Tips from 2009 Outstanding Educators

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To help kick off the new school year, we asked the 2009 READ 180 Outstanding Educator nominees to give us some of their best classroom tips and strategies for getting the most out of READ 180. The READ 180 Outstanding Educator Award recognizes the exceptional vocational commitment of educators who bring READ 180 to life, truly turning students' lives around.

Here are a few very valuable responses to help you get started this fall:

Cynthia Gray
Floral Park Memorial High School
Floral Park, NY

One of the major challenges teaching poor readers is breaking the cycle of failure. For these students reading is an activity associated with frustration and failure. Not surprisingly, these young people are reluctant to read and often put more effort into avoiding the activity that has yielded few, if any, rewards for them. Changing this mind set is one of the major hurdles a teacher faces, but each year my goal is to bring positive associations and rewarding experiences to these reluctant readers by focusing on what they can do, and even do well. SAM has provided me a wealth of information to further this goal.

SUCCESS ZONE CHAMPS
The Success Zone provides students with a positive reading experience, maybe the first one they have encountered. One of my students, Luis, did especially well to the envy of his classmates. I dubbed him the Success Zone Champ. Each week I announced the top three champs and healthy competition ensued as students vied to be a "champ." Luis managed to maintain his status the entire year despite competition from his peers determined to dethrone him. Even more importantly, his Lexile score began to increase dramatically. His new confidence began to spill into all of his studies. Reading had become a positive experience for him that provided the motivation to succeed.

Cynthia Gray

CONFERENCES
For some students making the Success Zone was more of a struggle so I looked for other means of providing success. Returning to SAM, again I was struck by all the available information on each student. I began to meet with students individually to review the scores. In one instance, I showed a student his grading report and explained each category. He nodded but then asked where his scores were. Surprised, I told him these were his scores. His eyes widened. "But these are all grades above 90 and I’ve never had a grade like that!"

In my conferences I used several report from SAM. With so much information readily available, it was not difficult to locate a success area for each student. I found the graphs especially helpful. One student stared at me in amazement when I showed the chart that indicated he had read the most words. "You’re kidding. I’ve never been the best at anything!" he said. Each week he would check back to see if he continued to maintain this status. The reaction of this student and others led me to create the "Wall of Fame."

THE WALL OF FAME
Borrowing a page from the sports world, I created a bulletin board labeled the READ 180 "Wall of Fame." Using my digital camera I took a picture of each student. With the aid of the reports on SAM I created a number of categories such as Most Points Gained on a Lexile score, Most Books Read, and Success Zone Champ, to name a few. To ensure as many students as possible were included, some categories included the top three performers. Highest Average and Most Improved Student were also added. The middle of the board was used to highlight and rotate the best book projects. Each title was placed on construction paper and underneath were the name and picture of the appropriate student. Using the reports and other grades, I changed the student pictures periodically to recognize a new champion. Some students began to appear in more than one category as they strived to succeed.

The students loved the "Wall of Fame" and were thrilled to see their name and picture on the board. They worked hard to maintain their fame. The reports available on SAM not only aided me in individualizing instruction and developing lesson plans, but they became important tools in achieving what I consider my most important goal—to make reading a positive experience and a source of pride!

Jean Lyon
Cypress Lakes High School
Houston, Texas

There have been many significant events in my life as an educator, but being a part of the READ 180 program has shown me what "teaching" really is. Working with special education students can be a struggle at times, but when READ 180 was first implemented in my school district, I knew that we would see significant student achievement at all levels.

Jean Lyon

In my classroom, READ 180 has truly turned lives around because my students can see improvement every day and get excited about it. With the motivational charts that I have created, students can monitor their progress easily and quickly. By using the Scholastic Achievement Manager on a regular basis, I have been able to differentiate instruction so that students will receive assistance on the specific skills that they are having difficulty with. During the course of this current school year, all of my students, except for two that have had a very difficult year with personal issues, have achieved positive improvement on the SRI test. Several of them have had significant increases with their Lexile levels. This is a huge accomplishment for my special needs students because many of them have dealt with failure for the majority of their lives. READ 180 has made them realize what being a fluent reader can actually do for them now and in the future.

I always begin the year with a strong and positive classroom management system so my students know what is expected of them from the start. By teaching and reviewing the READ 180 routines at the onset of the year, I have found that they have made my classroom run smoothly and effectively. Using Your First Three Weeks with READ 180 is one of the most vital aspects in teaching students how the system works.

Making sure that every student knows about his or her progress is very essential. I believe that conferencing and setting goals has made them more aware of what they need to do and it holds them accountable for their progress.

Using all of the elements of READ 180, from teaching routines to following the rBook®, has given my students the greatest opportunity for improvement. I believe the success story of READ 180 exists in my classroom because of the enthusiasm that is present, not only in myself and the classroom environment, but in the students' performance and demeanor. I am deeply honored to have been nominated for the READ 180 Outstanding Educator Award.

Trenquilla Francis

Trenquilla Francis
Vista Del Lago High School
Moreno Valley, CA

Here are three tips and strategies for getting the most out of READ 180 from my perspective:

1. Never lower the bar...instead raise it. Most students are capable of much more than they are given credit for. If you raise your expectations, you just might be surprised how much they can actually produce even when they think they can't.
2. Never stop learning. I tell my students all the time that learning is a lifetime commitment. I am always sharing with them new things I learned, whether it is a new word, something they taught me, or something I gathered from professional development that they can connect to. In return, they tell me what they learned and enjoy it.
3. Provide motivation and be real. Some students may resist the cheerleader in you, but never give up on them. Give positive reinforcement. I always start the year with a bit of truth serum (where they will likely end up without reading improvement), and then positively build from there every day. I work hard at not just noticing the "big" improvements, but the little ones too.

Watch for more tips from 2009 Outstanding Educators in the Monthly Community eNews starting November 2009! Nominations for the 2010 READ 180 Outstanding Educator Awards will be available January 2010.

Please visit www.scholastic.com/read180educator for more information about how to apply.

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