What is the Learning Network?
The Jefferson County Learning Network (JCLN) is a project designed to address the intellectual and emotional needs of at-risk students in the upper elementary grades in order to improve attitude, behavior, and school performance.
It is made possible by a grant received by the Community Foundation of Madison and Jefferson County through the Lilly Endowment. This Lilly program is called the Community Alliance to Promote Education (CAPE).
The JCLN brings together the Madison, Prince of Peace, and Southwestern Corporations and their nine elementary schools that serve students in the county. The short term goal of the project is to affect a measurable increase in achievement for participating students each semester.
The long term goal is to provide every student with the basic skills to succeed in high school and subsequently to pursue a career or vocation as part of a well-educated workforce.
One of the tools many of the schools are using is the Voyager program, which the schools might not have been able to purchase without the CAPE grant. The program uses short reading passages (little kids have short attention spans) and involves work on new words, a little writing about the passage and discussion to check for comprehension.
Here is what one teacher has to say about the program:
The small groups (never more than four) affords a luxury the classroom teacher does not have. We are able to focus on individuals for a time span of 45 minutes each day and, in small group there is no place to hide behind other students. Additionally a good group can pull a struggling student along and peer pressure for good conduct is easier. We also see camaraderie forms much like a support group. Contrary to being singled out because of reading struggles by their peers, there becomes a sort of pack mentality, where each part is stronger because of the group. Also physical rewards become less important, as ability and confidence grow, and actual achievement empowers the individual and the group.
Here are some Voyager success stories:
The first day we assembled a Voyager group, I asked the students what they thought of reading. One was agreeable, another was indifferent and CD crossed her arms and stated defiantly, “I hate reading!” So we are off to a flying start. As the days progressed, more and more CD bought into Voyager. Gradually, she became more involved until, finally, she began to volunteer to read, then became a “gatekeeper” (my word for one who helps and corrects another reader). Her reading improved from a stumbling, hesitant participant, to one who was accomplished and her retell fluency became the best in the group. She now says she wants to be either a veterinarian or a teacher when she grows up so she can help other students learn to read better. Her initial benchmark score was 37 words per minute in October, goal is 77 wpm. CD nearly tripled that total with a retell fluency that is consistently 60% or greater, sometimes as great as 80%. Recently I passed their lunch line and CD reached out and said, “Mr. Sandlin, I love reading now. I have learned so much.”
AH came to Voyager a very timid, unconfident reader. She had a slight speech impediment and a great tendency for substituting words, (e.g. if the word was hill she would substitute mountain, or water for ocean). She needed strong prompting to even participate and spoke so softly she was barely audible. Her level hardly improved throughout the entire first semester. The other students in the group were supportive and never spoke derisively and slowly AH emerged from her shell. Finally she began to show marked improvement so I asked her if she was working harder. AH said her mother bought her a new video game and she could not play until she had read independently for at least 30 minutes or if the family was on a trip, AH read until they arrived. As her reading skills improved so did her participation. She now volunteers and is the best self-correcting reader we have in small group. An example: if she reads a sentence incorrectly, she will stop and say, "let me read that again." AH has nearly tripled her words per minute and retell fluency. This is a wonderful example of parental buy-in to the Voyager program. Her initial benchmark was 52, goal is 77. Her final benchmark doubled that total.
DH is the brother of AH in the previous story. He came to Voyager with the same propensity to substitute words, likely a family trait. He was also very shy and unfocused, not willing to participate due to a fear of being made fun of by other students. Our small group was very supportive and helpful and this introverted reader has flourished. He volunteered daily and improved to the extent that we no longer feel Voyager is necessary in the succeeding program year. Now when we meet in the hallway, he says, “Mr. Sandlin, I’m reading such and such book and proceeds to retell me the contents in the book.” His classroom teacher says his demeanor and confidence improved noticeably as the year progressed and believes the Voyager small group was the primary factor.
BB came to Voyager as a second grade student with woeful reading skills. His vocabulary was extremely weak and word association was practically non-existent. He had two things going for him; first, he was teachable and secondly, a ‘Mamaw’ (grandmother) that was totally involved in his betterment. BB’s initial benchmark score was 34 (goal is 44). His second benchmark in January, less than three months later, was 95 words per minute. So radical was BB’s improvement when we sent the third, nine weeks report home, Grandmother wrote a note back stating his Accelerated Reader books were not challenging enough. Yet another evidence that parental commitment (or in this case, grandparental buy in) is imperative. This year he is helping a younger sibling (also in Voyager) with his reading.
KS came to Voyager as a distracted, disinterested second grader. He did not like school, he did not like reading and did not care much for teachers. He was extremely weak in vocabulary and word association was a foreign entity along with a minute attention span. He spent more time looking at the ceiling than at either his books or anything around him. KS was barely able to read even the most elementary words. In fact, on his first benchmark his one minute timed reading was 23 (goal is 44) with less than 10 retell words. He was, however, teachable and trainable. The Voyager stories in the fluency book captured his imagination. He began to show much improved interest. After several weeks, his improvement, though plodding, was noticeable. With improvement came some confidence. Initially he did not want to read at all, then became more willing to interact, and finally, began to volunteer to read. We worked on vocabulary words. His mid-year benchmark score was 60 (goal is 68). KS began to ask for stories to take home and read to his family out of the Voyager material and this encouraged others in our small group to take stories home to read to other family members. His final spring benchmark timed reading was 94 (goal is 90.) KS might possibly be our greatest success story, at least of which we are aware. Before the year was out KS was actually keeping others in the group on task and being a gatekeeper (helping other students with corrections or unknown words). |
