"The Reading/Writing/Career Center"
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Contact Person: Peter Minnich
Kingswood Regional High School
South Main St.
Wolfeboro, NH 03894
Phone: 603-569-2055 FAX: 603-569-8104
E-mail: krhs@govwentworth.k12.nh.us
Web site address: http://www.govwentworth.k12.nh.us/schoolfolders/krhs/krhs.html

Program Description

As a gateway to academic learning and future success, reading and writing well are survival skills in our information-driven society. Although the Governor Wentworth School District is committed to literacy teaching throughout the K-12 system, some students come to Kingswood Regional High School with significant deficiencies in reading and/or writing. Kingswood's Reading/Writing/Career Center, directed by master teacher Peter Minnich, provides a place where any student can get support in reading, writing, and career planning. The Center provides support for all students and staff before, during, and after school with a full-time teacher, paraprofessional, and/or trained student or adult tutor.

The Center's Goals

  1. To improve student achievement in reading and writing by...
    • facilitating the practice of writing across the curriculum
    • supporting innovative writing activities
    • supporting literacy remediation by using a variety of approaches
    • offering a safe place for students to read, write, and take risks
    • providing a place to keep samples and models of good writing
    • encouraging collaborative learning among students, staff, and community
    • offering training and assistance for teachers, students, and community members in all aspects of reading and writing
  2. To improve student motivation through career awareness and planning by...
    • offering convenient "beyond the school day" opportunities for students to seek out extra help and guidance
    • coordinating career awareness efforts at the middle and high school
  3. To create a reading course to improve reading, critical thinking, and literacy skills to ensure that all freshman have at least adequate and effective reading skills through...
    • vocabulary development
    • comprehension development
    • study skills
    • fluency

Student Use of the Center

Incoming ninth graders who are reading significantly below grade level are scheduled into the Center for a reading course that they take in addition to their English class. They must raise their skills before they are allowed to discontinue this reading instruction.

Other students utilizing the Center's services include those who refer themselves for help or enrichment, students who have scored poorly on the 10th grade NHEIAP test, students who are also receiving special education services, and students who receive poor grades on their report cards.

These students receive a variety of assistance, including:

  • Specific academic support/remediation or enrichment
  • Participation in a "bibliotherapy" group, facilitated by Mr. Minnich, the school's prevention counselor, and the peer mediation coordinator
  • Assistance with research for a special project or with writing a college essay
  • General emotional support concerning a variety of academic or social issues
  • A quiet place to study or to get away from a potentially volatile situation in another part of the school building

Curriculum, Instruction, and Materials

Although no one would debate the importance of reading and writing, the "best" way to teach students who have difficulties is often the subject of heated discussion. Rather than subscribe to one teaching approach, Center teacher Peter Minnich uses "whatever works" with each individual student, beginning with the establishment of a relationship with that student based on trust, respect, common interests, and a recognition of his or her talents.

A key to the Center's success is its large and varied library of reading materials, including:

  • Collections of short stories with "disaster" themes (of high interest to adolescents)
  • Short stories about teenagers making "tough choices"
  • High interest/easier reading level fiction such as Saving Private Ryan, The Outsiders, See Jane Win, and The Best Little Girl in the World
  • A "side-by-side" series of Shakespeare's plays with the original text on the left hand pages and a re-phrased text on the right hand pages with easier vocabulary and grammar
  • Books-on-Tape http://www.booksontape.com
  • Materials from the Accelerated Reader http://www.perma-bound.com/arinfo.htm and STAR reading programs http://www.epicent.com/software/products/pages/s/star_reading.html
  • Books from the "Writers Inc" series

The Center's Support for Kingswood Faculty

Although the Center began as a place for reading and writing, it has grown into a full-fledged learning center where students, teachers, parents, and administrators go for assistance, advice, and/or resources on any number of topics through activities such as:

  • A newsletter titled "The Write Stuff" that is filled with suggestions and ideas for instruction
  • Workshops on writing and reading across the curriculum
  • In-class model lessons
  • Diagnostic and prescriptive planning for students

Preparation and Professional Development for Staff

To inform and encourage teachers to utilize the Center a core group of teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators served on a planning team during its initial development. Faculty meetings and newsletters were used to inform staff and students of the availability of services in the Center, but the most effective tool was the face-to-face contact by the Center teacher and the services offered to students. Mr. Minnich asked teachers to assess students' difficulties and then offered to model instructional practices that would respond to those problems. He has offered workshops for teachers on Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum and led professional book talks. Mr. Minnich was also part of an interdisciplinary team of teachers who participate in professional development activities focused on developing and scoring open-response questions similar to those on the NHEIAP test.

During the summer of 1999 the district offered a graduate course for teachers entitled "Improving the Literacy Skills of Students in Grades 7-12." The group of faculty who enrolled in the course continues to meet as a support to one another, both with and without the instructor, thus addressing one of the principles of New Hampshire's Professional Development Standards (ED 512.02) http://www.state.nh.us/gencourt/ols/rules/ed500.html and http://www.ed.state.nh.us/ProfessionalDevelopment/professi3.htm.

Impact on Student Learning and Other Valued Educational Outcomes

Since the establishment of the Center, the number of students scoring below "basic" on the NHEIAP test http://www.ed.state.nh.us/Assessment/nheiap.htm has dropped, Kingswood students continue to score above their anticipated levels on the California Achievement Test in grade 11, 82% of 9th graders scored in the top two quartiles on the Stanford Writing Assessment, and reading scores of the students scheduled into the Center's reading class have improved satisfactorily. Teacher surveys show that much more writing is taking place in all classrooms due to the emphasis on writing in the content areas.

The most satisfying change, however, is the reduction in the frustration level of both students and staff. The Center has become another option for students before there is failure. Administrators are able to use the Center's resources to design alternative plans for students in order to avoid suspension or expulsion. Guidance counselors have assigned students there in a trial "continuous progress" English course when they have had multiple failures to make-up.

Costs Associated with the Program

The initial costs related to this program include staff salaries, space, and materials. The district provided the room and a full-time, certified teacher. Some materials were gathered from the resources in the building, but a discretionary grant from the New Hampshire Secondary Special Education Task Force paid for $8,000 of books and materials. Language arts materials that complemented the district curriculum were purchased, as well as test materials, notebooks for record keeping, magazine subscriptions, pens, pencils, and computer software.

Computers were provided from a number of sources, including: Kingswood's School-to-Career Partnership, Title VI funds, the district's reading department budget, and the community. Grant funds initially paid for staffing of the after-school staff person but will be assumed by the district budget in the 2000-2001 school year.

In Summary

The establishment and maintenance of Kingswood's Reading/Writing/Career Center demonstrates the school's commitment to the Best Schools goals of excellence in teaching, quality educational programs, school-community partnerships, use of technology as an educational tool, positive school climate, and high quality professional development. Furthermore, it is an example of how a strong focus on student learning, administrative vision, the dedication and skill of a talented teacher, and professional development for staff can make a difference for all students.

Reference List:

Tondy Higginbotham
Administrator, Bureau of Professional Development
New Hampshire Department of Education
101 Pleasant St.
Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603-271-3749
FAX: 603-271-1953
E-mail: thigginbotham@ed.state.nh.us
http://www.state.nh.us/gencourt/ols/rules/ed500.html
http://www.ed.state.nh.us/ProfessionalDevelopment/professi3.htm

S.T.A.R. Reading Program
Advantage Learning Systems, Inc.
Box 8036
Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54495
Phone: 888-656-2931
http://www.epicent.com/software/products/pages/s/star_reading.html

Accelerated Reader Program
Perma-Bound
617 E. Vandalia Road
Jacksonville, IL 62650
Phone: 800-637-6581, 217-243-5451
FAX: 800-551-1169, 217-243-7505
http://www.perma-bound.com/arinfo.htm

All titles available from Amazon.Com http://www.amazon.com
Collins, M.A. (1998). Saving Private Ryan.
Hinton, S.E. (1967). The Outsiders.
Levenkron, S. (1981). The Best Little Girl in the World.
Rimm, S. (2000). See Jane Win.
Sebranek, P. (1995). Writers Inc: A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning.
Keene, E., & Zimmerman, S. (1997). Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop.
Fletcher, R., & Murray, D. (1993). What a Writer Needs.

Books on Tape
P.O. Box 7900
Newport Beach, Ca 92658
Phone: 800-88-BOOKS
FAX: 714-825-0756
http://www.booksontape.com