Reading Project--Day Five

Just got back from my last class of the day with the reading project.

Something that struck me very early on, and that the Reading teacher said before we started, and that every teacher knows is true every year, is that the different classes have very different personalities as a group. And, that effects how quickly students work through assignments.

The Reading teacher, being more familiar with the kids, does phrase things differently, and handles distractions differently in each class. I think as a coach, I'm at a disadvantage that disadvantages my teachers. As a teacher, I knew what to expect from classes--not always, but I had a feel for them. I knew when something would need to be presented a little differently, or which student I needed to win over at the beginning to prevent half of the class from declaring a project a failure before giving it a chance.

As a coach, I walk into each new class blind. Certainly b the end of a project, I have a better feel for classes. And, if I do a second or third project with a teacher, I won't have that same initial speed bump.

I would like to, in the future, ask teachers to let me come in and watch and/or interact with a class for a day or two before getting down to the last stages of planning. I think most teachers will understand where I'm coming from. And, if a teacher is already letting me come in to work together on a project, he/she probably won't mind letting me get my feet wet first.

As far as the project today, one of the things we are dealing with is students working at very different paces. Partly this is do to ability level. Because the second part of the project was writing a reflection, some students zipped through it because they did not reflect very seriously. Others went very slowly because they were being more methodical. Some were able to work quickly because of typing skills. Others were held up because they only know the hunt and peck method (although I wonder if speed could have been improved by allowing them to type it all out on a phone with their thumbs.) Some write slowly because it is not a strength. Other write quickly because it is.

Differing speeds are also due to absences and, of course, schedule disruptions. Ideally, I would like to have the ability to allow students to work on this at home. But, students don't have access to email to send files home, and we can't expect every student to bring a jump drive to school. And, we can't expect every student to have access to a computer at home.

I still haven't had time to read any student reflections, so it's still too early to decide if students made use of the first part of the assignment. However, I did have one idea I would like to incorporate if we do this project again. We had students reflect on what areas of their reading need improvement and what they need to do to improve, but we are not specifically evaluating if they improve those areas. I think, in the future, I would like to see some part of the evaluation of the second reading based on their reflections from the first reading.

About half of the students moved on to finding articles to read for the taped, cueprompter reading. Many of them were unsure if reading about a crime was going to be school appropriate. The Reading teacher took it on a case by case basis.

I was also happy to see that, in addition to practice with reading and writing, and reflecting on their skills, some of the students were also gaining exposure to current events. Most of the students were very interested in the articles they selected since we told them to find something that interested them. Several students found current events articles that engaged them.