teacher with visual information that comple- We also created posters of the seven used an'overhead projection to share a ments the class discussion or text. Orga- strategies for classroom use so that newspaper dated September 1, 1939, nizers come in many forms (see Wood, teachers could refer to them in the announcing Germany's invasion of Lapp, & Flood, 1992). Students at course of instruction and students could Poland. Both teachers noted that these Hoover consistently report that the become familiar with the names of the literacy experiences built and extended graphic organizer is the most helpful strategies and their use. background knowledge. strategy that we employ. For example, a science teacher placed on the board at Read-A louds K-W-L Charts random a number of magnetic strips A read-aloud-or shared reading-is K-W-L charts (Ogle, 1986) are a great with terms on them related to the one of the most effective ways for way to hook students into learning. concept of matter. The teacher invited young adults to hear fluent reading These language charts start with the individuals to come to the board to (Allen, 2000). Our literacy plan advises question, "What do you know about the create a graphic representation of the that teachers read to their students topic?" Following this discussion, information they had been studying, He every day in every class for at least five students are asked, "What do you still also asked that they draw lines and minutes. Some teachers read the text want to know about the topic?" Once write in the relationships between the aloud while students listen; other the unit of study has been completed, words. One student moved the word teachers read the text aloud while the language charts are used again and neutron under the word nucleus and students read along. Most often, the students answer the third question, wrote "contains" between them. She
AssoCIATION FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 71
understood that the nucleus this strategy, writing helps contained neutrons. The next student drew a circle around the words nucleus, I students think about the content, reflect on their knowledge of the content, neutron, and contains. He and share their thoughts then added the word elec- with the teacher. tron to the outside of the circle and wrote "spins in StructuredNotetaking the shell." The science We implemented structured teacher was pleased to see notetaking because many evidence of the student's understanding of this atomic unit's orbital i students did not have a repertoire of study habits s that helped them to do well. behavior. Most Hoover students use Cornell notes (Spires & Vocabulary Instruction Stone, 1989). The students Student achievement data consistently draw a vertical line about two inches from reported that vocabulary scores at the left side of the paper, log main ideas Hoover were low. It seemed that every We worked on a professional and key words to the left and detaiLs to teacher focused on different words and the right of the line, and write a brief used.different approaches for teaching development plan that summary of the lesson at the bottom of vocabulary. Many considered vocabulary centered on our adopted the page. Teachers throughout the school knowledge to be the domain of English quickly noticed the implementation of or elementary school teachers. We strategies, and the results this strategy because they realized that decided to focus our professional devel- they no longer had to devote instructional opment on transportable vocabulary seem to support our efforts. time to teaching a study technique. Other skills-that is, skills that students could teachers have remarked that notetaking is use across content areas. We studied yielding dividends: The vocabulary not simply a way to record facts; it also word families, prefixes, suffLxes, word subtest on the Gates-MacGinitie has leads to deeper student engagement and roots, vocabulary journals, and word increased 16 percent during the past reflection. sorts (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2002). three years. For example, in an algebra class, the ReciprocalTeaching teacher wanted his students to under- Writitng to Learn This strategy has been the most difficult stand that the vocabulary words that he We agree with Fearn and Farnan (2001) for teachers to incorporate into their selected had both general and math- that reading, writing, and content lessons. The teachers who use it, specific definitions. He asked students to learning are related. Teachers use however, consistently report that it is fill out four columns in special vocabu- writing-to-learn strategies at the begin- the most effective way to engage readers lary journals. In the first column, ning, middle, or end of class to help with texts. Students also report that they students wrote a list of words, including students inquire, clarify, or reflect on the read and understand more when they vaniable, equation, and binomial. Then content. The student thinks for a minute use reciprocal teaching than when they the students wrote the common defini- or so, then writes for about five minutes. read the text independently. Reciprocal tions of each term in the second colunm Some teachers begin class with this teaching (Carter, 1997; Palincsar, 1984) and the math-specific definition in the strategy to help students focus on the allows students to become the instruc- third column. In the final column, topic. Students told us that it was diffi- tors of the content that they are students identified where they had cult to think about a social conversation studying. Working in groups of four, the found the accepted math definition; that they had had earlier in the day students read a text passage together, some cited the page in the algebra text- when they were actively writing about following a protocol for predicting, book, while others noted a Web site the stock market crash. Other teachers questioning, clarifying, and summa- address or a poster on the bulletin conclude their classes by asking for a rizing-skills that teachers have board, In the past three years, teachers summary of what students had learned modeled over a series of lessons until have noted that their students' vocabu- in class, for a description of one high- students are comfortable assuming these lary knowledge is becoming increasingly light of the class, or a prediction of what assigned roles. These student-directed transportable across content areas. This the class would study the next day. discussion groups can then monitor focus on vocabulary acquisition is Regardless of how teachers implement their comprehension and reinforce their
72 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/NOVEMBER 2002
understanding. References and comprehension monitoring activi- In a physical education class, for Allen, J. (2000). Yellow brick roads: ties. Cognition andInstrtuction, 2, Shared and guidedpaths to indepen- 117-175. example, the teacher introduced the Spires, H. A., & Stone, P. D. (1989). The dent reading, 4-12. Portland., ME: rules of volleyball by providing students Stenhouse. directed notetaking activity: A self- with a text that explained aUlthe rules of Blachowicz, C., &Fisher, P. J. (2002). questioning approach.Journal of the game. He could have explained the Teaching vocabzulary in all classroomns Reading, 33, 36-39. rules verbally, but he knew that reading, (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Winter, J. (1998). My name is Georgia. Merril Prentice-Hall. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace. asking questions, and clarifying the rules Wood, K. D., Lapp, D., &Flood, J. (1992). Carter, C. J. (1997). Why reciprocal in small groups would both foster teaching? EducationalLeadership, Gutiding readers through texts: A literacy skills and increase his students' 54(6), 64-68. review of study guides. Newark, DE: understanding of the game. When we Fisher, D. (2001). "We're moving on up": International Reading Association. overheard a student remark, "Hey, isn't Creating a schoolwide literacy effort in an urban high school.Jounial ofAdoles- this reciprocal teaching?" we knew that Douglas Fisher (dfisher@mail.sdsu.edu) cent &Adult Literacy, 45, 92-103. we had succeeded in making this Fearn, L., & Farnan, N. (2001). Interac- isan associate professor and Nancy Frey strategy clear to our students. tions: Teaching writing and the (nfrey@mail.sdsu.edu) is an assistant language arts. Boston: Houghton professor at San Diego State University. The Benefits Mifflin. They work on the City Heights Educational Fleischman, P. (1997). Seedfolks. New Pilot, a partnership between three San The focus on these seven instructional York: Scholastic. Diego public schools and San Diego State approaches has benefited the staff of Ogle, D. M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching Hoover High School in a number of University, 4283 El Cajon Blvd., Ste. 100, model that develops active reading of ways. The shared decisions of the staff expository text. Readin-g Teacher, 39, San Diego, CA 92105. Douglas Williams 564-570. (dwillialImail.sandi.net) is Principal of development committee and school Palincsar, A. S. (1984). Reciprocal Herbert Hoover High School, 4474 El governance helped us articulate a Cajon Blvd., San Diego, CA 92115. teaching of comprehension fostering schoolwide focus on instruction. Stubse- quent professional development has built the teachers' ability to implement each practice. The administration incor- porates each strategy into accountability plans only after teachers have sufficient The E£xemplars A4Vrnif;jX professional development on using the approach. Administrators, department fef$hl sfa"O4 in s i4 chairs, university partners, and teachers now have a list of common expectations iathematics K -12 for discussion and planning. Student achievement is up, indicating Science K-8 a positive trajectory for future growth Professional Development and greater opportunities for our gradu- ates. Last year, 40 seniors were admitted to California universities, including 12 students who were accepted to Berkeley, arguably California's most - Easily differentifated ^.bsso td: selective public university. Although we are pleased about the performance tasks outcomes for these students, we recog- 0 - XStandards-basedtcoring r nize that we must continue our focus on teacher development to improve , ¾- e 0 '^Annotated benchmark papers -
student achievement for all. At Hoover
High School, strategic teaching encour- ages student learning. We know that excellent teachers have a positive + Fr | 0- tTass keyed to'Natonal Snrds Online suprt and scoring pat8
impact on student outcomes. Our role as
university partners and administrators is .*..oo--so-'oso .-- to ensure that our teachers have the tools to be exce'lent. m
AssoCIATION FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 73
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TITLE: Seven Literacy Strategies That Work
SOURCE: Educational Leadership 60 no3 N 2002 WN: 0230503461016
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