Scituate Elementary Teacher Thoughts –
I am fortunate to be using a new reading and writing program for the past two years, as a part of the pilot team for the much needed new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum. The pilot program incorporates all of the current research into a teacher and student friendly, up-to-date literacy program. With the pilot program coming to an end this year, I am a bit worried that if our district does not have the funds to purchase the new ELA books and materials I will go back to teaching the old ELA curriculum. My son, a junior in college, used the ELA series currently owned by Scituate Public Schools when he was in first grade.
I look over my list of new students. I observe that there are some students who will require special attention in my class. I try to strategize ways in which I will meet all the needs of my students in the few hours a day that I am given to teach a curriculum that grows exponentially each year. I know that I need to get each of my students ready to pass the MCAS. How will I do that? Will I work with the slower students and try to catch them up, and leave the others on their own? Will I try to use some of my lunch hour to teach and help catch up the lagging students? I make a note to consider scheduling a few of the students with the reading specialist before her time gets booked up. I further decide I need to do some research on one of my student’s disabilities and talk to the previous year’s teacher. My “To do” list grows.
Time has past and I am well into the school year. I have some real concerns about some of my students. They are not making the kind of progress that I would have hoped. I know that this is a critical year for developing literacy fluency. All the research says that young children can be caught up, gaps can be narrowed and no child will be left behind. I am here by 7:30 AM and some days don’t leave until after 5:00PM. I spend every weekend planning for the following week - modifying, creating and individualizing and yet I feel that these students could use many more hours of extra help and instruction. Worse yet, I need to choose between those who can and those who can not.. Who do I teach? I look around my building. These students won’t qualify for special educational services. Our reading specialist is booked solid. We don’t have a math specialist. There simply is not any available support for these students. I do the best I can.
Despite all the challenges, I would not want to be doing anything else – I the students and love being a teacher!
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2 comments:
First let me say I commend you for your diligence and efforts. I have been in your shoes and understand the depth of your choices and challenges.
Now on the other side of the fence, I am concerned about this new ELA adoption. Please assure me that it is not another fly by night program the likes of whole language and the current math curriculum. Reading has been based on the same 26 letters since the beginning of time, tell me that this new system is balanced, down to earth and manageable. Tell me it allows for educating both ends of the spectrum, those that need remediation and those that need acceleration. Just because something is marketed as new does not mean it is necessarily best. Assure me that this program is not being purchased in its last year of printing, we've checked the publisher's projections on years available.
We will soon see the havoc the math curriculum has wreaked on our current population, let's be extremely careful in the choice of our reading program. After all, it really is the same 26 letters with which we started.
This reseponse was prepared by Dr. James Kelleher - Asst. Superintendent. More information is also available on the school website under Curriculum and a presentation was given on ELA at the 1/22 School Committee meeting that is playing on Chan 22 this week.
Two programs are being piloted at the elementary level, Harcourt and
Houghton Mifflin, and one will be chosen for adoption in early April.
The two programs are based on a 'balanced literacy' approach to
Language Arts. Balanced literacy is a blend of some whole language, with directinstruction in phonics. Teaching whole language exclusively seems to have gone out quite a while ago.
The programs are not in their last printing.
After three years of piloting/selecting and studying ELA programs, wehave gotten a chance to get a good understanding of this market. The market is so competitive that the textbook publishers come out with what
they call a 'new' program every two years. In reality, there are not a lot of changes, and most of the changes that do happen are related to graphics, marketing, etc. (i.e. not the literature, grammar, writing).
There are many similarities between Harcourt and Houghton Mifflin. Either one would be a wonderful program for Scituate. Both are research-based and well designed, and both provide teachers with the tools they need to meet students at all levels of need and ability.
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