Summer 2006 | Volume 63 | Number 9

Helping All Students Succeed (online only)

About This Issue

Marge Scherer

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The Violence You Don't See

Grace L. Sussman

A teacher in a tough inner-city elementary school decides to isolate the causes of her student's poor achievement. She expects that neighborhood violence will be the main culprit because violence—rather than civility or law—seems to organize the community. Her 4th graders respond to several questions that she poses them about their lives, and they share their stories both with her and their classmates. These heartfelt discussions change the tenor of the classroom by creating a more peaceful and accepting place. But they also alert the teacher to a roadblock to learning that she hadn't anticipated: both she and the school's lack of responsiveness to the students' cultures and lives are at fault. She finds that dialogic listening and examining preconceived notions work to create trust among her students. She also decides to create thematic units—such as one that involves suggesting improvements to the school—that engage students in authentic learning.

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No Homework Left Behind

Gary Garbe and David Guy

What if instead of sighing in exasperation at "excuses," teachers decided to really listen to what students say about why they don't do their homework? What if teachers responded by removing those obstacles? Richland Middle School in Wisconsin did just that. The school first surveyed students and parents about what realities were getting in the way of homework being completed. They then created an after-school Learning Lab to help—and require—any student who fails to turn in an assignment to satisfactorily complete that work. Garbe and Guy describe how Richland set up the lab and how teachers coordinate with parents to require students to use the lab. They discuss the positive effects Richland has experienced on student grades and the overall atmosphere surrounding homework.

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GEAR UP for College

Heather K. Sheridan-Thomas

Research suggests that programs to reduce the gaps in college attendance rates for low-income and minority students need to begin in middle school. One such program is GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), a federal grant-funded program that served more than a million students in FY 2005 through grants to 36 states and 209 school district/university partnerships. This article describes the Binghamton University/Binghamton School District GEAR UP program, which serves students in the district's two middle schools and one high school. The heart of the program is the tutoring and mentoring matches between Binghamton University students and secondary students. Additional GEAR UP activities include visits to college campuses, workshops on such topics as filling out college applications, field trips to cultural and sports events, and summer community service opportunities. The author writes that GEAR UP "engages students, builds on their strengths, and supports their academic success."

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Teaching the Art of Writing

Beth Olshansky

Olshansky describes the techniques used in artists/writers workshops, an arts-based approach to teaching writing that draws students without strong verbal skills into creative writing. After recognizing that her own daughter, who struggled with writing in elementary school, had more access to rich ideas when she was painting than when she was writing, Olshansky developed a curriculum called "Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art" and later a similar curriculum, "Image-Making Within the Writing Process." In both approaches, students create paintings first, then develop stories using the ideas and rich vocabulary that their painted images suggest to them. During mini-lessons, teachers and students look at illustrated children's books as "mentor texts" and analyze how illustrators use visual components to introduce and develop story elements. Compelling examples of student artwork and accompanying stories—as well as test score data—bear witness to the effectiveness of this approach.

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Of Paint and Pantomime

Susan Goetz Zwirn

In an effort to bolster the arts in public schools, Hofstra University supported a two-year professional development program in three high-needs Long Island, New York, school districts as well as in the Diane Lindner-Goldberg Child Care Institute on the Hofstra campus in Hempstead, New York. The focus of this grant was the professional development of early childhood teachers through workshops and in-class coaching that focused on integrating the arts into the curriculum. During the workshops, specialist instructors guided teachers in artistic development in four areas: the visual arts, drama, dance, and music. During the coaching sessions, the instructors suggested specific methods for integrating the arts into the content areas to help teachers meet their academic objectives in new and creative ways. The grant provided funds for the specialists, curriculum materials, art supplies, musical instruments, and production of a culminating DVD (see article for video clips of teacher workshops and in-class coaching sessions).

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Lessons from Yoga

Deborah Summers

A teacher-educator describes how yoga can act as a powerful analogy for the practice of teaching, offering teachers a reminder about important but easily overlooked aspects of teaching. As yoga practitioners do, it is important for teachers to set their intention, or deliberately reflect on what they want to get out of their practice; personalize their practice, or teach to students' individual differences; encourage students to "notice what they notice," or cultivate an awareness of their learning and self-regulate accordingly; and take time to reflect on their practice.

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Misleading in the Middle: A Rebuttal to Cheri Pierson Yecke

Rick Wormeli

The author replies to Cheri Pierson Yecke's article in the April 2006 issue of Educational Leadership, "Mayhem in the Middle: Why We Should Shift to K–8." Yecke claimed that U.S. middle schools expect little of students, either academically or behaviorally. On the basis of his 27 years as a middle school teacher and teacher-educator and his work with almost 300 middle schools, Wormeli disputes Yecke's picture of what goes on in these schools. He writes that "In every school that implements the middle school concept, academics are an unwavering focus." He gives examples of how Yecke's review of the research confuses the middle school concept with a particular grade configuration. The middle school concept, writes Wormeli, simply boils down to the belief that 10–14 year olds learn differently than younger and older students do, and that schools need to structure curriculum and instruction to meet early adolescents' unique needs. The developmentally appropriate strategies advocated by middle school educators are successful when implemented in any grade configuration.

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No Instant Principals: A Reply to Barbara Bartholomew

Sandra J. Stein

Sandra J. Stein, Chief Executive Officer of the NYC Leadership Academy, disputes Barbara Bartholomew's take on the Academy's principal preparation program (see "Transforming New York City's Public Schools," Educational Leadership, May 2006). According to Stein, the academy's accelerated principal preparation program is rigorous and mirrors the actual work of the principalship. It's also the most successful program of its kind at placing its graduates in schools. The Academy supports first-year principals through one-on-one coaching and leadership development sessions. Ongoing challenges include identifying the ever-changing skills that principals need to do their jobs, keeping faculty and performance standards up to date, and aligning programs with the priorities of the New York City Department of Education.

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