For 20 years I faced the challenge of how to make schools more successful.  I continue to hear the same answers I use to hear 20 years ago - increase funding, involve parents, higher accountability, etc.  To some extent, they are all correct.  But to make a real difference requires a simple clear understanding of the relationship between teaching, learning, and achievement.

Basically, there are two dimensions to all learning.  The time spent doing the thing being learned and the quality of teaching/learning experience.  In general, the more time we spend doing something the better we get at that thing.  Especially when the time spent includes feedback, variations, increasing levels of challenge, and other elements that increase the quality of the learning time. 

After school programs can offer students increased high quality learning time by making the most of the after school hours.  To do that means to go beyond simply repeating the practices of the regular school day. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html?ref=education

Mr. Carey, a psychologist, correctly points out that the common advice about homework and study habits (e.g., using one specific place to study and focusing one skill area at a time) are plain wrong and contradict what we know to be true about learning.  Although the article is more about learning and less about homework per se, it may be worthwhile to mention that there is no evidence that homework has any positive impact on academic achievement.  We would do well to reexamine the ways we seek to aid learning through studying and homework.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=learning&st=cse

I have always believed good teaching matter.  I believe teacher quality is the single greatest predictor of school effectiveness.  Of course, when I say "school effectiveness" I mean what a school does to promote learning and healthy development.  (So, a school that has high student achievement simply because it happens to be in a high income neighborhood does not warrant brownie points.)  No matter what else you do, in the end, it is the daily interactions between teachers and students that make-up the educational experiences. 

The educational experience is made up of a variety of other factors that either help the teacher perform better (e.g., good curriculum, ample materials, small class sizes, safe schools, adequate learning time) or worse (poor curriculum, limited materials, large class sizes, unsafe schools, truncated learning time). 

Other factors are simply not within the realm of the school and therefore should not be mixed up with the school quality debate.  Things like poverty, school size, parent involvement and other contextual factors matter, of course, and poverty is highly predictive or student performance.  Yet, we tend to mush everything together and forget that there are many things under the control of teachers that can be done effectively and when done well, will have a notable positive long term impact of the lives of students.

The new study is further testimony to this. 

LitART and the City of Downey have partnered for over six years.  The goals have not changed - build reading and writing skills, increase homework quality, support social and emotional development- but the strategies have evolved considerably based on what we have discovered during the last several years. Through observations and assessment data, we have gained valuable insights into what makes an after school staff person effective and how to support all staff to maximize their effectiveness.

1.  Provide explicit written expectations that serve as assessment criteria and describe how they relate to the program goals.

2.  Conduct regular observations of staff in action using the criteria and share the feedback with staff.

3.  Offer multiple forms of staff support including observation feedback, demonstrations, meetings, and coaching.

4.  Recognize that meaningful behavioral change take place over time.   Establish short term (next observation) and long term (one year) goals for staff performance. 

5. Make sure the program schedule and activities are directly aligned with the program goals.   

6. Encourage staff to use professional judgment about what to do and how to do it. 

7. Measure student progress and use it to promote staff engagement in how best to support students.

When these strategies are used as a mutually supporting professional development model, after school staff develop quickly and consistently.  To learn more about the process just drop us an email.

Q. How do you fit all of the LitART Components into 60 minutes?  

A.  You don't.  The LitART curriculum provides up to 3 hours a day of activities.  Choose a subset of activities that reflect your program goals.  Each component takes between 5 and 10 minutes. 

Q.  When we pair up students for reading, should they be at the same reading level?

A.  Not necessarily.  The key to enhancing reading growth is to pair students so that each pair spends the greatest amount of time reading text.  So, rather than worry too much about whether student's are at the same reading level, see how quickly you can get students into pairs and reading.  

Q.  In LitART, you read one novel each month.  What if you don't finish by the end of the month?

A.  Don't let this happen. Plan carefully to make sure you do finish the novel by the end of the month.  This may mean adjusting how much you read each week or even skipping chapters, if necessary.  

Q. Can we LitART outside? 

Yes.  LitART was designed especially for use in unusual settings such as outdoors, cafeterias, gyms, and music rooms.

Q.  What are the five sharing strategies for journals?

A.  Sharing Museum. Sharing Party.  Sharing Circle.  Back Fence.  Three Stars, Three Questions.    

Our New Jersey tutoring company (Club Z!) piloted the Learn program this year with our SES clients.  It was a great success!  Parents, students, tutors and districts all raved about the program.  I have attached our data analysis of student improvement...perhaps you can use it for promotional purposes (this includes 3 districts and 478 students based on the statistical mean at each grade level using the norm referenced GRADE assessment from Pearson).  If you need a testimonial we would love to do one for you. 

LitART uses five sharing strategies to  provide oral language opportunities in different contexts that are connected to learning projects.  Each strategy using a different grouping technique.

Sharing Museum
•    Arrange studnet's completed products (e.g., writing samples, art) on the wall or on desks.
•   Say, "the museum is open"  and nvite students to silently walk around and look at the results.

•    After two minutes say, "the museum is closing."


Sharing Party 
•    Students take their final product with them.
•    Students walk around and share their result with at least five other students.
•    Two minutes.

Circle of Friends
•    Students share their result in small groups.
•    One at a time, each student has 30 seconds to tell about what they did.
•    Two minutes.

Back Fence
•    Students share their result with the person behind them (over the back fence).
•    One at a time, each student has one minute to tell about what they did.
•    Two minutes.

Three Stars/Three Questions
•    Select three student works you want to feature.
•    One at a time, the three selected students describe their work to the class.
•    The class may ask each presenter up to three questions.
•    Five minutes

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly.
When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Their oral reading is choppy and plodding.

Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and between the text and their background knowledge.

•    More fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time.

•    Less fluent readers, however, must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention for understanding the text.

Research Supported Fluency Strategies in LitART
1.    Model fluent reading and have students reread the text on their own.
2.    Conduct guided reading (provide feedback and guidance during reading.)
3.    Use repeated oral readings of the same text to increase accuracy and rate.
4.    Facilitate partner reading to increase oral reading opportunities
5.    Employ reader’s theatre to allow for a performed reading.

Teachers and parents always ask me how to get their children to want to read when television, video games, and the internet are ready and waiting everywhere.  There is no single easy answer.  Here are a five ideas that can help connect kids to reading. 

1. Discuss books and stories with children.  Whenever a student starts to tell me about a television show, movie, or video game, I find a way to connect the conversation to a book.  Sometimes this is easy because so many television shows, movies, and video games are based on books.  At other times, it is a skillful redirection.  Every once in a while, I will even offer a critique of the media as lacking something compared to a book I am reading.  
   
2. Remind students that before the video version can be made, the story/script must be written.  I tell my students over and over that the best entertainment begins with a writer who is very good at telling a story.  The writer has to imagine all of the things that will happen.  They need to describe what the viewer will see. 
   
3. Facilitate activities that connect literacy to visual media. Choose a book, folktales are perfect for this, and adapt it into a script.  Perform the script as a play or even make a video.  Or, watch a television show or movie and write down the scene changes and characters.  Analyze the show like you would a book.
4. Read like a performer.  Make clear that the author has done his or her best to dramatize the events of the story.  Read the dialogue with the right energy and expression.  Point out how italics and punctuation tells the reader how to read and, as a result, what is happening in the story.
5. Be flexible about what student's choose to read.  It is easy to reject graphic novels, comic books, the Internet, and other "non-standard" forms. The forms of writing and "creating meaning" are rapidly evolving and now include blogs, tweets, texts, Facebook messages, Myspace pages, and other multimedia communication formats that may well constitute the literacies of the future. I suggest embracing all forms of literacy as a way to keep kids connected to print.

I want to hear your ideas. Send them to paul@litart.com.