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SIFS AND FOCAL STUDENTS
Reflections on focal students from the School Improvement Fellows
who know and support them
Kristin Ohnstad, Christopher Elementary: My work is most
closely focused with the second grade team, who continues to make
solid gains in student achievement. On the mid-year language arts
assessment, 65% of focal students were proficient, up 45% from
last year. But the true power of these numbers is the children
behind them.
Melissa [name has been changed] is a perfect example.
She is a quiet, unassuming 2nd grader, and began the year far
below grade level in reading. She has struggled all year to increase
her reading level and at one point Vivian, her teacher, expressed
she just didn't know what to do anymore. One morning, I sat with
Melissa while she practiced reading her books. We started talking
and I asked her about school, about her teacher, and about her
belief in herself to accomplish her goals. I learned that Melissa
is keenly aware of her own abilities, doesn't think she is smart,
and doesn't think that her teacher believes she can reach her
goals. When I relayed this to Vivian, she got tears in her eyes
and said, "I have to tell her how much I believe in her." And
the following day, Vivian took the first step in developing a
personal, deep relationship with Melissa by telling her just that.
She immediately owned the responsibility of accelerating Melissa's
learning. The early results are encouraging: In just the last
few weeks, Melissa increased two levels in reading, 12% on the
language arts assessment, and is noticeably more involved in class.
It is a promising turn of events for a girl who previously believed
she wasn't smart. And Melissa is not the only student improving.
All five of Vivian's focal students have moved up one to two reading
levels, averaging almost one years' growth in reading. Vivian
has significantly raised her expectations for all of her students
and they have stepped up to meet that challenge.
Elizabeth Ayala, Empire Gardens Elementary:
Isaiah [name has been changed] is a fourth grade student who started
out the year bored with school. In observing him in the classroom,
I noticed that he was disengaged from the lessons, always had
his head down, and rarely completed or turned in his work. He
consistently failed classroom assessments. I pointed this out
to his teacher, and she and I immediately set out to get to the
root of the problem and help turn things around for Isaiah. We
noticed that during the Language Arts lessons, when the teacher
used examples and stories about things she knew Isaiah was interested
in, he perked up and engaged in the work. When lesson planning,
she made an effort to include activities and discussions that
would allow him to access the vast knowledge he already had about
the topics he was most interested in. It turned out that Isaiah
needed somebody to help him turn on his critical thinking skills,
and once that happened, his academic success increased tremendously.
He now regularly scores 80% to 100% on all assessments he is given,
and just as importantly, he now openly articulates how much he
loves school and feels like he is learning so much in his class
this year. In addition, seeing Isaiah with a huge smile on his
face in the classroom every day has also shown his teacher that
she can be successful.
Jaime Kidd, Edenvale Elementary: Mrs. Oseguera
is a first year teacher in our second grade. Like all of our teachers,
she chose five African American and Latino students at the beginning
of the year to focus on in terms of learning about her students'
needs. She and I have given several diagnostic assessments to
these five focal students in order to determine where their skills
need the most work.
Anthony [name has been changed] is one of her students.
With his teacher's support and careful attention to his needs,
Anthony has moved from scoring at Basic level on his Houghton
Mifflin assessments to scoring at a Proficient level. However,
Anthony is just barely scoring in the proficient range. Research
tells us that his Houghton Mifflin scores will need to be much
more robust in order to score in the proficient range on the California
Standards Test. Our diagnostic tests tell us that Anthony reads
more slowly than is expected for a child at this point in second
grade. Over the next few weeks, we will begin doing daily fluency
practice in Mrs. Oseguera's classroom in order to boost Anthony's
reading speed and thus strengthen his ability to understand what
he is reading. It is this type of detailed attention to students'
learning needs that we believe will improve our teachers' effectiveness
and ability to get positive results on the California Standards
Test.
Articles in this issue (March 2007):
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