Helping the Kids to "Get It"

by Diana Carr, Elgin Junior High School, Green Camp, Ohio

Employing More Than One Approach

Our junior high school uses a variety of approaches to ensure that the kids get it. One is to have our seventh grade students take separate reading, English, and vocabulary classes. This allows us to offer several levels of reading and to provide individual intervention as needed. The semester-long vocabulary classes present a review of spelling rules, prefixes, roots, suffixes, and homonyms. During the other semester, students are in keyboarding. The English classes are geared toward helping students improve their writing composition skills while reviewing parts of speech, grammar, and other conventions.

A second approach is to have all teachers teach reading, regardless of the core content area we primarily instruct. Reading of some type is incorporated into every classroom, from reading and discussing textbook content during a class to assigning outside research for a project.

Third is the implementation of the Middle School Advisory program, created last year. Middle School Advisory involves assigning a homeroom class to most teachers, who serve as the mentors of and advocates for their students. The goal of Advisory is to build a community and sense of belonging for each member of the team. As part of this program, teachers have grade-level meetings with the guidance counselor on a regular basis to discuss any questions, problems, or concerns about students. We have found it very beneficial to share the reading levels of students at these meetings. Those students with lower reading levels often struggle with textbooks in other classes, and this information has assisted our teachers in providing additional support in working with these students. I believe this is a winning combination of caring teachers and staff who are dedicated to ensuring that the kids get it.

Getting to Know the Students

For me personally, one of the biggest factors in knowing if the kids get it is knowing my students well as individuals. It helps the students to feel safe in class and to trust that I will always work in their best interests. This knowledge also helps me to know the best approach to use with each student and what interests him or her.

Because of the number of classes and students that junior high teachers see each day, getting to know the kids well and quickly at the start of the school year can be a challenge. One of the things I do during the first week of school is to give an interest survey to my students. Regardless of the subject being taught, the survey consists of questions about how the student feels about the subject, why, best and worst experiences, favorites, genres, homework, etc. I stress when making the assignment that the students answer honestly, not just what they think I want to hear. The students earn participation points for completing and returning the survey. I keep their surveys and work samples in folders, one for each student, during the school year, returning the material to them the last week of school. This way, I have the survey to look back at whenever I need it.

I also get to know my students by asking them to write me a letter telling about them. The letter needs to include information about the student and his or her family, tell what the student did over the summer; and describe how the student feels about coming into the junior high.

Still another way I get to know my students is to ask them to write journal entries on a regular basis. I usually assign a broad topic so that the student can make it his or hers. Sometimes, the student chooses the topic for the journal. Through the use of journaling, I have learned about students' favorite books, movies, boyfriends, girlfriends, best friends, families, problems, hopes, and dreams. A case in point: A few months into school, I asked students to write a journal entry about what they liked about reading, what they did not like about reading, what made reading easy for them, what made reading difficult for them, and why. The next day I asked the same journal questions, except this time the subject was writing. I learned a lot from the journal entries. Both days' entries pointed out some frustrations that students had of which I was unaware.

One of the best ways to get to know students' interests is just to talk to the students. I always talk about what I am reading or writing, tell them what classes I am taking for my master's degree in education, and ask the students what they are reading or doing. The advantage of knowing about the students is that I can then recommend books, magazines, Internet sites, movies, genres, etc., that will appeal to their interests. If I see a student with a book about bears and know that the student has indicated he does not like bears, I can ask why the student selected that book and hopefully steer him to another that he would enjoy more. I am a firm believer that if students are interested in the topic or the author, they will more willingly and with enthusiasm do the reading and other assignments associated with the book or topic.

Focusing in on Reading

One approach I have used in teaching reading class in the past (I am not teaching a specific reading class right now) is to use appropriate reading-level books in which students show an interest. I knew their interests from knowing the students. I knew their reading level from files passed on from elementary school and through testing (standardized and other) done in the classroom. Usually if students wanted to try a book at a level higher than they tested, I allowed them to try it and monitored them as they worked their way through the book. Since I had read most of the books the students were reading, I was able to ask them questions about their books to ensure that they were comprehending the material. I have found it extremely helpful to read the same books as the students, not only to make reading recommendations and tell when the student has or has not read the book, but also to answer parent or administration questions or concerns about the book (should they arise).

To keep up with how the students were reading, I asked them to read aloud in class, do sustained silent reading (SSR), keep reading logs, and read independently outside of class on a daily basis. I expected this of all my students, regardless of their reading abilities. All these strategies required that the students read. This goes back to the adage that practice makes perfect. I believe that students actually need to read to maintain and improve their reading levels and comprehension.

Students also need to see teachers model reading. To do this, I continue to read to my seventh grade English students on a regular basis. While they initially complained that they were not in elementary school any more and acted embarrassed, they now seem to enjoy it and jump into the discussions about genre, content, and style after I am done reading. My goals are to focus on the students' strengths and make reading and writing fun for them.

Graphic organizers have also proved to be quite helpful in reading class and English class. Some students have difficulty keeping track of and remembering what has happened in a story or book. To assist those students, we have reviewed how to use Venn diagrams, webs, story maps, character maps, storyboards, timelines, outlines, and other visual organizers. Most of the students are comfortable with these organizers and are able to use them to organize their thoughts for both reading and English classes for prewriting. When the students forget what happened, they have the graphic organizer to look back at to remind them. To check for understanding, a journal entry can be assigned to summarize a chapter or a book, to write as any character to show that character's viewpoint, or to predict what might happen next in the book. The graphic organizers and journal entries can be used later as background for a book report or another concluding activity.

Students who have reading comprehension problems can sometimes benefit from reading questions about the book or chapter ahead of the reading. This allows the students to look for the information as they read, instead of attempting to remember or look the information up again. These students may also benefit from listening to a book on tape and following along in their book. By both seeing and hearing the book, the students have a better chance of understanding the material.

To conclude, there are numerous methods and strategies for teaching reading. Not all work for every student. Through questioning, observation, and conversation, it is quickly apparent that our methods and strategies are working or not for that individual.

Diana Carr teaches seventh grade English and writing at Elgin Junior High School. She has just completed her master's degree in literacy through Ashland University. She also holds a BSBA and an MBA from Ashland and went through the university's Bachelor's Plus program for people with non-education college degrees who want to get a teaching license. Previously, she spent twenty years in the central Ohio business community in account management, database management, IT recruiting, and fund-raising, including working for a dot-com.

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