Marilyn Reynolds developed the following questionnaire as a guide to encouraging students to read. "I give it to teens individually," she explained. "It gives the teacher an idea of where the kid is on a feeling level. It helps the student know you care about what s/he thinks about reading. You're trying to give them some independence in finding out what kinds of things they like to read rather than simply assigning something you think they should be reading," she concluded.
Reading Questionnaire
1. In your opinion, are your reading skills good, average, or poor? (Please circle your answer.)
2. List any books you've read and liked in your lifetime:
3. What magazines or newspapers do you like to read?
4. List any subjects you like to read about:
5. Why are you coming to this class?
6. With what areas of reading, if any, would you like help (word recognition, comprehension, increasing reading speed, concentration, etc.)
7. Other comments?
After working with young mothers at McAlister Options High School and St. Anne's Maternity Home (both in Los Angeles), I'd like to share some valuable ways public libraries can support school-age parents. First, what do libraries in general have for young parents? Second, I'll discuss specific techniques I use as a librarian working with school-age parents. Public libraries offer young parents incomparable resources. Libraries provide unique cultural spaces for social, personal, and intellectual independence. Libraries are still free. Young people receive service, on demand, from trained professionals. Young people move freely about libraries without salespeople or security cameras. Libraries offer places of creativity, intimacy, and exploration on a human scale.
More recently, libraries represent uniquely democratic spaces for access to impressive screen technologies. Libraries in every community provide environs to enhance both parenthood and babyhood.
Model for Discussion of Reading
With a teen parent group, I use my own "collaborative presentation model," which leads young parents to explore their own ideas about reading and libraries. First, I plan presentations with lots of short parts to keep things moving. Second, I keep the focus away from me. Here's the beef. I just start reading. No introductions, no establishing audience rapport. I simply begin reading a story - like my recent favorite, Chato's Kitchen (by Gary Soto, and wonderfully illustrated by Susan Guevara, 1995).
Once a young mother complained out loud, "He thinks we're in the second grade!" I slyly replied, "I know how old you are," and kept reading. And just when "Chato" thinks he is about to devour the mice, I stop, put the book down, and begin a more traditional introduction of the library as an essential resource for young families.
Pick-a-Victim Game Is Route to Involving Students
Then we play a game called Pick-a-Victim. One person replies to an open-ended statement before passing to someone else. At this point they're talking to each other. Two sample statements are, "One thing I want for my baby's future is . . ." and, "When adults read to me when I was young I felt . . . " The second cuts two ways. It can recall fond memories or bitterness from being deprived. Both supply rich discussions. To break the heaviness at this point I play a song with parental themes - like Gil-Scott Herron's "Your Daddy Loves You." Then we finish Chato's Kitchen.
After the story I hand the chalk to one of the young mothers, asking her to begin a new round of Pick-a-Victim, and thereby make a list of the story-reading techniques just demonstrated. I sit down and shut up.
If time allows, I'll begin a new book. I like the classic, It Looked Like Spilled Milk (Charles G. Shaw, 1947). After I begin, the book gets passed to the next person to read and pass on.
One last round of Pick-a-Victim, also led by one of the young moms, asks them to make a list of good times/places to read to a baby. I usually have to add, "The library, too!"
Public libraries can and should contribute to serving school-age parents. Work with librarians. Guide us. And bring us into the mix.
Evelyn Lerman, author of Teen Moms: The
Pain and the Promise presented highly-praised workshops at Florida
and California conferences this fall on journal writing for teen
parents. Here are some of her tips.
If you've used journal writing before, you know that journals
serve many purposes: to record history, to clarify the writer's
thinking, to help the writer know what she thinks, to recall,
to reflect, to forget, to learn from, to plan with, and quite
possibly, to share. It's on this crucial word "share"
that the teacher needs to focus.
Public or Private Writing?
Is the writing private or public? If the writer sees the entry as private, then the teacher needs to be a quiet observer, giving feedback in a non-judgmental manner, supporting the writer and the writing, and never asking the student to read the piece out loud, or to print it for others to see. If the writing is considered public, then the teacher is freed to treat it as s/he would any English assignment. In both cases, whether private or public journal writing, the teacher assigns fifteen minutes a day of writing, offers a quiet place, a place in which to remember or to forget.
Writing to remember or writing to forget?
We talk about this. It turns out that if the writer is writing
to remember, she usually wants to share the entry, get feedback,
and finish the work so it can be read/viewed by the class. The
teacher's role, then, is to give feedback, enlist the class to
help critique, and move the writer into more comprehensive writing.You
can also ask for and get correct grammar and spelling as well
as a finished product which looks good.
If the writer is writing to forget, this is usually the private material, not to be shared, just to be recorded for the writer's benefit. The teacher here is the responsive, caring adult who does not ask for anything - just leaves it alone, talks with the writer if she indicates the need, and moves on to other entries. Sometimes the material indicates serious problems for the writer - abuse or thoughts of suicide. In these cases the teacher needs to tell the student if she is going to talk with the guidance counselor, psychologist, or administrator - someone who can get the student the needed help.
Let students know before beginning journal writing that privacy will be hon-ored always, except for situations you are required to report such as probable child abuse or other high risk behavior.
"But What Do We Write?"
The contents of journal writing? Just about anything goes, but sometimes writers don't know where to begin. Here's where the teacher comes in. Tell them to include ideas, thoughts, feelings, passions, insights, people, places, events, things, smells, tastes, sounds, sights, physical perceptions, memories of what was, plans of what will be, dreams and wishes of what could be. Art work is welcomed, too.
A step beyond giving the student ideas for entries is to offer starters. Reluctant writers really benefit from these. Here are a few. You'll dream up the rest yourself or use it for an assignment in brainstorming:
When I learned I was pregnant . . .
I feel that the baby's dad is . . .
Today my baby . . .
When I realized that . . .
I'll never forget . . .
I was breathless when . . .
If I had three wishes, they'd be . . .
I remember . . .
What I want to do is . . .
My boyfriend makes me feel . . .
I hope my baby will think I'm . . .
Rules for Journal Writing?
What are the rules? Are there any? No rules if the writing is private. Whether public (and/or published), or private, here's the route to go: the first time, just write in the journal - sentences, spelling, grammar don't matter. Appearance doesn't matter as long as it can be read. What matters is that the writer understands what she has written so she can get something out of it when she rereads it. The teacher offers the time and the place (as well as the hard-covered journal) in school, but also encourages writing at home. The important things are a place of comfort, quiet, and safety, and good materials to work with.
How, then, do you react to private journal writing? Unless your student indicates a willingness to share with you, do nothing. If there is a willingness, be a friend, write a few sentences back, aiming at content, not structure. Make time for a talk, if it seems like a good idea.
Writing for Others
Public writing? Now it's time to get dressed up. The analogy I use is if you're home having breakfast at the kitchen table, it's up to you how you look. But if you're going out to dinner, it's a good idea to get dressed. Now spelling matters so others can read it; sentences make a difference in understanding; appearance makes a difference in how people perceive your work.
Here's where curriculum comes in. Be clear that the entry is a writing assignment. If you're using the writing process approach, the group listens to the writing read by either you or the student, and the group asks questions to help the writer make it clearer, fuller, more interesting, or whatever is needed.
If you work alone with the student, do
the same. Help the writer clarify, quantify, clear it up. The
student then rewrites, you (or the group) critique(s) again, the
student rewrites or completes for publication. Publication means
anything from bulletin board to class magazine or newspaper.
These are the papers that can be graded, using a double approach
if you like. You give one grade for content (interest, clarity,
readability) and the other for structure (spelling, syntax, vocabulary,
appearance) and average the two for the complete grade.
A wrap-up: If the student is writing to forget, and the writing is helping the student do this, it clearly is private writing. If the student is writing to remember, this may or may not be public, and it will be up to the student to decide this. If you give a clearly designated public writing assignment, the student may choose to take it out of his/her journal, or write a piece for the occasion. Teacher sensitivity, as always, is the key.
One of the most valuable tools we use in our GRADS class is the student journal. I reserve at least two class periods per month and dedicate them entirely to the process of writing in journals. Journal writing is a structured activity which is completed in class. All journal entries are confidential and the sharing of any information is voluntary. Each student has a private section in a locked closet in the classroom where they are free to leave their journals if they don't feel comfortable carrying them or leaving them at home.
The Creative Journal for Teens by Lucia
Capacchione, Ph.D., and Creating a Joyful Birth Experience by
Capacchione and Sandra Bardsley, RN, contain valuable justification
for the benefits of journal writing and provide materials for
extensive self-examination and evaluation. Using these books as
starting points, each set of journal sheets is produced as a separate
activity. Adequate space is provided for students to complete
their journal entries in class.
Generally the topics of the journal entries require some thought
and contemplation by students. They are allowed to listen to music
of their choice during the writing time or the teacher may provide
music to enhance the activity. Crayons, markers, and colored pencils
are available for the art portions of the journals.
Each journal section targets a specific area of thought and allows a student the time and space to think about that topic and identify its positive and negative aspects in their lives. The following are excerpts from journal activities in recent classes:
"The things I feel good about right
now are . . ."
"The things that I am worried about right now are . . ."
"The best thing I've done lately is . . ."
"I wish I hadn't . . ."
"My best day during the past couple of weeks was . . . because
. . ."
"My plans for spoiling myself during the next week include
. . ."
"Write a letter to yourself about where you are in your life
right now.
Include your health, your feelings, things you need to deal with.
Don't forget to tell yourself about the good things you have been
doing or working on."
The first journal activity in a new year can be a review of the previous year in the students' lives and plans for the coming year. Ask them to identify good things and "bad" things that happened to them during the year; to highlight experiences that they had during the year ("The most fun time I had last year was . . ."); and to make organized plans for 1996 by asking questions such as "The most important thing I can do for my physical health (social life, family life, etc.) is . . ." The final question was "My heart's desire for this year is . . ." A detailed lesson in goal-setting, both long- and short-term, can follow this activity.
Art Activities Included
Each journal activity includes at least one art-related component. Students are asked to draw a picture of themselves or of their favorite thing or to write a poem about a specific topic, such as their best friend, etc. In some instances, the students write a poem and illustrate it.
Topics covered during the past school year included:
A final comment about these activities: I always complete the journal sheets myself and, when it is appropriate, share my feelings and writings with my students. This allows more openness in the classroom and can serve as a modeling experience with students.
I have found that journaling activities have had significant positive effects in the lives of my students in GRADS and Teen Parenting classes. One of the indicators of the success is that students often ask for extra copies of the journal sheets to use at home with family or friends. Journal writing will be an important curriculum component in all classes that I teach.
Students in the Teenage Parenting Program in Immokalee, Florida, are enjoying the opportunity to express their commitment to read to children, gain work experience, and earn money in an innovative project, "Working on Reading." The project grew from the need to find worksites for pregnant and parenting teens who participate in a School-to-Career program developed with funds the TAPP program received for its proposal for a pilot program through the Florida Department of Education.
Immokalee, Florida, is a small, rural, agricultural community with a large migrant population. Job opportunities and on-the-job training sites for students are very limited. Many of the students are from poverty level families and some are unfamiliar with work ethic and basic job skills. All of the teen parents feel a need for extra money to provide for the basic needs of their babies.
Innovative Work Experience
"We wanted as many of our sixty pregnant and parenting teens as possible to have actual work experience in our School-to-Career initiative," says Nancy Gold, lead teacher, at the TAPP program, which is located on the Immokalee High School campus in the Collier County Public Schools. "One solution to the problem of limited work experience opportunities for our special group of students was to create jobs."
Gold's commitment to developing a meaningful School-to-Career program and her strong belief that reading readiness is critical to the educational development of the program's youngest and most influential charges, the babies of teens, led to the creation of the innovative project. With a $6,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Collier County, located in nearby Naples, Florida, and the ingenuity and talent of staff members, Working on Reading became a reality.
Coordinator for the project is Shirley Sloan, the program's social worker and parenting teacher. Sloan selects and rigorously trains groups of eight students to read children's picture book classics, tell stories, and use puppets. She is assisted by the local librarian and child development experts at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association's child care program. Students, who are lovingly known as "Book Ladies," design book bags and aprons which are worn as "uniforms." Book bags are loaded with brand new, colorful, age-appropriate books and puppets purchased through another grant the program received from Northern Life Insurance Company's Education's Unsung Heroes Award.
Book Ladies for Home Daycare
After students are trained and have practiced their skills on children in the parenting center's childcare program, they are sent into state approved and licensed in-home daycares in the community. They are paid to work in the reading program for one class block (ninety minutes) four days a week, and they also receive course credit. Jakeia Pray, one Book Lady, beams and says, "I have the greatest bunch of kids. They jump all over me when I walk in the door." Elvita Reyna, one of the private daycare home providers, states, "I think it's great that I-TAPP is doing this. The children in my care get excited when they see their Book Lady. They get on the floor with her and listen to her read. She is comfortable with the kids, and they like her." On the fifth day, students have a support group where they can discuss techniques, share teaching difficulties, and work on lesson plans for the next week. Students are rotated into the program in order to allow a high participation level.
Rosie Arrevalo, the home daycare supervisor for Redlands in Immokalee, comments that the need for a program like this in daycare homes is real. "The kids need lots of language experiences as early as possible. When Shirley Sloan first approached me with the idea, I was happy because I saw the tremendous need for this type of service in home daycares."
Families to Be Involved
As the program moves into its second semester of the school year, families of the children in the daycares will become involved. With the assistance of the site owners, parents will be informed that the Book Lady has read to their children, and at the end of each week, the child will receive a book to take home to begin or add to their home library. Students will include a note to the parents informing them of the project and of the importance of reading to their children.
A reading celebration, including daycare providers, families who are involved, and TAPP students, will be held at the end of the school year. A mini-workshop on reading to children will be incorporated to focus on the fun of reading and techniques which even illiterate parents can use to help their children develop language skills. Students will present skits, act out nursery rhymes, and sing songs. Books will be given to all families who participate.
Sloan feels that the students involved in the project are reaping many rewards. "They're receiving work experience, improving basic job skills, exploring careers, improving their own reading skills, and developing leadership skills. I view this as an empowerment program that gives participants many tools for their personal, educational, and career development," she commented.
Book Lady Anita Valdez points out that because of her training and participation in the program, she has increased the amount of time spent reading to her own year-old daughter Alyssa. "Alyssa loves for me to read to her. She'll sit for a long time gibbering through books with me. Reading is also a great way for us to bond," she said.
Of course, the value of receiving a paycheck is not to be minimized. Arianna Herrera says, "It's so great to have money to buy Christmas gifts, clothes, and diapers for my little daughter Heather."
Gold points out that school attendance, self-esteem, and personal appearance are also being positively affected. She says, "We're very pleased to have an opportunity for our program to have an impact on learning and early childhood development in our community. "Students who are involved in "Working on Reading will hopefully become actively engaged in the development of literacy in their own community. They will take ownership of the project and help it grow.
"I see these students becoming volunteers and leaders in their children's classrooms when their children enter Collier County Public Schools. My motto is "Something good comes of everything” an inopportune pregnancy can become a force for a positive life-long change for these young women. Working and reading can be the beginning."
For more information, contact Nancy Gold, Lead Teacher, I-TAPP, 701 Immokalee Drive, Immokalee, FL 34142. 941/657-8383.
Seven pregnant and parenting teens, two or more years behind grade level in reading, participated in a pilot program during the fall semester of 1997 at Cyesis, an alternative high school in Sarasota, Florida. Their reading levels improved from 1.2 to 4.8 years. The program is continuing with similar results.
How did this happen? Inspired by President Bill Clinton's call to the country about the importance of students being on grade level in reading, and by my own understanding of the role that school failure (notably reading) plays in teen pregnancy, I began to think about how to reach students who have had years of failure in school.
It came to me that, like other poor readers, these students had had instruction as well as tutoring in phonics, sight methods, and quite possibly whole language instruction. But still they hadn't learned enough to be at grade level. Why give them more of the same?
Reading - A Different Approach
After reviewing the research I had done on left/right brain learning and sensory modalities and rereading Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, I wrote a pilot program using these non-traditional approaches. I felt the program required professionals, so I gathered together a group of retired professionals in Sarasota. These included an artist/art teacher, a musicologist, mental health professionals, social workers, a sculptor, a high school English teacher, a reading specialist, and a language development/human development specialist. With the curriculum assistance of musicologist Joan Rubinstein and artist/art teacher Lois Goodman, and with the mental health/group process assistance of Sara Sellinger and Evelyn Clark, we developed an eight week, 1.5 hours per week, series of lessons. The other adult partners whose expertise and involvement enhanced the project were: Malvine Blinder, Toby Cosin, Alice Gordon, Vivan Greene, and Roz Surrey.
For each session we selected a theme, then supported it with classical music, an art project, a story told by the student to the adult partner, and the reading of the story by the author to the group. In some lessons we did group writing; in others, students wrote as individuals. Some group stories were edited by the group - to clarify, to make more interesting, or to improve a beginning or an ending. Reading was never stressed; the emphasis was on listening to the music, creating an art project while listening, writing about the art, and finally, reading the story aloud to the group. Lois Goodman put it very well: "We're sneaking the reading up on them," she said.
The formal pilot ended with a party and gifts of journals and pens to each of the students. To keep in touch, and to offer the opportunity for a final post-test in the spring, we continue to meet with the teens once a month. These classes have had music/art/writing/reading content as well, but they have been a little more varied. For one memorable class we invited the babies and asked the moms to do a "show and tell" about their children. They then wrote about motherhood - perhaps their best work.
Why did it work so well? The group and the school administrators have had lengthy discussions about the results. The social scientists among us take credit for the social interaction. They say it worked because the young women felt nurtured, respected, and had a close relationship with the adult women. The educator types say it was the curriculum which used a methodology to which the students had not been exposed, and which tapped the other side of the brain. When we stop being territorial, we agree that it was a combination of professional skills and knowledge, nurture, a safe environment in which we received extraordinary support from Barbara White, Lorraine Colby, and the teachers at Cyesis, and an innovative approach. Whatever it was, it worked, and we loved it! And . . . the school is looking forward to our return next year.
Note: Evelyn is planning a guide for teachers, "Reaching Reading," which will include the theory, the curriculum, the training, preparation, processing, examples of the work the students did, and the test results. We expect to make this guide available to teachers. JWL
READ
TO ME, a program of Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New
York City, has been changing the world through Pat the Bunny.
Perhaps you’ll try it in your school or organization. The
fun is worth the effort, and the possible benefits can be immediate
and long range.
The program is usually seven sessions. I prefer to begin with
books without words and end with a real live writer/illustrator
who will autograph copies of her books for the students to keep
and read to their babies. Keep these three things constantly in
mind for each session:
In my experience, pregnant and parenting teens have some knowledge
of Dr. Seuss, Curious George, and a smattering of other
books, perhaps tied to films, TV, or toys. Most picture books
which feature people of color, or deal with current situations,
are a revelation to the students. And a reassuring, welcome revelation.
Yes, some say big teenagers would rather die than read children’s
books, but wait. These books are for their child(ren), and if
read to, a simple enough demand, their child(ren) will get a jump
on education, being literate, reading. And then who can refuse
to lift the flap? Smell the flowers? Do the peanut butter and
jelly song?
The first three sessions involve reading books without words,
reading baby-baby books, and reading picture books for toddlers.
Session 1.
Books Without Words
This session is based on the point-and-name-it principle of reading.
We start with a Polaroid photo of mommy’s face, and read
it. There is usually much squirming and injured vanity, but mommy’s
face is usually the first and most beautiful image for every baby.
Point out what you see and name it: eye, mouth, bangs, smile.
From here you can read pictures, catalogs, Time magazine, the
advertising inserts for clothes or toys. You can read colors,
shapes, identities (taxi driver, mommy, older sister, tennis player,
singer).
Following along quickly, I get students in twos or threes to read
books without words to each other. Ask any bookstore or children’s
librarian for suggestions. Our small collection includes books
by John Goodall, Mercer Mayer, John Steptoe, Mitsumasa Anno, and
Emily Arnold McCully. Reading together is a bonding experience
and very friendly. In fact, this whole session is a good ice-breaker.
If there is time, we end with How Anansi Obtained the Sky God’s
Stories, an African Folktale from the Ashanti Tribe, Children’s
Press, Chicago, 1991. The students follow the wordless picture
book as the professional story teller tells of the stories in
each of us.
Session 2.
Reading Books—Books—Books
Some of the most important sessions of READ TO ME are those which
have piles of children’s books in boxes and on tables provocatively
available for students to read. Several times I have said nothing
for 40 minutes, and each student is quietly giggling, focused,
moving her lips while she reads in private pleasure.
This is key. Without the intimate pleasure, experience, built-up
awareness of the range and fun of books for children, these new
moms may continue to wait for proper schooling to read to their
babies, and miss the whole point.
Session 3.
Library Connection and Lapsit/Toddler Demonstration
Many moms are unconvinced their children are ready to be read
to, so it is essential to hook into the local public library for
two clear reasons: The books are there, and children’s librarians
engage the moms and babies in rhymes, games, and reading fun.
Pamphlets and programs are available. An excellent one from the
American Library Association is "How to Raise a Reader."
Librarians are often eager to do a program for teens and tots,
and tend to excuse those library books which were lost in fifth
grade and have kept the teens away.
Session 4.
Make a Book for Baby
Because of the brief time usually available, it is essential to
assemble materials which make successful completion likely in
one session. Cloth books are wonderful (see Anne Pellowski’s
essential book from Chilton Book Co., Radnor, PA 19089), and "key
ring flip" books are easily assembled. Materials needed are
luggage tags, key rings larger than a 25¢ coin, scissors,
glue, old magazines, colored pens/pencils, clear contact paper.
Choose a clear idea quickly: stories, family albums, concepts
like vegetables, ABCs, faces, or things baby knows. Once the idea
is conceived, cutting out appropriate pictures is easy. Then glue,
label, and cover with clear contact paper, and a book is made
suitable for jeans pocket or baby’s diaper bag. And because
the baby can hold and wave it, the book is also a toy.
Session 5.
Visiting Writer or Illustrator
Admittedly, New York City has many of these people easily accessible,
but you can probably find a locally published artist through the
library, art school, or publisher. "Published" means
copies are available to purchase or get donated for each teenager.
A children’s book in the hand goes home and gets read by
everyone in the house, including the baby.
Another great resource is Pat Cummings’ Talking with Artists
(Simon & Schuster). She includes pictures and biographies
of many wonderful children’s writers and illustrators, and
her style is engaging and second best to having the actual person
in your classroom.
See also the Meet the Author series from Richard Owen Publications,
Katonah, NY.
That’s it! It’s a brief description, but look one teen
mom and her baby reading, and you’ll know it’s worth
a try.