We’re All in this Together: Establishing An Adolescent Literacy Program that Builds Community and Student Achievement

Deborah Will, IMC CoordinatorZion-Benton Township H.S.

Tim Duggan, Assistant Professor of EducationNortheastern Illinois University

Zion-Benton IMC: A Little History

33,000 books Average age: 1978 Book Budget: $1500 Reliance on garage

sales for collection development

Cataloging a nightmare

IMC Goals 2000

Behavior control Hire new staff Make the library the core of the school Renovate and restore

Similar Challenges that Classroom Teachers Face

Tracking or the lack of tracking Re-writing curriculum Behavior issues School Improvement Planning AYP/ College Readiness Standards

and Alignment Old books and no funding for new

books, programs or field trips

It Takes a Village

IMC clerical staff (Cheryl, Megan, Mark, Cathy, Sharon, Terri) English Teachers (especially Genevieve, Herb, Michelle, Steve, Lin, Corinne, Tara, Tiffany, Jen, Maggy,

David, Mike, and Kelly) Special Education Teachers (especially Jenny, Arden, Melissa, Leslie, and Abby) Foreign Language Teachers (especially Leah, Michelle, Sue Ann, Mary, and Kellye) Business Ed Teachers (Cheryl, Katrina, Jerry and Jesse) Math Teachers (Sue, Paul, Lorie, Margare, Paul, Mike and Matt) Science Teachers (Karen, Larry, Alex and Sarah) Industrial Tech Teachers (Chief and Spence) Music Teachers (Alice and Mark) Art Teachers (Jay and Robyn) NJROTC Support (Steve, Dan and Kevin) Support Staff (Sacramento, Debilyn, Kathy, Suzi, Ruth, Anne) Administrative Support (Chris, Brian, Gail, Jack, Bobby, and all Deans throughout the ages especially

Derrick) Union Support (thanks to Corrine and Kelly again!) Parent Support (especially volunteers like Trish and Chris) Community Organization Support (Kiwanis, Rotary, Coalition for Healthy Communities, CREW) Political Support (all city councils—Zion, Beach Park, Winthrop Harbor. Zion Township Supervisor Cheri

Ditzig and Benton Township Supervisor Jan Suthard) School Board Support—We couldn’t have asked for better board members who understand our mission Public Library Support (especially from Tara and Craig) Technology Team (Jason, Lee, Dave, Joe, JC, Marcus and al the Tech Crew team) Lake County Health Department (Liane, Jackie, Barbara, Sarah, Kris, Liz and Kim) Librarian Network (Jeanne, Varsha, Maggie, Sharon, Erin, Katie, Sheila) IATE Support (Jean, Jan, Amy, Claire, Gen, Herb, Larry, Tim, Simone, and the list goes on and on…)

Step 1: Identify Your Strengths/Assets

Think positively—what can you do that will focus students creatively on literacy projects and increase their use of school materials (research databases, library books, classroom materials)?

Foundation

Gaining teacher/administrative trust Using what we had to the best of our ability Building community relationships Writing grants Developing community wide summer reading and

recognizing culture change

Attitudinal Shift

Attitudinal Shift

Growth Begins AgainYears 7-10

Delayed GrowthYear 6

Periods of Initial Growth Years 3-5

Build Relationships 1-2 Years

Step 2: Do the Research and Share it With Others

You know what best practices are and you can write: put these two skills together, create a research brief and document why you want to make changes NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform:

A Policy Research Brief (2006) Create a 2 minute “elevator speech” and a

slogan for your projected changes

Research

Data driven decision making may be a buzz-phrase, but it’s what gets attention Shared the numbers with the

administrative team and informed them that my budget “attitude” would be changing

Some Data I Shared

The Illinois Study by Keith Curry Lance found that spending more on school library materials correlates to an 11.6% increase in reading scores on the ACT test. Overall, schools that spent more on their school library collections also saw a 6.7% increase in overall ACT scores.

A Bit More Data

Goal: 10 Books Per Student

100/15=6.67% replacement percentage annually

10 books per student = 2561*10=25610 books$20*.0667*25610=$34163.74

Approximately $13.34 per student for print materials

Increase of $8.79 per student for print materials$22,511.19 additional funds per year

Step 3: Rally Support Grants from the

Illinois State Library and the Zion Reading Foundation See our website for

grant links Parent Committee Homecoming

Committee Private Donations

The Attitude Shift Begins

Teachers—getting excited about the possibilities

Students—starting to change the culture

Step 4: Train Teachers

NCTE Pathways for Adolescent Literacy

Training Pre-Service Teachers

Department meetings Email—rationale about

special activities

The Misconceptions about Young Adults and YA Literature

Teens don’t like to read Teens don’t care about reading Teens won’t read, even if you assign it YA literature doesn’t contain difficult

vocabulary YA literature is simplistic YA literature is all the same

Gracelingby Kristin Cashore

In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Deadlineby Chris Crutcher

Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos.".

What Are Your Titles?

Important Understandings to Share With Your Community

By embracing YA literature, you embrace the teens it represents

By understanding the appeal of YA literature, you validate the teens reading it

By validating teens and their reading preferences, you become partners in their literacy education rather than adversaries

By allowing teens to be reflected in the literature they read, they no longer perceive themselves as monstrous (Junot Diaz)

Other Pieces of the Puzzle

AYP is something we live with—choose a preparation program that fits with your school’s culture

Zion-Benton uses Learning Express Advantage, but there are other programs

Use the data from pre-tests to inform how you approach projects in the future

Step 5: Implement Programs and Services

Teamwork: Librarians, Teachers, Administrators, Parents, Teens all working together

Feeder districts—working on same goals Booktalks at every level Booktalks in classes OTHER than English Constant orders of new books Formation of a Youth Advisory Board that selects

texts for students and helps create library policy Students begin reading daily Teachers embrace the reading and the test

preparation

Student Achievement

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2002 2009

Low IncomeNOT meetingstate standards

In 2002, 90.2% of our low income students did not meet standards in reading. In 2009, we reduced that number to 65.3%. Our poverty rate in the district has grown from 12% to 40%.

ACT Scores

ACT Reading scores have increased from an average of 18.3 to an average of 20.6 (+6.3%)

ACT Math scores have increased from an average of 17.7 to 20.5 (+7.7%)

2009-2010 Freshmen showed 1.93 years growth from EXPLORE to PLAN in May 2010.

Community Results

Our school library was voted as the most innovative library in the Northern Chicago Suburbs

Our local Coalition for Healthy Communities placed literacy as one of its main goals and formed reading lunch partners in our elementary schools using volunteers from Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs http://www.nsls.info/awards/2009/innovati

on.aspx

New “Problems”

Old Questions

Do we have to read?

Why do we have to read over the summer?

So what? We don’t have the money for that.

New Questions

When will the books come in?

Can we check out extra books over the summer?

How much money do we have left? Can we afford….