People who see me at work every day and even some that see me on weekends know that I have been challenged by my reading intervention class this year. We had a meeting on Tuesday of all the intervention teachers with some very interesting results. We did all the ordinary things - group discussions about strengths and challenges, recording them on the chart, planning future units, talking about grading policies and time to meet in school teams. It sounds ordinary but I had a lot of ah ha moments. I tried to air them with the district guru but it didn't seem to go very far. She just told me to write a letter. The last time I wrote one of these letters, it was about the district's failure to close down a school during a horrendous storm and localized power outage. It took a while but eventually a mea culpa and apology was made. OK. You want a letter? Here it is... I doubt it will get any results but I sure do feel better now:)
Dear "Powers That Be,"
I would like to thank you both for the opportunity to be a part of the district implementation of Read 180. For a teacher, there is nothing like the feeling of knowing that you are involved in something that has the ability to change kids’ lives. It’s the reason we enter the teaching field in the first place and it sustains us throughout our careers.
On November 10, 2009 I attended a Read 180 meeting where we were given the time to sit down together and share our experiences, plan units, and meet in site based teams. It was an opportunity for the Read 180 teachers within our district to be able to discuss with each other our successes and challenges. This being the first year of implementation, there have been many hurdles to overcome. I have appreciated the support at both the local and district level.
Read 180 has not been my first experience with reading intervention programs. My introduction to the educational profession was as a first grade teacher where the teaching of reading is paramount. It wasn’t long before I began searching for a reading intervention and became involved in developing a first grade program for the Diocese of San Jose. So when the opportunity to be a part of a secondary reading intervention presented itself, I couldn’t resist. Part of that was curiosity about what a middle school reading intervention would look like and part of it was the desire to be involved in something life changing.
My experience with Read 180 has had its ups and downs. The greatest difficulty for my students and me has been time. Buchser has attempted to keep all the pieces in place in order to make a difference in our students’ lives. The pieces are many; scheduling a balanced academic curriculum for each student, maintaining the students in a regular English Language Arts class and somehow finding the time in the day to allocate for Read 180. The result has been that students are in a 50-minute ELA class as well as 70 minutes of Read 180.
With this in mind, I must admit that I learned a lot at the district meeting. I was surprised to discover the variety of ways that Read 180 has been and will be implemented throughout the district. While I understand the necessity of site based decision making and the importance of a program that fits the needs of the students it serves, we have announced to our communities that we are teaching Read 180. That title means something. Anyone with Internet access will quickly discover from the Scholastic website that Read 180 is a 90 minute daily reading intervention. They back this up with research and a variety of ways to get to 90 minutes but the options all total 90. The reality is that within our district there are a variety of ways Read 180 is being taught. Some schools have replaced their ELA class with Read 180 but others have kept their ELA program in tact while trying to piece together minutes in a day that will come close to but not quite add up to 90. The result cannot help but be two very different experiences for the students and teachers alike.
If we as a district truly hope to close the achievement gap for these students, instruction in an ELA class in addition to the intervention is a piece that cannot be compromised. Research has shown time after time that successful interventions are a result of best teaching practices in a language arts class in addition to an intervention class. We know this. This is true of Reading Recovery, as well as our own RIS program and Soar to Success. It is tempting to think that Read 180 can do it all but the mathematical truth is that the growth a student will make in a year’s time in a 90 minute class cannot compare with that made in a 50 minute ELA class in addition to the 90 minute intervention.
What may appear to be a time issue, under closer investigation, quickly becomes a money issue. The elementary reading interventions in our district have been successful for two reasons, teachers were hired for the distinct purpose to work with students and classroom teachers and additional time has been dedicated to reading instruction. The reason middle schools are making choices that dilute the 90-minute Read 180 intervention program is that additional teachers have not been funded for the distinct purpose of teaching the intervention class. Money and time are the two variables in education that cannot be ignored. We cannot substitute 140 minutes of daily instruction in an ELA and intervention class for either a 90-minute stand-alone intervention or 120 minutes of an ELA and a compromised intervention class. Likewise, we can’t schedule an extra class for a teacher without affecting the rest of the school’s master schedule. There appears to be no other recourse than to hire teachers for the dedicated purpose of teaching the reading intervention class.
Reading interventions are by their very nature investments in both time and money. But more than that, they are an investment in our students’ futures. Teacher positions need to be funded for the purpose of this reading intervention so that the Read 180 program can be incorporated according to its design. I would love the opportunity to be a part of implementing a reading and writing curriculum that includes best teaching practices in both an ELA class as well as a 90-minute intervention class. I am hopeful that after analyzing the results of this first year of our secondary reading intervention, that we as a district will dedicate both the time and money necessary to give our students the best future possible.
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