Paradigm Shifts

          My paradigm shifted in the fall of 2008. I had been part of a language arts team hired in 2006 to grow our school’s reading and writing scores on the AIMS (Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards). We had been at it for two years and were seeing modest success, but not what we had hoped for. For some teachers Meets/Exceeds scores in the 80s are acceptable, but I am a perfectionist and was not going to be satisfied with any percentage below 90. I believed all students were capable of at least "meeting" on the AIMS. It was painfully obvious that I was doing something wrong. But what? I had a M.Ed., and by this time five years experience teaching English. I was teaching the novels required by the district the way I had been taught (and had experienced in school) to teach novels – whole class reading and literature circles, complete with chapter by chapter quizzes and discussion, vocabulary tests, and the requisite book report upon completion. I was “digging deep” into each novel to extract every last ounce of meaning, much like one of those juicers you see advertised on late night television, yet a large percentage of my students were disengaged, not reading, and my AIMS scores were hovering around 85%. Something needed to change.

            Then our sixth-grade language arts teacher, who like myself, was always seeking ways to become better at her craft, handed me a copy of The Reading Zone by Nancie Atwell.

            “You should read this,” she said.

            I did, and promptly went back to her and said “This will never work. It sounds great, but she teaches a class of 20-25 students at a small private school. This will never work at a public school with lots of kids: with high kids, with low kids, with ELL kids, with special needs kids, (although I didn't say it - with breathing kids) and besides it’s too much work.”

            In October 2008, still not seeing what I was looking for from my students; I was desperate. I felt like a complete failure. I had been hired because the principal believed I had what it took to make kids readers and raise their scores, and I was nowhere near where she had expected me to be after two years. With nowhere else to turn, I bought my own copy of The Reading Zone and the companion book In The Middle and read them both. The concepts did make sense, and I had nothing to lose at that point. I went to my principal right before Fall Break and presented her with the new reading program I wanted to institute after we returned to school. It was so far outside the box, considering what was normal at that time, that I felt like Rod Serling had transported me into my own personal episode of The Twilight Zone, complete with theme music.

            She looked over what I proposed and the data I had put together and said. “Oooookay, but why don’t you try it with your Honors class first.” The unspoken idea being, “there will be less damage done if it doesn't work.” I agreed, thanked her for her support in letting me try something new, and went off to prepare.

            I had a little money in savings from the severance package I received when the company I had worked for before becoming a teacher had gone under after 9/11. Over break I went to a small used bookstore that was going out of business and the day before they closed the doors, when everything was cheapest, bought the entire young adult, classics, and poetry sections loaded them in my car and my friend’s car and lugged them home. I spent break sorting through what was useable for seventh grade and what was not and putting together a small classroom library of around 200 books. The school where I was teaching was a K-8 school and most of the school library was children’s books for the younger readers. The “upper level” section, at that time, was very small. I wrote up letters to parents explaining the new program, and put together lessons to explain it to students, bought two book shelves for my new library with the last of my savings; then sat back and prayed – a lot!

            What happened, you may ask? Well, like any good series I’ll leave the answer to that question for my next post. I am three hours short of a B.A. in Journalism, emphasis broadcast, and spent years working at the campus radio station in college. In the broadcasting industry this technique is called a “tease”. Ha! to this who thought I learned nothing spinning records from midnight to three every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for three years.