The Power of Reading in the New Year

With the warmth and sunshine of December behind us we have finally seemed to jump into winter with the arrival of the New Year. Perhaps all of us can work together to convince our middle school students that when the temperature dips into the single digits it is “cool” to wear a hat and gloves! They may not listen, but we can keep preaching!

The New Year brings with it our continued focus to make reading a priority at the middle level both within and outside of school. We know that books are the fundamental engines of advancement, illumination, and wonder.  We need to get books in more of our children’s hands much more often than we are. And by ‘we’, I am referring to school and home. We can’t do it all at school between 7:45 AM and 2:15 PM. Making reading a part of who our children are is essential for their lifelong success regardless of what their interests are or what they decide to pursue after high school.

In school we talk about literacy in broad terms, across all grades and disciplines. People are more cognizant of providing daily opportunities for our students to read and write with a purpose; to teach content through reading, writing, and inquiry. Reading is the magic bullet for maximizing student achievement and growth. It’s not just about reading books, but newspapers, magazines, blogs, journals, web posts, directions, word problems, lyrics, recipes, music, etc. Getting those in the hands of our students is essential. We continually reflect on our instructional practices: how much time are we spending each period, each day, each week, each unit, reading and writing? What are the tasks associated with the various texts that students engage with? Reading and writing should be an essential component which everything else that we do is built around. We must ensure that we are giving our students what they need for their future, not simply walking them through a bunch of content in order to pass tests. The ability to read and write well are gifts. As we prepare our students for their future there is nothing more valuable that they can take with them.

Frank Bruni wrote a wonderful OP-ED for the New York Times in which he eloquently captures the importance and power of reading: “Reading fuels the fires of intelligence and imagination, and if they don’t blaze well before elementary school, a child’s education — a child’s life — may be an endless game of catch-up.” I encourage you to read the entire article here.

One way that you can help promote reading at home is to encourage your children to get involved with our 2^nd Annual ‘Battle of the Books’. The Battle is about to get underway with competition between teams beginning in March. Last year was our inaugural Battle, with 68 students competing on 17 teams, answering questions about 8 books which were focused on a theme of "Journeys." Students had a great time using electronic buzzers, answering questions, and wagering points to defeat their competitors. They had fun reading and discussing great books!

This year's competition promises to be even better with a visual Jeopardy-style electronic gameboard, and book titles that have won several awards for quality writing and content in middle-school fiction. The titles for this year can be found here.

The ‘Battle of the Books’ is a great opportunity for your child to be on a team, in a school-sponsored activity, developing their skills of teamwork, cooperation, communication, all in a very fun environment! Competition will take place during IT and there are still openings for teams and for individuals who would like to be placed on a team. Please have your child see Mrs. Chemotti in the library for more information.

Let’s continue to support and encourage our students to read as we enter the New Year. Wishing all of you a happy and healthy 2016!

Continued Success,

Stephen R. Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Follow me on Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Grades Don't Tell the Whole Story

On Friday Report Cards for the first quarter of the school year were released. Parents and students alike logged into SchoolTool, locked their eyes onto the grades for each class and made a personal judgment of whether those numbers were ‘good’, ‘bad’ or somewhere in-between. The unfortunate thing about grades is that it is very difficult to give an accurate reflection of an individual student as a learner with just a number. Yet, we get so focused on the number we don’t often stop to think about the learning taking place.

Take these two scenarios: Mike has a 97 in Science class. He does all of his homework and he does well on tests and labs. He’s engaged in classroom conversations, but he came into the school year with a great deal of background knowledge on the subject matter. As a result, he doesn’t need to put in a great deal of time or effort into the class because it comes so easy for him. The 97 is a nice number, but there may not be a great deal of learning taking place. Steve has a 68 in English class. He works very hard, completes all of his homework, but really struggles with writing. Over the course of the first quarter his hard work is starting to pay off. His writing and reading comprehension are improving and a significant amount of learning and growth is taking place. These are two very different grades telling two very different stories. If you focus just on the number you don’t see the entire picture and you can lose sight of the individual as a learner.

I’m not proposing that we throw grades out at this point, but looking at them differently is a must. As educators we are changing how we look at grades and how we ultimately give grades to students. We are moving away from the days of “getting stuff done” and compliance as the measuring stick for student performance. Our assessments are more authentic in nature, students are engaged in much more rigorous and relevant learning opportunities across all content areas, we are giving on-going, specific feedback to students in order to promote growth, and the focus is much more about essential skills than it is short term memory and regurgitating. It’s about the process of learning and all of the experiences tied to it.

We need to start talking about the learning and focus less on the numbers. High grades do not necessarily equate to more learning just as lower grades do not necessarily equate to less learning and it is very difficult to give an accurate reflection of an individual student as a learner with a single number. Most of us would agree that our students are more than just the number they receive from State Assessments, so we also need to embrace the idea that our students are more than the grades on their report cards.

Build 'em & Bust 'em

Our students take part in a wide variety of activities that can’t be quantified with a number. How do you put a number on the incredible experiences our students have as part of our athletic teams or as part of our performing groups or the musical or our many clubs or an Olweus Classroom Meeting? Just this past weekend we had students participating in the ‘Build ‘em and Bust ‘em’ Bridge Building/Engineering competition at the MOST, another group of students participating in a First LEGO League competition in Mexico (the school district, not the country) and starting Thursday evening 120 of our students will kick-off three performances of the musical, The Happy Elf.

LEGO Competition

These are just three examples of the many amazing experiences our students are involved with as an extension of the classroom experience. I would argue that the learning that took place in preparation for these events and during these events might be greater than experiences that are reflected in their report cards. It really is about perspective. As adults we need to look at the whole picture, look at each student individually as a learner, and not get so hung up on the numbers.

The current system has us trying to communicate growth and learning in numbers. It isn’t easy and it isn’t perfect, but we continue to work on it. As parents we need to continue to talk to our children about school and their learning, not just about grades. 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

@Sdunhamwgms

sdunham@westgenesee.org

A Special Week

I’d like to think that everything that we do with our students is worthwhile at some level, but when we can create and provide experiences that stick with students and become a part of them as people it is truly special. This past week our students had some pretty incredible opportunities to do just that.

On Tuesday our entire building took part in a half-day Olweus Classroom meeting with a focus on gratitude. We discussed the many people in our own lives that do incredible things to support and care for us, and we talked about how we can show gratitude to others. It doesn’t take a lot of money or time, it’s simply letting people know how appreciative we are for what they do for us whether it is a bus driver, our parents, a friend, or someone we’ve never met holding a door open for us. It’s about being more in touch with the world around us and appreciating the power of doing positive things for others.

Our classroom meetings became even more meaningful as our entire building had the opportunity to show gratitude to those that sacrifice so much for all of us; veterans and active military. Students were able to ask questions and talk to veterans from various eras about their experiences while serving our country. In addition to that students wrote letters to active servicemen and women as part of Operation Gratitude. The thoughtfulness, heartfelt appreciation and genuine gratitude that students expressed in their letters was incredible. As a result of this experience I think our entire building has a much greater appreciation for veterans, our active military and all of the sacrifices that they have and continue to make for us. 

Matt Bellace firing up our kids

On Thursday we had a whole-building assembly to hear Matt Bellace. Dr. Bellace is a comedian who has a Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology (the study of the brain and behavior), and is the author of the book, "A Better High". Dr. Bellace’s message is a positive, science-based and seriously entertaining approach to substance abuse prevention with a focus on getting high naturally. He had 700+ students and nearly 100 staff members listening, laughing and thinking for just over an hour. If you’ve ever been in a gym with over 700 middle students you know how impressive that is! As entertaining as it was, it was as equally powerful in its message.

700 focused students

In the days following those experiences I have had many students approach me in the cafeteria, hallways and classrooms at the end of last week to talk about how great the week was. Each of those kids had their own perspective on what made it so special, but all of them shared a personal connection to one or both of those events on Tuesday and Thursday. If just one of our students were inspired this week to show more gratitude in their lives or find natural highs and make healthy choices then it was worth the time and effort to make those events happen.

In life the most meaningful things stay with us; the rest we let go of. A lot of the “stuff” we teach our students is going to be lost when the year ends and we go our separate ways. But I don’t think many of our students (or adults for that matter) will forget the words and experiences of our veterans or thoughtfulness that went into the letters we wrote to active service members as part of Operation Gratitude. And I don’t think anyone in the gym on Thursday will forget experiencing the power of laughter firsthand and how incredible that makes you feel. Most importantly, I hope that all of our students recognize and don’t forget that they have other options besides drugs and alcohol to get high and feel good about themselves. In the end, these are the reasons we got into this profession in the first place; helping to shape young people into caring and successful adults.  

When it is all said and done this past week was way more than just another week. If you haven’t had the chance to talk to your student(s) about it I encourage you to do so. Hopefully there will be a lot of thinking, reflecting and growth that comes out of these experiences.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms