#ready scholars

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Via Edmentum: We’ve all heard the buzz surrounding early literacy skills. But what exactly is the impact of a strong foundation in reading and literacy – or maybe more important, a lack of one?

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Daisy & Emily

Daisy & Emily are getting ready for the fourth grade.  They’re focused, they’re engaged, and they’re ready for switching gears from learning how to read, to reading to learn.

“In the summer, my teachers help me understand what I’m reading and answer questions,” explains Daisy.  “I’m not nervous anymore about reading. I know I can do it.”

“I have learned a lot of new vocabulary,” said Emily. 

Both scholars are part of BELL’s READy Scholars grade-level reading program at Kernersville Elementary School, part of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Schools.  This is their second summer in the program, and they are spending their time learning a lot more than reading and vocab.

“We are both in cooking and science and art,” said Daisy.  “Last week we read about snakes, and then in cooking we made butterflies out of peanut butter, grapes, blueberries, and carrots, and then pretended we were the snakes preying on the butterflies.”  

“I am also learning how to type,” added Emily. 

“And we go on fun field trips,” added Daisy.

Last week they visited the Greensboro Science Museum where they encountered sing rays and sharks and turtles.

“I would rather come to school and learn in the summer than stay at home doing nothing,” said Emily.  “It’s not really school, it’s fun and we learn about so many different things.”

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Reading with Drew

“Drew likes to listen,” explained Mikeya, “So I can tell him about why bees like flowers.”

“Drew is a wonderful volunteer,” said Ms. Craig, the Instructional Coach in BELL’s grade-level reading program, READy Scholars, at the Barringer Academic Center in Charlotte.   Mikeya and her third grade classmates are taking turns reading The Buzz on Bees to Drew on a Wednesday morning in July. “He just has this special ability with scholars who aren’t yet comfortable reading aloud in front of their classmates.  With Drew, those same scholars become eager and able narrators.

His approach is a bit different than the rest of the teaching team at Barringer.   He likes to lie down during reading time.  He makes a great pillow.  And he didn’t participate in the same training and professional development that the rest of the team completed. 

That’s because Drew is the teddy bear of golden retrievers.

A partnership between Barringer Academic Center, BELL, and Therapy Dogs International brings Drew to spend a couple of mornings each week working with scholars as they strengthen their core reading skills.  He visits two or three classrooms each time he is at the school, but his impact is seen every day.  After spending some time with Drew, scholars who began the summer struggling to read aloud gained a new sense of confidence and excitement about reading as Drew happily hung out with them. 

The READy Scholars program at Barringer is part of a broader effort to expand summer learning opportunities in Charlotte. 

“It’s just a wonderful partnership,” said Ms. Craig.  “It’s a great example of what makes the summer space such a wonderful opportunity to do different things that are much more challenging to try during the school year.” 

Dontray agrees, as he awaits his turn to read.  “I could read all day,” he said.

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Summer Learning in the Eyes of an Assistant Principal: Reflections on the READy Scholars program at Kernersville Elementary School, Winston-Salem, NC

Part 3 of 3

By Jonathan Hegedus Assistant Principal at Kernersville Elementary School READy Scholars Program Manager for BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)

Before becoming Assistant Principal at Kernersville Elementary School, I taught for 10 years, including a few years years teaching fifth graders here in Winston-Salem.  I became interested in leading a school, and applied to the Piedmont Triad Leadership Academy at UNC – Greensboro.  The program, funded by a Race to the Top grant, placed me in a school for a year training to become a school administrator.  In 2013, I began to serve Assistant Principal at my school.

On Assessment

The quality and utility of assessment tools in the READy Scholars program makes a huge difference and really helps me and my team be focused and effective all six weeks.  BELL set us up to administer STAR assessments, which are computer adaptive assessments delivered via computer or tablet.  The assessments are built for the Common Core and match up perfectly with the academic curricula.  Scholars completed a 30-item quiz on day one, and we were off and running on day two as we provided individual score reports for each teacher.  I worked alongside our Instructional Coach, who was strategically hired from Kernersville’s faculty, to review assessment data and lesson plans with teachers and to coach them along.  The data helped us group scholars according to their skill needs, and teachers wasted no time targeting instruction on the skills each group of scholars needed most.  And at the end of the summer, we were able to see how each scholar grew over the previous six weeks – what skills did they strengthen?  What ongoing areas of need should teachers target when school returns?

  On Impact

We witnessed students make considerable gains in their reading skills.  We believe that students did not lose ground.  Part of the reason why we had such a great impact has to do with organizing students into groups based on their skill needs. They are more likely to things they may not normally try.  Their confidence grows, they are not afraid to fail, they are resolved to stay at it until they understand.  The impact this type of learning environment has on student success cannot be understated – self-confidence is critical to their success in school and in life.  Contrast that to a school year classroom when you often have students of varying skill levels sitting next to one another – often times those students who are struggling are the same students who feel intimidated or shy or unconfident to raise their hand, ask a question, or share an answer.

That impact doesn’t only come from academic activities, it also comes from finding success in other ways in enrichment classes (say, adding up scores in a basketball game) and setting a positive and encouraging tone in community time.   My team wanted students to be happy and motivated to learn, so we celebrated student success and kept reminding students to “Be Extraordinary” all day long.

I think we are going to see the impact of the READy Scholars program in the school year, too.  Kernersville Elementary school serves a lot of students who come from low-income families, and who otherwise would probably not have been able to access or afford a great summer program otherwise.  The program was free for parents, transporation was included, and it was run by administrators and teachers who parents know and trust.   Rather than experiencing summer learning loss, we were able to engage students in reading, take them on field trips, keep their brains stimulated.  Next week, when they return to school, they are going to be more ready than ever before to succeed.  That makes it easier for kids to come in to school again feeling better about themselves.  They had a great summer, learned a lot, and are ready for the next grade – and they no longer feel that they are far behind or defeated.  They’re ready to go.

It’s important to note that our successful summer learning program isn’t just resulting in “READy” scholars, it’s also resulting in ready teachers.  Assessment data from the summer is already being used by my team to plan their first weeks of instruction.  Teachers who worked in READy Scholars are returning to school and talking to their peers who will be teaching their students in the next grade and communicating their progress.  Keep in mind that summer learning loss not only effects students, but it also affects teachers who want to start the year off teaching grade-level content, not pulling scholars who are behind aside for special intervention to get them up to speed.

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Summer Learning in the Eyes of an Assistant Principal: Reflections on the READy Scholars program at Kernersville Elementary School, Winston-Salem, NC

Part 2 of 3

By Jonathan Hegedus Assistant Principal at Kernersville Elementary School READy Scholars Program Manager for BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)

Before becoming Assistant Principal at Kernersville Elementary School, I taught for 10 years, including a few years years teaching fifth graders here in Winston-Salem.  I became interested in leading a school, and applied to the Piedmont Triad Leadership Academy at UNC – Greensboro.  The program, funded by a Race to the Top grant, placed me in a school for a year training to become a school administrator.  In 2013, I began to serve Assistant Principal at my school.

On Teachers & Teaching

Having these resources lined up at the start of the summer makes such a difference for teachers.  It takes time chart out curriculum, craft lesson plans, produce and arrange supporting material – it takes time and focus to do a great job preparing for a successful summer of accelerated learning, and teachers don’t have a whole lot of time available to do it themselves while teaching through the last day of the school year.  BELL helped us pull it all together so that teachers could spend less time preparing and organization, and more time doing what they do best – delivering high-quality instruction for scholars.

The program model makes it possible to deliver targeted small-group instruction, which really drives student success.  BELL hired a crew of motivated, positive role models from the Winston-Salem community to work as teaching assistants and to support all aspects of classroom instruction, enrichment activities, field trips.  Their impact in the classroom enabled teachers the extra time and space that goes a long way to individualizing instruction.

Every teacher I worked with this summer has stated that they want to work in READy Scholars program again next year.  They cited the program’s goals, approach, operations, and the support and resources provided by BELL as reasons for their desire to return in 2015.  Everyone had a positive experience.  My staff got to see kids come to school each and every day excited to learn.  And that is a powerful and motivating thing – I think staff truly appreciated being a part of such a great summer.

On What I Learned

What a great learning experience for me as an aspiring principal.  I was able to look at the big picture – how are we going to staff the program, how are we going to allocate our resources, how are we going to involve the community.  Because we assumed ownership over our summer budget, our team was able to deliver a great program without many of the constraints that you find in public school administration – we planned educational field trips, designed enrichment classes and payed for supplies, and reinforced the program’s academic goals by sending books home with scholars.  BELL provided helpful guidelines and ideas like “College Pride Week” and  integrating community service, but it was up to me to really define the vision and make the rules.

One key aspect of translating vision into practice has a lot to do with setting a high standard as a leader and as a teacher.  I learned quickly how powerful it can be to be genuinely positive and pumped up for summer learning every day.  People catch on, and that positive energy fills the building.  When I arrive excited for the day, when teachers arrive enthusiastic about phonics or vocabulary or grammar, kids get excited to learn. If kids know that the leadership team and faculty at READy Scholars are interested in what they are doing and learning, they will be on point and eager to share.  The opportunity to set expectations and to take ownership over all elements of the summer program was truly valuable in preparing me for what it’s like to be a principal during the school year.

I also learned a lot about and through training – BELL trained myself and other program leaders, and we brought that training back to our schools and adapted some of the content to align with our own school and community needs.  We were responsible for training our own staff – and we had resources to do it.  We paid teachers, teaching assistants, and enrichment teachers for their time, provided a nice lunch, and organized and distributed all of the training materials and handbooks and supplies.

On Parents

Earlier this year, when the Read to Achieve law was created, I had a lot of parents express their concerns about the negative connotations that usually seem to be attached to the idea of “summer school.”  What an interesting transformation has occurred.  Those same parents are now coming up to me and saying “thank you for having this program, it’s been great for my child.  I was really worried that my child wouldn’t want to come, but it was the absolute opposite – I didn't even have to wake them up in the morning or push them out the door, my child wanted to come every day, and she was upset when the program ended.”  When I hear things like that over and over again, I can only think:  with the READy Scholars program, we’re doing something right. 

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Summer Learning in the Eyes of an Assistant Principal: Reflections on the READy Scholars program at Kernersville Elementary School, Winston-Salem, NC

Part 1 of 3

By Jonathan Hegedus Assistant Principal at Kernersville Elementary School READy Scholars Program Manager for BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)

Before becoming Assistant Principal at Kernersville Elementary School, I taught for 10 years, including a few years years teaching fifth graders here in Winston-Salem.  I became interested in leading a school, and applied to the Piedmont Triad Leadership Academy at UNC – Greensboro.  The program, funded by a Race to the Top grant, placed me in a school for a year training to become a school administrator.  In 2013, I began to serve Assistant Principal at my school.

  On Preparations for Summer Learning

Winson-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools selected Kernersville Elementary School as one of several school sites that would host summer learning programs this past summer.  I learned about how the school district was partnering with BELL to improve the quality and outcomes of summer learning opportunities for students, and I saw an opportunity to lead the effort at my school. 

Leading the READy Scholars program was also an opportunity for my school.  A many of my fellow school leaders can relate, sometimes the thought of “external” programs operating in your school can get in the way of things – we’re trying to get the school cleaned, to make repairs, and so on.  For my principal, having me in charge during the summer would help all summer programming – we also hosted two other summer programs – run smoothly. 

Now, planning for a great summer learning program really has to start in January – and that’s a big part of the value of partnering with BELL.  The leadership team at Kernersville Elementary is focused on our primary task at hand: delivering an amazing school year.  BELL focuses on its main goal: planning and executing an amazing summer learning experience.  The nonprofit develops training, hires teaching assistants and enrichment teachers from the school community, organizes curricula and educational supplies, manages assessment activities – all key to a great summer program, but challenging for my colleagues to carve out the time that goes into such diligent planning and preparation. 

In May, I increased the time and energy I directed to summer preparations.  I participated in training activities with program leaders from eleven other schools in Winston-Salem who would also be hosting the READy Scholars program or the BELL Summer program for middle school students.  We learned about the program’s core values – quality, respect, empowerment, sacrifice, courage – and set high expectations of ourselves, our staff, scholars, and parents. 

  On the READy Scholars curriculum

It’s important to keep in mind that the READy Scholars program is a summer learning program – it’s not “more of the same” school, and it’s not what some may view as punitive summer school.  It’s a specially designed program that is part rigorous classroom-based learning and part summer camp.   

The READY Scholars program included breakfast & community time, three and one-half hours of literacy activities, lunch and recess, and enrichment activities.  Each day, scholars participated in ninety minutes of classroom instruction, an hour of small-group activities, and an hour of independent and/or blended learning.  

The customized reading curricula that BELL provides – which is produced by Scholastic and which is aligned to Common Core standards – includes great books and workbooks, a pacing guide, and lesson resources that make it easy for teachers to target instruction on Day 1.  We were even able to send books home with scholars – not just workbooks, but nonfiction and fiction books that are matched up with the general interests of third (such as animals) and fourth graders (sports, etc).  My staff appreciated that the curriculum included a broad range of content, and they could put it to use however it made the most sense for them and for scholars.

My team also had flexibility when it came to planning and executing enrichment activities every day after lunch.  We were able to select topics that would be fun and engageing for scholars, and to hire enrichment teachers and supplies.  We could leverage existing relationships and partnerships within the community to deliver music, yoga, drama, and sports activities that kids really loved.

I can’t emphasize this enough: one thing people don’t realize about summer learning is that it can be fun and engaging and effective all at the same time.  The program model engaged scholars at their level, organized activities that interested them, and really brought out the best in them as learners and leaders.  READy scholars ended the summer wanting to learn more, to do well in school, and to continue succeeding.

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