Letter from the Chief Academic Officer

• PRINT
• EMAIL

To Patrick, with Love

At this time of year, greetings are more expected than good-byes. Many of you in the READ 180 community know that this column is usually authored by Patrick Daley. He was the first editor-in-chief of READ 180 and worked closely with Ted Hasselbring to make sure that the program kept faith with its research-base and that it harnessed the power of technology in unprecedented ways. Patrick also spent lots of time with the kids and teachers who used the prototype and made his instructional decisions for the final version with them in mind.

Patrick has visited hundreds of READ 180 classrooms in the more than ten years that the program has been available, and all of the product updates have his imprint. If you’ve heard Patrick speak, you know how passionate he is about working with the kids that struggle most. Of course, he maintained the integrity of the instructional design, but he also wanted the kids who used it to like it and to feel respected. And as a former teacher, he was an advocate for supporting the important work you do.

He talks about the movie, To Sir, with Love as an early influence on his career choice. Patrick decided to be a teacher when he saw the movie as a middle-schooler and likes to say "and Lulu even sang to him" in reference to the teacher character. Well, I can’t sing, but I can honor all that he’s done as part of this community, and we are all beneficiaries of Patrick’s commitment. You will be happy to know, as are all of his colleagues, that he is still part of the Scholastic family. Patrick is now Senior Vice President & Publisher of Scholastic Classroom & Library Publishing Group, and he can be reached at pdaley@scholastic.com. I know he would be happy to hear from you.

Like Patrick, I am one of the first people at Scholastic to work on READ 180. (I think there are just a few of us left, including Margery Mayer, the President of Scholastic Education.) As Chief Academic Officer, I work across the company on projects and programs that fulfill Scholastic's goal of helping our kids find their place in this complex world. Recognizing that literacy is central to succeeding in school and in life, a lot of my focus is on innovative programs that help kids learn to read and love to read. My major involvement is in the conduct of foundational research and studies that provide evidence of the effectiveness of Scholastic programs with an emphasis on READ 180. In all that I do, I continue to learn from educators, families, and kids, and to draw on my own teaching experiences from kindergarten through college.

Right now, I’m working on a variety of projects related to the back-to-school season. I prefer to think of it as going forward to school because of all that you do so kids grow and advance.

Here are two ideas for getting the year started with READ 180:

1. Set Goals With Students
   In the back of the student rBook there is a place for kids to keep track of their Lexile scores. You might work with them to not only record their first score of the new year, but also to set goals for the upcoming months and year.
2. Getting Started
   Be sure to get your hands on the Your First Three Weeks with READ 180 booklet. This is your must-have guide for starting the school year if you are new to the program. If you are an experienced READ 180 teacher, it can be used as more of a reminder or checklist. As many of the students will be new to the program, the booklet will help you guide them in the best possible way.

I look forward to being more connected to the READ 180 community. Please visit me on my blog, Read Up! at http://blogs.scholastic.com/research/ or contact me at falexander@scholastic.com to let me know how my colleagues are doing and how I can best support your efforts.

Happy school year!

-Francie

A Look at Tools for Assessment and Accountability
Technology is becoming more and more important to the efforts of new teachers to measure and account for student progress. First year teachers, see how you can use computers to conduct assessments and manage student data.

What Are Storyboards?
Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written languages. Storyboards are widely used because we know pictures combined with text offer a rich synthesis of information that can entertain and inform. The pictures in picture writing can be simple cartoons, photographs, or sophisticated technical diagrams. This technique can be an invaluable tool when differentiating reading and writing instruction.

Policies & Practices: Finding a Place for Computers
Computers should be used for enriching the early childhood curriculum, and administrators, directors and teachers can work together to achieve the right balance in a program. Kneas discusses integrating computer technology into the early childhood classroom.

LESSON PLAN

Let's Learn About Firefighters! Presents a lesson plan focusing on fire safety and prevention through reading, writing, and brain storming sessions.