Thursday, January 10, 2013

High Expectations and Success!

Written By: Claire Steinbeck
While I could write all day about why teaching is rewarding for me, the most important characters in the story of my teaching career are my students (or “Preppies”). I’d love to tell you a little bit more about what they have accomplished so far this year, and how my colleagues and I have helped them reach those milestones at DC Prep.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a special education and intervention teacher for preschool, prekindergarten, and Kindergarten students at DC Prep’s Benning Elementary Campus. Part of my role is to closely support students with disabilities. However, DC Prep and DC Teaching Fellows both champion the idea that effective instructional techniques and classroom management strategies are at the heart of success for all students. At DC Prep, my colleagues and I share the load and collaborate in supporting all children, regardless of whether or not they have a disability. In my role, I teach small groups of students from multiple different classrooms who are in need of help with specific skills. I also help teachers brainstorm ways to accommodate learners who need slightly different strategies during a typical whole-group lesson.  This is one way that DC Prep holds its students to high expectations. We know that all students can master rigorous academic content, as long as they receive the appropriate supports – like small group instruction and classroom accommodations (i.e. presenting instructions in a different way, chunking difficult tasks into smaller pieces, presenting a new approach to practicing a given skill, etc.)

Much of the academic support I’ve provided thus far has been through guided reading groups with Kindergarten students at DC Prep. For 15-30 minutes each day, every elementary school student at my school receives small-group reading instruction based on their current skill level. During guided reading, students practice reading text that is easy enough to avoid frustration, but challenging enough to stretch their skills. In guided reading, I’m able to target specific things by carefully choosing books with certain features. Students are able to practice a variety of reading strategies while I support them to make sure that the strategy is being used correctly.  Implementing guided reading allows all students (below, at, or above typical level for their grade), to be challenged to improve their reading skills. This article explains a little bit more about the instructional practice of guided reading, which I use and find effective with my students.

Through weekly collaborative meetings and professional development sessions, monthly “Data Days” dedicated to diving deep into students’ assessment results, and careful daily measurement of students’ progress on specific skills, the Kindergarten team and I were able to provide targeted instruction that helped us end 2012 with 73% of our Preppies above the expected reading level for this time in the school year and 11% of students at the expected level. DC Prep uses an assessment tool called STEP to determine each student’s mastery of reading skills along a continuum of benchmarks or reading levels called “steps.” A typical Kindergartener will have moved up one STEP level by December. Recently, four out of six students who were in my guided reading group between August and December improved by at least one “step” or reading level, including two students who improved by TWO “steps!”

Knowing that nearly two thirds of my guided reading group is currently trouncing the achievement gap puts me on a teacher’s high, but I also know my job is never finished. For example, as I head into the new year, I’m already aware that two of those students will need me to reboot my strategy and catch them up. Constantly reflecting on whether my instruction is working, and refining my instruction when it’s not, is the key to making sure every single student I teach masters what they need to know.

Are you ready for victories like the ones I’ve had with my DC Preppies? More importantly, are you up for the challenge? Apply to DC Teaching Fellows today!

No comments:

Post a Comment