The Gift of a Dream

The Gift of a Dream

By Jill Jenkins

“Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.”
 Jonah Salk

                The news broadcasts are filled with stories of how unprepared graduating students are to take jobs in the engineering and technology industries.  Some corporations are offering a $10,000.00 bonus to their employees who bring them programmers who know java.  Other corporations are importing programmers from Russia and China and engineers from Pakistan to fill the unfilled positions.  They blame the shortcoming in the schools in America.  Is our education program really to blame?

                It is easy to point fingers and blame schools that have been underfunded for decades.  Most teachers have not seen a salary increase in more than a decade and many have had their salaries cut.  School districts are finding it difficult to find teachers to fill positions in technology, math and science because candidates can make so much more money in industry.  Many school districts dramatically reduced their staffs leaving many educators unemployed.  To add to the teachers’ frustration the media slams their results without understanding the challenges. 

                 Schools in the United States do not just teach the best of the best.  They teach everyone.  Classes are mainstreamed with special education students, students who do not speak English, and students who have both behavior problems, but emotional problems.  All of the students need to be prepared for end of the year tests while crowded into classes of forty or more students. The countries that are often compared to the United States do not teach everyone. They continually separate students into separate learning environments until only the brightest and the best receive an academic education.  Every new idea the universities developed are laid across and overwhelming list of learning goals making actual instructional time a dwindling commodity. Still, most teachers use all of their effort to help these students attain their goals.  Yes, there are teachers who do not teach the new core.  Yes, there are teachers who do not push students, but they are the minority.  Most teachers would be happy if administrators actually took actions against the few bad apples who attacks by the media ought to be directed.  Furthermore, most of the technology careers require post-high school education which is a luxury that many students cannot afford.  In other countries that the United States is compared to higher education is often provided by the state. 

                What could large corporations do to help?  Obviously Bill and Melissa Gates have put their money where their mouths are and so has Warren Buffett.  Other corporations could help as well.  Many of our brightest and best students feel hopeless.  College tuition has become so outrageously expensive that they idea of pursuing a college degree seem unreachable.  Taking out a student loan seems frightening during these difficult economic times.  Despite the fact that with a college education, American students could be filling those programming and engineering jobs, these students settle for a minimum wage job with not future, because they lack hope.  Instead of complaining about finding appropriately skilled jobs, if these same corporations offered $10,000.00 scholarships to American teenagers who show both a strong work ethic and an aptitude, there would be no need to import talent to fill those positions.  If these corporations offered to pay for the students’ Bachelor’s Degree in exchange for five years of employment, the American student would have hope and the corporations would have a large tax break, so everyone would win.  In the past, many corporations invested in the education of their workers who in exchange worked 30 or 40 years for the company.  Companies paid for insurance, and retirement and workers dedicated their lives to them.  Maybe it is time for corporations to give back to America instead of just complaining about it.

                If American students knew that there was a bright future and path to get to that future, they would follow it.  Students from other countries are shown that path and they are taking the opportunities.  If the corporations of American were not so short-sighted, they would see that instead of importing workers or sending jobs to off shore locations, they invested in education of Americans the benefits would not only increase the power of the corporation, but the nation as a whole.  During the industrial revolution, many manufacturers exploited their workers to reap a profit; however, Ford paid his workers a working wage. He invested in his workers.  The Ford Company became stronger and a world leader.  I challenge American Corporation to invest in the future of America.  Give the gift of hope and it will shine for you too.

The Delicate Balance

The Delicate Balance

By Jill Jenkins

With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

                What is important for students to know?  What should our schools be teaching? If you listen to media, all the schools should be focused on is STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Just like in the 1950’s our society is demanding that education provide more STEM education to provide a technological suave population who can produce a profit for our corporations. Are schools created to serve our corporations or the individual needs of our students?  Society certainly rewards students who perform well in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but not every student has the desire or the aptitude to do well in those areas.  Are we doing those students a disservice? Since girls have stronger verbal skills and brains wired for an education in communications is this a subtle form of prejudice?  Before we write our curriculum, it is important to determine what is important to know to help our students become both productive citizens and principled people.  We need a more balanced approach to serve all of the needs of all of the varied students in our classes?

                Schools need to prepare students to be productive citizens, but to be honest with as rapidly as technology is changing that is not an easy task.  As a child, I remember laughing at Maxwell Smart and his shoe telephone.  Now, all of us carry telephones around in our pockets that are not only communication devices, but small computers.  The truth is there will be careers that we can’t even imagine, so we have to give students skills to be life-long learners.  To achieve they must be willing to learn new skills through-out their lives. We need to prepare students to adapt to world that we cannot conceive existing. 

                Research shows that females learn differently than males. According to the article, “How Boys and Girls Learn Differently” by Dr. Gail  Gross from the Huffington Post ,boys have less serotonin and oxytocin which makes girls more sensitive to other’s  feeling subtly communicated through body language and they can sit still for longer periods of time.  Girls have larger hippocampus, where memory and language is stored.  This means they develop language skills, reading skills and vocabulary much sooner than boys. On the other hand, boys have a larger cerebral cortex which means they learn visually and have better spatial relationships.  This could improve their ability in engineering and technology.  These differences become less dramatic as the child grows older.  Perhaps schools need to focus on presenting a broad spectrum of disciplines in a variety of ways to serve all of students.  

                 Even though our society does not value careers where communications rather than subjects like science, technology, engineering and mathematics are the primary focus, they may still be important careers for our society.  For example, teachers are essential if we want to continue to produce an educated workforce, but if pay is the measurement of value, they are not valued by society.  In the state where I taught science, engineering, technology and math teachers were all paid $5000.00 a year more than any other kind of teacher.  Still, if we want to be realistic students’ need a balance of both to be successful.  For example, my daughter is a journalist; however, she also needs to know how to write computer coding because the magazine that employs her is on-line.  Most scientists must document whatever they do which means they need writing and reading skills. Furthermore, who is to say who will be the next poet laureate .   The arts, history and language arts are all equally important skills for students to master as math, science and technological based skills.  

                Even more important, the humanities:  literature, history and the arts force people to ask “why.”  Certainly, we can’t think about Nazi Germany without realizing, there was a reason that Hitler banned books.  We can’t read a Michael Critchton book without discussing ethics in science and medicine.  We can’t read Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist without questioning the social problems caused by poverty and homelessness.  Reading, writing, history, the arts are all connected to science, math, technology and engineering.  A quality education is a balance.  All of it is equally important.  Teachers should be compensated equally and students should be provided with an equal balance.  Teachers should help students develop their own individual talents, so they can become all that they can be.  Schools should prepare each student to become “all that they can be,” not a product to serve the needs of industry.

A Cross-Curriculum Approach to Improving Reading

A Cross-Curriculum Approach to Improving Reading

By Jill Jenkins

            Students who find reading difficult are not the sole-responsibility of the English or Language Arts Department; they are the entire schools responsibility.  At the request of one of my readers, I am going to outline some proven methods to improve reading in your school, but to really have an impact on the students in your school all departments must be part of the solution.

Building a Strong Vocabulary

            Many students who struggle with reading have a limited vocabulary.  Teaching phonics helps students sound out words if they happen to speak “the King’s English;” however, if they happen to speak a different dialect, it is only somewhat useful.  Since being a dialectical snob is not very useful, I would suggest some other approaches might be more useful. However, one of my readers who teaches in India tells me that since many of his students are totally illiterate and come from families who are illiterate, he finds giving extensive phonics training useful.  To be perfectly honest, my experience is with older students from 12 to 18 years old and by that time it is not as effective. Nevertheless, I once had an ELL student, a refuge from the Congo, who spoke a little used dialect and no English at all. He was part of class of 35 students, not an ideal teaching circumstance.  Furthermore, since he was a refuge and a ward of state, the group home in which he resided did not complete the paperwork correctly and did not identify him as a student who required ELL services, even though he knew about three words of English.  I resorted to using I-Pad Apps that not only used pictures, words and sound, but taught phonics.  He worked alone until I got the class busy on an assignment, then I could work with him one-on-one.
          Word Attack Skills that include understanding the etymology of root words, prefixes and suffixes improves students’ ability to decipher some words that are not familiar to them.  One of the best methods that I have used was borrowed from Janet Allen’s webpage.  The variation of her idea that my school found useful looks like this:

Another visual organizer that helps student understand the meaning of words when you are using a whole-word approach is:

Practice Makes Perfect

     Students need a variety of opportunities to practice reading under a variety of different circumstances.

·       Read Along: Students whose parents have read aloud to them while they follow along in the book arrive at school better prepared than those who have had limited access to books.  Likewise, the positive feelings associated with their parents reading to them in a warm, bed makes reading a more desirable behavior.  As a teacher you can play that role by reading aloud to your students or providing them with a stimulating recording.  It is extremely important to read in an expressive manner and stop frequently and involve the students in short discussions to keep them involved, so they don’t fall asleep. 

·       Independent Reading:  Students should be given ten to twenty minutes every day to read quietly alone.  They should be reading a book that is both age-appropriate and appropriate for their individual reading level.  As a teacher you could choose to divide this reading into ten minutes in class and ten minutes at home or you could do it all in class.  Although most students have short attention spans, so ten minutes is about as long as most of them can stay focused on a reading activity, so dividing into two separate ten minute intervals is much more productive.

·       Group Reading: In the old days elementary teachers placed students in reading groups based on their ability and secondary teachers didn’t worry about students’ ability to read.  As a result, the bright students became better readers, the average students stayed average and the poor readers’ parents sued the school, because Johnny couldn’t read.  Obviously, that wasn’t the answer.  Some schools today have turned to pull out programs that ignore the bright students and the average students and focus on the struggling students.  Some of the more affluent schools are even trying to tutor these students one-on-one, but that isn’t the answer either.  Just like the dogs that The Dog Whisperer works with, students learn faster when they are competing with more competent students.  Placing students into groups of three with one bright student, one average student and one struggling student will improve the average student and the struggling student’s ability greatly.  The bright student is staying up all night with a flashlight reading books voraciously, and this little reading group isn’t going to stop him.  His parents can’t and neither can a teacher.  Let students teach each other.  It is easier on the teacher and because students are social beings, it is much more effective.

Schema

     Before you begin reading, engage the students’ prior knowledge to enhance the learner’s understanding of the concept you are trying to teach.

• For example, you are teaching about Geysers in a science class, so you ask, “Has anyone ever been to Yellowstone Park and watched Old Faithful?”   After the students express some memories from their trips to the park, the teacher asks, “Did you ever wonder what makes that hot water fly up into the air? Let’s read about it.”

• In a history class, you are teaching about the Sahara Desert, so you ask your class, “Has anyone in the class visited the Sand Dunes in Utah?”  After the class shares some memories, the teacher can compares the student’s experience to the expanse of sand in northern Africa and asks the class to read the description of the desert in the book.    

• Perhaps you are teaching percentages in math, the teacher could ask “How many of you have ever shared a meal at a restaurant, and had difficulty determining how much to leave for a tip?”  After the students share their experience, the teacher asks the class to read the directions for finding percentages from the textbook. 

The advantage of engaging prior knowledge is the student can connect the knowledge to something that they already know so they are likely to remember it better.  Advertise executives use this techniques all of the time.

Furthermore, it makes the learning more personal and thus more meaningful for the student.

Making Connections

Students better understand a new concept if it is connected to a previous experience: another book they have read, or a movie that they watched.   Help students make that connection by stopping and asking questions that will help them relate the idea to something familiar to them or by relating what connections you make to it.  Modeling is a good way to engage the reluctant reader.

• For example, you are reading a book about the elevation Himalayan Mountains in your geography textbook.  You stop and reflect, “I once climbed the tallest mountain in Utah, King’s Peak.  I was up so high that I got a nosebleed.  How tall is that highest mountain in Utah?  That is only half as tall as Mount Everest.”  The students can discuss when they have been to high elevation and what happened to them when they were there.

• Another instance, you are reading about how to determine area in a math class.  The teacher notes, “I once confused the formula to determine area with the formula to determine volume and nearly bought enough paint to fill my living room. Has anyone in here ever had an experience where they had to determine the area of a space?”  Let them reflect on a time they made a doghouse or a dress and how they might have used the formula in real life.

Helping students connect what they read to their own lives, makes it relevant.

Predicting

Stop reading before you finish a section and ask the students to predict what might happen next or what might happen if.

• In a health class, the class is reading a section on treating burns, but before reading the appropriate procedure for caring for burns, the teacher stops and asks, “John, what do you think would happen if I put baby oil on the burn?”  After John answers, the teacher inquires, “Why do you think that would happen?”   “Helen, what do you think we should put on a burn?” 

•  In a math class the teacher is reading a story problem with the class, “Harold bought three dozen balloons at $1.75 a piece.”  The teacher asks an unsuspecting student, “What math procedure do you think this problem is going to require us to do, George?” 

Making predictions keeps the students actively involved in reading.  It helps students begin to look for patterns in writing that make them more effective at making better predictions. 

Identifying the Organization Pattern

Some students do not understand how a textbook or a reading selection is organized.  If they get a little help identifying where things are organized, they can become more successful.

Explain how the textbook is organized:

•   Where is the Table of Contents?

•   Where is the Glossary?

•   Where is the Index and how do I use it?

•   What are subtopics and how can they help me on an open book test?

• Why are these words in bold face?

•  Are these guide questions of any value?

Make students aware of internal organization:

• Main Idea and Support
• Solving the Mystery
• Comparison and Contrast
• Question and Answer
• Step by Step
• Chronological Recounting of Evens
• Most Important to Least Important
• Visual Patterns
• Point and Counterpoint
• Main Events

If you help the student find the structure, their comprehension will improve dramatically.  What seems obvious to you, may not be to your student, so don’t assume they already know it.

Summarize

Many students can read words correctly, but when you ask them what they have read, they don’t know.  They don’t know because they have not connected the words together to create ideas.  Unless you complete each reading activity with a thinking activity, they won’t comprehend what they have read.  To determine if students have understood what they have read, ask them to write a summary.

Students sometimes are unable to select what information in a reading selection is important and what is supportive.  By asking students to write a summary, the teacher can easily see if the student is just reading words without decoding them into meaningful ideas or if the student understands the issues.

• For example, in a math class, the students have just read a chapter about how to determine the angles of triangles.  The teacher asks them to write these instructions as though they were teaching a six-year-old sibling.  Make sure it is clear and concise.

• In a history class, the class has just read a chapter about what difficulties pioneers faced crossing the plains, so the teacher asks the students to write a list of five major problems these pioneers faced.  Help the students focus on what is important by asking them to summarize.

The Journal Questions

            The learning journal is an effective way to increase students’ comprehension, but the questions have to be carefully constructed to require the student to reread portions of the text, select specific examples, and use the examples to support a larger idea presented in the text.  Questions like:

• ·         What did you think of the book?

• ·         How did the story make you feel?

Are usually answered in trite meaningless patter, because they hold no real meaning and require no real thought on the part of the student.  If you asked questions like:

• ·         Noah Claypole has been described as a bully.  Describe at least three specific incidences in the book where he behaved like a bully and explain what affect it had on Oliver.

• ·         Using the description of a volcanic explosion, explain how and why they occur and predict what long-term outcomes could result to people, plants and animals when one occurs.

• ·         Is Friar Lawrence culpable for Romeo and Juliet’s death?  Describe what actions he did that could lead to a conviction.

• ·         Does Mr. McGregor over-react to Peter Rabbits’ trespassing in his garden? You are the prosecutor, so support your answer with  Peter Rabbit’s specific behavior and Mr. McGregor’s behavior.

Most importantly stay enthusiastic about books they are reading and books you are reading.  Talk to them individually about books.  Make suggestions about books they could read to learn more about a subject they are excited about.  Reading is an addiction and as a teacher you need to sell them on the product.  Make your classroom a rich environment filled with books, magazines, pictures and articles.  Allow student time to explore a variety of sources beyond your textbook.  By varying the reading material, you can increase students’ stimulation and reading  comprehension skills.