investigaciones

TEACHER RESEARCH

IN THE BACKYARD

Kitimat–Terrace Teacher Research

Edited by

Mohammed Shamsher

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation

Elaine Decker

University of British Columbia

Carl Leggo

University of British Columbia

Other Program for Quality Teaching

publications in the series:

VOICES OF TEACHING Monograph #1 & 2 1990, 1991

THE CALL OF TEACHING 1993

TEACHER INQUIRY, FRASER-CASCADE TEACHER RESEARCH 1999, 2001

Copyright © 2003 British Columbia Teachers' Federation

Program for Quality Teaching, all rights reserved.

ISBN 0-9698718-9-9

website: bctf.ca/education/research/backyard

PSI03-0056

May 2003

Table of contents

Editors’ foreword ...... v

Teacher research in the backyard ...... 1

Carl Leggo

Gardens and rainstorms ...... 7

Kristine Lewis

Joining learning to living ...... 19

Nick Sluyter

Boys, reading, and the school library ...... 27

Heather Gordon-Hall

An alternate solution ...... 45

Janise Johnson

Lived learning ...... 63

Reid A. Nelson

The road to literacy ...... 75

Sharon Leonard

Bribery: Do reading incentives work? ...... 87

Walter D. Thorne

Being observant as a way of teaching ...... 93

Morenzo Guizzo

Songs unsung ..... 103

Richard P. Jones (B.A.)

Improving math skills for the science classroom ...... 107

Richard Krickan, Juliet Shields

Reading for at risk students ...... 115

Maureen Atkinson

An analysis of Nechako Elementary School’s pink

slip discipline referral program 1998–2001 ...... 129

Dennis Horwood

Guided reading: An early intervention strategy ...... 139

Elizabeth Coulter

Does coaching help? ...... 145

Dighton Haynes

A journey through an early literacy

intervention program in French Immersion ...... 153

Madeleine C. Christiansen

Releasing Sisyphus ...... 159

Jackie Worboys

Strategies for developing self-esteem in

intellectually disabled students ...... 175

Carol-Anne Rauschenberger

Weeding the garden ...... 187

Shelly Jackson

Notes on the authors ...... 219

iv

Teacher Research in the Backyard

Editors’ foreword

The primary purpose of this publication is to celebrate

the work and dedication of teachers whose research

is published here. The secondary purpose is to

encourage and invite other teachers to join the growing

number of practitioners engaged in action research as a way

of reflecting on their practices and professional lives. This

publication like others we have published-Teacher Inquiry:

Fraser-Cascade Teacher Research, Call of Teaching, Voices of

Teaching Volumes I and II-is our attempt to give teachers a

voice and a place in the development of knowledge about

teaching, learning, and schooling.

The authors in this publication are all teachers from the

communities of Kitimat and Terrace, located on the

northwest coast of British Columbia. They were engaged in

an off-campus graduate studies program for a Master of

Education degree in the Study of Curriculum and

Instruction, at the University of British Columbia. In his

article, “Teacher research in the backyard: the master of

education cohort in Kitimat,” Dr. Carl Leggo describes the

unique and creative nature of this graduate program.

An action research course, one of the many courses the

teachers completed as a part of their graduate studies,

provided the material for this publication. Mohammed

Shamsher, Co-ordinator, Program for Quality Teaching,

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation was invited by Elaine

Decker, Director for Continuing Professional Education;

and Carl Leggo, Associate Professor in the Department of

Languages and Literacy at the university, to teach the

action research course. Jackie Worboys, an associate with

the Program for Quality Teaching and a teacher from

Kitimat, helped facilitate the course. In her research titled,

“Releasing Sisyphus,” she provides us with an insight into

what motivated the 19 teachers to enroll in this off-campus

graduate degree program and how the course on action

research unfolded over a period of six months.

For many in the educational community, “to teach” and

“to do” research, seem to be mutually exclusive. The image

most of us have of a researcher, is someone who works in a

laboratory or at a university collecting large amounts of

data through so-called objective means, to find something

Kitimat-Terrace Teacher Research

v

new and startling that will have universal application.

Teachers have neither the time nor the inclination to

engage in this type of work. Action research, on the other

hand, provides opportunities for teachers to investigate

their own professional practices, classrooms, schools, and

communities as decision makers, peers, leaders, and

learners-not just as implementers of other people’s ideas

and consumers of externally produced knowledge about

teaching and learning. Conducting action research allows

teachers to maintain a line of personal inquiry in the

context of the classroom, where most formal learning takes

place. Teachers can test their ideas about teaching and

learning. They can work with peers and question each

other, reflecting on, and redesigning their teaching

activities.

There are two common themes found in the articles

published here. The questions pursued by the authors arose

naturally from the context of their everyday working lives

as teachers, and having the support of peers was an

important factor in helping everyone successfully complete

their projects. As one teacher from the group said:

“Action research is something that teachers do already.

They implement something and monitor its success. What

is interesting about formal action research, however, is that

I noticed that it encouraged members of our group to begin

working on big ideas...on problems that had been in the

back of their minds for a long time. In a way, it encourages

them to follow their dreams and do what really matters.”

As in any other research work, not everyone in the group

got the results they were hoping for, but that was not the

point of this undertaking. The goal was to provide an

opportunity to a group of practitioners to reflect on their

practices, and to help them “follow their dreams and do

what really matters.”

All professions are informed by a knowledge base, and

teaching is no exception. We have a body of accepted

research literature on successful teaching and schooling

practices. As in other professions, teachers are expected to

be familiar with, make use of, and respect the foundations

of their practice. But in all the other professions except

teaching, practitioners are also expected to interact with,

and contribute to, the development of their profession’s

vi


knowledge base. The idea here is that the standards of

excellence emerges from the profession itself.

In education, however, the worlds of research and practice

are both separate and unequal. Most educational journals

do not feature the work of teachers. They are mainly for the

dissemination of ideas, opinions, and studies from

professors, consultants and the like, who work outside the

classroom. The issues discussed in these professional

journals may be significant, but not necessarily helpful to

teachers. As one teacher in the group observed:

“I have learned over the years that someone else’s answers

are not going to be very useful to me. Teaching is intensely

personal, and I cannot simply apply a formula and

magically transform my classroom.”

We are grateful we had an opportunity to work with a

group of very knowledgeable, thoughtful, and dedicated

teachers. They have, by participating in this project, added

their voices to the work of teaching and made a muchneeded

contribution as practitioners to the knowledge base

of the teaching profession. The formality of meeting as a

class once a month was important. It offered us an

opportunity to explore, discuss, and reflect on the cultural,

social, and political dimensions and meanings of words

such as knowledge, truth, validity, and research; and the

place of teachers in the production of knowledge about

teaching, learning, and schooling. We found

encouragement and support in each other to pursue our

interests. We were both teachers and students, together.

Many different questions were researched but they all had a

common purpose of improving teaching and learning.

We want to thank Lu Aldridge, Louise Spencer and Debbie

Stagg in the Professional and Social Issues Division of the

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation for their help with

the editing and organizing of the articles. To Karen Steel in

the Graphics Department of the Federation, we owe our

special thanks for her creative work in producing this

publication.

Mohammed Shamsher

Elaine Decker

Carl Leggo

Kitimat-Terrace Teacher Research

vii

viii


Teacher research in the backyard:

The master of education cohort in Kitimat

Carl Leggo

Above all, we

made words

together, and

worded our worlds

together.

My participation in the Master of Education cohort

in Kitimat has been a journey of the heart, an

adventure with 20 energetic, wise, dedicated

teacher researchers; a two-year exploration in off-campus

graduate studies that has challenged and confirmed a

vision for promoting scholarly professional education, that

honours the work that teachers do, and the lives they live.

When I initially discussed plans for the Kitimat M.Ed.

cohort with Elaine Decker, the director of the Office for

Continuing Professional Education at the University of

British Columbia, I knew immediately that her vision

spelled out precisely the kind of graduate program I have

always wanted to participate in. I was intrigued with the

opportunity to help create an innovative cohort

experience. Elaine promoted a graduate education program

that focussed on the stories of teachers’ lived experiences,

with opportunities for individual and independent

research. And like Elaine, I wanted the M.Ed. experience to

be negotiated and collaboratively composed by the

participants in the cohort, as well as closely connected to

the local community. Elaine’s vision resonated with the

vision for graduate study and continuing professional

education promoted by Karen Meyer, the director of the

Centre for the Study of Curriculum and Instruction at UBC.

With a dynamic commitment to teacher research in local

communities, the centre provided a supportive academic

home for the Kitimat M.Ed. cohort.

During two years, the 20 participants in the cohort

completed courses in writing, narrative research,

curriculum theory and development, pedagogy of love, and

action research. We wrote thousands of words, read

hundreds of essays and books, and discussed issues and

experiences for hours. We made posters to represent our

lived experiences. We shared our writing. We compiled

portfolios and scrapbooks and curriculum resource

packages. We published our writing, and we presented at

the International Conference on Teacher Research.

What are some of the characteristics of the master of

education program that we lived together? First, the M.Ed.

Kitimat-Terrace Teacher Research 1

cohort was focussed on the community. There was no

intention to export a program of graduate studies designed

for an urban context into the rural context of Kitimat. In

Pedagogy of the Heart, published posthumously in 1997,

Paulo Freire acknowledges from the perspective of a long

life nearing its end that his childhood backyard was a space

connected to many spaces. Freire writes: “the more rooted I

am in my location, the more I extend myself to other

places so as to become a citizen of the world. No one

becomes local from a universal location” (p. 39). The M.Ed.

cohort focussed on teacher research in the backyard,

knowing that local geographical spaces represent a location

for locution in the bigger world. Henry David Thoreau

wrote in 1862, the year he died, an essay titled simply

“Walking,” in which he acknowledges the inexhaustible

wonder of the backyard, the neighbourhood, the familiar

location of home and community: “My vicinity affords

many good walks; and though for so many years I have

walked almost every day, and sometimes for several days

together, I have not yet exhausted them...There is in fact a

sort of harmony discoverable between the capabilities of

the landscape within a circle of ten miles’ radius, or the

limits of an afternoon walk, and the threescore years and

ten of human life. It will never become quite familiar to

you” (p. 9). Motivated by Freire and Thoreau, the M.Ed.

cohort focussed their attention on backyards, the schools

where they teach and the local communities where they

live.

In Pedagogy of the

Heart, published

posthumously in

1997, Paulo Freire

acknowledges

from the

perspective of a

long life nearing

its end that his

childhood

backyard was a

space connected to

many spaces.

Second, the M.Ed. cohort was a collaborative venture.

Together we co-created the journey. Initially, I went to

Kitimat with a course outline titled “Writing Teachers’

Lives,” and I invited the 20 teachers in the cohort to

research their lived experiences as teachers in Kitimat. I did

not take a curriculum to Kitimat. For too long, curriculum

has been equated with textbooks and teachers’ guides and

teachers’ resources; in other words, curriculum is conceived

as a noun, but curriculum needs to be conceived as a verb,

an action, an ongoing process, shaped and influenced by

the dynamic relationships of students and teachers.

Curriculum is not static; curriculum is dynamic. Everybody

involved in education: students, teachers, administrators,

parents, researchers, and support staff exercise authority

together as the authors of their own narratives, as well as

collaborative narratives based on dialogue and desire for

2


connection. The Kitimat M.Ed. cohort was a collaboration

of unique teacher-researchers who inspired, motivated, and

nurtured one another in ventures of imagination and

intellect.

Third, the M.Ed. cohort was committed to caring. We

were inspired by Hearts and Minds: A Public School Miracle,

in which Sandra Dean narrates the extraordinary

experience of South Simcoe Public School in Oshawa’s

inner city. Dean, as the new principal of a school once

regarded as riddled with problems, led what she calls “a

revolution of the heart” (p. 190). Dean explains that “the

key to all that we accomplished at South Simcoe was our

focus on respect” (p. 40). “Our respect program was

graphically depicted as a series of concentric circles...with

Respect for Oneself at the centre. Radiating from this were

other circles, representing Respect for Others in the

Classroom; Respect for Others in the School; Respect for

the Family; Respect for the Local Community; Respect for

the Environment; and Respect for Others in the Global

Community—different cultures, races and backgrounds”

(p. 155–156). I have never been part of a more caring

community than the Kitimat cohort. As Bell Hooks writes

in Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom,

“as a classroom community, our capacity to generate

excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one

another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing

one another’s presence” (p. 8).

Fourth, the M.Ed. cohort celebrated creativity. Julia

Cameron observes in The Artist’s Way that “we live in a

culture that is toxic to art. A remarkable number of toxic

myths about artists flourish. In addition to our purportedly

being broke, irresponsible, drug riddled and crazy, artists

are also deemed selfish, out of touch with reality,

megalomaniacs, tyrants, depressives and, above all, people

who “want to be left alone” (p. 207). The M.Ed. cohort

included teachers with primary responsibility for

Kindergarten to Grade 12 and all curricular disciplines,

including languages, sciences, social studies, drama,

mathematics, business education, and home economics.

Participants investigated creative ways of understanding

and living their curricular disciplines. Some wrote poetry,

narratives, ruminations, memoirs, editorials, and reviews.

Some kept journals, and others composed CD-ROMs and

videos. Some sketched cartoons, compiled scrapbooks, took


photographs, and created posters and games. Some

explored music, knitting, needlework, weaving, and

woodworking. And as we explored a wide range of creative

arts with attention to our specific curricular disciplines, we

developed an understanding of how creativity is the heart

of everything we do as teachers.

Fifth, the M.Ed. cohort was an adventure in courage. As

teacher-researchers, we took many risks as we

deconstructed and reconstructed the stories we live by, as

we demythologized and remythologized the energies,

passions, and hopes that motivate us. We were all

committed to self-reflexivity, like the Norman Rockwell

illustration in which Norman Rockwell is drawing Norman

Rockwell as he observes Norman Rockwell drawing in a

mirror. This is not narcissistic and destructive selfabsorption,

but the self-reflexivity of Socrates, who walked

in the garden, a train of students in tow, questions rising

like soap bubbles. In the cohort, we created a community

of questioners committed to the truth that beyond every

question is another question, the truth that, while truth is

never wholly attainable, the striving for it is the true way.

We resonated with Paulo Freire’s voice, full of passion and

hope, compassion and concern: “Each day be open to the

world, be ready to think; each day be ready not to accept

what is said just because it is said, be predisposed to reread

what is read; each day investigate, question, and doubt”

(Politics, p. 181). As teacher-researchers, we were all devoted

to interrogation and critique and discovery; we were

willing to be challenged and surprised; we were eager to

enter into relationships founded on diverse perspectives

and experiences.

As teacherresearchers,

we

were all devoted to

interrogation and

critique and

discovery; we were

willing to be

challenged and

surprised; we were

eager to enter into

relationships

founded on diverse

perspectives and

experiences.

Sixth, the M.Ed. cohort was a lively and lovely

celebration. I have never known a group that enjoyed

celebrating more than the Kitimat cohort. They thoroughly

enjoyed being together. It has been a grand journey, and I

dedicate the following poem to the Kitimat teacherresearchers

with gratitude for the opportunities to continue

searching the tangled places of pedagogy. Thank you,

Carol, Dennis, Dick, Dighton, Elizabeth, Heather, Jackie,

Janise, Julie, Kris, Madeleine, Maureen, Moreno, Nick, Reid,

Rick, Sharon, Shelley, Tina, and Walter.

4


Light In Kitimat

More times than I can

remember, so many

times all the times

now seem like one time,

Friday evening, I flew

from Vancouver, north,

drove the roller coaster

highway from Terrace

to Kitimat in a Budget

Cavalier, listened to CBC,

stayed in the Chalet Motel,

ate a pizza, watched

Law and Order, gobbled

jelly beans, and dreamed

the next day’s venture

with familiar lightness

Kitimat, sculpted out

of forest and rock fifty

years ago for a giant

Alcan smelter, is

a cosmopolitan town

where almost everybody

has come from some place

else, the whole world

connected, Italy, France,

China, India, Britain,

Germany, Zimbabwe:

the world comes to Kitimat

and Kitimat goes to the world

Everybody in Kitimat

insists the sun seldom

shines, tells stories

about snowbanks so high

they have to dig out

the traffic signs

(though I saw little

snow in winter visits),

keen with longing to leave

for vacations under

blue skies, but only

for a little while

I have seen January and June

light dwell in Mt. Elizabeth

and watched early morning

light rise up the circle

of mountains as if the sun

must stretch to pass over,

and I have known the light

in Kitimat, even under gray

skies, the light of the heart

the heart’s lightness

On Saturdays we gathered:

the twenty teachers daily

work together, teach one

another’s children even,

as neighbours in a small town,

always bump into each other

at the golf club, Overwaitea,

the curling rink, and still

on Saturdays you’d think

they’d not seen each other

for years, eager to catch

up, always more stories

In words we researched

and composed our worlds,

ate countless muffins

and cinnamon buns,

gathered around barbeques,

ate in every restaurant, pub,

and café in Kitimat,

stood under a silver

Christmas moon,

sailed the Douglas Channel,

picnicked on a rocky ledge,

discussed the weather

without end, and our lives,

private and public,

knowing the ecology

and economy of blood’s

flow in the heart’s rhythms

as we wept and laughed

Then in the Ol’ Keg Pub

on Saturday nights, I drank

Kootenay Mountain Ale,

ate Reuben sandwiches,

wrote in my journal,

at home in this town

like the town where

I grew up, faraway,

other stories, drawn

in the lines of kinship

And Sunday mornings,

I drove the highway

in reverse, on a route

both familiar

and unfamiliar, as if

the mountains, rivers,

and lakes changed

places under a sky

never the same hue,

and I always waved

to the moose, bears, foxes,

breathed the snow, rain,

and light, always

the light in Kitimat


Works Cited

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Heart. Trans. Donald Macedo

and Alexandre Oliveira. New York: Continuum, 1997.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walking. New York: Penguin Books,

1995.

Dean, Sandra. Hearts and Minds: A Public School Miracle.

Toronto: Viking, 2000.

Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice

of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Cameron, Julia and Mark Bryan. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual

Path to Higher Creativity. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons,

1992.

Freire, Paulo. The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and

Liberation. Trans. Donaldo Macedo. South Hadley:

Bergin and Garvey, 1985.

6


Gardens and rainstorms:

The classroom community

Kristine Lewis

My arguments are

non-existent

because my conviction

is weak. I

can present a case

for education in

almost any

context, but I am

stumped by this

girl’s frustration

and anger.

Nancy blows into the room in a cloud of anger. “I

hate CAPP 1 ,” she announces to anyone who will

listen. “The teacher is so mean. We do such stupid

things. The class is stupid. I’m not going anymore.”

She looks directly at me, as if daring me to engage her. I feel

challenged and compelled to defend my profession. “It

can’t be that bad,” I finally manage to mutter.

“She is horrible, and it’s a complete waste of time!”

Where can I go? I am not comfortable with the

conversation, and I know nothing about CAPP to even

begin defending the course. Besides, from what I know

about the course, I sympathize with the students’

frustration about the content: it does seem somewhat

redundant from one year to the next, the topics are too

personal for full disclosure, and what the students want to

discuss is considered out of bounds. My arguments are nonexistent

because my conviction is weak. I can present a case

for education in almost any context, but I am stumped by

this girl’s frustration and anger. I take the coward’s way out

and retreat from the conversation.

Over the next week, I learn that Nancy has stopped

attending her CAPP class altogether. She makes no attempt

to hide this information from me; rather, she announces it.

I also learn, in one of her pronouncements, that she has

stopped attending French class as well. I jokingly inquire if

she is going to stop attending my class anytime soon. She

gives me a look and a sarcastic retort. I understand her

message: she has no intentions of missing any English

classes.

Nancy’s situation makes me think. What is it that can spark

such fury in her that she will risk academic success? I begin

to wonder what makes students like one class yet dislike

another. The factors that make up any one class are

extensive and varied: student composition, subject matter,

teacher personality, student personality, teaching style, plus

the hardships of everyday life. It is impossible to control

•All names have been changed.

1

Career and Personal Planning


any one of these factors or to set up a magic formula that

will work for every situation because the factors are so

unstable that they cannot be predicted nor relied on from

day to day. If I want to be able to have some input to how

any one student reacts to my class, I have to focus in on

the factors I can control. I am unable to control who is put

in my class, each student’s attitude toward English, each

student’s personality, or the lives those students live; but I

can control how I interact with those students and the

atmosphere I create where those interactions take place. I

can facilitate the construction of a classroom community.

This interest in the class as a community is not new for me.

Although I have been teaching for a relatively short period

of time, five years, I have been struggling with the sense of

community ever since my first teaching assignment. I came

in mid-year during semester change to replace a well-loved

teacher, and the students were not expecting me. His name

was on their timetable, but I was the one standing in the

front of the room. Dealing with the students’

disappointment over my mere existence and struggling

with everything that is a first year teaching position, led to

much frustration and a few tears. My misery peaked and

my understanding began one day mid-semester when I

casually picked up a piece of crumpled paper from the

floor. Distracted, I straightened the ball while conversing

with a student about his current assignment. As our

conversation ended, I turned to place the paper on the desk

from which it fell. I glanced down at the paper; my heart

was instantly in my throat, my body numb. There,

scrawled across the paper in dark ink, were words of hate

about me. Wordlessly I placed the paper on the student’s

desk. His eyes flickered to the paper and then to my face.

Our eyes met momentarily before I turned away; the pain

in my eyes met the panic in his. Those angry words and

that panicked look began my journey of understanding. I

questioned what I had to offer these students; and I

realized that if I was not working with them, then I was

working against them.

If I want to be

able to have some

input to how any

one student reacts

to my class, I have

to focus in on the

factors I can

control.

In each year since finding that paper ball, I have worked to

set up a collaborative atmosphere in each of my classes. I

have used class meetings, student set consequences,

rewards, and flexibility as my main tools in maintaining

that sense of collaboration. If I can create a classroom

community that has an inviting and safe atmosphere, I

hope I can circumvent those factors that I cannot control.

8


As a result of my concern for how students react to my

class, I have spent several months studying the

environment and the atmosphere I have created in my

classroom, in an attempt to gain insight to how students

feel about what I am doing as a teacher.

I started this

semester with an

elaborate scheme

aimed at giving

the students a

sense of ownership

and responsibility

for what happens

in the class and

designed to give

me feedback on

my classroom

expectations.

In my interest in classroom communities, I have read many

books that address that subject. Last year I read How to be

an Effective Teacher: The First Days of School by Harry

K. Wong and Rosemary Wong. The presentation of ideas is

forcefully done. I was skeptical as I read some of their ideas

because I knew they would not fit my teaching personality,

but I was intrigued by what they had to say. I found

suggestions I considered reasonable, such as pre-assigned

seating arrangements, behavioural action plans, and markrecording

set-ups; so I implemented them starting the first

day of the school year. To show the students that I was in

control of the situation, I had assigned seating plans for

when they arrived and I carefully explained my

expectations of them. I quickly ran through my

behavioural expectations, outlined my academic

expectations, and spent some time talking about the

provincial exam. My academic concerns for these English

12 students stood foremost in my mind. After all, I had

asserted my prowess to the class in how I had set the tone

in the room on that first day. By the time I realized that I

was in serious trouble in terms of the behaviours of these

students, many of whom I had taught a number of times in

the past, it was too late—I had put myself in an adversarial

role. I struggled with the behaviours of that class right to

the end of the semester. I struggled with behaviour when I

should not have had one behaviour problem. I had Grade

12 students throwing paper balls and pen lids at each other

continuously. These students, who I taught three years ago,

were the same students who threw spitballs once in Grade

9. We discussed the problem as a class, and the problem

ended. Three years later when I discussed my concerns with

them, the problem continued. There was no sense of

community; it was I versus them. I was in my fifth year of

teaching and I was back to where I started. I will not make

that mistake again.

I started this semester with an elaborate scheme aimed at

giving the students a sense of ownership and responsibility

for what happens in the class, and designed to give me

feedback on my classroom expectations.


Although I did the activity, observations, and surveys with

two English 11 classes and one Enriched English 11, I

decided to limit the main components of my study to one

English 11 class. The main reason I chose to limit the study

is because of the dynamics of the individual classes

themselves. Although each class has gone through

relatively the same experience, each class had reacted

differently and formed an individual community. To try

and analyze all the classes collectively is impossible because

of their uniqueness. I also have ambiguities in the area of

class size. Only one of my classes this semester is near

capacity with twenty-five students. The other two classes

have fifteen and seventeen students. Although the smaller

classes have established incredibly strong communities, I

felt that the larger class is a more accurate reflection of a

typical English 11 class.

Another reason I excluded the Enriched English 11 class is

because there are twelve girls but only three boys in the

class, and I did not feel they could provide an adequate

database. Although I have included observations and

findings from all three classes, my overall results are based

on a class composed of fifteen girls, and ten boys, and a

survey return rate of 100% from the girls and 70% from

the boys.

Overall, the results from the Establishing Rules activity

were fairly consistent across all three classes. The three

classes identified the same issues to address and came up

with similar rules and consequences. Although the students

did the majority of the discussing and deciding, I did have

input as well. I emphasized that the rules developed must

work for all members of the class including me. Because we

did the activity over several classes, the students from each

class had an opportunity to discuss the rules with students

from the other classes. In the long run, these discussions

were beneficial because I ended up with three sets of rules

that were similar and easy to remember, thus, easier

to enforce.

These rules would not be the rules that I would choose.

Compromise happened on my part as well as theirs. While

many of the rules are common sense, some rules were

arrived at only after heated discussion and others arrived at

using humour. In the end, the class voted to accept each

rule individually with the understanding that we would

revisit the rules within a month or sooner if needed. After

10


going through the rule-developing process, I gave the

students a chance to debrief about the activity. Comments

made by students during the post-activity discussion:

The comment that

surprised me the

most was the one

about me needing

to be more

authoritarian.

• For the most part [the activity] was good, but some rules

were childish.

• [We] spent too much time on the trivial.

• [The activity] was good. It shows that [Ms. Lewis] cares

about student opinions.

• It seems odd that a teacher would care what we think.

• I think I will be more likely to follow these rules.

• I think there was a lot to be gained. We got to know one

another, it is more open, and we got to know [Ms.

Lewis].

• [The activity] was too elaborate, too long, it should

have focussed on one or two ideas.

• I think we had too much to say. [Ms. Lewis] needs to be

more authoritarian.

• Having the rules set out is beneficial. A dictatorship

doesn’t help us figure out things.

• Seniors should have more say in rules.

• Now that we have [set rules], it is all right. I feel okay

about this class. We are okay with each other and with

[Ms. Lewis]. It was a good icebreaker.

The comment that surprised me the most was the one

about me needing to be more authoritarian. I had just

finished a not so pleasant semester where I had tried to be

an authoritarian and it had not worked! The other thing

about the activity that surprised me was how willing they

were to defer to me in terms of dealing with things. I had

to push them to come up with rules to address potential

problems. One popular key phrase was “will be dealt with

at teacher’s discretion.” I suggested that they were putting

too much trust in me and that I may be a lunatic when it

comes to consequences, but they did not believe me. In the

end, they persevered and managed to limit the rules to

only one “will be dealt with at teacher’s discretion.”

Not only were they a little reluctant to come up with rules

and consequences, but they were also reluctant to address

what they considered the more trivial problems. At another

time, I might have agreed with them about the trivial

things such as the stapler and the hole punch; but I had

just finished a semester of dealing with Grade 12s who

could not use the stapler and the hole punch responsibly.

The group who addressed the more trivial rules took the


humourous approach and entertained the class with their

creative rule about the stapler and hole punch: “If you are

unable to restrain yourself from playing with the stapler or

the hole punch, you will be assigned a buddy to do all your

stapling and hole punching for you. You will not be

allowed to handle the stapler or the hole punch unless your

buddy is present to monitor your behaviour.” While the

class tittered in amusement, I took a deep breath hoping

this was one rule I would not have to address. Five months

later, I am happy to say that I have not had one glue, P.A.

button, stapler, or hole punch incident in this class!

One area of weakness the students had when it came to

establishing rules was the idea of rewards. Their difficultly

with the concept of rewards surprised me. I was worried

that I would have to deal with a list of unreal expectations

that I knew I would never be able to meet; instead, I was

faced with no expectation of rewards at all. Their lack of

expectation has left me questioning the concept of

behaviour management in schools. I have always viewed

classroom management as a system where I encourage the

behaviours I desire and deal with the behaviours I find

disruptive. For me, that system has two sides. For the

students, that system appears to have only one side—

punishment. In retrospect, when I look back at how I

initiated the activity, I cannot help but understand why

they did not readily embrace the idea of reward. I

emphasized developing rules and consequences, not the

idea of rules, rewards, and consequences!

When I think about my concerns in the running of my

classes, rewards are not at the top of my list, but rules and

consequences are. I need to think about rules and

consequences because I want my classes to be manageable.

I need order to be able to do my job. The students, on the

other hand, are oblivious to my priority for order until I

announce, “We are going to do an activity where you get to

set the rules and consequences for this class.” Oh, how

magnanimous I am in my generosity—I am letting them

set the standard by which they will abide for the next five

months. They know I want rules; and they know that if

they are setting the rules, they are going to have to live

with whatever it is they dream up. It is no wonder they

think “will be dealt with at the teacher’s discretion” is an

easy solution. At least with this consequence, they cannot

be blamed if anyone is unhappy with the results. Now that

I look at the situation from their point of view, I can see

When I think

about my concerns

in the running of

my classes,

rewards are not at

the top of my list,

but rules and

consequences are.

12


how, with little to no encouragement from me and with

the implications of their decisions, the concept of rewards

was overlooked. The “good” can be insignificant if the

“bad” is unbearable.

The activity did

exactly what I

hoped it would do:

it laid the

foundation for the

construction of a

community.

As a result of the students’ hesitation in addressing the idea

of rewards, the rewards for the class came from me. I

suggested “thank yous” and Get Out of Jail Free (GOOJF)

cards, and they agreed. I have used GOOJF cards since my

second year teaching; I took the name from the game

Monopoly. I have found them to be a

wonderful motivator, and the students

appreciate the flexibility it allows them.

The cards are given to the students as a

reward for some sort of positive behaviour

in the classroom. I have handed them out

when a student has done something as

simple as asking another student to join a

group that was already established. In

return, the student can redeem a card for a

one day extension on an assignment or to void an

unexcused late. I have found that the students appreciate

the flexibility these cards provide, and they take

responsibility for getting their work submitted in a timely

manner. The GOOJF cards give the students a sense of

control within the class.

The activity did exactly what I hoped it would do: it laid

the foundation for the construction of a community. We

spent three days developing rules and consequences and

debating what would work. As each day passed, I could

sense the students becoming comfortable with themselves,

each other, and me. I could hear their voices as both

individuals and as members of a group. I was astounded by

the success until the end of the third day when we had

finished the activity and I let the class chat amongst

themselves. I was sitting at the front of the room sorting

through stacks of papers when I overheard a conversation

between three students. They were discussing a friend of

theirs transferring from another English 11 class into our

class. I stopped sorting and looked up, intently listening to

their conversation. They were discussing how wonderful it

would be for them to have this friend in the class. Without

thinking, the teacher part of me that craves order and

views “fun friends” as a potential disruption said that it

liked the class exactly how it was right now. The

conversation stopped dead as all three sets of eyes looked


my way and they realized I had been listening to their

whole conversation. Just as quickly the conversation

resumed, but it had a new theme. Moments before, the

class would have been improved by the addition of this

friend but now his impending arrival was an imposition.

Instead of listing all the reasons why his presence would be

welcome, they began listing how his presence would upset

the balance of the class. I was alarmed by how quickly they

changed their point of view. The point of the exercise was

to give them a sense of ownership and to begin building a

community, not to create a group of students who would

always agree with me. I was also alarmed as I realized that

this group was my database for my research project—there

was no way I was going to get valid data if they said what

they thought I wanted to hear. I realized that my data

might never truly be valid; it will always have the human

quality of bias to it. I had struggled with the concept of

validity for a few months. I had felt frustrated because I did

not have a source for my data. Then I realized that their

bias is what made the data valid. I wanted to take the pulse

of the classroom community, I wanted to know if what I

was doing was making a difference, and I wanted to know

what the students thought about what I was doing as a

teacher. Their bias is the one objective source I can trust

because they do not willingly manipulate their bias. The

students said what they thought I wanted to hear because

we had begun to form a community together. We had

spent three days listening to each other’s needs, discussing

solutions, and compromising. When I said that I liked the

class as it was, their sacrifice of a friend was their way of

addressing the needs of an individual within that

blossoming community—my needs.

But, as I said earlier, I can only focus on the factors that I

can control and the transfer of students into my class is not

one of them. The friend was transferred in and found his

own place in the community; and as promised, we did

revisit the rules. It took two months to get back to them

because the class was running so smoothly, so the

momentary panic over a potential problem was for naught.

When we did discuss the rules and how the class was going,

we agreed to leave the rules just as they were. Only one

class wanted a rule change when we discussed it. They had

heard that the other class was allowed to convert locker

trips to trips to the vending machine. I explained that this

rule was a difficult one for me because I am opposed to

14


students using the vending machine during class time. We

discussed the issue and in the end, they decided that visits

to the vending machine would be acceptable once all work

was completed and a GOOJF card was submitted. The

solution they offered me reinforced my confidence in their

growing sense of responsibility and maturity in setting

expectations for their own behaviour.

In creating a

workable

environment, I

have also

managed to create

a welcoming

environment and

to elicit loyalty

from the students.

Overall, the Establishing Rules activity was successful

because all the goals of the activity were successfully met.

The students have taken ownership of those rules. In fact,

82% of the students surveyed indicated that setting class

rules made them feel as if they had some ownership of the

class. If I have to address a behaviour problem, which

seldom occurs, the students willingly comply; and

although the rules the students developed are not the same

rules that I have used in the past, they are similar in spirit

and I can live with them. In general, I am happy with the

atmosphere and attitude of the class and the students are

happy with the atmosphere in the class. When I asked the

students to describe the class, the most frequently used

adjectives used were enjoyable, encouraging, safe, and

comfortable; the response was overwhelmingly positive. As

one of my main goals as a teacher is to facilitate the class in

creating a workable environment where students feel safe

and comfortable, I feel that the activity was well worth the

class time devoted to establishing and maintaining the

system.

In creating a workable environment, I have also managed

to create a welcoming environment and to elicit loyalty

from the students. Recently, a student transferred into the

class. We are well past the halfway mark for the semester, so

friendships in the room are firmly entrenched. This new

student was welcomed immediately. Both Nancy and

Linda, on different days, moved to sit beside the new

student. They engaged her in conversation and helped her

familiarize herself with the class routines and rules. I felt a

spark of pride in these students who would so willingly

seek out a new student and welcome her so readily and

who presented the classroom as a special place. In getting

to know her and exchanging information with her, the

students described the class as a good place to be. The

students themselves have established the tone of the class

through their discussions and interactions. The year began

with discussing, listening, and assessing; and those ongoing


qualities have led to a tone of openness and acceptance. In

that open and accepting environment, the students tolerate

one another and me. They think of me as being one of

them in terms of the classroom community; thus, there is a

sense of loyalty to me. They react negatively if someone

treats me poorly. I mispronounced the new student’s last

name, and she quickly corrected me. Her manner was a bit

abrupt, but it was not offensive. I apologized for my error

and corrected myself. The next day Nancy approached me

before class began, “Holy, Ms. Lewis, Marcy was sure rude

to you yesterday.”

“What?” I replied in confusion.

“Yesterday, when you got her name wrong, she totally

snapped at you.”

“Oh,” I replied, “I hadn’t noticed.”

“She is pretty mean to you, you know.”

I smiled a vague smile, lifted my eyebrows, and shrugged

my shoulders in an evasive non-committal way; but, once

again, Nancy had me thinking. I had noticed a subtle shift

away from Marcy in the last week. Her initial popularity as

the new student had worn off; but it was more than a

simple indifference toward her, it appeared to be more of

an aversion. As the week progressed, I noticed that Marcy’s

comments toward me were biting on a regular basis and the

students who were welcoming and engaging a few weeks

earlier had subtly withdrawn. The withdrawal was not

overt, but the students in the class had pulled back a little.

A few days later as Marcy entered the room she announced,

“Ms. Lewis, I heard you were being a real bitch this

morning. I hope you’re in a better mood.”

Even though the class had not started and students were

still filtering into the room and getting settled, every eye in

the room immediately looked at me. Although my mind

was racing and my impulse was to react, I calmly replied,

“Sorry Marcy, I didn’t quite hear what you said. What was

that?”

Every head in the room turned to look at Marcy as she

settled into her seat; and to my astonishment, she repeated

word for word what she had initially said.

Every head in the room turned to wait for my response:

“Marcy, if you continue to use that sort of language when

talking to me, you are going to find out very quickly

16


exactly what kind of mood I am capable of.” My reply was

not the best way to handle the situation; but considering

that my mind was doing somersaults trying to decide what

might be the best way to handle this situation that was

quickly progressing out of control, I think I did okay.

The next day, Marcy sat alone. She was quiet and

withdrawn all class.

Marcy’s situation illustrates both the strengths and the

weaknesses of the classroom community. The strength lies

in the relaxed atmosphere, the sense of acceptance, and the

open exchange between all members of that community.

The weakness can be found in parameters the members of

the community set—not in the rules the students wrote at

the beginning of the semester, but in the unwritten rules

the students have set for how they are going to treat the

members of that community. Marcy was willingly taken

into that community, but she missed the experience of

growth. She does not have the background to understand

why interactions occur the way they do. Even though she

is accepted into the community, she does not know the

rules for behaving in the community; thus, she has

difficulty finding her place within that community.

The problems of the community are not limited to new

members. Recently, James was feeling frustrated with

success in the course and was voicing his frustration. Nancy

chose to respond by teasing him about something that had

occurred outside school. James erupted. He told Nancy to

shut up, slammed his books closed, and announced that he

hated English. While the rest of the class moved forward,

James folded his arms across his chest, stared stonily ahead,

and interacted with no one. Once I got the class working, I

asked James to speak with me in the hall.

“Why?” he demands.

I am taken aback by the contempt in his voice. “So I can

speak with you without everyone else hearing.”

In the hall, I try to address his anger, reassure him about

his abilities, and stress the importance of the writing

activities we are currently working on. He is agreeable, but I

am not convinced. Once back inside the room, he is still

withdrawn from his work; but he is willing to talk flatly to

his seatmate. Nancy tries to apologize, but he ignores her.

She writes a note on a piece of paper and stands beside his

desk holding it up to him; he refuses to look. The tension


stays in the room for three days. For the first time, Nancy

begins to skip English. It is another three days before the

tension diminishes and James is speaking in civil tones to

everyone. Nancy returns to class the next day.

As long as the students are willing to be part of the

community and abide by the expectations the community

establishes, the class dynamic maintains its equilibrium;

but as soon as that balance is disturbed, the whole

community feels the consequences. In Marcy’s case, she

has been pushed to the side, an outsider who was initially

accepted and now has to find her way back into the

community. James’ anger created a tension that rippled its

way through the whole community and put Nancy into a

self-imposed exile.

While the sense of community can be a powerful ally for a

teacher, it does not come without a price. As seen from

Marcy, James, and Nancy’s experiences, it is not a tame

beast that does as the teacher wishes. The community is

alive and transforming all the time. All members of the

class are part of that community, and they bring to it all

those factors a teacher cannot control. Like a flower, a

community is not a seed that can be planted and then

expected to grow prize-winning blooms. A community

needs constant maintenance to ensure its success; and even

though I view this experience as a successful one, I am

aware that the situation had its faults. I know that

perfection in the classroom is impossible: we, as human

beings, are too complex in our behaviours and too messy

in our relationships to ever achieve perfection. This study

has given me the perspective to live and to work with the

complexity and the messiness. I have learned to listen to

what the students say, to understand they are living in the

“real” world, and to notice the subtle dynamics in the

room. By opening myself up to their perspective, I have

learned that teaching is not necessarily the most important

part of being a teacher—sometimes understanding is the

most important part. With the end of the semester comes

the culmination of my research. A student left me a final

note: “Thanks for making your class fun and not feel like a

prison cell...” By concentrating on the classroom

environment, I wanted to gain insight into how the

students feel about what I am doing as a teacher; and I can

say that what I am doing is working and, more

importantly, they are enjoying themselves.

While the sense of

community can be

a powerful ally for

a teacher, it does

not come without

a price.

18


Joining learning to living

Nick Sluyter

For many years, it

has bothered me

that much of

school learning

seems abstract or

abstracted from,

the world that is

not school, the

world often

referred to as the

“real world.”

For many years, it has bothered me that much of

school learning seems abstract or abstracted from, the

world that is not school, the world often referred to

as the “real world.” Donald Schon argues that there are

“splits between teaching and doing, school and life,

research and practice, which have been so insidiously

effective at deadening the experience of school at all levels”

(1987). For most of my life, I have been a good student and

lived with these splits. I do what successful students do:

find out what the teachers want, give it to them, and get

the marks. And this seems to work in school. After high

school graduation, however, I entered the world of work

and found that learning and doing went hand in hand, one

depended on the other. I had to learn to do and, in doing,

learned more. In 20 years of working and living, I am sure

that I have learned more than in 20 years of schooling.

“How could youths better learn to live than by at once

trying the experiment of living?” Thoreau (1854).

Fifteen years after entering the workforce and working as a

mechanic, and four years after returning to school and

earning my teaching certificate, I started teaching

technology education. What I knew about learning in the

workplace seemed to make sense in high school wood and

metal shops, and to some degree, in my specialty area of

automotive mechanics. I say to some degree because, after

teaching mechanics for five years, I have noticed a distinct

difference between the students’ enthusiasm for theory

lessons and their enthusiasm for hands-on shop

experiences. Most students seem to be much less

enthusiastic to learn automotive theory through classroom

lecture and textbook exercises and much more enthusiastic

to learn by working on live cars in an automotive shop.

Learning and doing go hand in hand.

Students are happier in the shop than in the classroom.

That may seem a no-brainer to most people, but for me the

classroom theory was directly connected to what the

students did in the shop, and I couldn’t understand why

they didn’t see that themselves and apply themselves more

enthusiastically to their studies. Of the hundreds of


students to whom I have taught automotive mechanics,

only a handful stand out as having treated the theory

lessons as anything other than penance for access to the

shop. To me, learning and doing are interconnected and

inseparable, and I wanted my students to see this too.

Reading Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and a

colleague’s experience with an adult night school class, led

me to speculate that student involvement in the creation of

their own curriculum could increase their enthusiasm for

the theory part of the automotive course. Friere, of course,

writes of entering into a dialogue with the students, finding

out what is important to them, and facilitating discussion

and learning. Friere’s teachers are mirrors who reflect the

students’ reality rather than pedagogues who impose their

own, often meaningless or irrelevant, reality on the

students (1993). Somehow I want my students to make

automotive theory part of their reality, a reality with

meaning for them.

My question was: “How will students respond to being

given an opportunity to participate in generating their own

curriculum? How will involvement in this activity affect

their motivation to learn?” McWhorter, Jarrard, Lee,

Rhoades, and Wiltcher. I intended to answer the question

by having my students generate their own curriculum

topics and then judge their level of motivation by

comparing the class average mark with the average marks

of previous classes. I would also keep track of the type of

questions the students asked while performing the tasks

that they had been taught in order to determine whether or

not they could apply the lessons in a practical situation. If

the students could apply what they had been taught, I

would consider that they had learned the lessons.

Reading Paulo

Freire’s Pedagogy

of the Oppressed,

and a colleague’s

experience with an

adult night school

class, led me to

speculate that

student involvement

in the

creation of their

own curriculum

could increase

their enthusiasm

for the theory part

of the automotive

course.

Overview

The automotive mechanics curriculum is a set of senior

courses available at Grades 11 and 12. The courses offered

at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School are Mechanics 11A,

12A, and, depending on interest, Mechanics 12B. In the

11A and 12A courses, the mix of theory to hands-on

learning for both courses is three days in the shop and two

days in the classroom. The hands-on learning is studentdirected

work on live cars or lab work on live cars. The

theory portion of the course is a combination of lecture,

20


demonstration, review questions, and tests. The automotive

shop is set up as a large, fully equipped, garage and holds

six cars. The classroom that I use for theory is an old

woodwork shop and is quite large. I usually have two or

three cars and many car parts/teaching aids in the

classroom.

This year’s Mechanics 12A class consisted of 23 students, all

of whom I knew or had taught before. Some of the students

had failed the Grade 11 course and had repeated it

successfully, some had barely passed the Grade 11 course,

and many had done fairly well in Mechanics 11A. I believe

that this class is fairly representative of my Grade 12

students. I felt that I knew these students well and that

they trusted me enough to participate in my research

project.

To generate curriculum topics, I used class discussion,

writing the students’ ideas on the overhead as we

progressed. I assembled the topics into somewhat coherent

units and wrote lessons for each of the topics. For some

lessons, I used a textbook to reinforce my lecture and

demonstration, but other lessons relied entirely on my own

material. Student discussion also led me to modify my

lessons from the previous lecture (chalk and talk) style that

I had mostly been using. My new lessons consisted mainly

of a demonstration supported by a brief lecture with review

questions for the lesson and, sometimes, the students

would also read a textbook chapter and complete its review

questions.

I felt that my main source of data would be my records of

previous class averages, which I would compare with the

average of this class. In addition, I kept a journal and made

field notes. I found that making field notes during an

automotive class was quite difficult. An automotive

instructor is incredibly busy helping students to solve

problems and is usually thinking about at least three things

at once. However, I acquired the habit of filling out a

standardized field note form at the end of each class as I

filled in the students’ participation marks. The journal was

also difficult to write, mainly because I was exhausted most

evenings. I persevered, however, and found that the journal

provided a valuable retrospective of my own process and

individual students’ progress. In addition, the journal

allowed me to compare my thoughts on the various lessons


and gain some insight into what worked well and what

didn’t.

I graded this class using the same tasks as I have used for

other mechanics classes: assignments, tests, and

participation.

Results

I compared class averages for each term over the course of

four years and 10 mechanics 11A and 12A classes. I

compared class averages for the term because I used the

average term mark of this class. All the data I used was

retrieved from my old integrade files (a computer-based

grade book), which automatically calculates class average

and standard deviation.

Three classes have had term averages higher than the

subject class. I also compared the standard deviation of

these classes and found a roughly inverse correlation

between class average and standard deviation.

The field notes I made considered the type of questions the

students asked me about tasks as they related to the theory

lessons I had given. I was interested in whether or not the

students had learned the lesson and noted whether the

question was about a detail or a concept, or whether there

was a question at all.

Of the 29 field notes about student tasks that I made:

9 students had no questions

13 students had questions about details

7 students had questions about concepts

The journal gave me insight into the process of curriculum

and lesson generation in this course and also into several

aspects of progress I was not, initially, prepared to measure.

In the beginning, the students participated well in the

generation of topics for lessons. The students also indicated

that they preferred demonstrations over lectures and that

demonstrations worked best for small groups. Until then, I

had delivered my lessons as lectures with a follow-up text

assignment. I split the class in half and gave each lesson

and demonstration twice, because the students indicated a

preference for demonstrations in small groups. This seemed

to work well as everyone could see the demonstration, and

22


I could keep track of off-task behaviour more easily. The

half of the class not attending the lesson was put to work

on the text chapter or the review questions. Most lessons

were of 10 to 15 minutes duration.

Throughout the term, I noted aspects of progress, among

individual students, that the course marks could not

adequately describe. I noted that the new style of lesson

seemed to work well for all students who were willing to

work, whereas, in previous classes, those students with

reading difficulties would often do poorly even though

they worked hard. I have several students who are taking

both MX11A and MX12A at the same time and are doing

better, in terms of marks, in MX12A than in MX11A. The

MX11A theory is mostly taught by lecture and depends

heavily on the textbook for review. I believe that for

concrete hands-on style learners, the demonstration,

lecture, review style works very well and that it also works

for those who are more used to learning from lectures and

texts. I also noted, however, that for students unwilling to

work, the results were universally poor.

Initially, the students were highly motivated and generated

a lot of good lesson topics. Furthermore, unlike previous

classes, the students were very interested in their marks and

would frequently ask me if their tests were marked yet.

However, after approximately five weeks, interest in their

marks and in generating ideas dropped off. Students

seemed unable to generate lesson topics and were content

to let me determine the direction of the course.

I also noted that students were definitely more attentive (as

a class) to the more concrete rather than the more

theoretical lessons. For example, I had the students’

attention during a welding lesson whereas they tended to

drift off and not pay attention to the automotive wiring

lesson. This was in spite of the fact that both lessons

included live demonstrations. Welding is very concrete

with directly demonstrable concepts. Wiring and electricity,

on the other hand, depend on diagrams and theory to

explain the invisible forces at work.

Conclusions

Because of the lack of effort in this exercise after five weeks,

I believe that having the students generate their own


curriculum will not work at this stage in their experience. It

is possible that the students do not have enough

experience in automotive mechanics to generate enough

topics for a complete curriculum, or that they have been

trained by 12 years of schooling to be passive learners. On

the other hand, however, it may be worth polling each

class for specific topics of interest to them and fitting the

topics into the standard curriculum.

Another, perhaps larger, problem is that the work in an

automotive shop is extremely varied and that it is not

possible to plan in detail the hands-on activities that the

students will experience. The lessons cannot, therefore,

anticipate the work that the students will do. There is,

therefore, an inherent disjunction between a lesson’s

delivery and the students’ need for the information or

insight. Only with experience will students be able to

appreciate the wide range of topics available for study and

their need to study them.

This research

project taught me

that the more I

eliminate the split

between teaching

and doing, the

more effectively I

teach and the

more effectively

my students learn.

I do feel, however, that the style of the lessons worked well

and that when the opportunity presents itself, when the

subject of the lesson is available, demonstration coupled

with lecture is an excellent way to teach. All students

seemed more engaged when I used the small-group

demonstration and lecture format as compared with the

straight lecture and textbook style of teaching.

Demonstrations seem to work especially well for those

students who have difficulty reading and writing and who

are considered a “problem” by the rest of the staff.

Finally, analyzing my field notes, I believe that this class

learned the hands-on concepts that I taught them more

thoroughly than did previous classes: I cannot recall

another class that performed practical tasks with ease and

confidence of this class. When students had occasion to

apply the lessons that I taught them, in only seven out of

29 instances did they have no idea what they were doing.

The students who were at a complete loss tended to be

those who had poor attendance and missed either the

lesson or the review. In one case, involving welding, I

believe the problem lay in a lack of self-confidence.

This research project taught me that the more I eliminate

the split between teaching and doing, the more effectively I

teach and the more effectively my students learn.

24


References

Schon, D. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner.

Retrieved from the World Wide Web, May 20, 2001.

http://educ.queensu.ca/~russellt/howteach/schon87.html.

Thoreau, H. Walden (1854). Retrieved from the World Wide

Web, May 20, 2001. http://eserver.org/thoreau/

walden1d.html.

Friere, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the Opressed. New York:

Continuum.

McWhorter, Jarrard, Lee, Rhoades, and Wiltcher. Retrieved

from the World Wide Web, January 28, 2001. Quoted in

Research Questions Teachers Ask: A Report from the

National Reading Research Center School Research

Consortium. University of Georgia. http://

curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/clic/nrrc/ques_r30.html.


26


Boys, reading, and the school library

An action-research project: How to better promote reading in boys by

examining the role of the elementary school library

Heather Gordon-Hall

“Oh Lord! Not I;

I never read much;

I have something

else to do.”

(John Thorpe

Jane Austen)

My seven-year-old son has brought the same book

home from the library since the beginning of the

school year. It is a large and exceedingly heavy

volume about hockey, filled with glossy pictures and

difficult text. He has yet to read it himself, but he pores

over the pictures and insists that I recite to him intricate

details and facts about teams and players and leagues. He

memorizes every detail. My son is passionate about sports,

passionate about hockey, and passionate about this hockey

book! But any other accompanying book brought home on

library day is rarely opened, let alone read. This ice-skating,

puck-dribbling, fact-reciting son of mine is showing little

interest in reading and literacy in general. He is lagging

behind his peers in his Grade 2 language arts program.

Our home is filled with books. Our three daughters have

been avid readers of a variety of genres from an early age. I

am a school librarian myself. The girls’ interests and

passions in other things have always paralleled their

interest in reading. But my boy doesn’t focus on anything

else but his passion. His love affair with the single hockey

book is repeated many times over in my observations of

boys’ borrowing habits in the elementary school library

where I work. Boys typically race through book-selection

time, borrow from the same categories of books over and

over again, select what are the easiest and most readily

available materials, and return more materials unopened

and unread than their female peers.

As a mother and as a school librarian, what can I do to

encourage my son to read? How can the culture of reading

be enhanced in boys? How can I do this, in particular, in

the school library where I work?

This action research project takes shape around those

questions. In it, I will endeavor to:

1. Collect data and information on the borrowing habits

of boys versus girls in the library to determine whether


my observations and assumptions about boys, and

reading, and library usage are valid;

2. Survey boys and girls to acquire information on their

reading interests and habits so as to:

• Design effective systems/activities in the library that

encourage boys to read more and to select from a

broader range of subjects, and;

• Implement and assess these systems to determine

whether any changes and/or improvements in

reading behaviour in boys have occurred.

Along the way, I hope to illustrate how the process of

action research in my workplace has affected me, helped

me, at times frustrated me, and ultimately changed me

into, I hope, a more thoughtful and effective librarian.

I want the school library to be as interesting, as colourful,

as enticing, as action packed, as exciting, and as

meaningful to my son and to boys like him as is the hockey

arena, the soccer field, and the baseball diamond. I want

him to devour books with the same passion that he

devours hockey statistics. I want him to feel as confident

about reading as he does about his soccer skills. I want him

to value literacy with the same zeal with which he values

physical activity. Most of all, I want my son to read and to

love to read and to be a confident reader. The school library

has a valuable role to play here, and this action research

project has assisted me in uncovering some of the ways in

which I can help him and boys like him.

“People say that

life is the thing,

but I prefer

reading.”

(Myself—Logan Smith,

1865–1946)

Part 1— Assumptions about

boys and reading

It is a hot topic at the moment: boys and schools, boys and

literacy, boys and maturational lags, boys and academic

performance, boys and disruptive behaviour, boys and

failure. A veritable plethora of articles, research projects,

books, documentaries, and studies raise the alarm on boys.

Many caution us that our zeal to address real and perceived

problems of girls and discrimination has come at the

expense of boys. Amelia Newcomb 1 notes that in North

America today, boys are “the most likely to drop

28


“I only know two

sorts of boys.

Mealy boys, and

beef-faced boys.”

(Mr. Grimwig

Charles Dickens)

out...they’re targeted as troublemakers...recommended

more frequently for special education or treatment to

address disruptive behavior...are less likely to go on to

college.” Indeed, research indicates that boys are more

frequently labelled learning-disabled or diagnosed with

attention deficit disorder (ADD) than girls, and that they

dominate the ranks of those students suspended or

chronically in trouble at school 2 . In my own small

elementary school, for example, overwhelmingly staffed by

females, at any given time of any given day, a quick survey

of those students being disciplined in the hallways or

awaiting “a good talking to” from the principal (also

female) will reveal them to be almost entirely boys.

Growing awareness of gender issues has allowed girls to

make great strides academically. It could be argued though

that girls tend to do well in school largely because they

behave in a most teacher-pleasing way. They sit still, do

neater work, finish homework on time, are more inclined

to put extra care and effort into assignments, and in

general are less threatening. As boys race through work to

get out onto the playing fields, girls have quietly moved

ahead. Christina Hoff Sommers, in her provocative new

book, The War Against Boys, argues that we have spent the

last two decades helping girls academically and

programming schools to be more girl oriented, and that

“we need to do for boys what we have done for girls” 3 . As

girls make gains in math and science, the same is not true

for boys in the key skills of reading and writing, where girls

have led for a number of years 4 . In the interests of gender

equity more attention needs to be paid to how boys are

doing and how they learn.

Research tells us that boys are typically a year and a half

behind their female peers in maturity 2 . They have higher

energy levels; are more restless and rambunctious and

competitive. Also, they are chronic underachievers; have

limited attention spans (very debatable if you’ve ever

watched a Stanley Cup hockey series with your son!); need

practical activities and continual motivation and

engagement in their learning. Studies of boys in all male

junior schools in New Zealand 5 reveal that boys do well

when clear boundaries are set, active “hands on” learning is

encouraged, sound male role models are provided, and

high expectations of achievement and success are

established.


So how does this all relate to boys and their reading and

attitudes in the library? There is a great deal of research on

boys and reading. Gender appears to play an important

part in boys’ reading choices; as boys get older, they read

less fiction but often increase their levels of non-fiction

reading by replacing books with magazines and journals.

Boys who develop difficulties reading will typically cover

up with behaviours they know will distract teachers from

their literacy problems. Fathers’ reading habits and their

role in their son’s reading can have a substantial impact on

a boy’s ability to read, on his level of interest and reading

choices 6 .

My observations of boys in the elementary school library

concur with those research findings. Boys race through

library circulation time. Boys are the first to line up at the

checkout. They spend minimal time browsing, they

generally ignore displays and bulletin board presentations,

they select the most readily available materials, they are

often disruptive and loud in the library and must be spoken

to, and they frequently return books that appear to have

been unopened or unread (see experiment later). Boys will,

at times, seek out specific books from a narrower range of

subjects than girls. Indeed, sometimes boys appear to enter

the library with very definite ideas about what books to

select. They borrow fewer materials. They are more inclined

to lose or damage materials. They borrow less fiction than

girls, select more below-grade-level materials, and prefer

magazines, comics, and

journals to novels. At my

library, I host a lunchtime

library club and a student

newspaper club, both of

which are attended almost

entirely by girls. Soccer wins

out every time over

decorating bulletin boards,

creating book displays,

cutting out, laminating, or

writing and laying out

articles for a newspaper!

How can the school library

become more relevant to

boys? Is it guilty of Hoff

30


“I am fond of

children

(except boys).”

(The Life and Letters

of Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll)

Sommers’ criticism of school in general, namely too girl

oriented? The library is mainly the domain of female staff.

It is arguable that too much female influence has prevailed

over the selection of materials for the collection,

promotion, display, and presentation of these materials,

and the expectations of decorum in the library. School

libraries need to become boy friendly, and fast!

The role of the school library

The school library has a unique responsibility within a

school. It is not a classroom, and yet it is a place where all

students are required to spend time. Library club activities

may be voluntary, but all elementary school children, at

least in my district (Coast Mountains 82), must visit the

library on a regular basis—twice a week at our school, once

for circulation, and once for instruction with the librarian.

Therefore, the library has a captive audience. All children

must borrow books. It is like owning a restaurant where

everyone in the building is obliged to come and choose

something to eat! Careful consideration and thought, then,

should go into:

1. the design of the physical space so as to maximize

appeal,

2. the promotion of materials (story reading, display,

advocacy, visiting authors),

3. the accessibility of materials (cataloguing, shelf

presentation, sound circulation procedures),

4. the content of the collection (through purchasing,

discarding, and updating ),

5. the quality of the collection—fiction versus non-fiction,

magazines/comics versus novels, and subject selection,

6. the relevance of library activities, and

7. the attitude toward library patrons.

The above are all crucial in capturing and retaining the

interest of users and, in particular, that of the difficult male

market. If the library is to be a place of sanctuary, where


children want and love to be, and where reading and a love

of reading might be instilled, then the environment of that

library is very important. It needs to be a treasure trove of

wonderful things, of colourful quality books, of relevant

and exciting materials, where interesting things happen,

where the routines of a classroom can be left behind. It

needs to be a visual, stimulating, creative, and exciting

environment, where children can gather and share and

explore. And boys, with their sticky fingers, dinosaur/sports

obsessions, and loud voices must be made to feel welcome

and, more importantly, wanted.

Cormorant Elementary School’s library

Cormorant Elementary School’s library is unique. The

school is dual track, with English classes to Grade 5 and

French Immersion classes to Grade 7. The 161 students are

divided into nine divisions. The library is therefore

bilingual, a relatively small space in which collections of

French and English materials must be contained. It has

been a real challenge to organize the limited space available

so as to make sufficient room for both collections, while

avoiding a crowded and cluttered look. I have attempted to

divide the library into six sections: French primary fiction,

English primary fiction, French intermediate fiction,

English intermediate fiction, French non-fiction, and

English non-fiction materials. These “sections” overlap,

and are in some instances, (French intermediate fiction for

example) no more than a carousel stand of books. Further

complicating matters is the need to separate hardcover

books from soft-cover books, which is important in terms

of accessibility of materials. In a display case or on a shelf

of books, soft-cover books are easily overlooked. Their

spines are thin and difficult to read. Therefore I try to store

and display them separately, often with the full-title page

visible. The library is not well positioned either, situated at

the end of the hallway rather than in a central spot. I find

myself decorating the hallway as much as I decorate the

library itself so as to entice children and adults alike down

the passageway and into the facility! The librarian position

is part time (0.5) and is supplemented by a library clerk

who works 12 hours a week. The circulation is

computerized (Follett software) and that, together with the

small number of patrons in the school, facilitated data

collection. I was able to gather statistics generated by the

“Madam, a

circulating library

in a town is an

evergreen tree

of diabolical

knowledge! It

blossoms through

the year!

And depend on it

Mrs. Malaprop,

that they who are

so fond of

handling the

leaves, will long

for the fruit at

last.”

(The Rivals

Richard Sheridan

1751–1816)

“My library was

dukedom large

enough.”

(The Tempest

William Shakespeare)

32


computer, and analyze student transactions without being

overwhelmed by the numbers.

“You are a human

boy, my young

friend. A human

boy.

O glorious to be a

human boy!

O running stream

of sparkling joy,

To be a soaring

human boy!”

(Mr. Chadband

Bleakhouse

Charles Dickens)

The demographics of Cormorant’s student population are

unique to Kitimat. Of the 161 students, boys and girls are

evenly divided. Immersion students dominate, with six out

of the nine divisions being French Immersion classes. As

the only French Immersion school in town, Cormorant has

been hand picked by parents who travel from throughout

the area to send their children here. The school has

sometimes had a waiting list for entrance. It offers a

specialty program within the public system and therefore

attracts children of parents who tend to be highly

motivated and interested in their child’s learning. The

school enjoys a high degree of parental involvement, from

volunteering to fundraising to intense advocacy at the

board level on behalf of the program. Many parents are

signed up as patrons of the library, and it is not uncommon

for parents to borrow additional materials, usually French,

for their children. The library hosts two book fairs a year,

one in English and one in French in order to accommodate

the two programs. They are always successful and well

supported.

Cormorant students cannot really be deemed representative

of students from a typical neighbourhood school, given the

immersion program. Circulation in the library is not

completely open either, and most students from immersion

classes are required to borrow materials in both languages.

Those factors must be taken into consideration when

analyzing borrowing transactions. Nevertheless, although

we may manipulate the collection considerably,

emphasizing and showcasing certain materials and authors,

displaying and promoting others, working with and

reading from still others, students are generally free to

select whatever materials they like. The teacher/librarian

must avoid passing judgment on a child’s choice of book.

As long as Cormorant school’s requirements are met (a

certain number of books in English and in French),

freedom of choice should reign. Any influence that one

may or may not have over book selection comes before or

after, but not at the time of check out. I may recommend

and inform, but not disagree, criticize or belittle a child’s

selection. “Oh, not that hockey book again” or similar

patronizing comment can render a positive and enjoyable

experience negative and anxious. Respecting children’s

choices, particularly those of boys, is important. They


should not need to seek the librarian’s approval. And it is

these very choices, freely made every week, that this action

research project examines in some detail to determine

borrowing habits and trends, boys versus girls.

Refuting or substantiating

assumptions/observations re boys

The data collected from four weeks of patron transactions

at Cormorant library did not necessarily support the

preconceived ideas that I had about boys and borrowing.

For example, while it did substantiate the notions that boys

use the library less frequently than girls, check out fewer

materials and borrow from a narrower range of books, the

statistics were very close and many of the differences could

be deemed negligible. As for the assumption that boys

borrow less fiction than girls, the evidence from this library

did not support that. Boys in fact checked out more fiction

than their female peers, although cataloguing procedures

must be taken into consideration here. Enthusiasm for

boys’ reading novels must be tempered, then, by the

realization that comic journals were catalogued as fiction.

However, the data did record that boys are more inclined to

borrow below-grade-level materials, and less inclined to

borrow above-grade-level materials. As for borrowing being

influenced by displays and promotions in the library, there

appeared to be no gender difference, with both boys and

girls borrowing identical amounts. It was encouraging to

note that boys demonstrated greater responsibility in terms

of lost or damaged materials relative to girls. In fact, it

would be hard for even the naughtiest or most

irresponsible of boys to challenge the standard set recently

by one small girl in the “vomit book returning episode,”

who most innocently attempted to check in a very

“damaged” book to the library!

“Quiquid agas,

prudenter agas, et

respice finem.”

“Whatever you

do, do cautiously,

and look to the

end.”

(Gesta Romanorum

Anonymous)

It would appear, then, that boys are doing well at

Cormorant library. They are somewhat atypical in their

borrowing habits relative to the current research and

stereotypes. Nevertheless, I am unable to get too excited

over the results, given the peculiar demographics and

special program offered at this school. I would argue that a

high degree of influence from parents and staff alike

imparts bias on the results so that boys’ own choices and

behaviours are not truly represented. While I would like to

34


“A good book is

the best of friends,

the same today

and for ever.”

(Proverbial

Philosophy Series 1.

Of Reading

Martin Tupper)

believe that some of the systems in the library meant to

enhance boys’ reading are now showing results, I remain

cautious in my optimism. There is still much work to be

done.

Part 2

Activities in the library that encourage

boys to read

So, what have I learned from all this?

“Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

(Choruses from The Rock 1 T.S. Eliot)

What am I now doing in the library that effectively meets

the distinctive behaviours and learning styles of boys?

What still needs to be done? The data collected now

confirms what I had initially suspected, namely that boys:

- are more cautious library users

- borrow fewer materials

- borrow from a narrower range of categories

- are less inclined to browse

- are more inclined to borrow below-grade-level materials

- read less

- are less confident in their reading ability

- prefer comic books and magazines

The data also revealed some encouraging information,

namely that boys:

- would like to read more if they had more time

- enjoy having books read aloud to them

- damage or lose fewer materials than girls

- are interested in reading for pleasure

- are influenced by their friends’ recommendations

- are influenced by the librarian

Peculiar to boys are:

- an interest in fantasy characters and super heros

- a strong interest in science fiction

- a preference for sports figures and anything sports related

- a distinct preference for video magazines and comics

- an inclination toward visual materials over those that

contain strictly text


Boy-friendly libraries

I find myself acutely aware now of the presence of boys in

my library. Not that I hadn’t noticed them before, but I had

failed to differentiate or take care to really identify the

different behaviours between boys and girls. I am more

cognizant now of the boy-appeal factor, of the way I talk to

boys, the types of books that I select to read and promote;

the displays that I design; the assignments that I set and

the comportment that I allow in the library.

This year, based on this action research, the following has

occurred:

“Mad about the

boy.

It’s pretty funny

but I’m mad

about the boy.”

(Mad about the boy

Noël Coward)

1. We began the year showcasing Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis

and J.K. Rowling, all author’s of superb children’s

fantasy fiction. I read The Lion, the Witch and the

Wardrobe, The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and the

first in the Harry Potter series to establish a standard of

richness and excellence in literature. Research suggests

that when higher standards are set, boys will respond

accordingly. I wanted to introduce boys, then, to works

of the highest quality. I wanted only books containing

rich and fluent language and interesting text. I also

consciously opted to present these books by reading

aloud rather than just by telling the students about

them. It worked, and with the first Dahl novel, the first

of the Narnia Chronicles and the first Hogwarts

adventure read and enjoyed together, the students,

especially the boys, were hooked. We were not able to

keep a single Dahl novel on the shelves, and there has

been a waiting list for the Rowling and Lewis books all

year. I went on to present the Series of Unfortunate

Events, by Lemony Snickett, The Hobbit, the classic Tom

Sawyer, and the enchanting Borrowers series to the

children, in a continued effort to highlight excellent

fantasy and adventure literature.

2. The value of story reading and story telling has

impressed me. “Storytelling can be the ideal medium

for fostering a love of language and firing the

imagination. At a time when young people have less

and less opportunity to hear stories told, it can be one

of the most effective ways to engender a love of

narrative.” 7 Reading aloud is particularly appealing to

primary and intermediate students. It allows one to read

up a level, and for boys this is so important. Doubting

their own reading abilities, they are cautious in the level

36


of materials that they borrow. Reading aloud allows

them to enjoy books that they might never have

selected themselves. Furthermore, I selected only

children’s classics that would challenge and engage the

listener. I also selected books that featured boys as

central characters. I did not worry that the girls might

feel discriminated against. Girls tend to select from a

wide variety of subjects, characters and higher reading

levels anyway. I certainly never received any

complaints. From Harry Potter to Stanley Yelnats in

Louis Sachar’s brilliant novel Holes, to Bud, not Buddy

from the novel of the same title by Christopher Paul

Curtis, boy heros facing and overcoming adversity was a

common theme. Pony Boy in The Outsiders, James, in

James and the Giant Peach, Gerald in My Family and Other

Animals, are all boy heros that capture the imagination

of readers, and of male readers in particular.

3. I paid attention to the research that indicated the

importance of male role models for boys. Male teachers,

fathers, grandfathers, and coaches, in fact any male

influence, can make a significant difference in a boy’s

literacy development. Growing up in Africa, in a Britishbased

schooling system, I have never understood the

North American aversion to single-sex schools. I

attended an all-girls’ junior and high school, and my

brothers attended all boys schools. They were taught

predominately by men, coached at sports by men, and

counselled by men. This is very different from the

experience of my own son here in the public school

system in Kitimat, B.C. He has only had female

teachers, and given the staff ratio here, probably will

until he reaches high school. The principal is female,

and so is his soccer coach!

Given the propensity now of single-parent families,

usually led by women, it is evident that boys are lacking

significant male role models in their lives. I endeavored,

then, to seek out men for the library! Every year as part

of Education Week, the library hosts a Celebrity Reading

Week. This year, in the spirit of encouraging boys to

read, I selected only male celebrities. It was a success.

The high school principal, the superintendent of the

district, the fire chief, a local published author, a United

Church minister, a human resources manager from a

large local industry, a book-store owner, and a father all

shared their love of reading with the children. The


response, especially from the boys, was very positive:

men as storytellers, men sharing their favourite books,

men who coach sports teams but also write books, men

comfortable in the library, men who value words and

language and ideas. This is the modelling that little

boys need. I intend to invite men into the library on an

ongoing basis, and it won’t hurt if they happen to be

good looking too!

4. Collected data from this action research has influenced

the purchasing decisions made this year. School

librarians are a predominantly female bunch, and

female influence has surely prevailed over the

establishment of most school collections. Data gleaned

from the reading survey is particularly useful in

highlighting those categories of the collection with

high “boy” appeal. Adventure and fantasy fiction,

animal fiction and non-fiction, non-fiction comics and

sports are most popular with boys. Yet, in our library,

there is a dearth in quantity and variety of materials

that boys enjoy. For example, we have no science

fiction, although 70% of boys selected that genre. We

also lack magazine resources with boy appeal. Video,

Nintendo, music, computers, puzzles, games, and

humour, were all listed by boys as being popular; yet

our library carries only science, some sports, and girl

teen titles. I am on the lookout, now, for visual

materials with manageable amounts of text (an

excellent way to encourage reading in French) that boys

might borrow enthusiastically. J’aime lire remains a

perennial favorite, but more variety is necessary.

I also need to educate and familiarize myself with the

latest in boys’ primary and intermediate fiction. The

Internet, catalogues, literary publications, peer

librarians, teachers, and other libraries (the Kitimat

Public Library, fortunately, has a male assistant

librarian) are excellent resources. I cannot assume that

what interests me, or what I read as a girl in Africa, will

have any entertainment or interest value to a young

boy today. Cultural, generational, geographic, and

gender influences must all be carefully considered. I

have picked my Canadian husband’s brain for his

boyhood literary memories. It was he who suggested I

read “Where the Red Fern Grows,” by Wilson Rawls, a

perennial favourite with North American boys and girls

alike. The story, written in the 1960s, is listed on the

38


Amazon.com readers’ survey of all-time favourites as the

only book selected consistently by all age groups, a

classic about a boy and his dogs. In fact, any book about

animals, be they subjects or heros or characters, fiction

or non-fiction, from The Incredible Journey, Old Yeller,

Doctor Doolittle, and Stuart Little to primary books about

Bertrand, Benjamin, and Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, will

capture children’s imaginations and encourage a love of

reading.

5. Library Club: I am aware now that library club has been

too girl oriented. The involvement of boys in the

writing and production of the student newspaper

Wassup? was far more successful than voluntary

activities such as book shelving, poster and bulletin

board displays, laminating, and so on. Boys particularly

liked working on the layout and display of the

newspaper using the computer. They also enjoyed role

playing, being reporters with tape recorders. Of less

interest was the actual planning and writing of articles.

Hands-on stuff, be it software or technical gadgets or

the photocopy machine to print out editions, was

appealing to boys. I plan to continue with the

newspaper, involving boys as much as possible, and I

also plan to change the format of the library club.

Something offered over a shorter period of time,

involving games, model building, train sets, that sort of

thing, might be more enticing to boys.

6. Comportment and atmosphere in the library: The

classic stereotype of the quiet library with a prissy

librarian peering over a book and reprimanding loud

patrons, is one that has not served boys well. Sitting

still and being quiet is always challenging for little boys.

I intend to allow more noise and activity in the library.

It will be a challenge, given the constraints of space, but

reading is not necessarily a quiet activity, and perhaps if

boys can sprawl out, move around, fidget, share stories

and opinions with others, laugh and let loose, reading

will become more appealing to them. So, I must allow

for the wriggle and noise factor! I should also pay more

attention to where the library period falls in the

timetable, having reading and exchange times backing

onto physical education times or vice versa. The facility

itself and corridor leading to it should be attractive,

warm, colourful, and inviting, with displays of themes,

book characters, book reviews, art work, and writing


and photographs done by the children. The library

should also be open and accessible to students more

often, although this is somewhat difficult given reduced

working hours. I want the school library to be a place

where kids can just come and hang out, before, during,

and after school, not just at supervised times with

classroom teachers in tow.

My own comportment in the library similarly needs

adjustment. The librarian must pay attention to body

language, casual comments, ways of addressing and

treating students. The librarian must respect boys’

choices and always encourage them. Boys must be

allowed to borrow those thick and expensive hard

covered books previously placed off limits to “grubby

hands.” In fact, there should be no books in a school

library that are off limits to any student. Yet,

remarkably, this is often the case. Videos, cassettes, CD

ROMs, and journals should also be circulated freely. If

children, particularly boys, are given greater

responsibility, they will surely assume greater

responsibility. And a well-worn book or magazine or CD

is one that was a good purchase and obviously worth

replacing if necessary.

7. Computers, Computers, Computers

It is no longer enough that the school library offer

books and tapes and videos and CD ROMs. The

library must also provide real links to real

information. With a computer-literate patron base,

and a keen interest in software and technology on

the part of boys in particular, Internet and web

delivery becomes critical and integral to the

attraction of school libraries. The library needs to be

interesting if it is to be relevant. It competes with

every child’s home computer, with sophisticated web

connections and expensive hardware, with satellite

dishes, Nintendo, and endless movie rentals.

Children are continuously bombarded with

entertaining and varied distractions. Today’s library

software circulating and cataloguing programs can

provide instant links to other online library

collections, web sites and online public-access

catalogues. It may be time-consuming, but the

librarian must take the time to establish the links,

40


bookmark the interesting web sites, download the

games and activities, design web pages, burn CDs,

and do whatever it takes to entice computer-smart

students into the facility, and keep them returning.

Perhaps they just might pick up a book while they’re

there!

8. Library hosting unique events: The school library can

play an integral role in promoting reading by hosting

literacy-oriented events: storytelling, story reading,

story-swaps, creative writing workshops, visiting

authors, celebrity readers, drop-everything-and-readdays,

create-a-book events, poetry/writing contests. All

of these can build relationships within the school

community and raise the profile of reading and literacy.

“It’s boy, only

boy.”

(An Unsavory Interlude

Rudyard Kipling)

Conclusion

I have learned a great deal about myself and about my work

environment through action research. I know now that

research is time-consuming and complicated, that

gathering sufficient quantities of data requires time and

careful planning, that predicting, hypothesizing,

accumulating and accurately analyzing requires skill and

commitment. I have learned, too, that I was not careful

enough, did not gather enough data, did not allow for

enough time, and did not focus enough to provide the sort

of meaningful information that I initially sought. I admit

that I had simply had enough and quit long before the

research was complete! Ideally, the borrowing statistics

should have been collected for a longer period of time and

should perhaps have also been collected from other

schools, particularly those without specialized immersion

programs. Also, the patron reading survey should have

been submitted to a far broader number of students to

glean further-reaching results. I feel that the accuracy of my

results is tainted by the small sample base, peculiar

demographics of Cormorant Elementary School, and the

procrastination on my part that limited the amount of time

that I had to gather data. Well, that’s a novice researcher for

you: reading novels and eating bon bons when there were

statistics to gather and individuals to survey!

“Lady Peabury was in the morning room reading a novel;

early training gave a guilty spice to this recreation, for


she had been brought up to believe that to read a novel

before luncheon was one of the gravest sins it was possible

for a gentlewoman to commit.”

(Work Suspended (1942) An Englishman’s Home

Evelyn Waugh)

Still, in spite of the rather slim data and at times contrived

conclusions, this was a most worthwhile exercise. Action

research forced me to carefully consider for a time every

child and borrowed book that passed through the library. It

made me examine everything that I do and say in the

workplace, made me mindful of the responsibility that I

have and the consequences of my daily interactions with

the children. It made me pay attention to my words, body

language, attitude, and actions. It made me think about the

library: the collection; literature; students; advocacy; timemanagement;

computer literacy; cataloguing; reading;

writing; art displays; book displays; interior design; authors;

communication; encouraging students; liaison with peers;

further research; book binding; train sets and fish tanks;

bean-bag chairs; books to read aloud; men to invite;

language; words and, of course, boys and literacy. Action

research has opened doors, opened books and opened my

eyes to being a more thoughtful school librarian. Now I

want to open the way to boys to learn and love reading via

the school library.

“My early and

invincible love of

reading, which I

would not

exchange for the

treasures of

India.”

(Autobiography. (World

Classics ed.) p.27.

Edward Gibbon)

Foot notes

1

Newcomb, Amelia. “Back seat boys.” The Christian Science

Monitor August 1, 2000.

http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/

avcombosearchsecure.redesign

2

“Schools and boys: It’s time to upgrade both.” Editorial

The Vancouver Sun March 6, 2001

3

Hoff Sommers, Christina. The War against Boys. How

Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. Simon

& Schuster. New York 2000.

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/05/index.htm

4

“The American Teacher 1997: Examining gender issues in

Public Schools.” A teacher-student survey. Metropolitan

Life Insurance Company. Conducted by Louis Harris and

Associates. 1997.

42


5

“Promoting Boys’ Achievement.” Education Review

Office. Te Tari Arotake Matauranga, New Zealand. March

2000. http://www.ero.govt.nz/Publications/pubs2000/

sppromoting%20boys%20achmt.htm

6

“Boys ‘n’ Books: Shortening the road to confidence in

reading skills.” Youth Library Review. Issue 29. Autumn

2000. http://www.la-hq.org.uk/groups/ylg/archive/ylr29_3.htm

7

Weir, Liz. Story teller and ex-librarian. “Boys ‘n’ Books.”

Youth Library Review. Issue 29. Autumn 2000.

http://la-hq.org.uk/groups/ylg/archive/ylr29_3.htm

Bibliography

1. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Third edition.

Oxford University Press. 1979.

2. Hoff Sommers, Christina. The War Against Boys. How

Misguided Feminism is Harming our Young Men. Simon

& Schuster. New York. 2000.


44


An alternate solution

“It’s not like everybody says it is”

Janise Johnson

“It’s not like

everybody says it

is, the ‘Kitimat

Crack House.’ It’s

not, because if it

was, nobody

would graduate

from here; nobody

would attend here.

Everybody would

skip. Nobody

would listen; it

would be an

uproaring school.

But it isn’t; it is a

school that is

respected now by a

lot of people.”

(Louise, Grade 11 student)

My original impressions of what an alternate

school was about were not a great deal different

from those of the general public. To me it was

simply a school for dropouts and losers; it was a school I

never gave much thought to. Then a few years ago I was

force transferred from my Grade 7 position because of

declining enrolment, and one of the few jobs available was

at the alternate high school. After much deliberation and

discussion with colleagues, several of whom were familiar

with the school, I decided to make the move to the

alternate setting. It was a move that has had a profound

effect on me both professionally and personally.

I discovered that Kitimat City High was a small school

structured around a family like atmosphere. The staff and

students are on a first-name basis, which has helped

remove the “them and us” stigma of more formal titles. It

has a maximum enrolment of 40 students. The 40 students

enrolled here are from low- to middle-income families,

which include two-parent, single-parent, foster-care, and

independent-living situations. Some of the students are

young parents themselves, trying to raise their children

while experiencing independent living for the first time.

About 60% of the students are Caucasian; the other 40%

are First Nations. The local First Nations group is Haisla,

which is the primary source of our Aboriginal students,

though some are also from other bands in the area,

including Nisga’a, Tsminshan, and Haida. Most of these

young people have been classified as either behavioural or

Photos by Janise Johnson


severe behavioural. While some have also been

labelled with learning impairments, many others

experience difficulties that are primarily due to a

lack of schooling. Some were chronic skippers;

others have been absent because of illness or family

difficulties.

In addition to the 40 students, the school has a

staff of nine. We have an administrator with some

teaching duties, the equivalent of two full-time

teachers, one secretary/teaching assistant, one halftime

food co-ordinator, and three youth-care

workers. While each staff member has a designated role,

there is a great deal of transferring of duties. We all step in

wherever, whenever, the need arises. While my primary

duties are curriculum development and implementation, I

may find myself assisting a student who is in a personal

crisis or another who just needs to talk with someone. In

fact, the greater part of my teaching day is spent interacting

on a personal level with the students. Such interactions

help create the family like atmosphere we have maintained

at our school. The staff members spread their skills to areas

where they are needed, and the kids are aware of that and

appreciate it.

There is a misconception within the community of Kitimat

that the students who attend the alternate high school get

a second-rate education. At one time, the school did issue

only a leaving certificate. Its primary purpose was to assist

students with behavioural issues and try to reintegrate

them into MESS, the local high school. Then, about seven

years ago, a graduation program was implemented. Given

the size of the school, the program has remained a basic

program, but the students are able to acquire sufficient

courses to earn a B.C. Dogwood Diploma. The courses

include the provincially examinable English and

Communications 12, and Biology 12. The option is

available for senior students to attend additional courses at

the local high school, though the courses tend to be

electives such as Mechanics and Tourism. While a larger

focus is now placed on academics, behaviour modification

remains one of the main goals of the school; thus, structure

and rules govern the school.

I can go to any teacher in the

school and say, “I need to

talk,” and if I look upset,

they’ll pull me or any other

student in here in the

staffroom and talk. That’s the

best thing.

(Alix, Grade 11)

I feel like I’ve connected with

all my teachers. I feel

comfortable talking to any of

you guys. I could be sitting

down with Bonnie and like

“Bonnie, you want to hear my

life story?” She’d be like,

“No,” but I’d still be

comfortable telling her.

(Ann, Grade 12)

Before a youth is admitted to the school, he/she must apply

in writing and then go through an interview process with

46


every staff member. The purpose of the interview is to

allow the staff to meet the candidate, to form an opinion

about him/her, and to inform the applicant about his/her

rights and responsibilities within the school. The student

applications are then taken to the Screening Committee:

the administrator, a youth-care worker, a teacher from the

alternate school, an administrator and a counsellor from

the local high school, and a First Nations youth worker.

This Committee reviews the applications and prioritizes

them for admission. As a rule, all candidates are admitted

unless they do not meet the age requirement of between 15

and 19 years of age, or unless they have issues that our

school cannot meet, in which case we redirect them to the

appropriate agencies.

Though the application process is strenuous, the students

face an even bigger adjustment once they are here. One of

the responsibilities of the students is to work within the

contract system. This is presented as a formal contract,

which they, as well as their parents/guardians, and the

school administrator and their chosen sponsor must sign.

The sponsor is a staff member who represents the student

at meetings, contacts the home, and generally looks out for

that particular student. It is around the contract system

that the school is structured and behavioural modification

is monitored.

Each student is given three contracts when he/she starts at

the school. Each contract has room for eight complaints.

Complaints, which can be issued by any staff member, are

given for unacceptable language and behaviour. They are

also given for incomplete schoolwork. The assignments are

handed out each Monday and are due that Friday. If the

work is not satisfactorily completed and handed in, the

student will receive one complaint for every outstanding

assignment. Each school day after that, another complaint

is issued until the work is completed and turned in. If all

the assignments are completed by Thursday afternoon, the

student can earn Friday off from school.

When a student acquires eight complaints against him/her

contract, he/she then loses that contract. The next contract

must be earned by completing all outstanding work in

addition to the current week’s assignments. Other contract

issues revolve around attendance and chores. Attendance is

mandatory; a skip leads automatically to a lost contract,


and all late arrivals to school are counted as

complaints. Not participating in chores such

as doing dishes (we have a lunch program),

cleaning the smoking area, and general clean

up at the end of the day, can also lead to loss

of contract.

At the end of each month the complaint

board is wiped clean, and all students start the

following month without any complaints.

This enables them to redeem themselves each

month with a fresh start. If a student loses a

third contract, he/she is dismissed from the

school. Whenever this happens, the student is

given a reapplication form and directed to get it back to us

as soon as possible. It is not uncommon for a student to be

dismissed and then to return to us later in the year. As a

rule, when that student returns, the behaviour that caused

the dismissal is improved as the student makes more of an

effort to remain in the school.

The role of a student’s sponsor is important when

complaints are being made against the student. Every

Friday afternoon, the kids are dismissed and the staff meets

to discuss each student. We review how well the students’

behaviour and schoolwork have been. If a student has had

difficulties during the week, either at school or in his/her

personal life, the sponsoring staff member will speak up for

that student and explain the situation to the rest of the

staff. This allows flexibility in the contract system, and

allows for individual needs and differences. While the

meetings can sometimes become heated, as different

opinions are expressed, the results are always with the

student’s and the school’s best interests in mind. The rules

are strict, but the students respond well to them.

The structures that the school is built around appeared to

work well. The kids were staying in school and many were

graduating. I still couldn’t help wondering, though, why

these young people could succeed here but not elsewhere.

They weren’t the monsters that the community wanted to

portray. When I started interviewing them, I discovered

that even though they had very different life stories, they

all had similar experiences. Many of them had lifestyles

that led to a lack of school attendance and a low success

rate in the larger, mainstream high school. I started asking

And like swearing. Up there

(the local high school) it is

like, whatever. Down here, it

is a big thing. We don’t swear.

That is the rule; that is how it

is. We don’t swear in school.

You give us responsibility to

get our work done and to have

our work handed in or there

are consequences. Big

consequences. Basically like a

job, you don’t do your work,

and you get fired. You don’t do

your work here, you get three

chances and you’re gone.

Basically out of the job.

It makes me want to be at

school more. When I was up

at the high school, I had no

rules. It was basically a free

ride. Down here, I have

structure, I have rules, I have

a daily plan, and I have my

life organized here. It’s not,

48


“oh well, maybe I’ll go to

Math today, or maybe I’ll go

to English.” It’s “No, I have

to do my Math and I have to

do my English, or I get kicked

out.” It’s a lot better because

it brings on a lot more stricter

rules, which help a lot of

people get their work done.

Here, you get pushed.

(Louise, Grade 11)

Yeah, consequences can be

fierce. But people do tend to

like these rules better than

MESS rules, I think. At the

beginning of the year, I had

consequences for doing stuff I

shouldn’t have, and once I

found out what the

consequences were, then I

didn’t do it. I always knew the

consequence for skipping

would be an instant kick out,

so I don’t want to get kicked

out.

(Bruce, Grade 11)

myself questions. Why can we keep our young people in

school where the larger schools cannot? Why does the

alternate system work for these kids? Most importantly,

what do they feel is important to them and their successes?

I have been asking myself these questions since being

transferred to the alternate system. With them in mind, I

set out to interview some of the students.

Interviewing the students was not as easily done as I had

anticipated. I started by approaching students I felt I had

some connection with, students I felt would not be

intimidated by telling me their stories. While several

students enthusiastically agreed to co-operate, I had

difficulty actually getting them to sit with me for the

interview. The first student to get her permission form

signed, and returned to me would agree on a time and then

be unavailable. This became a pattern with her. The next

student I approached quickly returned her signed

permission form, eager to start, but again, we had several

missed appointments before she actually sat with me. Once

she started, however, she didn’t want to stop. The interview

with her extended over two consecutive lunch breaks and

gave a very insightful look at her lifestyle.

With only one interview completed, I was becoming

desperate. The days were passing and I didn’t have my

interviews done. Then I decided to go to the school as a

whole, and at our next weekly general meeting, I discussed

what I was doing, why I was doing it, and what I needed

from the students. This seemed to break the barrier that I

felt had been developing and thereafter when I approached

a student, he/she seemed more agreeable. The first student

to originally hand in her permission form finally came to

me and asked to do the interview, which we proceeded

with immediately. One of the boys I had asked for an

interview said he was more than willing, but his permission

form couldn’t be signed. He was a ward of the state, and as

a result, would have required the signatures of three or four

different people, some of whom did not live in the

community. One of his care workers told him, though, that

since he was only weeks away from his 18th birthday he

was at liberty to decide whether or not he wanted to do the

interview. In the end, we decided to do the interview. I

approached one of the school’s peer leaders and felt that if I

got him on my side, others might co-operate. He was eager

to participate; however, when we actually sat down to do


the interview he was so focussed on the tape recorder that

it was difficult to get him to talk. I found myself leading

him with questions and getting short responses. The final

person I talked with was a girl in Grade 11 who has been

living on her own for some time. She had

lots to say and was glad to be part of the

process.

In all, I interviewed three girls and two

boys, ranging in age from 16 to 18. Robbie,

Bruce, and Alix are of First Nation’s

ancestry; Louise and Ann are Caucasian.

The stories that follow are excerpts from

their responses to why they came to the

alternate system and why it works for

them.

Ann is a Grade 12 student who has spent all her school

years in Kitimat. The interview she gave me was very

insightful as to what led her to KCH. Her story, while

unique, is very similar to stories of other students in our

school. I have taken the liberty of editing her story to make

it easier to understand, and to keep it relevant to this paper.

All the names have been changed. MESS is the local high

school and enrols approximately one thousand students.

Ann

Okay. When I hit high school in Grade 8, everything was

good. You get to find different groups of friends, you know,

and not just the same people you grew up with. It’s a big

different crowd. At first it was kind of hard because you’re

detaching yourself from all your friends, but then

afterwards you have a whole new group of friends. I think

the thing that bothered me the most about MESS was the

many little cliques they have going on. It’s not just a whole

bunch of kids from different groups going to a school to do

work. It’s a whole bunch of kids standing in the hallway

saying things as you walk by. Not necessarily to me you

know. Like I know me and my girl friends used to do it to

people too.

I guess the experience at first, at MESS, was pretty good.

Then about halfway through Grade 9 I started going

through troubles at home. I ended up living out of my

house and in turn started not going to school. I was too

busy where I was living because I wasn’t paying rent and

stuff. I was taking care of my landlady’s kids while she was

50


going out and doing drugs or drinking or whatever she felt

she could do ‘cause I was there to take care of her kids.

They used to wake me up at six in the morning. “Can you

make me breakfast?” You know like, I’m 14 to 15 years old

and I’m looking after this lady’s kids, and she’s like 25 or

26. I had to be there all the time for them, and I didn’t go

to school for two months. When I went back, I told Mr. H.

that I wanted to come to Kitimat City High. Mr. H. was

like, “No I don’t think you should go to KCH. I think you

can still work it out here. I’ll do whatever I can to help you,

but I think you should stay at MESS and try to get your act

back together.”

I managed to pass one class that year, English, which was a

really awesome course. I really enjoyed the class. The next

year, I had to take three Grade 9 courses and the rest Grade

10 courses, and then Grade 10 courses and some Grade 11

courses and so on.

When I hit Grade 10 was when the whole group thing

started to become more realistic to me. It was like, this was

my group and that was their group, and we don’t like them

and they don’t like us. When I hit Grade 11, I was more

like, why is it like this? This is so stupid because I talk to

these people in my classes, and we’re all nice and we’re all

friends and whatever, and then we walk away and in the

hallways we don’t talk because we’re with our friends. And

it kind of made no sense to me; it was like I can’t hang out

with you because of who you hang out with, and you can’t

hang out with me because of who I hang out with. And

that’s just the way it goes.

I had a lot of trouble with my Grade 11 year. That was the

year I had to catch up in all my courses and if I passed

every course that year I’d graduate the next year from

MESS. I took Socials 10, Math 10, and PE in the first

semester. Next semester I had to take Socials 11, Math 11,

English 11, and Biology 11. This is where my conflict came

in. In Grade 10 Math, I had a teacher who’d go over

everything with us. If we had any problems, he had

another teacher there to help us. So I never really had a

problem in his class. I thought it was a pretty good class.

Then I went to Math 11 and that was a really hard

transition for me, going from the way my Grade 10 teacher

taught to the way my Grade 11 teacher taught—two very

different styles.


The first was the type of teacher who teaches to the middle

of his class. The next was what you call a smart teacher. If

you’re really good at math, you do really good in his class.

If you’re not very good at math, then you’re not going to

do good in math. So what I did was I skipped a lot. At first

I’d go to his class and write all his notes, and I’d go to do

the homework and I couldn’t do it. Every time I’d ask him

for help, he’d just give me the answer. I didn’t understand

how he got there and things like that, so I just never went.

I knew I would fail so I wouldn’t graduate the next year.

That was when I was like, maybe I’ll look at KCH again and

see what options I have so maybe I can graduate next year.

I went home and talked to my dad and mom about it. My

parents thought that KCH was not so much an alternate

school but a school for high school dropouts. I told them,

like you guys don’t understand, KCH is called an alternate

school for a reason. It’s because there’s something about

certain kids who can’t learn properly at the high school.

You know, you don’t have enough student-teacher time at

the high school. At KCH, you can sit down with the

teacher and she’ll work with you for two hours if you have

to and just keep working and go through every single

question to make sure you get your assignment done. Your

teachers at the high school are like, here’s your work, have

it in by tomorrow. It’s like okay, I have a question and like,

“Hang on. I have to help these five kids over here first.” It

gets really frustrating, so it’s like, guess what? I’m just not

going to do it. It was easier that way. If I didn’t have my

work done, it was like, I guess I’m going to have to skip

that class ‘cause I didn’t do my homework; so I wouldn’t go

to school.

They didn’t have it like KCH, where you have to work to

stay in school. You can’t just not go to school here because

you’d get kicked out. They give you incentive to come here.

If you’re not here, then you’re not here. Like you’re not

coming to school anymore, and at MESS it was like if

you’re not here they’re going to call home with a little

animated message and leave it on the answering machine

for your parents not to hear. Every time I’d come home, I’d

check it really fast, and if I hadn’t gone to school, I’d erase

it. My mom never really knew.

So when I came to KCH, I wanted to come here and

graduate. I also knew I needed a place where I would be

52


At MESS you’re a

small pea in the

pod, you’re just

one pencil in the

box. They just pull

you out, sharpen

you, and put you

back in. Here, it’s

like, they pull out

the pencil, sharpen

it, it gets used.

able to have a lot more time to work and be by myself.

Now I can curl myself up in a corner in Wendy’s room or in

a little stall somewhere and be by myself and do my work.

When I was at MESS I could just walk outside of class and

my best friend was sitting over there and you know, why

am I going to do work when I could sit here and talk all

day? While here, it’s if you don’t work, you get complaints

and then you get in trouble. At MESS you’re a small pea in

the pod, you’re just one pencil in the box. They just pull

you out, sharpen you, and put you back in. Here, it’s like,

they pull out the pencil, sharpen it, it gets used. I think

that’s why it bothers me the most when kids come here

and “Oh I hate it here, I’m going back to MESS.” ‘Cause

when they’re at MESS, they’re going, “I hate it here. I’m

going to KCH.” Like whatever, man; you guys don’t realize

how good we have it here. We get homemade lunches

every day, and we can get our Fridays off.

At MESS, they’re really strict and set in their ways. It’s

always been that way, and it will always be the way. What

the teacher says is the way it is. I think that was one of the

biggest problems I had at MESS. I got two referrals the

whole time I was at MESS; they were both from one

teacher, and they were for socializing. I handed the viceprincipal

my referral and he’s like “Oops, looks like you

have a 40 minute detention after school today, on this nice

warm bench.” And I’m like, oh man. I totally don’t think

that’s the way to punish a kid.

I think referrals are really, really, stupid. Half the time they

give the referral to the kid, and if the kid doesn’t take the

referral to the office, then there’s no proof a referral was

written. And half the time, that’s what the kids do. They

walk down the hallway, huck it in the garbage, and say

“Wicked. Now I don’t have to go to class.”

I think KCH has a way better system. You know, you have

three contracts which means you have three chances. And

you guys give us a lot of chances. We have all the social

complaints and the homework complaints, and you guys

are really nice about it. Like, even if you don’t have your

work done on Friday when you were supposed to, but you

have it in by 10:30 on Monday, then you guys will wipe it

off. You guys are pretty easy going about that, and that’s

why it kind of bothers me when people are like “What the

heck, I’ve got a complaint.” How did you get eight


complaints? You know, like I’ve been here since September

and I think I’ve had maybe a total of 12 complaints the

whole year. I got four social complaints from a little

outburst between me and another student in Ceramics one

day. And I think the rest of them were one or two English

ones, a Biology and a Math one.

There is definitely a difference between here and MESS. It is

more of a family environment here. At MESS, if I have

squabbles with someone it’s not a big deal because I see

that person for an hour and then I don’t see her for the rest

of the day. Here, if you get into an argument, you get into

an argument. It’s just like being at home. It’s fights every

now and then, and then you make up or whatever. That’s a

good thing, but it’s also a bad thing because quite often

circumstances may seem to be resolved when they’re not. I

think that’s a big thing. I know when I got into an

argument with one of the girls here, we had to have a little

conference with the principal. She pretty much told me to

just bite my tongue because she’s trying, and I was like,

okay, whatever. So we go and we sit down and she’s like, “Is

there anything else girls? I want you to get it out now.”

And I said, as far as I’m concerned, after it happened, it was

over. I looked at her and asked what about you?

“Whatever.” And that was the end of it, you know. You can

see that she’s still upset about it but as far as I was

concerned, it was the end of it.

But then of course, you know, there’s people coming to me

at school and telling me that she’s out there bitching ‘cause

you didn’t get any complaints and she did. And on and on

and on. But I apologized to all my teachers and she went

and told her sister and got her sister to bitch. It depends on

the circumstances you know. When do you guys get to

draw the line and finally get to say, “hey, we’ve had

enough, that’s it; it’s over.”

MESS is just, like, you get into a screaming war and you’re

in the principal’s office and you’re going home. They’re

calling your parents if they have to, and they’re getting

your parents to come and get you and take you home.

They’re going to sit down with your parents and it’s like

“Look, this is what your child did. I don’t care what the

circumstances were around it; we’re sending them home.”

I sometimes think it should be more like that here. I

honestly do. Like with the dishes thing. People complain

54


about it all the time. “I don’t eat here so I shouldn’t have to

do dishes.” It’s a school, and we’re supposed to be more

like a family environment. We’re an alternative school, and

that’s what it’s supposed to be like. What they don’t realize

is when they were a kid and ate dinner at home, you had to

wash all the dishes, not just your own. But there’s still the

odd ones that, like, “I can’t believe they made me do

dishes.” But they still do it. ‘Cause they know, if you don’t

do it, you lose a contract. There are consequences.

Ann’s transition to the alternate system was a positive

move for her. Here she found the structures that she

needed to help her succeed. Her personal life had become

such that schooling was difficult for her to maintain, and

throughout her narrative she talks about how she “got

away” with her behaviour in the larger system. She was

able to skip her classes and spent a great deal of time

socializing. Within the smaller system, she responded well

to the contract system that delivered immediate

consequences for inappropriate behaviours and rewarded

students who worked hard. This theme recurred with the

other students I interviewed. No matter their reasons for

coming to the alternate school, they all agreed that the

contract system makes this school work for them.

The next student is a Grade 11 girl who has experienced

learning difficulties and blamed them for her failure in the

larger high school. She also has a temperament that

repeatedly leads her into conflicts. Like Ann, she found

that peers were a problem and the lack of consequences

allowed her to ignore her schooling.

Louise

A lot of it was the class situation. I couldn’t concentrate in

it, and I couldn’t remember what they told me, so I

couldn’t do the work. There was too much noise. I can sit

there and do my work fine with people talking around me,

but I can’t sit there and listen to somebody else who is

standing in the front of the class trying to teach something

when you’ve got people all around you talking. I wouldn’t

work.

I didn’t get along with a lot of the teachers and students. I

think it was because MESS was so big and I didn’t like it. I

like being in a smaller situation where there isn’t so much

tension and stress. Here, rumours don’t go around because


there’s so few people. They do go around, but three seconds

later the whole school is going to know because it’s so

small. Up there, people twist and turn the story. Around

here, you can figure out where it’s coming from and find

out the truth. Like going up there, I didn’t like the way it

was run, the people who were there, I hated everything

about that school. It’s just not a place for me. I didn’t do

good. My grades were really bad.

I skipped all the time. I never went to school. I would but I

wouldn’t bother sitting in the class because I couldn’t

understand anything. I have learning problems, and no

one would give me help. It was only in the last five years

that I’ve learned to read properly and comprehend reading

and stuff. Throughout elementary school and high school,

when I was actually in high school, they never helped me

with it. I couldn’t exactly do the work, so I was failing. I

was just getting 20% in English. I didn’t even bother going

to my classes after the first semester.

I never really approached any teachers about it because, I

don’t know, just being a typical Grade 8, I didn’t think

anything was wrong. It’s only now, since I’ve been in

alternate schools, that I’ve come to realize why my life was

turning so bad. A lot of my attitude goes along with it. I

had a big attitude problem. I have a lot of mood swings. I

can change from one mood to another very easily. I’m only

now kind of learning how to control it. I mean, I still fly off

the handle half the time, but I’ve learned to control it a lot.

At the high school, there was no real help for that. I tried

to get help. I had a counsellor at the high school and he

helped me out, but it didn’t help me out in the ways I

really, really needed. He helped me out with my aggression,

but I needed help with the education too. I think it got a

lot worse because I didn’t know how to express my

emotions or anything, so I just got angry. I would be mean

to other people and I basically turned into a bully. I was

very mean to other people; I beat up a few people. Now I

look back and think why did I do that? They didn’t

actually do anything. I was just in a bad mood and I

shouldn’t have done that. I think about that now, when I

should have thought about it then. I think that was a lot of

the problem.

Alternate schools have helped me out a lot because they

brought in the counsellors and stuff to talk to me, and they

actually got in my face and made me listen and stuff,

56


instead of nobody caring. Like even at the TLC (Teen

Learning Centre), they help you out a lot. They took me to

counsellors and told me to listen, or they’re going to hurt

me. Not that they were going to hurt me, but in basic

terms, that is what they meant. And, after a while with

them forcing me to take it, I started to realize where I was

going wrong. It wasn’t them going wrong; it was me. It

took a long time for me to realize that. Now I’m doing

pretty good in school. I’m graduating on my proper year

and everybody thought I wouldn’t graduate because I was

so far behind. Last year I was still doing Grade 8 courses.

This year I’m in all 12’s almost. The only 11 course I have is

Math. And that’s it, everything else is 12’s. Not bad!

When I first applied to come down here, my mom didn’t

want me to. She had heard so many bad things about KCH,

but of course it’s the rumour mill. She had heard so many

bad things about some of the students. It’s not all of the

students. Like, when did Jen do anything bad? She just

comes to school. I do my work; I don’t really care about

anyone else. They can do whatever. My mom didn’t want

me to come down, but when I came down, she noticed a

major improvement in my grades, even from the TLC to

here. It was nice. I liked to see that. Then I started to fall

behind because I had too many courses. But the teachers

compromised and let me drop one till next year. But up at

MESS, you can’t do that. They don’t allow you to drop a

course just because your load is too heavy. And that’s one

of the things I like. I can actually say, I’m not going to do

this until next year, ‘cause I can’t do it: But there they load

it all on you.

The higher staff/student ratio at Kitimat City High is a

major bonus to our students. Because the students are able

to access a staff member at any time, their needs are

quickly met. As Louise stated in her narrative, the extra

help has been crucial in helping her to deal with her anger

and to learn despite her learning difficulties. All going well,

she will be graduating with her Dogwood Diploma next

year.

Bruce is another Grade 11 student who has benefited

greatly from the structure and extra help available at the

alternate system. Like that of many of our students, his

personal life caused him difficulties, which caused his

schooling to be a low priority. His narrative clearly


expresses why an alternate system of schooling is

important to him.

Bruce

I didn’t quite cope in the schools I was in. I dropped out of

every school before I came here. This is the longest I’ve ever

been in school. I’ve been to 40 different schools. I’ve been

everywhere including Maples Adolescent Centre. That was

the last kind of school I attended. I was at MESS before that

and then Maples before I moved back to Kitimat.

Every time the ministry would come close to picking me

up, my mom would up and be gone again. So I finally got

apprehended when I was five. Then my mom got me back

after two years. I couldn’t cope with any one family, like a

foster family, for any length of time. Every time they got

close to me, I’d kind of shove them away a little bit, and I

had a real anger problem. It kind of got me into trouble in

some places.

I used to live here before, but I never thought I’d come

back to this town. But I came back, and I kind of like it

now.

I like it better here than at MESS because there were too

many people there. Too much racism I guess you could say.

Lots of rumours travel around that school and caused a lot

of trouble. At this school there’s more one-on-one help and

there’s more discipline than I found in MESS. It’s stricter. If

you fight, you’re kicked out automatically. In MESS, you’re

tapped on the hand and suspended for three days. That

makes a real difference because it gets rid of all the

troublemakers.

At least three or four times a week, I skipped classes at

MESS. The MESS staff phoned the group home a lot, but

there’s really nothing they could do. I mean, they can’t

force you to go to school.

There’s more one-on-one help here, and you can work

more at your own pace instead of sitting there with one

teacher and 30 students. If you swear at MESS, you get

kicked out of class. You swear here, and you just get a

complaint, which is a little bit better.

I think there’s more of a positive atmosphere here than up

at MESS. I’m not being racist or anything—I’m part Native

58


myself—but if you mess with one Native up there you’ve

got like 30 on your back. While here, if you’ve got

problems with someone, you go and talk to the principal

and you all sit down and talk about it. Up at MESS, it

doesn’t matter if you talk to them; they’re going to go after

you. It doesn’t matter what you do or who you are.

Bruce has used the alternate system to his advantage and

has been able to remain in our school for the entire year.

The one-on-one structure, that allows him to work on a

program designed to meet his requirements, has enabled

him to catch up on many of his courses. He has learned to

use the strict contract system to help him avoid many of

the pitfalls he experienced in other schools.

Alix is a Grade 11 student who has experienced learning

difficulties throughout her education. She finally came to

KCH after encountering difficulties in the larger high

school. For her, the move to the alternate system has been

only positive. She is able to sum up in a short interview

exactly what this school means to her.

Alix

When I first started coming here last October, it was really

hard up at the high school for me. I couldn’t handle it. I

got up at 6:30 and caught the 7:30 bus and left school at

3:08 and caught the 3:30 bus, which brought me home at

4:00. It was a pretty long day for a kid, a teenager. So when

I came here, I could get up at 7:45 and get ready to come to

school. I enjoy coming to school now ‘cause the teachers

here actually do care about you and will pull you into a

room and talk to you no matter what. It’s really cool to

think that if you’re really upset, they’d pull you into a

room and talk to you. I came down here and I was happier,

very excited to come to school, and it was the best thing. I

enjoy school; I love coming to school. I love my sponsor;

she’s pretty cool. All the teachers are cool. They give you a

lot of work, but you get it done. It’s pretty nice. We have a

store. They teach you about credit; we have lunch going on

every day until Thursday and it’s a dollar for lunch. It’s a

really hot meal and its better than the high school ‘cause

there you have to stand in line for half an hour to get your

food. And here it’s a family like environment like it says on

the signs around the school. And it is. It’s true.


We start school at 9:00. We have general meetings; it’s the

best thing. We do everything, like if there’s a problem here,

we’d all get pulled into a room and talk. When I was at the

high school I got C’s and I’s and here I’m getting A’s and B’s

and that’s the best thing. I think ‘cause this school is better

for people who have problems, not more actual problems,

but have a hard time learning or just need to get away from

the thousand kids coming at you one way

when you’re trying to get to class.

It is better at this school because the teachers

do care for you; the youth-care workers do care

for you. A youth care worker picks me up so

many times that like, if I’m going to be late,

she picks me up. She lives down the block

from me so, if I need help, I can phone the

teachers or even go to their houses. Like, the

principal’s house is only a block away from me

and so is the YCW’s, and that’s the best thing

‘cause they trust you.

We do our own grad; we set everything up,

whereas up at the high school they have the

Tech Club doing it. Here we do everything. We

do the bottle drive to raise our own money. We do a lot of

stuff for ourselves. It’s a more self-sufficient school than the

high school where you don’t get to do as much. We have

early dismissal if we’re good and we’ve done all our work.

Our youth-care workers will do anything. They’re good

with math, they’re good with socials, science, they’re good

with all the courses. We have ceramics. We do ceramics

every Tuesday and I like that. It’s better than up at the high

school where you only get to choose art. I chose ceramics

because I thought it would be cool to make a lot of stuff. It

was really good for me to say, “Okay, let’s go and get dirty.”

I got the attendance award last year for being on time and

being the most enthusiastic person in the school. And I still

kind of feel like that. I come to school with a smile on my

face. People ask me about my opinion. As my sister told

me, I have no opinion and I don’t have to say what I think,

so I don’t get myself into trouble, which usually happens. I

have one sister who isn’t in the school now, who’s willing

to protect me if I have any problems, which I haven’t had

this year. I think this school should be recommended for all

ages, except elementary school. It’s good. The high school’s

hard, and so is this.

60


The same themes consistently recurred in each of the

student narratives. The individual attention that the

alternate system provides is essential to the working of the

school. Because we are fortunate to have three ministrysupplied

youth-care workers, in addition to the school

district’s teaching and support staff, we are able to supply

the individual care each student requires.

A lack of wanting to go to

school and being able to skip

school at MESS was a

problem. They just couldn’t

stop you at MESS. There was

nothing they could do about

you skipping school. Here, if I

skip, I lose a contract, which

means I can only do that three

times before I get kicked out.

(Robbie, Grade 11)

Down here it’s nice and quiet, and you get all your work at

once, and you don’t have to go to a different class and see

different teachers. You get help when you need it. There are

only 40 people here at the best of times. So it’s not too bad.

You can get your Fridays off, which is a good thing. It

makes you do your work.

Since being transferred to the alternate school system, I

have had to re-evaluate my views about how curriculum is

delivered to students. I was a teacher in a traditional

classroom where the curriculum was teacher-driven to 29

students by one teacher. Even then, I believed in the

necessity of having rules and consequences, but they were

rules directed at keeping the classroom as a whole running

smoothly. Since coming to Kitimat City High, I have

learned to focus more on the needs of the individual

students, and to use rules to help the students succeed.

Repeatedly, the students I interviewed have stressed that

the school rules played a large part in their success at

Kitimat City High. The rules and the personal attention

they receive from staff help to keep them focussed on their

goal of graduation. Because of the smaller school

environment, the staff and students get to know one

another and when students are having difficulties, in or out

of school, adjustments can be made to meet their needs.

The students tend to have fewer problems with peers

because of the immediate intervention from staff and the

focus on finding a solution. Skipping, which seemed to be a

chronic problem prior to attending KCH, is almost nonexistent

given the severe consequences. They can no longer

skip; nor do they seem to want to. When they do

experience those difficulties that have previously interfered

with their schooling, they can work through the problems

with a staff member.


The lessons I’ve learned in this school are lessons that can

be applied to any school situation. I’ve learned that, by

taking the time to truly listen to my students, I can learn

what is really happening in their lives. Even though I’ve

always believed that such things as failing courses, peer

pressure, and personal problems can lead to a student’s lack

of success, I now realize that these can be overcome with

personal attention. Individual needs must be met before a

person succeeds at school. The students in this school have

taught me a great deal about which aspects of education are

important. They have taught me how to teach the person,

rather than just the curriculum.

They have taught

me how to teach

the person, rather

than just the

curriculum.

62


Lived learning

Living, learning, experiencing the world

Reid A. Nelson

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll, or even sex, booze, drugs,

teenaged pregnancy, crime, and rock and roll are just

some of the concerns facing parents and teachers

today. Statistics gathered from “The Case for High School

Activities” at http://www.wiaawi.org/case.html indicate that:

“Adolescent Time Use, Risky Behaviour, and Outcomes: An

Analysis of National Data, issued in September 1995 by the

Department of Health and Human Services found that

students who spend no time in extracurricular activities are

57 percent more likely to have dropped out of school by

the time they would have been seniors; 49 percent more

likely to have used drugs; 37 percent more likely

to have become teen parents; 35 percent more

likely to have smoked cigarettes; and 27 percent

more likely to have been arrested than those who

spend one to four hours per week in

extracurricular activities.”

Armed with this information, I began to wonder

why any school board would deny or reduce

extra curricular activities, especially those that

operate at no cost to the school board. An article

in the Calgary Herald dated November 11, 2000

also caught my attention:

Missed his trip

Calgary Herald, Saturday, November 11, 2000

I am a Grade 9 student at G.P. Vanier Junior High School.

My school trip to England and France was cancelled

because of the Calgary Board of Education’s interim

policy regarding trips. The Board’s initial reason for

cancelling our trip was that there was no educational value. I know

that if I get to see the famous artifacts I wished to learn about, I

would remember them forever. We put much more than just money

into our trip. A student committee planned every step, from the

initial idea to fundraising to reducing costs. This was done with

minimum guidance but a lot of support from the teachers and

principal. We raised nearly $8,000. What happened in California was


tragic and requires review. But there have also been hundreds of

trips that had a positive impact on the participants.

Renee Gilmore

Calgary

I began my quest for answers to this query as a direct result

of just such a denial. On November 13, 2000, I received a

copy of my board’s decision that “the Mount Elizabeth

Secondary School Field Trip request to Greece, March 15–

25, 2001 be denied.” It was at this point that my own

action research into the educational value of travel began.

What is educational? Is travel educational, life-altering?

Does international travel help students to learn more about

Canada? Does travel develop a greater awareness and

appreciation of our own country and other cultures?

Travel is educational

Since 1993, I have offered educational tours to Europe, and

on four separate occasions I have taken a number of

students overseas. More recently, these tours have been

offered as a member of the community rather than a

School District No. 82 employee. This year, the board

“denied” approval for an educational tour of Greece. It is

my intention to research and verify that travel is

educational and, therefore, a valuable experience for

students.

Conversations with my peers have suggested that the

denial of approval could be for a variety of reasons. Some

feel that this was because, by contract, the school board

would be required to pay one or more sub days for me as

the teacher chaperone. Another possible reason was that

students would be missing two or three days of regular

classes on a twelve-day tour.

I propose to document the value of travel for educational

purposes and, therefore, justify both the expense of sub

costs and the time missed from regular classroom

instruction.

Since 1993, I have personally conducted four tours for

students of Mount Elizabeth Secondary to London, Paris,

64


the French Riviera, Switzerland, and throughout Italy from

Milan in the north to Naples and Pompeii in the south.

Prior to this, I had participated in a number of other

international tours geared towards high-school-aged

students to locations such as Australia, New Zealand,

Hawaii, Korea, Hong Kong, and China.

In March 2001, I sent the following letter to fifty-five

students who had travelled with me previously, asking

them to complete a questionnaire on their travel

experiences.

European Adventures

Reid and Gail Nelson

#31 – 863 South Lahakas Boulevard

Kitimat, BC V8C 1V1

March 22, 2001

Dear Fellow World Traveller:

Greetings and salutations! Since we last travelled together I have

finally sat down and begun work on my Masters of Education degree.

As a project for action research, I was hoping to do some statistical

analysis on the value of travel. There are a couple of reasons for this,

including my personal interest in seeing the world and the fact that I

think these experiences are valuable. I am curious to know what you

think.

At this time, I plan to access your permanent academic record at the

high school to see whether or not your marks improved after you

travelled. There are some other control standards and details built

into the research, but I will not bore you with them. If you would like

to hear more or talk with me about this, feel free to give me a call

(250-632-3709).

Also, as I discussed my ideas for the project, some of my classmates

suggested a different approach altogether. Could you please complete

and return the enclosed questionnaire and/or write me a letter

indicating how travel was beneficial to you, that is, of course, if the

experience was beneficial. On the other hand, if you think that your

experiences while travelling were a complete waste of time and

money, I would also very much like to hear from you as to why. Please

also include comments about the trip you took with me, and any

other travel you have undertaken. In addition, a philosophical outlook

or perspective of the value of travel beyond academics, leaning

towards life experiences would be very helpful.

I hope to hear from you all shortly. A return envelope is enclosed for

your convenience.

Sincerely,

Reid A. Nelson

Teacher

European Adventures

Reid and Gail Nelson

#31 – 863 South Lahakas

Boulevard

Kitimat, BC V8C 1V1

1. Did you find your

educational tour

valuable? Why?

2. What negative aspects of

your educational tour

have you noticed?

3. Do you think the money

spent on your tour could

have been better spent? If

so, how?

4. Are there other tours or

travel experiences you

have undertaken since we

travelled?

5. Is there a better way to

learn about other

countries and cultures

(e.g., books, movies,

Internet)?

6. Any specific memories or

comments, remembrances

or stories about your

experiences?

7. Do you think your

educational tour

improved or detracted

from you academic

achievement?


8. Do you believe that your travel experiences have affected

or impacted on your life choices since leaving high

school?

The research would take a variety of forms:

a. access students’ permanent records for academic data on

whether or not their marks (G.P.A.) improved from the

period before travelling to the period after travelling. I

am specifically looking for a long range net

improvement of academic performance.

b. I would like students to indicate in a questionnaire how

travel has affected or influenced them. Did they in fact

find the experience valuable and in what ways was it

worthwhile? Did they, for example, find that it

influenced academic knowledge, future travel, happiness

in life.

I am also seeking responses to questions regarding student

reflection on the value of travel, for example

“philosophically speaking, is travel valuable?” and “how

has travel (not) been valuable to you?”

c. If students do not respond to the written request, a

telephone interview could be conducted.

As soon as I began to remove and copy student record

cards, I discovered my first problem. In 1993, the school

was only required to submit marks to the Ministry of

Education in the form of letter grades. This was going to

make mathematical statistical analysis of the data more

challenging and difficult. I decided that if a student

received an A letter grade for any mark between 85.5% and

100%, the simplest thing to do was to average the two

marks and assign the letter grades an arbitrary value as

follows:

A 92.75%

B 79%

C+ 69.5%

C 63%

C- 54.5%

SG, P, IP 49.5%

F 24.75%

66


When actual percentages began to be printed on

Permanent Record Cards, I used the actual percentages

rather than the averaged percentage values assigned to

letter grades. I also wanted some form of random control to

see whether student academic performance would have

improved even if the student had not travelled. So as I

copied the Permanent Records Cards for the students who

had travelled with me, I also copied a Permanent Record

Card that occurred alphabetically either directly before, or

directly after the student who had travelled with me. This

before or after selection became important when two

students in a row alphabetically had travelled with me,

which occurred three times in this study.

Marks do improve in the long term

Upon analysis of the Permanent Record Cards, I

determined that student travel will improve academic

performance over the long term. Of the 47 Permanent

Record Cards examined for world travellers, 25 show an

overall improvement, while 22 show a net loss of Grade

Point Average. Further examination of the net loss or gain

shows that of the 47 students studied they had a net

improvement of 61.25% or about 1.3% each. The extremes

of improvement and decrease are also noteworthy as the

greatest increase was 16.9% and the greatest decrease was

16.1%. I should also add a few other interesting discoveries

regarding those students who have travelled.

Grade 10 appears to be the best time academically for

students to travel.

I base this statement on the discovery that on the year that

students travel, their marks usually drop; not a lot but they

do drop. My guess here is that this is probably due to the

year of preparation and the general excitement of travel

that distracts a student from fully concentrating on

academic assignments. Further, I have noted that academic

improvement seems to continue over the time a student

remains in school, but peaks about two years after

travelling and then begins to level off. A student travelling

in Grade 8 will peak at Grade 10, while a Grade 11 or 12

student will not reach their peak until after they have

graduated from high school.


Absence from school does not always result in lower

grades.

I base this statement on the fact that students travelling

with me to Europe must miss up to three days of school

prior to Spring Break. Contrary to common opinion

however, their marks did not drop as a result of this

absence but actually improved over the long term. Students

have also told me that although they are not actually

attending school, it seems like they are, and that even

though they give up Spring Break to travel, they come

home revitalized and refreshed, and feeling like they have

been at school all along. There is no immediate decline in

their academic performance as is common with students

who have taken an extended vacation or time off from

school.

Upon analysis of the Permanent Record Cards for students

who did not travel, I found that of the 47 Permanent

Record Cards examined for non world travellers, 26 show

an overall improvement, while 21 show a net loss of Grade

Point Average. Further examination of the net loss or gain

shows that of the 47 students studied they had a net

improvement of only 28.3% or about 0.60% each. The

extremes of improvement and decrease are also noteworthy

as the greatest increase was 30.1% and the greatest decrease

was 27.3%.

Comparison of world travellers to non world travellers

indicates that most students will improve academically

over the time spent in high school. However, those

students who have travelled will show a greater

improvement or net increase in Grade Point Average. It

appears that missing a few days of school in order to travel

overseas for an educational tour has a positive rather than a

negative effect on a student’s overall academic

performance. Also worthy of note here is the variability of

extremes for net loss and gain; the variance amongst non

world travellers was far greater than amongst world

travellers, leading me to believe that academic performance

is far more consistent amongst the group of world travellers

than non world travellers.

There are, of course, many other factors that could have

affected these results, including socio-economic

backgrounds, family situations including students from

split homes, etc. Further research and individualized case

studies would be necessary to determine, once and for all,

68


whether educational travel is a factor in academic

performance and an increase in Grade Point Average.

What do the students think?

Only 30% of the students contacted have responded to the

questionnaire at this time. Of those, 83% are very positive

and only one is occasionally negative. My students, many

of whom are grown, married and far away from Kitimat,

have many good things to say about their experiences

overseas, and half of those respondents declined to remain

anonymous and signed their names to the survey form or

included a letter with further detailed information.

1. Did you find the educational tour

valuable? Why?

All the respondents found their tour

valuable.

“You can learn all you want about another

place, but it’s absolutely nothing compared

with actually standing on the ground

where a World War was fought or walking

through the palace of a king. You learn so

much more when you are there to

experience it all for yourself.”

“Experiencing is learning.”

“Yes, I found it very interesting and I

learned to appreciate the country I live in.”

“We got to see all the popular (historical) sites, places we

learned about in history.”

2. What negative aspects of your educational tour have you

noticed?

Two respondents noted the requirements to participate

in mandatory tours or the limited free time as a negative,

while others complained that all they wanted now was

to travel more.

“My only complaint would be some of the mandatory

tours because although they were educational, there were


other things I would have liked to seen (I plan to return

to London).”

“Time was limited and we were always rushed to see this

and that. I enjoyed the time away from the group to be

able to experience things on my own. I wanted to feel

like a tourist, not a herd of cattle.”

“The only negative aspect is that all I want to do is go

back to England. The only reason this is a negative is the

fact that I cannot afford to do so!”

3. Do you think the money spent on your tour could have

been better spent?

All respondents stated in varying degrees that the money

was well spent.

“Absolutely not! I only wonder if I could have somehow

been able to extend the length of the tour with the

money I spent.”

“Travelling is an investment. I would suggest to everyone

to do it at least once in their lives.”

“No, I wouldn’t trade in the money or experience for any

amount.”

4. Are there other tours or travel experiences you have

undertaken since we travelled?

All respondents indicated that they would have liked to

travel more. However, other than one student who had

managed to travel to Hawaii and another to Japan, none

had travelled much beyond British Columbia or Alberta.

“Queen Charlotte Islands to Quebec City . . . Vancouver

Island . . . Ottawa with Encounters Canada . . .Northern

British Columbia and Alberta.”

I wonder whether our Educational Tour provided an

increased desire to learn more about Canada as well.

“Yes, I’ve been to Japan, Portland, and Banff.”

70


“I went to Hawaii the following year, but I have not had

the opportunity to do any ‘real’ travelling.”

5. Is there a better way to learn about other countries and

cultures?

All respondents agreed that the best way to learn about

other countries and cultures is to experience them first

hand.

“I would say I learned a lot about the country and

culture when I went. I certainly didn’t go to experience

England/France as a country or to view culture first

hand. If I wanted to learn about a place, I would talk to a

native with first hand experience, something we didn’t

do while on vacation.”

I never refer to Education Tours as a vacation, although

many students seem to see travel that way. What they do

not realize is that, even though we are away from home,

they are still attending school, just in a different

location.

“No, I think first hand experience is the way to go.”

“Nothing can compare to actually being in the country

and seeing and experiencing the culture up close (i.e.,

the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben).”

“The best way to learn anything is by experiencing it first

hand. Talking to people from other countries is good too,

because people often have their own ideas about other

places and hearing about it from someone who has lived

there can help to put the right perspective on some

things.”

6. Any specific memories or comments, remembrances or

stories about your experiences?

All but one respondent had something to say here.

“Getting lost on the ‘tube’ will always be a memory.”

“Picadilly Circus . . . going to a club in Paris . . . my first

concert at one of the most famous rock houses in Europe


(except Wembley Stadium) . . . seeing the Mona Lisa up

close.”

Students here have reflected with a heartfelt connection

to actual places or activities. They may be a reflection of

self, or recognition that the places and activities provided

something emotional as well as educational. Students

came together as a group, connected through weekly

meetings, monthly parent meetings, a “getting to know

you” exercise, as well as becoming a big family while

travelling. Some still walk down the halls at school and

say “hi, Dad.” Many students have admitted that even

though they are away from school, they are still

connected to it, in fact we aren’t away from school. We

are just going to school somewhere else.

“Vimy Ridge was very enlightening. It was a ‘you had to

see it to believe it’ experience.”

7. Do you think your educational tour improved or

detracted from your academic achievement at school?

Respondents comments here are somewhat confusing

but, I believe, positive.

“Definitely not.”

“Both, because I wanted to be somewhere else,

somewhere new after I returned. When I finally got

where I was going, I got back on track.”

“Neither.”

“You have to remember that my high school years didn’t

go so well, but that trip was good for my education later

in life. The trip we went on opened my eyes to the rest of

the world and increased my awareness of the diversity of

it all.”

“Improved. It made me more aware of the art, buildings,

museums, history, and beauty the world holds for us to

see.”

8. Do you believe that your travel experiences have affected

or impacted on your life choices since leaving high

school?

72


Respondents here were mixed—about 50/50.

“Definitely.”

“No.”

“I feel that I am much more culturally aware.”

“I am more aware of English, French, and Canadian

history and customs and how they involve each other.”

Travel for the good of mankind?

When I began this study, I had expected great things and a

definitive answer to the question of whether or not

educational travel is valuable. Academically, students’

marks do improve, albeit only slightly more than other

students. If travel is so valuable, as I still believe it to be,

why is it not reflected in student academic performance

indicators like Grade Point Average? Could it be that the

methods we use to evaluate student performance are

wrong? Is it possible to find a more human, humane

method of evaluating students that will more accurately

reflect the value of educational travel? Or maybe, there

should just be another course in the curriculum that

provides students with extra credit when they complete an

educational tour.

Students’ marks may not have been as dramatically affected

as I had hoped but Education Travel Tours has opened the

eyes of 55 students to the world beyond Kitimat, British

Columbia. If this is valuable, then it should count for

something because what is of value is counted. Has anyone

taken the time in all of this to ask the students what they

learned or what was valued and should count? Is it

schooling or learning if it takes place outside the desk and

the classroom?

Students who have travelled with me have certainly gained

more insight into the diversity of cultures throughout the

world. When I am challenged about field trips to a variety

of religious structures, such as our local Gundwara Temple,

my standard response is that knowledge leads to

understanding while ignorance leads to fear. What price is

there for the knowledge that world travellers gain while


overseas? If, as I propose, these travellers are gaining

knowledge and understanding, how can a school board

deny students the opportunity that may one day lead to

world peace rather than increased world conflicts? Should

we not all be travellers of the world?

74


The road to literacy

Sharon Leonard

Icall this paper “the road to literacy,” but it’s more like a

trail than a road. It’s definitely not paved; it’s uphill as

often as not; it winds circuitously in and out and round

about; and it’s often dangerous. It can provide breathtaking

vistas, involve intense concentration, and push the limits

of endurance.

Exercise, particularly hiking, is not my entertainment of

choice. I am fairly sedentary. My housekeeping, is done

mainly by a cleaning lady, who manages to keep most of

the dust at bay. Walking from my house to my car in the

morning, and from my car to my house in the evening

constitutes my aerobic regime. Carrying the laundry from

the basement to the main floor bedrooms is the only

weightlifting I do. I’m more of a thinker than a doer. I

think about a garden, but don’t actually plant one, if you

see what I mean.

For a long time, I’ve been thinking about literacy. As a

Kindergarten teacher I was often disheartened by my

students’ lack of basic literacy skills. And, while I did my

best, I was often equally disappointed by the lack of

progress some of them had made by the end of the year

with me. We had trudged along, but had gotten nowhere.

So, this year, when I found out that I would be teaching

Grade 1 and 2, I decided to get off the couch and get going.

I eased into my program slowly, spending the summer half

on the couch and half off it. I started by trying on hiking

boots, the metaphorical kind. First I read some of the

classic theorists—a little Dewey, a smattering of Vygostsky

and a bit of Bruner. Then I got a little more involved,

focussed my training, and marched through Pinnel and

Fountas, Healy, Wasserman, Adams, Booth, Clay, Taylor,

and Wells. These folks are seriously into literacy.

Back at school and off the chaise lounge, I ambushed

my principal with my newfound knowledge and my

accumulated ideas. My preliminary training was

sufficient, and I was ready to start the serious stuff. I’d

read the theory, and now I needed to get down to the

dirty work. After attending three Guided Reading


workshops by Pat Holburn, of Simon Fraser University, and

two by Tony Stead; I knew where I wanted to go, and I

thought I knew how to get there.

The children and the problem

While the evenings and weekends spent researching had

been like a gentle stroll, the days in class were like a painful

slog up a steep incline. It was as if I were clawing my way

up a mountain in a rainstorm, where two steps forward

resulted in one messy, muddy slide backward.

I had a challenging class. And the kids had every right to be

challenging. They were living challenging lives. The one

who gave me the least cause for worry was the one in the

wheelchair. With no spoken language, cerebral palsy,

limited vision, and a tube for feeding, she was a cheery

little button and very easy to teach. One student had been

diagnosed mildly mentally handicapped. Three were

experiencing family break ups. Two, we suspected, were

affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. One’s mother had

throat cancer so he was in and out of foster care as the

family tried to cope. One’s mother thought she had breast

cancer. No sooner had that been dealt with, then the child

herself was being tested for leukemia. Six others were in

single-parent families. Four of those had had their families

break apart last year. Of the eight Aboriginal children, two

lived on a reserve and took the bus to and from school.

One’s mother spent most of the autumn in “rehab,” as the

detoxification centre is known. One is a kleptomaniac, who

had been stealing and lying all year. Three children out of

20 had normal abilities, two parents, a stable home,

enough food, and adequate supervision.

Needless to say, my class was not known for its academic

prowess. I could not give up hope. All fall, I kept trying

different techniques in the hope that something would

work. My language arts program was much like a trail

mix—a little of this, a little of that. Not everybody learned

all of it, but everybody learned from at least some of it.

“At risk children

tend to come from

low-income or

culturally different

homes in which

single or

alternative parents

may or may not

have the time,

interest,

knowledge, skills

or funds to provide

the supportive and

expected world

and book

experiences.”

—Bev Cox (p. 240)

My language arts program included lots of opportunity for

reading. I ran a home school reading program, with

children taking home a different book every day; I read

aloud several picture books per day; we had reading

76


“Successful readers

learn a system of

behaviors which

continues to

accumulate skills

merely because it

operates.”

—Marie Clay (p.15)

buddies from Grade 4 whom we met with every week; we

did whole-group author studies; I read aloud a novel; some

children were reading old controlled vocabulary texts (“See

Dick run.”); we did some phonics; some were reading from

controlled phonics texts (“Pat, the cat, has a hat.”);

everyone was reading trade books; everyone was keeping

reading journals. Literacy centres supported the direct

instruction.

The problem remained. A few were learning to read, but

many others were not. Obviously indirect instruction,

immersion in a literate environment, and whole-language

experiences were not working with the majority of the

children.

The beginning

I needed to see if my instincts were correct. Were the

children making as little progress as I thought?

“If the teacher’s

job is to take each

child from where

he is to where he

needs to go in

reading, then that

teacher needs to

assess individuals.

—Pinnell & Fountas

1996 (p. xv)

Using Mary Clay’s Observation Survey of Literacy Achievement

as my source for assessment tools, I did preliminary testing

on every Grade 1 child in my classroom. I administered the

Ohio World Test, in which children are tested for sightword

knowledge; the Dictation Task, in which children are

tested for their knowledge of the phonemes; the Letter

Identification Test; and the Writing Vocabulary. I also did a

Running Record to determine which level of text would be

appropriate for instruction.

The results from initial testing done in the first week of

February were pretty dismal. I had hoped we’d been

making some progress on our journey. I had assumed that

after five months in school, we were at least out of the

parking lot and making our way up the beginning slopes. I

was dismayed to discover that many of the children

weren’t even out of the car let alone marching up the

literacy hill!

Eight of 12 Grade 1 children were finding Level A (Pinnel

and Fountas) reading material to be difficult. Four of them

scored 0% on their running record for unseen text at the

first level. For the most part, their results on the rest of the

battery were similar. Not a single child knew all the letters

of the alphabet. Four children were below the fifth stanine.


On the Ohio Word Test, nine children scored below the

fifth stanine, and on the Dictation Task, five children (plus

one child I didn’t test because it was too stressful were

below the fifth stanine). Because of its constraints, I only

tested the lowest achieving children using the Writing

Vocabulary Assessment. All eight of them scored below the

fourth stanine.

With those results, the only place to go was up!

The plan

In view of my lack of success thus far, I decided to forgo the

subtleties and return to direct instruction. No more beating

around the bush. This teacher was going to teach, not just

“facilitate learning.” I was going to lead this crew straight

up the mountain without wandering off the track to look at

the view.

I decided to go with two main strategies. The first involved

phonemic-awareness instruction. I had previously found

Jim Stone’s Animated Alphabet to be very useful in teaching

young learners the connections between sounds and letters.

This program uses characters, songs, actions, stories,

rhyming, and drawing to teach phonemic awareness.

Right-brained or left-brained, kinesthetic, auditory, or

visual learner, this program serves them all.

“There is no

question of

waiting for

readiness to occur;

for with many

children it does

not come

‘naturally’ and

must be brought

about by the

teacher’s positive

measures to

induce it.”

—Taylor (p. 94)

Now, however, instead of teaching it once a week I began

to use the applicable parts of the program daily. We’d learn

about Ike’s Night Bike Ride on Monday, work with “i silent

e” on Tuesday, draw pictures of a bike and list words that

rhyme with bike on Wednesday, work with “igh” on

Thursday, and find rhymes for “by” on Friday.

The second part of the phonemic awareness and phonics

instruction involved using Making Words, by Cunningham

and Hall. This program has children manipulate letter cards

to create words. For example, if I had introduced long “I”

with the animated alphabet, I might reinforce the long “I”

sound by choosing the letters in the word frighten. Giving

these letters in random order, I might ask the children to

rearrange them to build such words as I, it, hit, grit, hen,

ten, tin, tine, fine, fire, hire, tire, night, fight, right, fright,

etc., ending with frighten.

78


“Research

indicates that,

particularly for

children who enter

school with weak

literacy

preparation, direct

instruction in

word analysis

skills is critically

important.”

—Adams (p. 9)

Why Guided

Reading?

“...at risk children,

regardless of

emergent reading

level, seemed to

know much less

about the

conventions of

written English

story structure.”

—Bev Cox (p. 252)

Whole-class instruction worked well for both of the

programs, and with some slight adaptations in terms of

volume of work expected, every child was able to

participate.

The second major strategy was Guided Reading as espoused

by Pinnel and Fountas and as modelled after Reading

Recovery Programs.

First of all, however, I had to get some help. Guided

Reading is a great teaching technique, but you can work

with only a few children at a time. The question remains,

“What do you do with the other kids?” Mine couldn’t do

literacy centres without supervision, or it turned into a freefor-all.

They couldn’t write or read without assistance. Their

attention spans were, for the most part, minimal. So I

started asking around and discovered that the First Nations

support worker was available before recess three mornings a

week, and the resource teacher was available the other two.

My principal also occasionally took pity on me and sent

along any otherwise unoccupied teaching assistants. That

took care of crowd control.

When my helper arrived at 9:30 a.m., I had usually already

introduced a whole-group activity that was related to either

Jim Stone’s Animated Alphabet or, Cunningham and Hall’s

Making Words. The students not participating in Guided

Reading completed that assignment, read a story, and

reported it in their reading journal, and finally, wrote it in

their regular journal. The helpers tried to keep everyone on

task, solved bathroom and pencil problems, and just

generally kept the hoards away from me and my little band

of troupers.

Because I had already assessed the students, I was able to

sort them into groups according to their instructional level.

I limited myself to five groups for the whole class: three

groups for Grade 1, and two groups for Grade 2. The two

weakest groups came to me four times a week. The middle

group came three times a week, and the top two groups

came twice a week. That meant I had to get through three

groups per day in a 45 minute time span.

At first, I tried to do a whole lesson for each group,

including warm-up reading, pre-reading activities, a story

walk, independent reading, story discussion, and post

writing. It was barely possible in 15 minutes! Factor in


transition times between groups, the odd child who got

past the helpers and interrupted the small-group lesson,

time for running records, and the student who refused to

participate in anything, and the whole thing became

impossible. At least for me it was impossible.

I decided that I really, really needed to spend my time on

direct reading instruction, so I pared my lesson to the bone.

Each child “warmed up the brain” by reading one or two

familiar selections. Then I would introduce the new book

or story using a story-walk technique, ensuring that I

elicited or supplied the sentence pattern, new vocabulary,

specific skill to be used, and appropriate emotion. Lastly, I

would have the children read the book to themselves. That

done, we’d discuss reading strategies (pointing, using the

picture clues, looking at the first letter, logical meaning)

that I had seen the children using. Then they were off, and

the next group would begin to arrive. I often used that

transition time to do a running record or to give quick

individual help to someone who was struggling more than

the others.

I continued to use that lesson style throughout the

remainder of the program. I did, however, have to change

my groups as some students progressed more quickly than

others, and as it became apparent that some children were

learning to read quite well without the intense instruction

that comes with Guided Reading. For example, at one point

I stopped doing Guided Reading with my strongest Grade

1’s on a daily basis. Then I returned to the strong Grade 2’s

for an intensive week of instruction wrapped around a

three part short story.

Why Story Walk?

“To make

meaning out of

printed text, the

brain must be

readied to think

and understand

language; only

then can it be

trained to connect

an internal mental

life with written

symbols that have

no intrinsic

meaning of their

own.”

—Healy (p. 234)

The use of small story books allowed for

fluidity in grouping. Because I was not

locked into a basal reader program, it was

much easier to move students in and out

of groups as they sped up or slowed down

in their acquisition of reading skills.

The middle

Because the reading groups in this type of

program are meant to be fluid, I took

running records quite regularly. The

80


children most at risk were assessed weekly; most other

students were assessed whenever I felt that they were

outpacing or falling behind the others in their group.

Although I was getting proficient at taking running records,

I also found it illuminating when I had someone else tape

record the child so that I could listen to the reading at my

leisure.

I couldn’t rely entirely on recordings however, as not all

information is necessarily captured by audio tape. One day,

I asked Alanis to read to me. She did so with verve and

enthusiasm, scoring 100% on her reading. Every word was

perfect. Unfortunately, she never once opened her eyes,

proclaiming loudly and with pride, “Look Teacher, I can

read it with my eyes closed!”

The end of the road

By the beginning of June, I was ready to slow down again.

The end was in sight, the weather was warming, and special

events were popping up all over the place. It was time for

final evaluations of the children and of the program. How

far had we gone on this journey together? Had we made

any significant progress?

Looking back down the road we had travelled, I could tell

that we still weren’t all together. Some students were

pushing ahead, trying to be first in line. Some remained at

the tail end of the queue. Most of the others had spent the

last five months jockeying for position as we clambered

along the rocky path to literacy. That was to be expected.

We all move at our own pace. The key question was, had

everybody moved? Or had some just settled down at the

side of the path and remained there all year?

I re-administered the tests that I had used previously. As in

January, I did a full battery of tests on the Grade 1’s because

I was most concerned about them. I did a Running Record

on the Grade 2’s. The results were as expected. Everyone

had improved, but the children who had made the most

progress before the implementation of the program showed

the most growth as a result of the program.

In June, all Grade 1 children scored in the ninth stanine for


letter identification, with the lowest child having

progressed from knowing 40 of 54 letters (lower and uppercase

as well as “a” and “g”) to knowing all 54. This is

compared to no children scoring in the ninth stanine in

January. All students showed improvement in reading. I

used running records to assess reading level (90% accuracy

and above was the criterion), using Pinnel and Fountas

levels as my standard.

Some children made steady progress throughout the

research time frame, while others burst into reading in the

final few weeks.

In June, eight children scored above the fifth stanine on

the Ohio Word Test, as compared to three in January. A

further two scored at the fifth stanine, whilst only one

child showed no improvement.

While the performance of child B5A was most

disheartening, with no change in stanine, his raw score

increased minimally (from 1 to 3). This child was the

youngest in the class with a birthday of December 31. In

appearance, parental support, and early experiences, he was

the most obviously challenged. However, even though test

data show minimal growth, it was apparent to me that

progress had been made, especially in oral language and

vocabulary.

Likewise, only three children had scored above the fifth

stanine for the Sounds in Words Test in January; whereas

eight did so in June. The other three scored at the third

stanine.

The writing test showed similar progress. In January all

eight children tested were at the third stanine or lower,

whilst in June all except two children scored at the fifth

stanine or higher.

I credit the heavy phonics and phonemic awareness

training with the great improvement in writing. The

children, for the most part, could really hear all the sounds

in the words they wrote, and could likewise write the

sound they heard. Even the lowest scores (stanine five) on

the Sounds in Words Test were acceptable, reflecting a raw

score of 28–30 of 37 sounds being recorded.

82


Did the shoe fit?

Judging merely from the test scores, it would appear that,

for most children, significant progress was made in the

final five months of the year as opposed to the first five

months. Whether or not this progress was related to guided

reading, explicit phonics and phonological awareness

training, or maturity level of the students, I cannot tell.

Even though all children showed steady growth, not all

children showed the same growth. While some children

were making great strides, others were content to mosey

along at a slow saunter.

While I could explain some of the delays (for example,

child B4 struggled with a severe speech impediment, which

I could blame for his weak score on Hearing Sounds in Words

and Writing Tests), I could not explain them all. Was the

difficulty the result of their personalities, or did the shoe

not fit?

Most disturbingly, Aboriginal children made the least

progress. Non-Aboriginal students who had started at the

same level had made much greater progress given the same

instruction. Why was that? Was it lack of appropriate

reading material that accessed their knowledge base or

reflected their experiences? Was it lack of home support?

None of the Aboriginal children received any assistance

with reading at home. They did not participate in the

home-school reading program, nor did they appear to read

the library books they took home. Was I treating them

differently without knowing it? Were my expectations

unconsciously lower? Or could it be that the testing

strategies did not reflect accurately just how poor these

children’s literacy skills were at the beginning of the

program?

Where to next?

I expect that next year’s journey will be much the same as

this year’s, except that next year I’m going to buy a copy of

each of Marie M. Clay’s books Sand and Stones, which are

used to assess concepts of print. I don’t believe that I was

able to totally understand my weakest students’ lack of


experience with books, and as a result their true growth was

not demonstrated using the assessment tools I used. A

Concepts of Print test will provide me with a more accurate

starting point.

I’m also going to scrounge up some money and buy some

little books that reflect the Aboriginal heritage of the

students in my class. The third of my class who live on

reserves or who are of First Nations ancestry deserve to read

books about themselves.

“...unlike many

human conditions,

failure to read

almost never ends

on spontaneous

recovery.”

—Clay (p. 14)

And I’m going to enlist the help of the First Nations

support worker in getting the support of Aboriginal parents

both in the classroom and at home.

Maybe next year, the road to literacy will have fewer

potholes, fewer inclines, fewer detours. Then, maybe, we’ll

have more time to stop and just enjoy the view.

“When children enter school, we need to observe what

they know and can do and build on that information

whether it is rich or meager.” (Clay, p. 6)

References

Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and

Learning about Print. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1990.

84


“When children

enter school, we

need to observe

what they know

and can do and

build on that

information

whether it is rich

or meager.”

(Clay, p. 6)

Booth, David. Classroom Voices: Language-based learning in

the elementary school. Toronto, Canada: Harcourt Brace &

Company, Canada, 1994.

Brewer, J.A. Literacy Development of Young Children in a

Multilingual Setting. Facilitating Preschool Literacy. Ed.

Robin Campbell. Newark, Deleware, USA: International

Reading Association, 1998.

Bruner, Jerome (with the assistance of Rita Watson). Child’s

Talk—Learning to Use Language. New York: W.W. Norton

and Company, 1983.

Clay, M.M. An Observation Survey of Early Literacy

Achievement. Portsmouth, NH, USA: Heinemann, 1993.

Cox, Beverly E. At risk preschoolers’ emerging control over

literacy: Issues of observation, evaluation, and

instruction. Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming

Learning Difficulties, 10 (3), 239–258. 1994.

Cunningham, P.M. and Hall, D.P. Making Words. Torrance,

California, USA: Good Apple, 1994.

Dewey, J. The Child and the Curriculum and The School and

Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1956.

Dewey, J. Dewey on Education—Selections with an Introduction

and Notes by Martin S. Dworkin. New York: Teachers

College Press, 1959.

Healy, Jane M. Endangered Minds—Why Children Don’t

Think—and What We Can Do About It. New York:

Touchstone, 1990.

Pinnell, G.S. and Fountas, I.C. Guided Reading: Good first

teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH, USA:

Heinemann, 1996.

Stone, Jim. The Animated-Alphabet Story, Song and Action

Book. La Mesa, CA, USA: J. Stone Creations, 1998.

Taylor, Denny. Family Literacy—Young Children Learning to

Read and Write. London, Heinemann Educational Books,

1983.

Taylor, Denny and Dorsey-Gaines, Catherine. Growing up

Literate—Learning From Inner City Families. Portsmouth,

New Hampshire, USA: Heinemann, 1988.

Vygotsky, Lev. Thought and Language. Ed. Alex Kozulin.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Institute

of Technology Press, 1986.


Wasserman, Selma. Serious Players in the Primary Classroom—

Empowering Children Through Active Learning Experiences.

New York: Teachers’ College Press, 1990.

Wells, Gordon. The Meaning Makers: Children Learning

Language and Using Language to Learn. Portsmouth, New

Hampshire, USA: Heinemann, 1986.

Whitehurst, G.J., Falco, F.L., Lonigan, C.J., Fischel, J.E., De

Baryshe, B.D., Valdez-Menchaca, M.C. and Caulfield, M.

Accelerating Language Development Through Picture

Book Reading. Developmental Psychology 24 (4), 552–559,

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“Many children in

our society begin

their elementary

school education

with no

appreciation of the

functional utility

of print in the

environment.”

—Denny Taylor

(p. 90)

86


Bribery: Do reading incentives work?

Walter D. Thorne

There has to be a way to reach non-readers

For 25 years, I have been teaching young minds.

Reading has been a fundamental goal and concern

for each of those years. Am I doing enough to

improve the basic reading ability of my students? Can I

make a difference with the whole class, including those

non-interested, below-grade-level students? Those kids

have never been interested or successful at reading.

As elementary educators, we continually search for better

ways. We struggle with points and classroom-management

schemes to achieve the best in learning environments. We

test, assess, rep-test, and analyze. But we are never sure. Are

we reaching all of those for whom we are responsible? We

all want to know if we are improving skills and changing

attitudes.

My 29 Grade 6 students are an important part of my life,

but boy, do they frustrate me. Being an eternal optimist, I

live with the hope that I will miraculously transform them.

I dream that by June, they will all be reading at or above

grade level.

In September, at least eight were reading below grade level

based on June report cards and start-of-year reading SORT

testing. At least five of those were more than one grade

level below Grade 6. They also had poor attitudes toward

reading. They were, in effect, non-readers. Yes, they could

read, but they would not willingly read a book.

As in the past, I considered all the plans from a bag of tricks

I have accumulated over the years. I pulled out my readingfor-pizza

plans, my reading wheels, conference forms,

reading logs, reading certificates, stickers, and readingreport

forms.

This year, I wondered again, do they really make a

difference? Can bribes encourage a student to read? Can

bribes change attitudes? Can bribes turn non-readers into

students who will read willingly?


Yes, I think incentives do make a difference. Now, can I

justify my confidence in them? The following research

should provide some answers.

The plan: Changing directions

In March my main research began. Prior to that, I had

written a reflective journal of my thoughts, successes, and

frustrations with my reading program.

I received permission from my school board to proceed,

and I received a rousing endorsement from the parents of

my students. One hundred percent of the parent consent

forms were returned, and many of them indicated a great

deal of support and encouragement. In addition, my

instructor and colleagues in the masters cohort were all

supportive and full of sound advice. I was filled with

enthusiasm. My research was under way.

I felt that my 29 Grade 6 students and their parents would

be a large enough sample. I did not wish to complicate the

research by involving other teachers, students, and parents.

Questionnaires, both parent and student, would be my

main focus. I did consider just looking at the below-gradelevel

readers within the class but reconsidered, choosing

the whole class instead.

Do reading incentives work? Can

reading certificates and pizza

rewards influence a child to read?

Using my journal, I began a case study of one of my less

fortunate non-readers. I started collecting a lot of

documentary evidence, including photographs, student

reports and conferences, pizza certificates, reading

certificates, and 100-book-club lists.

My research plan had evolved. I realized that initially I was

attempting too much. I needed something more

manageable, without extensive testing. It would be enough

to conduct a student and parent questionnaire on reading

perceptions.

88


The journey: Gathering pertinent data

After an encouraging initial response with the parent

consent forms, I began my research in earnest. I made

several drafts to design questions for both parents and

students. Thanks to collaborative feedback from several

researchers in our masters cohort group, I

modified my list of questions. The list of

parent questions shrank from eight to five

and the list of student questions was also

reduced to five.

Initially, I recognized the importance of

involving all the parents and students in

the questionnaire thus enhancing its

reliability and validity. I used a reward for

returning completed questionnaires. I did

get a high return. One hundred percent of

the students and ninety seven percent of

the parents returned completed forms.

When analyzing and comparing the initial

data that had been returned, my colleagues

and I recognized a problem. The two sets of

questions, (parents and students) were not

compatible. In the interest of clarity, I

would have to redo at least one of the

questionnaires.

I consulted further, then redesigned the five student

questions to make them nearly identical to the five parent

questions. I re-administered the student questionnaire in

class, again with 100% participation. Now I had the data, I

could begin number crunching and analyzing what it all

meant.

Initially, I thought I would do a manual sort of the data.

After further consultation with more experienced

colleagues, I realized the advantages of computers. A good

spreadsheet and data-analysis program like Excel, with its

graph-making capabilities, was hard to ignore. After further

consideration and coaching, I was entering data on my

computer.


I was now ready for the final draft and analysis of my

findings.

Reading with pizzas:

Rewarding experiences

Action research is fascinating and at times, frustrating.

Where you end up is not necessarily where you thought

you might be when you conceived the problems and

questions.

What I wanted, as a 25-year veteran intermediate teacher,

was a validation of teacher practice. I wanted to see that

rewarding students with clear incentives in my Kitimat

classroom or elsewhere, could make a difference.

Questionnaire results showed many things. Most

perceptions were as expected.

1. & 3. Reading at home: The total student body claimed

that they did read at home, and their parents substantiated

that. The question certainly did focus parent attention on

one of the primary goals of an elementary curriculum, and

that is worthwhile in itself. The question made both

parents and students evaluate the fundamental importance

of reading.

2. Pizza awards for reading: All students and parents

acknowledged receiving either pizza rewards or reading

certificates or both.

4. Importance of reading: More than 90% of both parents

and students recognized the importance of reading.

5. Awards encourage reading: Clearly 60% of parents and

students believe incentives do make a difference in

encouraging reading at home and school.

Are incentives worthwhile? They obviously make a

difference, as perceived by most parents and students. I

would suggest that many who said that incentives didn’t

make a difference to them are not a concern. They are the

converted. We as educators want to make changes in

attitudes, and if I can get even a few non-readers to change,

to get hooked on books, then any method that contributes

to this goal is worthwhile. I feel these surveys have

90


validated the common teacher’s practice of offering rewards

for achievement. I will continue to encourage and inspire,

and I’m not discounting bribery. Incentives do pay off.

I still wonder about the few parents and students who did

not recognize the importance of reading. Is this realistic?

Surely every student must acknowledge the importance of

reading. Perhaps failure to master reading skills has made

some people discount the value of decoding, vocabulary,

and comprehension skills.

Although the anonymity of the questionnaires guaranteed

a strong response, I still ache to know how my belowgrade-level

readers responded to the questions. At one

point in the process, I had even considered the

questionable tactic of secretly identifying the

questionnaires of the target students.

I feel confident, based on observations in class and comments

by parents, that my students are reading more and

reading with greater enthusiasm. Certainly, end-of-year

testing with the SORT reading test would substantiate the

amount of progress. Yes, it would make a worthy future

study.

Professional journal:

Reflections of a reading teacher

February 23, 2001

What’s going on? Trevor has only been able to read 13

books so far.

How can I get through to his mom? He has to get his mom

to pay for his lost book. That’s from nearly a year ago, so

why shouldn’t he be able to use the library? He needs that

library. I’ll have to get Terri, our First Nations teacher

assistant, to help. That would be a step in the right

direction. Time will tell.

February 27, 2001

Working as a buddy during 100-day celebrations. My Grade

6s were at their best. They proudly read to the Kindergarten

students, solved sentences for them, and helped them


count to 100 in groups of 10. They help their own literacy

by reading and writing with the younger students.

March 3, 2001

Well, where’s the time gone? It’s only a couple of months

till they confound us all with FSA tests. Our school also

committed to further testing in using the Canadian Test of

Basic Skills. This will be our second year with them. Will

my kids fare well? The stress! The pressure! The bane of

accountability... why should I be anxious? I’m doing the

best I can with what I’ve got. Who can ask for more? But

just maybe another approach, another teacher, could do

more.

Recently I’ve been fine-tuning the skills. The usual

decoding vocabulary and comprehension skills are being

addressed. I think I’ve done well with novel skills, and I’m

especially proud of the volume and intensity of interest in

reading within the class. I think the system of certificates

and pizza presentations within my 100-book club is making

a difference. Also the conferencing system is working very

well. I’ve introduced a more intensive look at specific skills

recently. I’ve introduced a whole Basic Reading Unit using

the old GINN 720 system. I’ve been using pieces of the old

skilpak system, skills like sequencing, inference, main ideas,

cause, and effect. They are all there. As long as I don’t

overdo it, these intensive investigations and skill-based

lessons could make a difference. Time will tell.

After spring break, I will be starting up the SRA Kit. Kids

seem to like the variety of that program. The challenge of

climbing levels seems to appeal to them each year. Other

teachers choose to use that program also, but most use it

regularly throughout the year. I prefer to do this intensively

over a three-week blitz. I suppose both ways work.

92


Being observant as a way of teaching

Moreno Guizzo

“Nothing is more

dampening of

enthusiasm and

effort than

constant correction

when students are

trying to express

their own ideas

within the

limitations of their

newly acquired

knowledge of the

language.”

Does the correction of errors in students’ written work

help students learn a second language?

This project was born of curiosity. I have read many times

that correcting students’ errors is of questionable benefit in

helping students learn a second language and was curious

to explore the concept. Having their errors highlighted

creates much anxiety on the part of the students,

contributing to negative feelings toward the target

language and thus possibly detracting from the learning. As

Wilga Rivers so aptly expressed, “Nothing is more

dampening of enthusiasm and effort than constant

correction when students are trying to express their own

ideas within the limitations of their newly acquired

knowledge of the language.”

As a teacher of French as a second language at Mount

Elizabeth Secondary School for the last 17 years, I have

always been uneasy about the way I correct students’ work.

While I feel that students do learn from reviewing their

mistakes, I have seen many students become frustrated and

impatient with what they must perceive to be my

seemingly endless corrections. I do not make a habit of

correcting every mistake that the students make, but I have

often felt frustrated (and, yes, even impatient) by seeing the

students continue to make the same mistakes even after

seemingly endless corrections. As teachers, we invest much

time in correcting errors. If this does no appreciable good,

then we are wasting our time.

The school and the students

The students selected for this study are all part of the Core

French Program at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School.

They have approximately 360 minutes of class time per

week over a five-month semester. I collected my data

and recorded my observations over the first four

months of the semester. Outside the classroom, the

students have little exposure to the French language. I

started by selecting two classes that I had taught


many times before, and in order to see if age made any

difference, I selected a class of Grade 8 and a class of Grade

12 students.

The Grade 8 class included 29 students whose average age

was 13. While some students have had previous exposure

to French as a second language in their elementary schools,

this introductory course taught the basics of speaking,

reading, writing, and listening comprehension. The

random sampling of students had a wide range of academic

abilities, diverse social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds,

and huge differences in levels of motivation. As with most

students of this age, it was important to vary the activities

to cope with their attention spans and their varying

learning styles.

The class of 29 Grade 12 students had an average age of 17.

The students had had four years of French study, and had

elected to take this course although it is not compulsory.

These were academically strong and motivated students, all

of whom planned to pursue post-secondary education.

Although they showed the typical variety of learning styles,

and all the personality differences found in a group of

young adults, their academic abilities made them a much

more homogenous group with which to work.

After a couple of evaluations, it became clear that both

classes included some students who were so strong that

they had perfect or near-perfect scores in all their quizzes

and so there could be no measurable improvement in their

marks. I decided, at that point to limit my study to the

middle and lower end of the classes, while continuing to

track all the students. In addition, several students had to

be dropped because their attendance was so irregular that

they did not consistently participate in the quizzes. There

were also five students who did not return the parent

consent forms allowing them to be involved in the study so

I could not use their results. I ended up doing the actual

marks analysis on a total of 13 students in the Grade 8 class

and 15 students in the Grade 12 class. The students were

unaware that I had made this selection.

The process

In conducting this research project, I decided that I would

investigate only the correction of errors in written

evaluations of grammar based material since this type of

94


error would be easier to track and record. I felt that the

evaluations would be corrected more consistently since the

questions and answers could be more closely controlled.

Written evaluation would also offer a more concrete subject

when discussing corrections with students since there are

“grammatical rules” to learn. I decided that I would

conduct my classes as I had always done but that whenever

I quizzed my students, I would intervene with some type of

“correction activity” and then re-evaluate with a similar

quiz. In order to offer some incentive for the students, I

told them that I would record the better of their two

quizzes in my school marks book.

The correction activities took several forms. One such form

consisted of exchanging papers to do peer corrections

followed by classroom discussion. In this way the students

reviewed the material twice: the errors of their classmates

and their own errors. At other times, I corrected the quizzes

and then reviewed the answers with the class as a whole by

displaying the correct answers on the overhead projector

while discussing the problems and the questions raised by

the students. We sometimes had the students supply the

correct answers and then allowed others to interject. I also

re-quizzed on several occasions without any correction

activity to see if there were any changes in quiz scores.

The question of how much time to allow between the

initial and subsequent evaluation caused me much

concern. Many variables and considerations were discussed

with colleagues. If the re-quiz were to take place

immediately after the correction activity, then it would

shed no light on whether any longer term learning had

occurred. If a longer time interval were used, then

differences in test scores could be more markedly

influenced by factors other than the correction activity. I

decided on an interval of two days since that seemed

convenient. On the day between the two evaluations, we

would conduct our correction activity. The two days also

provided me a reasonable amount of time to mark the

quizzes and return them to the students for discussion. As

it turned out, there were many times when the interval had

to be adjusted for a variety of reasons.

At the end of my four-month data-gathering period, I

administered a survey to the students to get their feedback

on the whole process. They commented on their feelings


about and their involvement in the study. All students were

encouraged to contribute their opinions even though not

all the students had been included in the analysis.

The results

An analysis of the Grade 8 quiz results allows us to draw

some interesting conclusions. Of the 13 students selected to

be part of the marks analysis, 10 showed improvement in

their re-quiz scores more than half the time, although the

improvements were occasionally so small as to be

negligible, but the students showed the improvements

whether we had done the correction activities or not. Only

five of the students showed consistently significant

improvements, but again they showed the improvements

with and without the correction activities. On three of the

quizzes, the number of students who did more poorly on

the second quiz equaled the number who improved their

scores. Student marks showed equal amounts of change

whether a correction activity had been done or not. The

graph of student averages indicates that re-quizzing

students does improve their test results; however, looking

at the individual test results shows this is not the case.

Students’ results are a seemingly random distribution of

changes from one quiz to the next, and this indicates that,

while error correction appears to help at times, student

performance does not depend on it.

The Grade 8 survey results were also of interest. While the

students did not identify themselves, I separated the

surveys into two groups as they were handed in: those by

students who had been included in the marks analysis and

those by students who had not. The latter group largely

consisted of students who performed so well that there

could be no measurable difference between their two

quizzes. In the survey, this group indicated that they had

been more attentive during the correction activities than

the group that was actually analyzed. Both groups felt that

they understood the material better and that their marks

had improved because of the correction activities, even

though the analysis of their marks shows that was not the

case. Both groups responded positively on all the survey

items except for item 11, which queried the benefits of

marking other students’ quizzes. The Grade 8 class was

evenly split as to whether or not that was beneficial. All the

students agreed that the correction activities were

beneficial, and they would recommend them to other

classes.

96


These results do

not paint an

accurate picture of

all that happened

during this fourmonth

period of

testing and

correcting. In both

classes, the

students began

taking their

involvement very

seriously. They

seemed genuinely

impressed that

they would be part

of a research

project, and they

asked probing,

pertinent

questions.

The marks analysis of the Grade 12 quiz results seemed to

be more positive. Eleven of the 15 selected students

improved their marks on the majority of the re-quizzes,

and the amount of improvement was also much more

pronounced with these students than with the juniors.

Improvements were seen only on the first two sets of requizzes;

after that there is no definite pattern. On the last

two re-quizzes, one with and one without a correction

activity, just as many students did more poorly on the

second quiz as those who improved their scores. Perhaps

the novelty had worn off!

The surveys show a general consistency of opinion between

the Grade 12 students who were selected for the study and

those who were not. Both groups felt that the correction

activities were highly beneficial and would recommend

doing it with other classes. The students who had not been

selected indicated that they asked more questions than the

selected group; however, the selected group indicated

higher levels of attentiveness during explanations. As with

the Grade 8 class, these students were skeptical of the

benefits of marking other students’ quizzes, but the Grade

12 students also indicated disagreement with the statement

that their marks had improved without the correction

activities. Evidently the senior students give much more

importance to revision and practice than do the juniors.

These results do not paint an accurate picture of all that

happened during this four-month period of testing and

correcting. In both classes, the students began taking their

involvement very seriously. They seemed genuinely

impressed that they would be part of a research project,

and they asked probing, pertinent questions. They were

especially enthusiastic about the prospect of having two

shots at the quizzes and so anticipated better marks. Their

moods, however, changed. At times, the students were

annoyed with, resentful of, bored with, thankful for,

interested in, or surprised by the evaluations. The quiz

results were just as inconsistent as the students themselves,

reflecting the inconsistent nature of the classroom. From

one day to the next, neither teachers nor students knew

what would happen.

The problems

In starting this action research project, all members of our

group were encouraged to trust themselves, even when we

were unsure what to do or how to progress. When our


doubts grew about the validity of our research, there was

always a reassurance that all would work itself out in the

end as long as we kept ourselves open to observations of

our classrooms. My doubts were many:

• doubts about the validity of the whole project because of

the differences between tests. Were they so similar that

there was no learning necessary, or were they so different

that the learning was not applicable? And was my

marking of the two consistent?

• doubts about the time. Was the two-day interval

between quizzes reasonable? And how did all the

interruptions to that interval affect the results? I was ill

on one occasion, so the Grade 8 class had three days

between quizzes. Spring break forced me to speed up one

evaluation with the Grade 12 class; they did their quizzes

without the interval. On one occasion, I forgot to allow

for parent-teacher interviews; so the Grade 12 class got

an extra day between quizzes. And was the two-day

interval necessary with quizzes when we did no

correction activity?

• doubts about the effect absenteeism would have on the

results; I was absent and students were absent for one or

both quizzes and/or for the correction activity.

• doubts about the effect of student attitudes. Some days

they were serious about the quizzes, and other days they

were not. Sometimes they did their corrections, and

other times they did not. Some students seemed to

always try their best, and other students made no effort

to improve. Some students would not try on the second

evaluation if they had already done well on the first one.

• and, especially, doubts about my initial premise that an

improvement in test results shows that learning has

actually taken place. I questioned this concept more and

more as I saw students who could communicate

effectively in conversation tasks yet did not perform well

in the written quizzes. The students also indicated in

their surveys that they felt they had benefited from the

correction activities even though the test results did not

show that to be the case. Obviously, the quizzes that I

had selected for my study did not measure what these

students had learned.

98


In starting this project, I had envisioned a closely

controlled experiment that would show a relation between

correcting students’ errors and their subsequent learning. I

managed to hold on to this dream for about five weeks

before the list of uncontrollable variables became too long

to allow any fidelity to it. The classroom is simply too

messy a place to conduct research on any one variable. And

the variables are many:

• the test themselves

• the absenteeism

• the time interval

• the time allowed for each of the two quizzes

• the possibility of cheating

• the inconsistent effort of students

• the (in)consistency of instruction and corrections

• the interruptions

• the school activities that influence student performance

• the time of day

As the project

advanced, I

started to let go of

the ambition to

“prove” a point

about error

correction. I began

to examine the

variables and tried

to address them.

In starting this project, I had given no thought to the

question of gender. Only after the student selection and the

data collection had been completed did this question arise.

The Grade 8 class consisted of 17 boys and 12 girls. Of

these, I ended up selecting 9 boys and 4 girls for the study.

The Grade 12 class included 20 girls and 9 boys from whom

I chose 11 girls and 4 boys for my study. Although the

selection was done without regard to gender, when I noted

that my study sample roughly reflected the ratio of girls to

boys in the classes as a whole, I no longer concerned myself

with it. This does not imply, however, that it is not an

issue.

The surprises

As the project advanced, I started to let go of the ambition

to “prove” a point about error correction. I began to

examine the variables and tried to address them. By being

more aware of absenteeism, I asked myself how I could

help the students who had been absent catch up. By

observing the students’ moods more closely, I reacted in a

more sympathetic manner to their needs. By questioning

the difficulty of the tests and my own consistency in

marking, I gave the students a more appropriate evaluation.

I started to notice unexpected benefits of doing this

project.


One of the pleasant surprises that emerged was the low

number of grammatical evaluations I do. I had decided to

limit my study to these types of evaluations because of the

concreteness of the learning involved. This made it easier

for the students and me when discussing errors. Correcting

student errors in free conversation or in listening

comprehension or in free written expression would not be

as focussed as the written grammatical evaluations. Initially

I worried that I would be unable to “get in” enough

evaluations to make the study valid, but as I got over the

feeling of having to justify my methods, I became quite

pleased to see that the vast majority of my evaluations in

class are communicative.

I noticed that while the students’ overall marks did not

change by any significant amount, the level of anxiety over

testing, especially for the senior students, was tangibly

reduced. On one occasion, the students were obviously

nervous about doing a quiz on the subjunctive verb form.

This nervousness seemed to disappear when I told them

that this would be a re-quiz item. Also, when the students

knew that we would be re-quizzing an item, they seemed to

shift their emphasis from marks to learning. The students

became more actively involved in the correction process.

They asked more questions and, on one occasion,

independently noticed a pattern in the verb conjugation.

The quizzes became part of the learning process instead of

separate from it.

I was surprised that the students should become conscious

of learning styles. The students and I would address the

errors in a variety of ways. On several occasions, I sensed

that the students were becoming impatient with the

process; I was forced to explain that we correct things

orally, aurally, visually, and, sometimes, kinesthetically to

accommodate the different ways students learn. After a few

correction activities, the students started to ask for

corrections in a way that reflected their own personal

learning styles. For any one question, I might get one

student who would say the answer (several times!) and

another who would ask that the answer be repeated, and

another would want to see the answer written out and yet

another who would ask for a step-by-step solution to the

problem. The students became more aware of their

learning styles, and they started to show more patience

with other students when an answer was requested in a

different form.

100


As I studied the student surveys, I was pleasantly surprised

by the positive response of the students. The vast majority

of students indicated that the correction activities did help

them to better understand the material and that they felt

the activities were worthwhile. The majority were

comfortable doing the corrections and indicated that they

felt that their questions had been respectfully accepted and

satisfactorily answered. Despite the students’ very negative

attitudes on some days, they remembered the experience in

a positive light.

The initial focus

of this study was

on students’ errors

and correcting

them. However,

the emphasis

shifted, and I

started to

concentrate on the

dynamics of the

class.

Conclusion

The initial focus of this study was on students’ errors and

correcting them. However, the emphasis shifted, and I

started to concentrate on the dynamics of the class. The

variables that had at first frustrated me because they

seemed to be compromising my experiment opened up

new possibilities. The problems and the surprises began to

emerge, and I began to see action research in a different

light. Error correction became a way of learning about the

material but also about ourselves, about personal learning

styles, about co-operation with others.

By doing this action research project, I was more focussed

on the students’ behaviours and performance than I might

have been otherwise. From a clinical point of view, this

project does not conclusively answer the initial question. It

does, however, show that correcting errors with the

students did have benefits, even if they were not those

anticipated. The students became more aware of their own

learning styles and experienced lower stress levels, and the

teacher became more observant of the students and more

sensitive to their needs.


102


Songs unsung:

A critical look at a bureaucratic decision

Richard P. Jones (B.A.)

The other day my wife and I were doing some spring

cleaning when we stumbled across her clarinet and

my trumpet. Neither of us play them anymore and

hadn’t really played them much since high school. But we

both hung on to them; still seemed to treasure them, and

the fact we had developed a love for making music.

We both felt the urge to see if we still had what it takes to

play music. As painful as it was, we played for a good halfhour.

Then we spent the next half-hour talking about all

the good times and positive experiences we had in high

school and band class.

I had always assumed that all students in the province of

British Columbia would have the opportunity to take some

form of music program at the elementary and high school

level. I was shocked to find that the school district I worked

for was eliminating the elementary music program in order

to save money.

Without the elementary feeder program it was only a

matter of time before the high school programs fell too.

It only took two years, and now no student in a town of

over 10,000, has the opportunity to take a music program

at the high school level unless their parents can afford

private lessons.

That realization got me started on this project. I hoped to

prove the worthiness of a music program for all students in

all schools. I talked to the high school principal, and he

was all in favor of restarting a music program at the high

school. His main concern was whether there would be

enough interest by the students for the program to run; so I

set out to find out.

Data collection methods

A memo went out to all the teachers at the high school

requesting their help to administer a questionnaire that

was to go out to all 949 students. I received back 757 of


these questionnaires, of which 24 were spoiled, leaving a

very healthy 733 for my database. Students mid-term marks

were collected through the office data bank, and cross

referenced to the data provided by each participating

student. All the collected data was entered, thanks to the

help of Derek Weeres (data entry assistant/student), into

FileMaker Pro for data analysis. Throughout this study, I

looked at the band/music program and compared it to the

extra-curricular sports offered by the schools and the local

community.

Results

There were several interesting findings from the data

analysis of the questionnaires and corresponding grades;

however, I chose to focus on two pressing questions:

• Are students interested in taking band/music at the

high school level?

• Is there an “educational value” to offering these classes

to our students?

As far as the student interest in a band/music program at

the high school level goes, there were 87 students

interested in taking band/music classes; definitely enough

to run a small music program. Of even more interest was

the breakdown of those interested according to grade level.

In every grade (8 through 12), the percentage of students

interested in taking band/music was greater than the

percentage who had recently taken band/music at the high

school. In fact, this years’ Grade 8 class had 23% wishing to

take band/music; yet only 10% had access to private

lessons. The other 13% of Grade 8 students were unable to

experience the joy of music making since band/music has

not been offered at the high school level for the past two

years. So where do these high school’s troubles stem from?

In all fairness, I believe them to be two-fold. A definite

contributor was the school board’s decision to eliminate

the elementary music program three years ago. The second

being the under-valuing of the arts by today’s society.

Only 28% of the elementary students end up taking private

music lessons during their elementary years compared to

75% who take part in “private” community sports. These

numbers, by a student’s high school years, decrease to only

about 15% for music and 62% for sports. Clearly one can

104


see an equal decline of 13% in both areas over this time

span but what accounts for the 47% difference between

music involvement and sports? Perhaps the answer lies in

our community value system.

When students at the high school were asked if they felt

band/music and sports should even be offered at the high

school level the biases were very clear. Only 61% on

average felt that band/music should be offered, compared

to 95% on average for the sports at the high school. With

such gross undervaluing of the band/music program, it is

not surprising that the arts in this town are struggling to

survive.

So this brings us to my second and final question; what is

the educational value of the arts (specifically the band/

music program)?

I find the hardest

part about

answering the

question is that

one must first

define the word

“value.” Typically,

in today’s society,

we define “value”

in monetary ways.

And it is safe to

say that we all

know that there is

more money to be

made in sports

than in music.

I find the hardest part about answering the question is that

one must first define the word “value.” Typically, in today’s

society, we define “value” in monetary ways. And it is safe

to say that we all know that there is more money to be

made in sports than in music. But many non-monetary

things have great spiritual, personal, and educational value.

As a teacher, it is my job not to make my students rich in

monetary ways, but rich in holistic ways. But this too

brings a problem of measure. How can one measure a

student’s educational value? The standard measure used by

schools, school boards, and governments alike for many

years has been student’s grades. These can be a great way to

measure education; so too can be participation levels of

students within one’s local society (being an active member

of society). So let’s look at both of these to offer an answer

to this daunting question.

When comparing the number of students taking band/

music to those who were not, and cross-referencing these

results to their grades it was found that within both the 41–

60% and 61–80% ranges there were equally 5% more

students who did not take band. However, when looking at

the highest grade range, 81–100%, there were, indeed, 10%

more students who took band/music than did not. This

suggests that either students who take band/music become

the best students, or the best students see the value of

taking band/music. Either way, band/music students are

10% more likely to attain top grades.


In order to look at societal involvement I looked only at

the students who either played music in the community

(outside of school) and/or those who played sports in the

community (also outside of school). These students

represented 77% of the student body, which I considered to

be quite good for community involvement in these two

areas. But which group (band/music or sports) is more

active in both school and community? When looking only

at the Grade 8 and 9 classes it appears as though students

playing high school sports are much more active in the

community and those taking band/music do not

participate at all. This is not at all accurate, since there are

no band/music students in Grade 8 or 9 due to lack of

access to these courses. So the only true measure can be

made by looking only at the Grade 10, 11, and 12 students.

Here one can clearly see that a higher percentage of band/

music students are active in both school and community.

In fact, by the time these students get to Grades 11 and 12,

the participation is 100%, compared to only about 60%

participation rate for sports students.

Conclusion

Throughout this project I have focussed on two main

questions:

• Are students interested in taking band/music at the

high school level?

• Is there “educational value” in offering these classes to

our students?

Clearly the data shows the answer to both these questions

is “YES” so where do we go from here? How do we ensure

that all students in the province of British Columbia have

the opportunity to take some form of music program at the

elementary and high school level? And who is responsible

to see that this does take place? Ultimately, the onus lies on

all of us; teachers, parents, trustees, board members, and

the Ministry of Education. As educators, it is our job to

ensure a holistic education for the youth of our province.

This is what forms a society. If we sit back and allow the

marketplace and mass media to dictate what has value,

then we are only seeing the tip of the iceburg in the

stripping down of our education system. The data is out

there, now, the next step is yours!

106


Improving math skills

for the science classroom

Richard Krickan

Juliet Shields

Discussing the

students’

dependence on

calculators with

our actionresearch

group, we

were surprised to

find that the

elementary

school teachers

feel strongly

about the overuse

of calculators in

the lower grades.

As science teachers, we feel that we often overlook

the students’ poor mental math skills and their

over-reliance on calculators in order to concentrate

on the science curriculum. We assume the students will

continue to develop mental math skills in their math

classes. But when we were teaching Math 8 and spent a

week reviewing the multiplication tables, the students

gained little from the practice. The students who knew

their multiplication tables did well, but the students who

did not know them showed little improvement over the

week. It seems students would rather reach for their

calculator, punch the buttons, and hope they get the right

answer, than attempt the question in their heads, even

for a question as straightforward as “21 - 6 = 15.” It also

seems that numbers have no real meaning to some

students. For example, they do not realize that 1,000 is

ten times greater than 100, or that “half” of something is

the same as “0.5.” This inability to perform basic math

functions generates a lack of confidence in their math

and science skills.

Discussing the students’ dependence on calculators with

our action-research group, we were surprised to find that

the elementary school teachers feel strongly about the

overuse of calculators in the lower grades. However, they

feel that the K–7 Mathematics IRP directs the students

toward a reliance on calculators and technology, with

less emphasis on mental math skills. When we checked

the IRP, we found that both are called for, but the

emphasis is on technology. The references to mental

math skills are scattered throughout the IRP.

The students’ inability to do mental math limits them

in higher math (algebra, for example) and higher

science (chemistry and physics). Many processes must

be internalized in order to learn math. We realize that

knowing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and

division by rote is just one of these processes, but one


that is necessary for a strong foundation in math and

science.

Narrowing our focus

We had talked with other math and science teachers about

our frustrations with the students’ dependence on

calculators. We had not considered tackling the problem

ourselves until our action research instructor asked us to

choose a topic about which we really cared. Could we find

a way to improve students’ arithmetic skills in the science

classroom?

Colleagues from elementary schools mentioned using daily

drills for arithmetic practice. Since many of the students

would be familiar with the drills, this format could be used

in the science classroom. However, we first had to look at a

number of questions:

• Would the students accept the drills as a legitimate part of the

course and try their best while answering them? We realized

that we would have to present the drills as a worthwhile

yet non-threatening exercise. We hoped that the students

would see the drills as an enriching and integrated part

of their class.

• Should we recruit other science teachers and their classes?

This could have allowed us to study the results of a wider

range of students, but we decided to keep the project in

our own hands so we would be in a better position to

interpret the results. We felt that Richard’s two Science 9

classes and Juliet’s Science 10 class, with 25 students in

each, would be a sufficient sample size. At Mount

Elizabeth Secondary School, class lists are generated by

the computer’s time tabling function. Since the only

students streamed out of science classes are a few in the

Resource Services’ Minimum Essentials Program, our

classes would be heterogeneous in their abilities.

• Would the class time spent on the drills be a hardship to the

students in that they would have less time for the rest of the

course? We did not think that a short drill each day

would interfere with the curriculum of the junior science

classes. The amount of material to be covered in the

senior science courses does not allow such flexibility.

• Should we use all our junior science classes, or leave one class

as a control? We decided to include all our classes and to

use a pre-test and post-test as a control rather than

choose one class to be a control group.

108


• What sorts of questions should be used for the drills? We

decided to limit the drills to addition, subtraction,

multiplication, and division. There would be five types of

drills: a drill for each of the operations and a drill that

combined all four of the operations.

• Over what time period should we run the drills? Our school

year is two semesters long. In each semester, four classes

meet every day for 80 minutes. We decided to limit the

drills to the first eight weeks of the second semester for

two reasons:

(1) we were not sure how long, if at all, the drills would

continue to generate improvement in the students’

mental math skills;

(2) we needed time to analyze the results of the drills.

A combination drill would be our pre-test, and then we

would rotate through the five types of drills sequentially:

addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,

combination, and back to addition. Forty different quizzes

(eight cycles, five days a week) would be required. Our final

drill, our post-test, would be the same combination drill

that we would use for the pre-test.

• How long should each drill be? How much time would the

students have and how many questions would be on

each drill? We chose one minute as the time available for

the students to answer the questions. This would allow

the drills to be distributed, written, and collected in

about five minutes. At the end of the first semester, Juliet

ran a trial drill with one of her Science 9 classes. A drill

with 40 questions gave scores that allowed students an

opportunity to improve but did not have so many

questions that it discouraged them from trying their best.

Forty questions in 60 seconds seemed an appropriate

number of questions and length of time for junior high

school students. Eight cycles with a pre- and post-test

would be long enough for us to see if the daily drills

improved the students’ basic math skills.

Administering the drills

Richard gave the drills to his classes in the middle of the

lesson; Juliet gave the drills to her class at the end. The

drills were given almost every day. A few days were missed

because of chapter tests and teacher absences. We

photocopied the drills and distributed them to the students


face down. The students started and stopped at our prompt.

We collected the drills and marked them ourselves. With

the exception of the pre-test and post-test, the drills were

returned to the students so they could check their results. A

marks program was used for record-keeping and calculating

averages.

Results

Even before the students had finished the 41 drills, we saw

that the students’ scores had begun to improve

dramatically. Once we had finished the drills and examined

the students’ scores, we found that:

• Of the 74 students, 72 had higher scores on the post-test than

on the pre-test. For the two other students, one went from

40/40 to 39/40 and the other stayed at 28/40 (but had

achieved 40/40 during the course of the drills). We were

very pleased with the results.

• The average score of each class increased by about 20%. The

following actual percentage changes for each class are

shown in the table. The Table also shows that when we

isolated the results of the five students who were lowest

on the pre-test in each class, we saw stunning

improvement.

Table

Average percentage of the pre-test and post-test for

the three classes.

Number of

Lowest five

students in

students’ average

Class the class Pre-test % Post-test % improvement (%)

Science 9 (1) 24 65 86 +33

Science 9 (2) 24 66 86 +41

Science 10 26 71 94 +46

• The three classes had results that were very similar to one

another. There was a consistent pattern of improvement

in the scores for the combination drills for the three

classes.

110


• The average scores for each of the arithmetic skills generally

improved. We noticed a consistent pattern in all three

classes: the average scores for the combination and

division drills showed the greatest improvement and

those for the subtraction and addition drills showed the

least improvement. Other factors affected the students’

scores. We both noticed a dip in the class averages just

before spring break.

• The students found their own ways to improve their scores.

We did not give any arithmetic lessons, nor did we

correct the students’ mistakes. The increase in scores

came from the students’ initiative. Some students

learned to select the easiest questions first; other students

learned to write the answer to one question while

reading the next. Several students tried to start the drill

early or to keep writing after the stop signal, but the

ribbing from their classmates kept that from being a

serious problem.

• Students took pride in their improvement and encouraged one

another. The drills gave the students another arena in

which they could excel. In all classes, the drills brought

out the competitive nature of the boys. Some of them

treated the drills as a race, delighting in letting the other

students know when they finished early. Unfortunately,

we also noticed that if students were able to finish early,

they did not use the time to check their answers. In

general, the students who were unable to finish the drill

in the 60 seconds were still completely engaged in

answering the questions until the stop signal, even in the

eighth week of the drills. We heard very few comments

of frustration or boredom.

• Students accepted the drills as part of the class routine. We

were pleased at how smoothly the drills fit into the

lessons, and we found that the drills added to the

courses. In the Science 9 classes, the drills served as a

change-of-pace item and helped break the 80-minute

periods into shorter activities, keeping the students on

task. Occasionally, the students asked why we were doing

math in the science classes. We, and even some of the

students, answered that much of science is math, so

science could not be separated from math. Students saw

the drills as practice for the calculations in the course.

We could not have run the drills without the students’

acceptance of the drills. The students’ active involvement


in the drills (monitoring their scores and competing,

developing strategies to increase their speed) kept the

students interested and kept them improving. The

students often reminded us to run the drills, and some

were disappointed when we stopped giving them.

Having run the drills, we found that they did not rob the

classes of time needed to meet the curricular

requirements.

Reflections

Would we give a program of drills to our classes again,

considering the results? Yes, we would, even though

marking 25 drills per class every night was time-consuming

and tedious. Having gone through the process once,

however, we would consider some changes:

• Is an eight- to nine- week period the optimum length of time

to run the drills? The single-operation drill scores started

to plateau after three or four weeks, and the combination

drills appeared to plateau after six weeks or so.

• Should we introduce more operations into the drills? We

think that the simplicity of the drills was a great virtue,

but perhaps we are wrong. We decided before we began

to run the drills for eight or nine weeks and use the preand

post-test to gauge effectiveness. It may be better to

monitor the combination drills weekly to see when

improvement is no longer occurring. This could be used

as an opportunity to challenge the students with another

skill, such as rounding off or decimals.

• What would have been the effect if the drills were in order of

operation (two weeks on addition, two weeks on subtraction,

etc.)? We could have easily introduced the drills one

operation at a time, but would the students have

improved more (or less) compared to the rotational

method we used?

• Should we redesign the drills? We kept the drills at the

same level of difficulty for the entire 40 drills. Would we

get better results if we started with easy drills and

gradually increased their difficulty? What if we made the

last five questions harder to serve as a challenge for the

faster students? In any case, we recommend that

112


changes should be decided well in advance. We cannot

emphasize enough that having all the drills prepared

ahead of time made them easy to incorporate into the

classroom routine. Whether all the drills or just a week’s

worth were photocopied at a time, having them ready to

hand out took them off our daily preparation list.

• Were our three classes unusual in some way, showing unusual

results? We do not think so, since all three classes

showed the same pattern of improvement (see Figure 2).

• Are the drills an effective long-range strategy? Was the

success of the drills a result of their novelty? As teachers,

we have often seen new approaches that are successful in

their introductory year but lose their effectiveness as

they become a standard part of the course.

We set out to improve the students’ arithmetic skills in the

science classroom, and we found that their scores on short

daily drills showed remarkable improvement over the

course of eight or nine weeks. The weaker students,

especially, tended to show very strong improvement. Later,

when we were giving lessons that required calculations,

more students readily volunteered answers, and fewer had

to stop their work when they had no calculator. Although

we found that the drills were a lot of work to prepare and

mark, they were a positive addition to our classroom

routine, and the students gained more than just the

improvement to their math skills.


114


Reading for at risk students

Reading roots

Budding flowers

Maureen Atkinson

Icurrently teach two Kindergarten classes, and I have

taught Kindergarten for the past eight years. Over

time, my teaching has changed. I’ve become more

aware of differences in how children come prepared to

learn about reading in Kindergarten. Some have been

introduced to books at an early age and have a strong

awareness of the written word. Some are beginning to

associate sounds and letters on their first day of school.

Often those children have had parents model reading for

them as well as read aloud to them on a daily basis. Those

children know that books can introduce them to a rich

world of fantasy or fact. They understand the value of

learning to read. They are also able to print their names

and are beginning to print small familiar words. Some are

even developing a sight vocabulary.

Not all children who are introduced to books at an early

age are prepared to begin reading in Kindergarten. Even

though they have been encouraged to look at print and

letters and have been read to every day, they are still not

ready. Some children simply have not arrived at that point

in maturity in which they are ready to become interested in

reading. They may become interested in reading later in

the Kindergarten year, or at the beginning of Grade 1, or

even later.

Other children have had very

little experience with books.

They do not understand that

words have meaning, that

words do not change, that

print progresses from left to

right, that letters make

sounds, that words are a

group of letters, and that

there is a one-to-one

correspondence with the


number of words on the page and what we read. Often

those children do not participate in my reading program,

which involves reading a small eight-page book with a few

words on a page, like the Sunshine Series, which have been

categorized according to difficulty. First they read the

books with a volunteer or me; then the books are sent

home in a plastic bag along with a book in which the

parent helps the child record the books they have read.

The children must bring back their book bags containing

their class readers in order to have them exchanged for

others.

There is a third group of students: those students who have

reading disabilities and may continue to have reading

difficulties through their school careers. Testing for

learning disabilities is typically not done until Grade 3,

because of school board restrictions and policies. Because

of that it is difficult to determine if a child has a learning

disability through Kindergarten, and Grades 1 and 2. It is

difficult, as a teacher, to determine why children are not

interested in reading or have not yet begun to understand

any concepts of print. We can guess that they may not

have been introduced to books through their parents. We

may wonder if they have a learning disability or look at

their maturity compared against other children their age,

but we do not always know. We can make sure that all

children are introduced to wonderful literature and are

taught reading strategies at their level.

My proposal

I decided to work with children who have difficulty

reading, on a small-group basis, in order to give them a

boost. I wanted to lessen the gap between those students

and their classmates, and familiarize those students with

print. I wanted to increase their confidence in their

abilities to learn to read. I also wanted to provide those

children with rich, meaningful reading experiences.

Mostly, I wanted to help them become excited about

reading.

Current research has focussed on the importance of early

intervention for at-risk readers. According to Reading 44. A

Core Reading Framework, (p. 7) “Early intervention is critical

to ensure success for students at risk” Two primary teachers

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and I decided to implement a new reading-intervention

program called Guided Reading and adapt it to fit our varied

classrooms. Guided Reading is not typically used in

Kindergarten classrooms, so I knew I would have to adapt it

to fit my teaching style and the needs of the children.

Guided Reading is intended to (p.1):

- give teachers an opportunity to observe individuals as

they process new texts.

- give individual readers the opportunity to develop

reading strategies so they can read increasingly difficult

texts independently.

- give children successful experiences in reading for

meaning.

Through Guided Reading, a teacher works with a small

group of children that may change as necessary. The

children in the group have similar reading abilities. The

teacher introduces the stories. Each child reads the text.

Children have an opportunity to read independently. Over

time, children read more challenging books.

I have always

used a great deal

of art work and

drama in my

teaching, and I

also like to provide

a lot of

opportunities for

hands-on

experiences;

sometimes the

more mess it

makes, the more

wonderful it is.

The rationale for Guided Reading is based on the research of

Marie Clay. She states that children build a network of

strategies as they begin to become familiar with print.

Children gather information from three sources. Meaning

clues come from children’s life experiences, syntactic clues

come from knowing how oral language works, and visual

clues come from knowing the relationship between oral

language and graphic symbols. (Page 4)

My style

I have always used a great deal of art work and drama in

my teaching, and I also like to provide a lot of

opportunities for hands-on experiences; sometimes the

more mess it makes, the more wonderful it is. I didn’t want

my reading program to take me too far away from my style

of teaching, and I felt it would be best for me if I could

combine art, drama, and related activities to extend the

books and stay within my curriculum. I also feel that

children need time to socialize, and I did not want to

sacrifice that sacred time.

I currently teach both French immersion and English

Kindergarten. Though both follow the same curriculum, I


must teach reading in a different manner. There is a greater

focus on pre-teaching vocabulary in French immersion. I

wanted to implement a program loosely based on guided

reading in both classrooms.

I selected three children from each classroom and began to

work with the other teachers to procure the books and to

establish a space in which we could work. Another teacher

was very active in seeking funding for books and our school

was lucky to receive enough readers to begin the program

in English. We did not have additional funding to hire a

teacher assistant (a TA trained in guided reading or a special

needs teacher) to manage our classrooms while we worked

with our small groups. I found it very difficult to establish

a time when the greater portion of my students could work

independently. I chose to do so during our centre time.

Most of the children were familiar with the routines,

though they still interrupted when they needed help with

problem solving. I did the preliminary testing with my

three students and tried to assess where they were, and

what kind of reading strategies they would need to learn.

What do I already

do to teach literacy?

Over the years, I’ve slowly developed my own reading

program, sampling and adding aspects from other reading

programs as they become available. I provide opportunities

for children to practise printing letters and words. We keep

journals through the year in which all letters are

introduced. I also have a literacy centre where children can

choose to practise printing and letter recognition. Parent

volunteers read to children on a regular basis, and the

books are then sent home in bookbags to share with

parents. Letter sounds are linked to music and art through

the Animated Alphabet we now use in our classrooms.

During our calendar time, we also focus on letter sounds

and the conventions of writing.

Case studies

I began working with my English Kindergarten first.

Through the year, I test children to assess their ability to

118


identify letters and associate sounds and letters. I chose

three children who had great difficulty with those skills.

The children did not often bring in their readers to be

exchanged and did not seem confident or interested in

reading. We began Guided Reading in March. I began

Guided Reading with the French immersion students in late

April. I chose those three children based on the same

criteria as the English program.

Jennifer

Jennifer had difficulty settling into English Kindergarten.

She was subject to temper tantrums, especially from

September to December. When she began Kindergarten,

she was able to name two letters of the alphabet J and O.

She had difficulty printing the letters of her name, and

when asked to copy it, she would print letters randomly all

over the page. She had a very short attention span and

would become distracted through story time, often looking

around the room for ways to distract herself. She also had

difficulty with other attending skills and found it difficult

to listen to and follow directions. She frequently needed

further teacher instruction while attempting to complete

her class projects, and she continued to need additional

aid. She was not participating in the book-bag program at

home i.e., she did not return her reader so did not have an

opportunity to exchange her book for a new one.

When I began implementing my program in March, she

was able to recognize 17 upper-case letters of the alphabet

and 12 lower-case letters. She was not yet associating

sounds and letters. She could identify letters but not

words. She could tell me which direction to read print, but

she could not find the last word on the page. She often

waited for other children before she “read” her book, and

she needed reminders to follow with her finger. She often

fell behind and was usually the first one to lose interest in

the story. She could not determine the difference between

upper and lower-case letters. She needed reminders to turn

the page in order to continue in the story.

I wanted to help her:

- identify a word.

- use picture clues to predict the text.

- understand the directionality of text.

- understand the beginning and end of a book.

- experience reading in a positive manner.


Robin

Robin is enrolled in the English program. He had a great

deal of difficulty with attending skills and was very easily

distracted. He was unable to finish art projects without

teacher assistance and often did not understand what he

was expected to do. He used immature language and

would frequently say “her” for the word she. He often had

difficulty expressing what he needed. In September, Robin

was lacking many strategies and skills in order to begin

reading. He often needed reminders to look at the pictures

in readers and would make wild guesses when he was not

sure. I sometimes moved his finger along the line of print

to remind him which direction to read. He did not

understand how to find the first and last word on a page.

He did not know many letter names or the sounds they

make.

Strategies to teach Robin:

- direction of print.

- names of letters.

- sounds letters make.

- how to use picture clues to predict the text.

Ethan

Ethan is enrolled in the French immersion program. He

has trouble adjusting to new situations. When September

began he was able to recognize six upper-case letters of the

alphabet. In April, at the beginning of Guided Reading, he

was able to print his name using only capital letters of the

alphabet. Ethan had difficulty with fine-motor skills, and

frequently became confused when completing his art

projects. He had trouble following a series of instructions.

He liked to work quickly in order to be finished first, and

he did not often ask for teacher assistance. Needless to say,

some of his projects ended up looking a little strange. He

was able to show me the front and back cover of a book,

but he could not show me the title or where we read the

story. He could tell me which direction we read the print,

but he did not have one-to-one correspondence. He could

identify a letter but not words. He relied on memory to tell

the story, and he read quickly without referring to the text.

He was able to remember French vocabulary, and he

willingly approximated remembered vocabulary though he

still did not refer to the text.

Ethan already loved books and stories and always

participated enthusiastically in reading activities. He was

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confident that he would become a reader and concentrated

on the task at hand.

I wanted to help Ethan:

- understand the concept of a word.

- use visual clues (picture and text) to predict a story.

- begin to associate sounds and letters.

Lyle

Lyle came to my classroom a few months later than the

other children. He was going to school in two different

districts because of his living conditions. An affectionate

and open boy, he had some trouble settling in. He often

interrupted me and needed extra attention. He worked

extremely slowly on his class assignments, and was rarely

able to complete his work without asking for some teacher

assistance. He had some difficulty printing his name, and

would confuse the direction of some letters. At the

beginning of my project in April, he was able to recognize

12 upper-case letters of the alphabet. He could identify

letters but not words. He could tell the direction we read

print, and was aware of most concepts of a book. He relied

on picture clues to tell a story and did not look at the text.

Goals for Lyle:

- sound and letter association, especially using beginning

sounds of words.

- concept of a word.

- one-to-one correspondence words to text.

Action

First group including Jennifer and Robin

I sent a letter home to parents requesting permission to

work with their children, and I began to work with the

English group. We worked three times a week during our

centre time, while other children chose a centre according

to set routines. I chose easy predictable books with two

words on the page, books with clear illustrations. All three

children were in an early emergent level of reading. We

began to work on acquiring beginning reading skills and

strategies. Every time we began a new book, we would do a

“picture walk” through the book, i.e., look at the pictures

in the book to help tell the story. I usually could talk

about how the story related to us and introduced new


vocabulary. After our picture walk through Huggles

Breakfast, we talked about what we had for breakfast. I

chose some simple skills to focus on:

- find the front and back cover of book.

- find first word on a page.

- follow text with our fingers (directionality).

- look at pictures to predict text.

I sat Jennifer beside me to remind and show her where to

look and point. She often waited for other children to read

to make sure she was saying the right words. She

frequently had difficulty in understanding where to begin

reading.

Robin relied on memory and pictures to predict text. He

did not refer to the text and made up his own stories.

First setback

I soon found that interruptions from the rest of the class

were becoming a problem, and I found I was often stopping

to problem solve with other children, or that children were

not cleaning up as well as when I was closely watching.

The rest of the students also began to resent the fact that

my attention was absorbed with the same children during

my reading time. The interruptions slowed the progress

and frustrated my reading group. I also noticed that after

the first few days my reading group didn’t like to miss

centres, and wanted to rush through the books so they

could return to play. I felt I needed to make some changes

in order for my new program to work. I decided I needed

to do two things: make reading more fun for my students,

and involve the rest of the class in my program so they

would also feel involved. I decided to create more reading

groups, and use more activity extenders to make the

activity more meaningful for the reading group. We began

with the book Sunflowers. I read the book with my original

group, and taught them how to plant sunflower seeds in

pots on the windowsill. I then allowed them to show the

rest of the class how to plant sunflowers. My reading group

enjoyed having some leadership. We also read the book I

Look Up. My original group painted white cloud pictures

on blue paper, and the rest of the class tried to guess what

they had painted. That seemed to work. I began to read

with other groups in the class. When I read with another

group in the class, we worked on different strategies. We

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focussed more on meaning and visual clues in the text. I

found the other children to be more co-operative when

they knew they would have a turn, and my reading group

looked forward to our reading time. We did not extend our

book each time we read, and I found that interruptions still

did occur. I sometimes felt that the time we spent together

would be more beneficial if we spent more time working

with letters and sounds and letter blends.

Second group including Ethan and Lyle

Beginning the reading group with the French immersion

children was frustrating. The other French immersion

teacher, the principal, the librarian, and I spent a great deal

of time looking through catalogues in pursuit of

appropriate French books. We soon found that some had

gone out of print, and that it was difficult to see from the

catalogue if they were appropriate. We also lacked funding

to buy books, and knew we would have to restructure the

program to incorporate learning to read in a second

language.

Exceedingly lucky to be backed by our administrator, we

managed to find enough money to purchase books, as well

as teacher time to assist with our classes while piloting our

program. We had some preliminary meetings to sort the

books once they arrived into appropriate reading levels.

Some needed to be translated to French. We also decided

to prepare a separate reading room. We cleaned out a

room, decorated, and put in appropriate furniture. We also

needed to make a schedule for the assistant teacher to lead

guided reading lessons or take our class while we taught our

own children. I opted to lead my own reading groups.

We began the actual reading six weeks after the first group.

I had to structure my lessons very differently. I found it

necessary to pre-teach vocabulary to the children, or

choose books that contained vocabulary they already knew.

French immersion Kindergarten children have very little

vocabulary, and my choice of books was limited. We began

with a book Les Karts. I brought coloured Matchbox cars to

practise the vocabulary first. I prepared flash cards for Qui

Suis-Je? of different costumes. With Maman, I pantomimed

the verbs; then we all practised the action while saying the

new vocabulary. That kept interest high and reduced

frustration. I wanted the children to have confidence that

they could be French readers.


We began with these simple skills:

- front and back cover.

- directionality of print.

- capital and small letters.

- point out first word of book.

- concept of a word.

Most children in the group were able to master those skills

and moved on to:

- finding specific words.

- one to one correspondence.

- looking at beginning sounds of words.

One girl in the group was having more difficulty finding

the beginning word, and was running her finger along the

words without referring to the text. Even though Ethan

relied on memory to tell his stories, he was able to find

specific words easily, and could follow one-to-one

correspondence with his fingers. He also had a good

memory for French vocabulary, and was able to “read” the

books with ease. I decided that someone else would benefit

in working in a small group, and decided to give Ethan’s

spot to another student.

Tah dah!

At the end of the study, I tested the children to see what

they were capable of doing in comparison to what they had

been able to do before. I also compared some results with

those of the rest of the class.

First group results (March to May)

Jennifer and Robert have shown definite improvements.

They:

- can pick up a book and show me where the title is.

- can open the book to the title page and tell me how

many words are in the title.

- know how to use their fingers to follow the words.

- can show me the beginning and ending word on a page.

- identify many letters.

Jennifer knows there are spaces between words and tries to

correspond what she says to the number of words on the

page. She can tell me the names of almost every letter in

the words and can correctly identify 23 upper-case and 19

124


lower-case letters of the alphabet (compared to the class

average of 24 upper-case letters and 22 lower-case letters).

She looks at the picture to make sense of the story, while

Robert tends to invent new text and stories. His stories do

not always make sense. Robert is able to recognize 21

upper-case letters of the alphabet and 18 lower-case letters.

Neither child has begun to associate letters and sounds.

Second group results (April-May)

Ethan and Lyle had very different results. Ethan’s attitude

toward reading was very positive from the beginning. He

enthusiastically read and reread the books, and was willing

to take risks. At the beginning of the study in March, he

recognized 19 upper-case letters and 13 lower-case letters.

At the end of the study, he was able to correctly identify all

letters. He is able to:

- match his finder to the words spoken.

- identify the beginning sounds of a few words.

- recognize short words like je.

Through my

project, I have

been able to

dedicate myself to

work one-on-one

with at-risk

students in a way

that I did not

think possible.

Lyle continued to have a short attention span. He

continued to have difficulty keeping his place in the book,

and I still needed to sit beside him to remind him where to

put his finger. He could recognize 13 upper-case letters of

the alphabet and 8 lower-case letters (compared with the

class average of 23 upper-case letters and 20 lower-case

letters). He still had difficulty with one-to-one

correspondence of words to text.

Ways my students have benefited—What’s positive

Instead of saying “I can’t read,” my students willingly sit

down, and reread some of the books they’ve already

learned to read. Most of the students are excited about our

new books. During one of our last readings, most of the

children could find the front and back cover of the book.

They could use their pointing finger to count how many

words were on a page. We could pick out a few key words

we have learned. After one reading, the children could

read the book together on their own. They felt proud of

themselves.

Through my project, I was able to dedicate myself to work

one-on-one with at-risk students in a way that I did not

think possible. Each child has received a lot of one-on-one


teacher instruction. It has been wonderful to have a

chance to work with children as individuals. I have a

chance to build on skills day to day. I have had time to test

and assess what the children were really capable of doing. I

was able to see exactly where they were and make sure

they’ve mastered a basic skill before moving on to a more

difficult skill. We could repeat and return to strategies or

skills as often as we needed until they are learned.

How I feel I’ve benefited

I am more aware of my responsibility in making sure

students are grounded in some basic pre-reading skills. I

am able to practise new techniques on a trial basis. I have a

better understanding of what skills children need before

they begin reading. I find it to be an effective tool to add

my battery of other tools in teaching literacy. I am more

aware of the need for direct instruction at this early age

with at-risk students.

Things I need to learn

I need to remind myself I am teaching skills. I always want

things to be exciting and fast moving. I need to give

children time to correct themselves, and practise the

strategies we are working on. I need to remember that

children learn best when they struggle, and come to their

own answer rather than have it given to them. I also need

to make sure we focus on the book, and don’t get carried

away on the fun extended ideas. I also want to keep in

mind, that Kindergarten is about fun experiences and don’t

want to get too caught up in just teaching literacy.

In other years, we may not receive funding to have a

teacher assistant help us with our classes. I found it worked

best when I was able to concentrate solely on my group of

three students. With no interruptions, we could focus all

our attention on our books and activities. Meanwhile,

without the teacher assistant, I found the interruptions in

my other class to be a great disruption for both my

students and me. I’m not sure I could structure my class in

another way to make it more successful.

Criticisms

I would also like to be able to include all children in the

class rather than a select few. I feel all children could

benefit from this type of direct instruction. It would be

better, if I could work with a variety of groups that would

126


change as children’s needs change. I would also like to find

a way that my reading group doesn’t miss out on class

activities other children are doing. I found myself asking

how much time I should devote to this program.

I found Guided Reading more difficult to teach with the

French immersion Kindergarten. Children often slipped

into English and found it difficult to predict text, when

they did not know the vocabulary. All vocabularies needed

to be pre-taught. They could not use structural clues to

help predict text because they do not yet understand the

structures in French language. The children relied more on

memory than the English group did.

All the texts we used in Guided Reading were done with

easy, repetitive text. The illustrations were clear and easily

decipherable. Not all research agrees that beginning

readers should be using context and pictures to predict

text. The advantage of predictable text is that it offers a

means by which children can get past difficult words

without being sidetracked from the meaning of the story.

According to Marilyn Jager Adams and Marcia K. Henry, in

Myths and Realities about Words and Literacy, this is not

always an advantage. The primary purpose of all of the

texts we give to beginner readers is to help them learn to

read. The cost of decoding a new word is greatly

outweighed by the benefit, both direct and indirect. For

normally developing readers, research shows that pausing

once to decode a word significantly eases its recognition on

next encounter.

An effective literacy program in Kindergarten should

include vocabulary development, experiences with books,

practice with the sound structure of words, and the

production and recognition of letters. Guided Reading can

definitely be used as a tool to help me achieve these goals,

and I will continue to adopt some of its principles in my

classroom.

Next year, I would like to continue with Guided Reading. I

would like to test all children in the beginning of

November, and determine which students need extra

assistance. I would like to try to work with other groups

during the year as well. I need to develop a very clear

routine the other children must follow, when I am working

with the groups. I also feel I need more parent


involvement, and would like to set up a way in which

parents can learn how to read with their young children. I

will also lobby for more teacher-assistance time, in order to

run my program more smoothly.

References

Adams Marilyn J., and Henry Marcia K. Myths and Realities

about Words and Literacy. School Psychology Review 1. Vol.

26, No. 3 p. 425–436 (p. 426). 1977

Clay, Marie M. An Observation Survey of Early Achievement,

Heinemen Education, Portsmouth, 1993.

School District No. 44. Reading 44 A Core Reading

Framework, Program Services North Van. S.D., c/o Leo

Marshall Curriculum Center, North Vancouver, 1999.

The Wright Group. Guided Reading A Practical Approach for

Teachers, Wright Group Publishing Inc., Bothell, WA,

1995.

128


An analysis of Nechako Elementary

School’s pink slip discipline referral

program 1998–2001

Dennis Horwood

In 1986, a school pink slip discipline referral program

was initiated in Nechako Elementary School. This

program was intended to keep better track of students

who were repeat offenders, and to improve communication

between the office and classroom teachers in regard to

specific discipline problems. The pink slips were also a

means of keeping track of student behaviour, if or when

parents became involved in what their son/daughter had

been doing.

During the year 2000/2001, Nechako Elementary School

was involved in accreditation. One of the school goals

established during this process was “To create a safer

learning environment for students”. Specifically, the staff

wanted to be sure all students felt safe from bullying,

harassment, and other forms of physical, verbal, or

emotional abuse. As a result, the staff and administration

wished to know the nature of our discipline problems.

Answers to questions like the following were unknown:

• Were there trends of specific problems?

• Were there safety issues (i.e. bullying) the staff was

unaware of?

• Was there a seasonal cycle to some problems?

• Were there any boy/girl and Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal

trends?

• What were the most prevalent discipline problems? Who

was causing them?

This research assignment outlines the procedures and

subsequent analysis for 934 pink slips.

Procedure

By good fortune, the principal of Nechako School saved the

pink slips from September, 1997 through to June, 2001. I

began by first sorting the slips into years then placed them

into groups based on grade and home room teachers. The


next step was to enter the information from each group of

pink slips into File Maker Pro, a database program. The

fields chosen for the database were:

Student:

Grade:

Teacher:

Male/Female:

Aboriginal:

Month:

Year:

Behaviour Type:

The database allowed for relatively easy entry of the data.

Student names were coded by entering the initial two

letters of a student’s first and last name i.e. John Smith

became ‘josm’. There were very few occurrences of two

students with the same four initials. When this occurred, I

added a fifth letter. Although I completed this latter step, it

was ultimately unnecessary as I did not need (nor intend)

to track individual students.

Grade, teacher, and year were “auto added” by the

computer database. Male/female was entered as either m or

f, and Aboriginal was entered as either y or n (yes or no)

Behaviour types were, by far, the most difficult to decide. I

polled the staff for their ideas and initially selected eight

behaviour types. After I began the process of entering the

behaviours in the computer, I realized the original eight

were inadequate. I wanted to have more detailed results, so

the original eight were expanded to fifteen. I then included

a numbering system that allowed me to add further detail.

Each behaviour type was given a two, three, or four letter

code. For example, name calling was nc, theft was th, and

bullying was bull. Following the code was a number.

Number 1 usually represented a teacher, # 2 a student, and

# 3 an aid. Thus, the code “ly 2” meant that a student had

lied to another student. “Sw 1” meant a student swore in a

teacher’s presence. This final system worked well, and

helped produce the desired results.

See Appendix 1 for the full breakdown of behaviour types

and codes.

As a way of involving the staff in this investigation, a “fun”

multiple choice quiz was designed and given to each staff

130


member. This generated considerable interest (and lots of

laughs), especially since no one exceeded a score of 60%.

On a more serious side, it also indicated the teachers, aids,

and administrators, as a whole, were generally unaware of

what our specific school problems were.

Findings

1) Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal pink slips

Three graphs were prepared comparing the Aboriginal

school population with the number of pink slips given to

Aboriginal students. The graphs were prepared for three

different years as the Aboriginal population increased in

each of the three years.

In all three years, Aboriginal students received a higher

number of pink slips than their percent of student

population would warrant. In 1998, they were 5% higher,

in 1999, 3% higher, and in 2000 they were 7% higher.

2) Boy’s vs Girl’s Pink Slips

Of the 934 pink slips, an overwhelming number were given

out to boys. (85% were male, 15% were female)

3) Top six reasons for pink slips

When the top six pink slip problems were tallied and

compared (girls against boys), some interesting results

became evident. Hands on behaviour problems were very

high in both girls and boys. This alone accounted for 42-

45% of pink slips related to hands on behaviours.

The second most frequent behaviour problem for girls

differed from the boys. Leaving the school grounds without

permission, and showing disrespectful behaviour was the

2nd and 3rd most frequent problem with girls. Boys,

however, did not follow this trend. Their second most

frequent offense was dangerous behaviour, followed by

bullying, and swearing.

4) Pink slips and student population

Over the past 3 years, Nechako Elementary school has

experienced declining enrollment. In 1998, the school

population was 300 students. It decreased to 270 by 2000.

This indicates a 10.1% drop.


The number of pink slips also dropped. In 1998, 261 slips

were given out. By 2000, the number given dropped to 231.

This is a 11.7% drop.

Overall, the number of pink slips dropped 1.6% more than

the student population.

Pink slips and student populations

5) Pink slips by month

The breakdown of pink slips by month show both low and

high months. The fewest pink slips were handed out during

September. There was a significant jump in October—a 95%

increase. Pink slips then declined gradually during

November and December, but still remained high. The

numbers from January through to June were lower than

October to December.

6) Hands on by month

Hands on behaviours was the most common reason for

students receiving a pink slip. The three months with the

fewest hands on slips were May (29), June (31), followed by

September (34). The three months with the highest number

of hands on slips were December (61), October (57),

followed by April (46), and November (44). These results

are combined totals for the study period.

7) Hands on—different types

Hands on behaviours were separated into 7 categories. They

were pushing, tripping, fighting, kicking, punching/hitting

(once or twice), hitting with an object (i.e. pencil, shoe, etc)

and pulling clothing. The frequency of each of these over

the study period were:

fighting 122 offences

pushing 118 offences

punching/hitting 70 offences

kicking 48 offences

tripping 33 offences

hitting with object 25 offences

pulling clothing 4 offences

8) Aboriginal hands on occurrence

The Aboriginal population in Nechako School averaged

20% over the three year period. Aboriginal student offences

for hands on behaviour was 8% (or more) above average in

5 categories.

132


9) Pink slips by grade

With the exception of grade 4, pink slips increased each

consecutive grade. Kindergarten numbers are very low.

There was a noticeable decline between grades 3, and 4.

Summary

As a result of the school accreditation, the Nechako staff

identified having a safer learning environment as an

important issue. The resulting analysis of pink slips

revealed the following.

1) Over the course of three years, the number of pink

slips given to the Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal

students closely matches their proportion of their

school population. Over this same time span, however,

Aboriginal students showed a slightly higher percent,

when receiving pink slips when compared to the

Aboriginal student population in Nechako

2) Boys received a much higher number of pink slips

than girls.

3) Hands on behaviours was the most prevalent

discipline problem with boys and girls.

4) Pink slips have decreased slightly over the study period

(pink slips dropped 1.6%).

5) October, November, and December are the months in

which students have received the highest number of

pink slips. September was the lowest.

6) October and December are the two months in which

students have received the highest number of pink

slips for hands on offences. May and June were the

lowest.

7) Number of hands on offences for fighting (122), and

pushing (118), together accounted for more than 50%

of all hands on offences.

8) With hands on offences, Aboriginal students were 8%

or higher above their proportional school population.

9) Pink slips increased almost every consecutive grade

reaching a maximum with the grade 7’s.

Questions From the Pink Slips.

1) Do the pink slips accurately reflect all the children’s

behaviour problems in our school? If this is so, then


will targeting these specific behaviours result in

reduction of their occurrence?

2) At the beginning of the year 2000, Nechako received a

5% increase of Aboriginal students, mostly from one

school. Does this explain a 7% increase in the number

of pink slips given to Aboriginal students?

3) Boys receiving a much higher number of pink slips was

not a surprise. This result was expected as most staff

answered this question correctly on the informal quiz.

The range of the two results (72%) however, was a

surprise. Subsequent discussions with staff and teachers

from other schools, revealed many thought that boys

would be high, but not 72% higher. (i.e. a range of

around 40–50% was expected).

A question still remains. Why do boys receive such a high

number of slips? Are the girls simply better behaved or are

their actions more covert and harder to “see”? Do teachers

tend to blame or target boys first?

4) It is unknown exactly why students received the highest

number of pink slips per month during the period

between October and December. During poor weather

(Oct—Feb), students are constricted to two covered

areas. Could this account for the high number of pink

slips? If so, then why would October be the highest and

then slips gradually decline even though the weather

may be worsening?

5) Overall, Aboriginal students received proportionally a

similar number of pink slips, when compared to their

percent of the student population. Why did this change

significantly for hands on behaviour? Are Aboriginal

students in our school being unfairly targeted, or do

these students truly not recognize that hands on

behaviour is inappropriate?

6) Why do pink slips increase with almost every grade. Is

poor behaviour being learned and carried forward each

year? Do the higher grades have the highest numbers

because they are “expected” (i.e. hormones have kicked

in). At the end of Grade 3, students leave the primary

wing and move to the intermediate wing. Is the drop

between Grades 3 and 4 due to this “geographic”

change within the school?

134


Action Plan

Teacher’s performing a skit for

students on expected behaviour

The teachers at Nechako Elementary

School identified “the safety of the school

grounds” as an important issue. This

should not be taken to mean that we just

want hazards, such as stones, holes, etc.,

identified and fixed. Rather, it is meant to

strive to make all students feel safe from

bullying, harassment, and other forms of

physical, verbal, or emotional abuse by

other students.

The staff has already made a modest start in an attempt to

address these issues. After much discussion at several staff

meetings, teachers felt that students may “hear” teachers

request certain behaviours, but the students themselves

were perhaps thinking different interpretations. The staff

decided to try modeling desired behaviours by performing

short skits at school assemblies. Behaviours such as correct

language (please, thank you, pardon me, yes rather than

ya!) and proper line ups (without pushing, budging, or

talking) were presented. The students responded at the

time with both interest and amusement. Throughout the

following weeks, behaviour related to these presentations

showed some improvements.

Bulletin board for recognizing students


As a follow up to these skits, colored slips were

spontaneously handed out to students who were exhibiting

correct behaviours. All slips were stapled to a bulletin board

in the main hallway. At the next assembly, the slips were

placed in a draw box for a suitable student award (i.e.

theatre pass, student packsack).

The staff will also plan a parent awareness program. At

future PAC meetings, parents will be made aware of the

discipline problems at the school, and how the staff plans

to address the various issues. Parents will be made aware of

how they can also participate in making Nechako a “safer

place” for their children.

The Nechako staff will also be working on Effective

Behaviour Support (EBS). This program can be described as

teaching modeling and reinforcing student behaviour.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all of the Nechako Elementary School

staff for their willingness to have me pursue this project,

their enthusiastic participation in the quiz, and their

interest in reading the final presentation, and making

pertinent comments.

Special thanks are needed for Sharon Leonard, Walter

Thorne, and Ted Griff (past principal at Nechako) for taking

additional time to review all or part of the graphs and text.

I would especially like to acknowledge Janet Steponavicius,

principal at Nechako Elementary, for first saving the pink

slips, offering many ideas for investigating, and taking the

time to listen to my many different ideas.

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Appendix 1

Discipline Types

HANDS ON (ho) pushing 1

tripping 2

fighting 3

kicking 4

punching/hitting (once or twice) 5

object (stick, pencil, scissors, laser light) 6

pulling pants down 7

biting 8

DANGEROUS BEHAVIOUR (db) rock throwing 1

crossing Kingfisher 2

snow hill 3

BULLYING (bull) verbal threats 1

verbal teasing past fun 2

physical actions 3

THEFT (th) school property 1

student property 2

teacher’s property 3

SWEARING (sw) teacher 1 Student 2

UNHEALTHY BEHAVIOUR (ub) spitting 1

DEFIANCE (def)

refusing to obey

RACISM (rac)

racial slurs, putdowns, mockery, etc

LEAVING SCHOOL (ls) leaving school grounds without permission

NAME CALLING (nc) teacher 1 Student 2

DISRESPECTFUL (dis) teachers 1

students 2

aids/supervisors/custodians 3

visitors 4

VANDALISM (va) school 1

classroom 2

student 3

RUDE COMMENTS (rc) teacher 1

student 2

other staff, supervisors

LYING (ly) teacher 1

student 2

OTHER (ot) upstairs hallway/gr 7 door 1

throwing food 2

change room antics 3 wrong side of playground 8

possession of/reading notes 4 showing off inapp. 9

pulling out a chair 5 spreading rumors 10

disruption at theatre 6 too slow 11

bathroom behaviour 7 sexual harassment 12


138


Guided reading:

An early intervention strategy

Elizabeth Coulter

For several years, I have felt frustrated as a teacher of

primary grades, not being able to teach every child in

Grade 1 to read, and sometimes not seeing the

expected progress in Grade 2. I have put in tremendous

effort, have used various reading programs, strategies and

aids, but have ended the year, on more than one occasion,

knowing that a particular child had not reached the level of

competency that the other children had reached. I have felt

more than frustrated. I have felt sad, mad, and inadequate.

I have used a variety of methods to introduce, teach, and

appreciate reading in my classrooms: the animated

alphabet, picture-making and writing about the pictures,

journal work, buddy reading, nightly reading logs, silent

reading, story listening and appreciation, listening centres,

book-making, whole language methods working with the

whole class, individual and small-group instruction. I have

used Sunshine Books, Ginn Readers, storybooks, theme

books, and Journeys. We have used the library to find and

enjoy books and have invited other adults to read to us.

A group of primary teachers in our district proposed to

pilot a guided reading program as a means of early

intervention to the ministry, and I was invited to take part.

This would be the vehicle, I thought, to help my two new

students catch up, give Monty the extra reading time he

needs and to accommodate David, providing the extra time

I wanted to spend with him. It could also be a means of

giving extra reinforcement of sight words and skills to

Bonnie, who was very weak and losing ground in the

mainstream.

Guided reading meant small-group instruction with

constant close monitoring of progress and ongoing

evaluation. It meant teaching the children to look for

visual clues in decoding the reading material. It depended

on “running records” for evaluation, which necessitated

learning how to take a running record and what it meant.


The reading room

At Cormorant School, four of us were working on literacy

as the action-research part of our masters’ program. We

wanted to leave our school with a legacy in the form of a

reading room, a bright, happy room in which reading

would be encouraged and nurtured, where children would

feel comfortable, and where groups, as well as individuals,

could be accommodated.

Plan

With these ideas in mind, and with the encouragement and

support of our innovative principal, we looked at our

underutilized, out-of-date computer lab, and found an

available room; it did not feel like a classroom, and it was a

more intimate size than a classroom. We decided that it

would do nicely for a bright, cheery informal room where

we could take small groups for instruction, classes for a

special treat or outing, or where we could welcome parents

and preschoolers at a later date when we might have a

preschool program in the school.

We visited other preschool reading programs and

brainstormed for ways of transforming a rather dull,

windowless small room. We came up with bright colours,

murals, beanbag chairs, a dropped ceiling, lighting other

than flourescent, and theme corners. We envisioned cosy,

fur “rugs” on the floor and the children reading under the

watchful eyes of large animals in the jungle corner, a fish

net, real shells, a cardboard-box submarine and crepe-paper

“sea-weed” in the sea corner; and constellations on the

ceiling and planets and space-ships in the outer- space

corner, for a start.

Of course, we had to wait for summer to perform the major

changes, such as installing the dropped lighting and

ceiling, taking up the old carpeting and installing the new

lino flooring, and painting the walls. In the meantime, the

principal had the computers and counters removed,

purchased beanbag chairs and large bright kites to hang

from the ceiling, and a bright tablecloth. She herself

painted small wooden chairs in bright colours to put

around the low, round table. She is so very supportive of

new ideas!

Use

For now, the reading room is being used as a quiet room for

taking our small groups in the guided reading program. The

140


children enjoy the novelty of being taken out of the regular

classroom by their own teacher and they love the bright

colours and furniture.

The guided reading

program in my classroom

Initiation

In January, the eight teachers piloting the guided reading

program in Kitimat met to discuss the materials we needed,

and to search through catalogues. We decided on the

Wright Group materials, Levels A to D. We were told that the

Terrace teachers were using these books, and that they

could lend us the prepared extension materials to

accompany the books.

The books did not arrive until the end of February; the plan

was that we would pre-test in February, test mid-way

through, in April, and then at the conclusion of the

program in mid-June.

I prepared and sent home letters of permission to the

parents of four of my Grade 1 children, and received them

back promptly. The parents were enthusiastic in their

interest and support for this new program to help their

children.

I received release time of 0.4 of a day three times during the

course of my study, in order to pre-test, test, and post-test

my group.

The children in the program

This year, in February, I acquired two Grade 1 students

from the French Immersion Program. I wondered how I

could ever help them catch up to the point of reading

where my other Grade 1 children were reading.

Chaylee

Chaylee had been struggling in the French Immersion

Program, had lost several home reading books, two

backpacks, and her agenda. Her teacher felt that she was

displaying frustration and was silently asking for help. Her

parents were frustrated and concerned with the way things

were going. I agreed that she would probably feel less

frustrated in an English classroom.


From the first morning, she felt at home and fitted in easily.

Her Mom was so happy that she wrote to say that Chaylee

now “bounced out of bed in the morning for the first

time.” When I voiced my concern about her being so far

behind the other children at this point in the school year,

her mom hired a wonderful tutor. Given the work at

school, the work with the tutor, and her positive,

enthusiastic attitude, Chaylee has made marvelous

progress.

Monty

Monty also came from the French Immersion Program,

where he was doing no work and had a very non-caring

attitude, though he was very capable. In the short time he

was in my classroom, I found that he did as little work as

possible, forgot books, and was very frustrating to deal

with. I wanted Monty to become enthusiastic about reading

and school, to establish routine in his nightly reading, and

learn the decoding skills at this early stage in his reading

development. I felt that with some effort on his part, he

could be a capable reader as he certainly had the ability and

the skills.

In using our little Wright books, he did not make any effort

or show any interest in learning to read. However, he

seemed to be more interested once the Ginn reader was

introduced in May. He started putting more effort into

sounding out the words, liked to take his reader home and

sometimes read at home with his mom. Praise and

recognition are the key to working with him as he is the

oldest of four little children, with a single mom.

David

David was a concern because I did not think he was capable

of learning to read at this point. He was included in the

group for the extra attention and the social aspect, but was

not able to learn the vocabulary as he could not sound out

the letters. David was labeled “moderately mentally

handicapped,” and not at the level of the rest of the class,

and not expected to be there, either. He has been on a

modified program working with a TA. At the beginning of

May, I questioned whether or not he should continue to be

included because I saw the gap widening, and I did not

want him to fall even further behind. However, David was

learning the beginning skills of left to right, top to bottom,

142


matching a printed word with a spoken word, following

with his finger. He was easily distracted and seemed

sometimes to be in his own world, and, although at times,

he seemed isolated from the other children, the isolation

was often his own doing.

Bonnie

During the first week in May, I invited Bonnie to join the

group. I was not sure that it was the right thing to do, as

she was part of the regular Grade 1 reading group.

However, she was struggling to keep up with the other

children, and I felt that it would strengthen her confidence

to be a little ahead of this small group. As she was a weak

reader and was still unsure of many of her sounds and sight

words, I felt that the opportunity to review would be good

for her. By the end of the first week, I felt that including

her was a good idea; she was feeling good and was

benefiting from the inclusion. The review and the extra

instruction were good for her, but also, for the first time,

she was able to be a leader and a role model! In this group,

she felt special, a good feeling for a little girl who is the

middle of three sisters, who wears glasses, and has a

learning disability.

Results of testing

Writing vocabulary (“write words you know”)

February April June

Chaylee 7 words 9 words 13 words

Monty 2 6 10

David 1 1 1

Bonnie 8 9 13

Dictation task (Sentence dictation )

February April June

Chaylee 15/37 20/37 26/37

Monty 0/37 12/37 24/37

David 0/37 0/37 0/37

Bonnie 23/37 23/37 27/37


Letter identification

February April June

Chaylee 24 upper case 24 lower case 26 upper case

24 lower case 26 upper case 22 lower case

Monty 20 upper case 20 lower case 25 upper case


David 15 upper case 9 lower case 18 upper case


Bonnie 25 upper case 25 lower case 25 upper case


Ohio Word Test (Identifying sight words)

February April June

Chaylee 1/20 8/20 9/20

Monty 0/20 1/20 1/20

David 0/20 0/20 0/20

Bonnie 5/20 6/20 10/20

Running record

February April June

Chaylee level A level C level E

Monty level A level A level D

David N/A N/A level A

Bonnie level A level C level E

The formal test results did show growth and progress,

though not as much as I had hoped for, and I was a little

disappointed by the results. However, less tangible progress

did take place, in the form of growing confidence.

144


Does coaching help?

Dighton Haynes

Personal interest

For the past few years, I have noticed how much better

my students perform during the reporting term while

they are playing on a team I coach. Is this

coincidence, or is there something to my observation? I

have been coaching for 27 years, and I like to think my

efforts have had some educational value. I believe extracurricular

activities in school are important and contribute

to the academic, physical, and social development of

children.

There is a positive

relationship

between a

student’s selfesteem

and

attitude, and the

student’s

involvement in

school and

community

recreational

activities.

As the president of the Terrace Elementary School Sports

Association, TESSA, for 10 of the past 13 years, I have a

personal commitment to coaching and sports programs in

the school system. So here was my challenge: first, to prove

that students perform better when they are involved in

school activities; second, to show my coaching efforts are

worthwhile; and third, to encourage others to continue

with their involvement with students outside the

classroom.

Data collection

To demonstrate student success and participation, I felt a

survey would be best. Terrace has five public elementary

schools going up to Grade 7 and two private schools, all

belonging to TESSA. Since TESSA’s focus has been with

Grades 6 and 7, a survey was planned for all the students of

the seven schools in the Terrace area for those grades. I

made up a survey and fine tuned the questions with

classmates from my action research class and had the

survey approved at a TESSA meeting. The survey was

distributed to all the schools and collected two weeks later.

My goal was to collect a couple of hundred surveys from at

least five of the schools. The response was overwhelming.

To keep the work manageable, I accepted only the first 500

surveys turned in. That process allowed for six of the


schools to be represented, and over 80% of the students in

the area reported.

The survey was basically two parts: the students evaluating

themselves on aspects of school, and a checklist of

activities they have been involved with during the past

year. I was interested in how positively the students viewed

themselves at school and the level of participation (the

number of activities in which they took part).

Identification on the survey was only by gender, grade, and

school.

The questions

Each of the questions used positive wording. Each question

had the answer scored on a five point system, one point for

a low answer of disagree up to five points for a positive

answer of agree. A positive student answering all eight

questions by agreeing would score 40. The average score for

the group was 35.3, showing that most students have a

positive outlook.

The outlook on “caring about other people” scored the

highest, and “respect my teachers” was second. This

reassured me that students in general have a high respect

for their teachers. The questions with the lowest response

were specific to school, “having a positive attitude about

learning” and “completing their school work” scored

lowest. This confirms what many teachers already know

and what I have experienced: the challenge of teaching

students with a negative attitude towards learning, and the

difficulty of getting the students to complete their work.

Less than 10% of the students responded with negative

answers, showing again that most elementary students

have a positive attitude.

Activities

The activities for the students were mostly sports oriented

and were grouped with 14 community, and 11 school

activities. The average student was in 3.15 community and

3.75 school activities. Most students are more involved at

school than at home with community organizations. This

alone shows the importance of school-based programs.

146


In the community, I was surprised at the high number of

students involved with skiing or snow boarding. That was

by far the largest activity group. Soccer has proven popular

in the community, and in the province with their large

registration numbers, and it is supported with the student

responses. Common responses for “other” were golf,

horseback riding, biking, bowling, and figure skating.

Ringette was the least popular activity.

For school activities, students responded mostly with

TESSA-sponsored events of basketball, volleyball,

badminton, and track & field. Only intramurals broke the

sweep, and floor hockey was mentioned on many of the

surveys. Band, sixth in school activities, did very well,

considering the program is not available to most Grade 6

students.

Relationship between

participation and outlook

There is little

benefit to keeping

a child busy all

the time. Just as

adults value their

free time, children

need theirs as

well.

There is a positive relationship between the number of

activities a student is involved with and their outlook at

school. The less students are involved in school and

community activities, the lower their score on their

outlook.

The survey clearly shows that lower levels of participation

in activities outside the classroom have lower scores with

the student’s outlook. A student’s outlook does not change

significantly after reaching six activities.

When only school activities are studied, a similar pattern

occurs. Having activities for the student is a benefit, to a

point. The students at nine activities have a slightly below

average score, probably being so involved that they do not

have the proper time to complete work and be successful

with studies and with peers. Obviously a school with little

activity outside the classroom would not help build a

positive outlook for the students. The optimum number of

activities is between four and eight during the school year.

This fits very well with the current seasons’ TESSA

sponsors. At present, TESSA offers six sports for students in

Grades 6 and 7.


The breakdown

In breaking down the group by gender, we see that girls, in

general, are more positive at school than are boys. They

scored on average 35.9 to the boys’ 34.8. That was not

surprising, since girls traditionally do better at school than

boys. Girls tend to have better marks, fewer behavioural

problems, and fewer learning disabilities. The number of

girls 244 to 255 boys is realistic, with only one survey not

marked. These results give some validity to the scores as

this matches with present practice. The participation level

was even between boys and girls: girls more involved at

school and boys more involved in the community.

The survey also broke down Grade 6 and 7 students. With

262 Grade 6s and 238 Grade 7s, the survey was balanced.

The Grade 7s scored slightly higher, 35.4 to 35.1 for the 6s.

With levels of participation, the community participation

was virtually the same for the two groups, slightly lower for

the 7s, but the school participation was significantly higher

for the 7s, 3.49 to 4.03. My observation over the years is

that Grade 6 students are less likely to join a school team or

group, probably because they are intimated by the older

students. This may also be a result of some programs, such

as band, being only available for grade 7s.

The result I wanted to see was there, too. Grade 7s have a

higher level of participation and a more positive outlook

with school. So the next question for me was, Is it the type

of activity, or any activity?

Community and school activities

I looked at each community activity and compared the

range of scores, 35.1 to 36.8. This seemed to be a significant

difference with the activity and student outlooks, so I

looked at the activities that scored the highest. The highest

value came with music lessons and Guides/Scouts. I could

easily see why they would score at the top, as they teach

values and self-discipline. Music, and swimming lessons

could signify students with economic advantages. I

wondered how those Neanderthal hockey players would

score—surprisingly about in the middle. The lowest scores

came with baseball/softball, and martial arts.

148


Now I was more eager to see how school activities would

affect the students. I was sure my years of coaching were

going to be justified with higher scores in volleyball, and

basketball. With the school activities, the range was much

smaller, 35.6 to 36.3. The top influential activities were

band, drama, cross-country, curling, and track & field. The

lowest scores came from wrestling and intramurals. I was

disappointed with the results. The team sports I work with

for so many hours were just average! Intramurals were near

the bottom, another activity I have spent a lot of time

working on and building in my schools. No single activity

appeared to be superior to any others, so was my coaching

ineffective in building the students’ self-esteem?

Low self evaluation

So I turned my attention to the students’ self-evaluation

and focussed on the negative answers, i.e. students who

answered “Disagree” and “Sort of disagree” to any of the

questions, and compared their average level of

participation. I did that with each of the eight questions.

Most of the students answered the question positively, so I

was only looking at small numbers in each group. The

results were very clear and supported my original ideas.

Students with low scores are generally much less involved

in school and community activities.

Students who see themselves as having poor progress at

school are significantly less involved at school. The 29

students who disagreed, or sort of disagreed with “I am

progressing well in my studies at school”, were on average,

involved with 1.86 school activities, compared with the

average of 3.75, down almost 2 whole activities! The

community result, 2.11 to the average 3.15, was down only

1 activity. Not only are those students less involved; they

are noticeably less active at school.

While each of these negative-outlook responses came from

a small number of students, they were generally balanced

between male and female, and grade level, with the

exception of one question: “I feel good about myself”. This

answer was the only negative response given by more girls

than boys. I believe this shows the impact of society, and is

worthy of further investigation.


High self-evaluation

How does this compare with students who responded

positively to the questions? Looking at each question for

which students responded “Agree” or “Sort of agree”, I

compared their participation levels. For each question, the

group’s participation level was above average and the

responses were fairly consistent.

Looking at the weakest area for students, their “attitude”

and “completing their work”, students with positive

answers in these two areas have, on average, the highest

scores and highest participation level compared to the

other questions. The results indicate that I can improve my

classroom by having an active student population in school

programs. The results are consistent for each of the eight

questions asked in the survey, unlike the larger variation

for the negative students. Student participation is

important in maintaining a positive outlook at school.

Conclusions

To help students in their schooling, we need to provide

activities during the entire school year to keep students

active and involved with the school. Naturally, it would be

easier to build programs around the students’ interests,

such as basketball and volleyball. Intramural programs

have the potential to reaching more students than school

team sports.

The results also support the philosophy of TESSA, of not

cutting players from teams and of trying to play everyone

fairly and equally. All students should be encouraged to

participate in school activities as this has a positive result

on their outlook and their schooling.

The results of the

survey show that

the nature of the

activity matters

less than their

availability to the

students.

The results also show an elementary band program is a

positive influence with the students’ outlook. It would be

beneficial to expand the band program to Grade 6, and a

loss to the school and the community if the program were

unable to continue at Grade 7.

How does this explain my observations of students doing

better in my class, while I coached them on school teams?

150


The survey results show students who participate in school

activities have a better attitude and are more positive

toward school. It seems clear to me that my coaching not

only provided recreational time, but also helped with the

students’ outlook toward school and improved their

achievement.

My involvement with the students does provide a benefit

to the school, providing an opportunity for students to be

more involved in school activities and, therefore, have a

more positive outlook. This encourages me to continue

coaching. I hope it also encourages other teachers to

continue with their worthwhile work and volunteer hours.


152


A journey through an

early literacy intervention program

in French Immersion

Madeleine C. Christiansen

We spoke about

the unreachable

students, the few

students in our

classes each year

that we did not

teach effectively

despite our

interventions.

The time for

discussion had

ended. It was time

to implement a

plan.

From an after school conversation with colleagues

came an idea that would become a journey. It was a

voyage of insight into the minds of young children.

It allowed me to see what conditions some children need in

order to succeed. Usually my colleagues and I lightly joke

about the events of the day or vent frustrations. On one

particular afternoon, we took risks. We shared beliefs that

we held about teaching reading. We spoke about the

unreachable students, the few students in our classes each

year that we did not teach effectively despite our

interventions. We fought back tears as we gave examples of

the efforts we had made without seeing any improvement.

We knew that if somehow we could slow down the

curriculum or perhaps reintroduce missed activities, these

children would learn to read. We also admitted to one

another our anguish at having to send those students to

the next class at the end of the year, when we knew that

they would not be prepared. Those children worried us,

gave us sleepless nights. Those children did not learn well

with us, and we knew that they did not feel successful. As a

group of colleagues, we had discussed this before. This time

though, we had let down our professional guard, and we

were speaking not only as teachers but also as caring

educators. The time for discussion had ended. It was time

to implement a plan.

A core group of colleagues and I met with our

administrator to set in motion a proposal for funding a

French immersion early literacy pilot program. Our core

group would organize and carry through the project, which

would span the beginning of April to the end of June. We

agreed that the implementation of an early literacy

program in an immersion setting would have to take into

account that the children are learning a second language.

Teaching methods, different from the popular literacy

programs used in English language classes, would have to

be considered. Learning vocabulary in innovative ways


would be a focal point. Verbal expression, song, and rhyme

would also be incorporated because they facilitate both

language learning and literacy. It was also agreed that

elements of “The Guided Reading Program” would be

incorporated into our program to provide a structured

framework. As the meeting ended, we felt thrilled to have

the opportunity to realize an idea we knew would make a

difference in our students’ lives.

Then the waiting began. There was a staff member to be

hired. There were books to be purchased for Kindergarten

to Grade 3. What had seemed like sheer joy now became a

mountainous task. The funding came through for the

books. Our core group scoured French catalogues for hours

searching for appropriate reading materials for our specific

reading program. “Will this reading series look as good in

real life as the description reads in the catalogue?” we

wondered. As in real life, we took chances. We hoped that

we had ordered enough of a selection, and that we had

selected literature that would work well in a guided reading

program. About three weeks later, the boxes of books began

to arrive. The reality began to set in that this project would

take place. With butterflies in my stomach, I began to open

the boxes with a colleague. Selection after selection

emerged. The scent of fresh new books flowed out of the

box—shiny bright covers. Then came the exclaims and

praises as we discovered that we had chosen well. We

carried the boxes of new books and boxes of ziploc bags

into our staff room, and for the next couple of days before

school, at recess, and after school, we assembled our book

kits. Then we waited again. Our colleague had not yet been

hired. It was two weeks until the beginning of our study. I

began to lose sleep. I worried over all the books sitting

neatly organized in their bins, waiting also. I thought of

the children who needed this project as maybe a better way

for them to succeed. They also waited. Then I remembered

my colleagues who had also planned and spent time

organizing before school, at recess, and after school. I

wondered whether they were sleepless too. We were all

waiting, suspended in air. So I relaxed. Things became

normal again, almost as if the first meeting and all the

preparation had never occurred. I arrived at school one

Thursday morning expecting a slow, uneventful day. My

morning in class moved smoothly. The colleague who was

waiting to be hired, came into my room, discussed

something quietly about a student and then whispered “I

What had seemed

like sheer joy now

became a

mountainous task.

The scent of fresh

new books flowed

out of the box—

shiny bright

covers.

154


took the job.” The race began again. It was one week until

the project start date.

The time had come to prepare our reading room. Our core

group had decided that we wanted the children chosen for

this project to learn reading in a relaxed, cheerful

atmosphere. We cleaned out and decorated the reading

room, which was a little-used room with no windows in

the center of the school. We covered the bulletin boards

with bright corrugated paper and then added posters in

English and French. We bought colourful kites to hang

from the ceiling, we painted old wooden school chairs in

bright hues, and we covered the round school table with a

decorated plastic tablecloth. We brought in our tubs of

books already packaged in ziploc bags. Now the task would

be to spread out the bags on the floor, and categorize the

books according to grade level and then level of difficulty.

Once completed, the books were returned to their tubs

marked K to Grade 3. We brought down a cassette player,

and brought in a few beanbag chairs. We slipped a schedule

into the mail boxes of each French immersion primary

teacher. The selection of candidates for our project was our

next task.

The selection of students for my group was determined by a

specific set of factors. The children were not progressing

well in relation to their peers. They were not benefiting

greatly from large-group reading lessons. The children

lacked confidence in oral reading and generally avoided

reading for enjoyment in class or even choosing books to

look at. The four children in my study were Mary Beth,

James, Tim, and Brenda.

Mary Beth was a quiet student who had a very good French

vocabulary yet lacked confidence in oral reading. She

generally disliked books and reading. She often hesitated

when she read, and she did not always comprehend what

she was reading. She could not use contextual cues

successfully. My hope for Mary Beth was that she would

become a confident reader and that she would be able to

both comprehend what she read and express herself in

written form.

James was a student who was very small in stature. He was

quiet and young for his age. He was well liked, and he

expressed himself well verbally. James did not have


confidence in reading, and he did not link reading with

comprehension. He had developed an average French

vocabulary for Grade 2. I hoped that James would be able

to make the connection between his oral reading and

comprehension, and that he would enjoy reading.

Brenda was a very shy student who, like James, was young

for her age. She had not developed her French vocabulary

to a strong level. She had learned only a few strategies for

oral reading. She was very distracted in the large-group

setting. My hope for her was that she would gain a measure

of confidence in oral reading, and that she might increase

the number of reading strategies that she had available

to her.

Tim was an average student who had some oral reading

strategies, but he did not enjoy reading and avoided even

choosing books. I hoped that Tim would gain confidence

in reading and also read for enjoyment.

My little group came with me to work in the reading room

three times a week. We had our sessions at a different time

each day to minimize the effects of fatigue, restlessness, or

being hungry. The students were given a pre-test, using an

unfamiliar story, to test their ability to understand the story

at the phonemic, syllabic, and contextual levels. They were

also tested for general comprehension. We worked first on

the vocabulary in each story before reading it. By doing

that, we ensured that the stories were being read with a

diminished frustration level. We then “read the story”

using the illustrations to make guesses as to what the story

was about. Finally we read the stories using mime, picture

clues, and contextual clues. At first, the students had

difficulty reading the sounds in French, so we would search

the story for words with the same sounds. We would count

and clap the syllables in words and work on sounds that

the children had “missed” in class instruction. Halfway

through the project, the students were administered a midtest.

The students were given the same story that they had

read in the pre-test. They were again asked questions at the

phonemic, syllabic, and contextual levels. They were again

asked comprehension questions. The students were having

difficulty reading three- and four-syllable words, so we did

many exercises to create a bank of strategies for reading

long words. We checked the vowel sounds in the word to

make sure they could pronounce sounds such as “au,”

156


“eau,” “ai,” and “an.” Then we rhythmically clapped as we

broke the word into syllables. Finally, we tried to write the

word broken into syllables to visualize it.

Typically the children reversed letters in these long words

so that meaning was lost, so we practised typical pairings:

“tri,” “tir,” for example. We clapped the syllables and

listened for the different sounds and looked for the

different shape of the sound. At the end of the project, the

students were given a post-test, which was the same story

they had been given in the pre-test, and were asked

questions that tested their phonemic, syllabic, and

contextual understanding of words. The students were also

tested on their comprehension of the story.

Through testing, I have noticed that each child has

improved in phonemic and syllabic knowledge. I have also

observed that the students can use contextual cues to aid

them in their reading. My students now comprehend what

they are reading more quickly. Yet, if I look at percentages

and graph the improvement, it is unremarkable. What is

astonishing, however, is the marked change in reading

behaviour displayed by the children. My students enjoyed

their reading sessions. When it was reading time, the little

reading group rushed to the door of the reading room.

Once inside, they quickly raced in to plop down on one of

the beanbag chairs and leaned back their heads with a great

smile and with a huge sigh they relaxed. Once I had

organized the story for the day, I called them to the round

table. They proceeded to choose the colour of chair they

would sit on. All this was performed with great enthusiasm

and energy. As the books were passed around, the

comments would begin. “Look at that picture.” “I bet this

story is about...” “Who wrote this book?” I had not

spoken a word. These children were curious and engaged in

reading. Their enthusiasm spilled beyond the reading

room. My four students are now reading more confidently.

They are willing to take chances with reading. They are

able to communicate about their reading. They are able to

express themselves with ease in their journals. Because I

went to the reading room to work with my students, a

special rapport now exists between us. These students now

regularly ask me for help when they need it. Although they

find language arts more difficult than other students, they

continue working on activities that had discouraged them

in the past. The parents of children in my reading group


noticed that their child’s attitude had changed. They

remarked that their children volunteered to do their

reading homework where previously they had been

reluctant. The children were more likely to choose to read

for enjoyment at home. Finally, parents felt that their child

was now happier and more confident when reading. The

success of this reading project has been surprising in the

insight I have gained, and sobering in the realization that a

program like this was not run by one teacher alone.

Children with little confidence in their reading ability can

be successful if they have a comfortable and relaxed

environment in which to learn. Having their own

classroom teacher working with them, away from the class

room, seems to add to the students’ comfort and

willingness to take chances with reading. Parents of

children in my class, yet not in my small reading group,

asked me if their child would get a chance to work in the

reading room. My other students were feeling left out. I

knew that this method of teaching was effective with my

least-confident students, yet at the same time I had to rely

on a colleague to work with my class while I worked in the

reading room. The success of this pilot program was due to

the enthusiasm and vision of a group of colleagues at both

the teaching and administrative levels. The challenge for

the future will be for our group of colleagues to find a way

to work with all our students in a way that does not

compromise the energy that occurs in the reading room

where children open books as they would a birthday gift,

anticipating magic.

158


Releasing Sisyphus

Jackie Worboys

In Writing the

Lives of Teachers

and its successor,

Pedagogy of the

Heart, we had

started to come to

grips with some of

the systemic

problems played

out in the

everyday lives of

teachers.

Our class of 19 rushed into the familiar classroom of

Kitimat City High on a cold, snowy Saturday in

January, talking excitedly, finding places beside

friends, and anticipating the third course of our masters of

education program. Here we were, starting action research

one year after our cohort had begun. We fit together like

old shoes by now, having hung together through our two

previous courses with Carl Leggo, our professor from UBC,

who had flown up once a month to join us in our studies.

Our work with Carl had prepared us, to some extent, for

our new venture. In Writing the Lives of Teachers and its

successor, Pedagogy of the Heart, we had started to come to

grips with some of the systemic problems played out in the

everyday lives of teachers. Now, with our new professor,

Mohammed Shamsher, we faced six months of action

research, during which we would systematically examine a

burning question relating to our practice.

This paper, my study, follows the processes of my 18

colleagues, from their selection of topics, through their

concerns, to their surprises, excitement, and finally to their

conclusions. My interest in studying their action research

emerged from my experience and involvement yet

disappointment with traditional professional development

as it is commonly offered to B.C. teachers.

Background: Rattling the chains

I’ve been involved in professional development

throughout my 30-year teaching career. I’ve

attended countless workshops, facilitated others,

and organized endless PD days and conferences.

Working as part of a local professional

development committee charged with the

responsibility of developing and co-ordinating

activities, I had often felt that traditional one-day

workshops, conferences, and activities were unsuccessful. I

had a nagging sense that teachers often attended out of a

sense of moral duty and kindness, not wanting to

disappoint me, my colleague organizers, or the workshop


presenters. One-shot workshops often increase feelings of

isolation. I have heard colleagues leave imported,

expensive, one-day workshops stating they had no time to

implement what might be a good idea, or feeling daunted

by an inescapable inability to cope alone with profound

change.

For several years, I’ve become increasingly aware of the

difference between how teachers perceive their needs for

professional development and the way in which workshops

are offered. Every PD day becomes an added weight, like

the rock of Sisyphus that we must add to our repertoire of

teaching activities and strategies. We take a respite between

(and from) workshops, just as Sisyphus rested at night, only

to find once again, that another “expert” at the next

professional development day can improve our gamut of

strategies. Worse, as we become snowed under by IRPs,

FSAs, IEPs, and other directives that determine our

curriculum, we teachers find that little or no time exists to

reflect upon our practice and to engage in meaningful

examination of our work. Professional development has

become yet another “to do” item in the checklist of nevercompleted

work, another add-on to the endless workload of

teachers. How long can we teachers remain invigorated if

we are constantly bombarded in an onslaught of change

that ignores the centrality of our work?—What happens in

our daily life?

As the Ministry of Education increases its curricular

demands and resulting teacher workload, the space for our

own professional inquiry diminishes. Expectations for

teacher-as-technician grow in relation to society’s demands

for quick fixes, for better scientists, more computer

whizzes, or whatever the latest trends bring. Where is the

big picture, the one that acknowledges teachers by giving

us the time and space to think about how children learn

and critically reflect and act upon our role? We know that

dispensing a fixed curriculum and a myriad of teaching

strategies makes neither excited learners nor teachers.

Hope through re-engagement

All is not lost. In the last five years, I have come to learn

more about the Program for Quality Teaching (PQT), a

relatively little-known program of the Professional and

Every PD day

becomes an added

weight, like the

rock of Sisyphus

that we must add

to our repertoire of

teaching activities

and strategies.

Where is the big

picture, the one

that acknowledges

teachers by giving

us the time and

space to think

about how

children learn and

critically reflect

and act upon our

role?

160


Social Issues Division of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. First

as a participant, and later, as a facilitator, I’ve become

captivated with PQT’s trio of offerings: a regenerative power

of personal inquiry, supported by a network of other

inquirers, with time and space to work. I had seen teachers

become revitalized through creating and solving personal

educational challenges in PQT. Many teachers agreed it was

the most powerful professional development they had ever

experienced. With that in mind, I was determined to see if,

when my UBC cohort colleagues engaged in action

research, a similar pattern would emerge. All three factors

for success were built into the course outline:

• Teachers would self-select a critical aspect embedded in

their own classroom or school life.

• A sufficient period of time would be allocated to the

study.

• Those who embark upon a project would receive ongoing

support from others engaged in similar work.

In a recent interview, Noam Chomsky 2 surmised that the

purpose of school is “to inquire and to create,” regretting

that teachers and schools are so busy with “dispensing and

receiving planned curriculum” that inquiry and creativity

can be quite lost. I hoped that through a critical reflection

of their own practice, my colleagues would support action

research as a vehicle of professional development that

could entwine passion with praxis. As they engaged in the

cycles of action and reflection, would their questions

change? What changes would occur in their daily practice?

The topics

In our first session, we chose research questions. Some

teachers had their questions ready to go; others struggled to

find a burning issue. We chose a variety of topics according

to the spectrum of interests that one might expect to find

in a small town cohort of 19 teachers from K to 12, with

teaching experiences ranging from less than five years to

more than thirty years, and bringing a wide scope of

personal interests.

One-third of the projects required researched reading, a

great concern of all, but especially primary teachers in our

district. Sharon, Elizabeth, Maureen, and Madeleine asked

questions about literacy, early intervention, and the use of

guided reading; Heather examined the relationship

between boys and reading, looking for ways of encouraging

boys in her school to value reading.


At the intermediate level, Walter questioned the value of

incentives in promoting students’ reading success. Two

other intermediate teachers examined systemic questions

of schools: Dennis researched school discipline while

Dighton, one of our two Terrace members, looked at the

relationship between students’ academic progress and

participation in extra-curricular activities.

Eight secondary teachers explored a wide variety of topics.

Some asked questions about curriculum. Dick and Julie,

science teachers, sought to improve their students’ quick

recall of math facts in science class. Moreno researched

error correction in his French classes to see how it related

to language facility. Nick wondered if students would be

more motivated in his Grade 12 shop class if they codeveloped

the curriculum, and Rick scrutinized the

relationship between his drama students and their progress

in other subjects.

Other teachers studied support systems for promoting

student success in secondary schools. Janise wrote case

studies outlining her students’ perceptions of how an

alternate school met their needs. Kris, an English teacher,

examined how classroom community is promoted to

ensure that students feel that they work in a safe and

comfortable environment. Caroline, our second cohort

member from Terrace, taught specific strategies to promote

students’ self esteem to her secondary special needs

students. Shelley, a French immersion teacher, undertook a

student-mentoring program to promote academic success.

Themes

Major themes emerged mirroring challenges of our school

district. Nearly one-third of our group examined issues

around reading success. Encouraging strong readers

through early literacy is a goal identified by primary

teachers, a reading committee, and by Coast Mountains

School District. A second theme emerged: many teachers

examined the importance of involving students in

meaningful studies. This issue surfaces in a much wider

context than our school district, as teachers try to engage

students in challenging explorations, while being assailed

with increased demands for standardized testing. Indeed,

Chomsky’s creative-inquiry process appeared to be at work.

Major themes

emerged mirroring

challenges of our

school district.

162


The Process

In January, at our first class, Mohammed suggested areas of

interest for research and discussed research methods and

data collection. I collected my colleagues’ initial thoughts

for research questions. People with similar questions paired

or teamed up. At the end of that class, Mohammed

assigned readings to expand our knowledge around action

research.

In our February class, most of the cohort members had

firmed their questions, written their formal proposal,

outlined their reasons for studying their particular area and

laid out their methodology for data collection. A small

group, presenting their findings on the assigned readings,

involved the class in discussions. Mohammed outlined the

protocols and ethics surrounding action research.

At our third class in March, my colleagues raised many

concerns. Often their initial proposals had been shaved

down to a much smaller scale, more finely tuned study, as

they struggled with time constraints and feasibility

problems. Some people struggled to find a question of

value to them. Once they had “found the right question,”

the methodologies and the data collection flowed easily.

Mohammed presented ideas on data analysis, presenting

data, and ways of sharing research.

In April, during our fourth class, a significant portion of

class time was allotted to collaborative problem solving.

People shared their data, gave feedback to one another and

raised concerns about issues that had arisen. After

Mohammed outlined ideas for writing and publishing,

teachers left ready to write their research stories.

A highlight for me

was the fifth class

in May, when we

shared our writing

drafts.

A highlight for me was the fifth class in May, when we

shared our writing drafts. After a presentation on listening

skills and non-judgmental feedback, two essential

components of the Program for Quality Teaching, teachers set

off into small groups once again to listen to and to ask

questions of each other’s writings. Action research had

involved the cohort in discussions of learning in a different

way from our previous course, Pedagogy of the Heart; yet the

concerns raised through previous narrative discourses reemerged

in action research as teachers related their stories

of classroom inquiry. Teachers told how they had tried one


idea, rejected another, and wondered about a third.

Conversations of pedagogical issues that arise in our daily

practice reaffirmed our shared concerns. Teachers left that

class with clear writing and editing goals.

The teachers emerged from their studies, after six months

of thoughtful reflection embedded in their daily classroom

actions, with a wide variety of experiences and conclusions.

As we gathered at our final session in June, we anticipated

sharing our stories during the sixth class. Teachers related

their findings, concerns, and doubts, and celebrated their

successes. My goal was to listen to their reports and record

the data, as I had done every month. Combined with their

original proposals and the questionnaire that follows, I

hoped to see that a disciplined pursuit of a small question

could lead to benefits for teachers and students in our

community. Could the results of action research bring

about social change in our classrooms, schools and

communities?

The teachers

emerged from their

studies, after six

months of

thoughtful

reflection

embedded in their

daily classroom

actions, with a

wide variety of

experiences and

conclusions.

A quartet of concerns

In response to my question, asking what concerns arose

during their research, my colleagues told me of four key

struggles. Doubts of two varieties emerged, as did anxieties

about data collection, resources, and time.

• Doubts of self, of others

• Data-collection problems

• Shortage of resources, including materials

• Time-management problems

Self-doubters questioned their ability to produce work of

the quality they expected, while others wondered about

issues that arose out of the research. Several participants

questioned the validity of their research. Had they asked

the right questions? Enough questions? Too many? Were

the questions meaningful to anyone but themselves? Some

doubted their ability to do the work, to finish the project,

as they saw the expanding demands of a large question. A

number of participants directed their qualms to the library,

to the Internet, and to ongoing discussions in class and

between sessions.

Of those who doubted others, several colleagues wondered

if they were soliciting open and honest co-operation from

164


Teachers were

concerned about

what staff,

students, and

parents would

think about their

projects,

wondering if the

results would not

be what they

hoped.

students, as they worried about receiving “teacherpleasing”

responses. Teachers were concerned about what

staff, students, and parents would think about their

projects, wondering if the results would not be what they

hoped. Kris worried about “the validity of her information,

finding enough information to collect, having enough time

to do what needed to be done, and getting honest

responses from students, not what they thought I wanted

to hear.” Similarly, Caroline was anxious about “students

having external difficulties that are hard to address in the

research, about self-disclosure—how much to tell—and

about a student not willing to let anyone in.”

While most teachers worried about not having enough

data, Dighton was inundated by an overabundance of

returned questionnaires, requiring more space than his

spreadsheet would allow. Heather wondered if her

categorization of data assisted or impeded her research,

divided, as it was, into numerous sections, each requiring a

decision on her part. Some teachers doubted their ability to

collect, organize, and interpret data. One feared producing

“useless work.”

The overriding concern for several members was the

scarcity of resources and material. As Maureen, one of the

primary teachers, aptly explained, “My main concerns at

first were about how to research and find out the

information I would need to begin the project. I had to

learn about guided reading, then needed to find the time

and the resources to implement all that we needed to do.”

Others echoed her dilemma, as they scrambled to find

appropriate software, learned how to work with computer

graphics, and searched for supporting research. Shelley

said, “When almost finished, I happened upon someone

else’s research that echoed my thoughts—that a mentoring

program should be directed at students who are already

open.”

The last issue common to most teacher researchers was the

lack of time to complete the process that they initially

envisioned. Madeleine, a French-immersion primary

teacher, related her frustration due to “a lack of time to

compile the report after the final testing, and too short a

time period to prepare for, and implement the program.”

Elizabeth agreed, stating, “A longer time frame would have

made a greater difference in results.”


Nevertheless, teachers plunged in and did what they could

in the time provided. I was curious to know if they were

given the opportunity and the time, would their questions

change, become manageable? Would teachers become

comfortable with the process of asking, trying, reflecting,

and re-searching?

Excitement and surprises

Next, I asked, “What excited you? What surprised you?”

Despite encountering difficulties, each teacher revealed

interesting, exciting, and insightful surprises. Excitement

for some meant meeting goals, while others were amazed at

touchstone events that opened during the process. I sought

clues that would indicate that through exploration,

teachers would see themselves differently, as more valuable,

as key leaders in educational change. Results varied. Dick

and Julie were elated at proving their initial ideas with

positive results. They found that as their students increased

their averages, fewer students reached for calculators, and

more students volunteered answers. Others were excited as

they found relationships changing and developing between

themselves and their staff members, or between themselves

and their students or their parents. Sharon reported, “The

technique worked! I really didn’t expect to see any

difference in the kids as a result of my work. I hope to

continue the experiment next year.” Reid was encouraged

to find a correlation between student travel and improved

school performance.

I sought clues that

would indicate

that through

exploration,

teachers would see

themselves

differently, as

more valuable, as

key leaders in

educational

change.

Teachers began weaving strands of introspection into their

inquiry as unexpected events occurred in their research.

Secondary school teachers found all kinds of surprises.

Moreno learned that as his students actively involved

themselves in error correction, they became conscious of

their own learning styles as well as their classmates.

Caroline’s Emotion Board proved to be a powerful catalyst

for students as they shared their feelings, involving her in

more ways than she’d imagined. In fact, such powerful

connections emerged that her students felt confident in

phoning her at home to tell her how they felt! As Shelley

proceeded with her mentoring project, she observed how

much the older students learned and grew along with their

mentored students, a bonus side effect of the project. Nick

was excited by the thought that students could create their

166


own curriculum. The depth of feedback she received from

students stirred Kris.

Among the elementary teachers, Dighton was excited to

find a definite link between students’ low self-esteem at

school and the number of extracurricular activities in

which they participated.

Heather found herself thinking carefully about how to

make a difference in boys’ reading. Madeleine was excited

to see dramatic progress in her literacy group who used

their newfound reading strategies. So did Maureen, who

said, “Teaching children literacy skills works. Working in

small groups with children who are struggling [to read] also

works!”

All in all, teachers

were surprised at

either the changes

in their

relationships or

the changes in

their own

approach to

teaching.

All in all, teachers were surprised at either the changes in

their relationships or the changes in their own approach to

teaching. Open and frank discussions between students and

teachers led to new awareness. Janise found that her

students at the alternate school not only participated

willingly, but stated their preferences for school rules that

reinforce their success. Moreno found that as his students

learned more about learning styles, they demonstrated

more patience with one another and with their own ability

to learn from error correction. Nick was surprised by how

well his students responded initially to their redesigned

curriculum. Shelley and Caroline found far-reaching

personal connections developing out of the curriculum. As

they worked intensely with small groups, both Maureen

and Madeleine were encouraged at how quickly students

picked up skills. Dighton was overwhelmed by the

consistency with which girls viewed themselves with low

self-esteem. Kris was surprised to learn that her students’

top concern was success and marks. Several teachers were

surprised at the keen interest shown by their colleagues.

Changes and perceptions

“How do you see yourself differently as a result of this

action-research project? What insights have you gained

into your teaching? What do/will you do differently?

As I received the responses for this section of my

questionnaire, where I searched for possibilities of the


generative power of action research, my excitement grew.

While a few teachers did not view themselves differently,

they felt supported in their original beliefs and practice. Of

those who saw themselves in a different light, two themes

emerged.

Some teachers felt revitalized in the value of their role in

the larger educational system, as parents and colleagues

asked them to explain their research findings. Some viewed

themselves in a new, more confident way, believing in

themselves as researchers, and feeling more able to ask

questions connecting living educational theory to their

own values. The importance of curriculum-as-plan

diminished in response to insights gained into

relationships in school. Janise felt encouraged to fight for

consistency in the application of contract expectations in

her alternate school, as she found how strongly the

students valued fairness. Caroline, reflecting a common

thread, related, “Curriculum has become less curriculum

driven and more relationship driven. Teachers (I) need to

teach from the heart. It takes more than strategies alone. It

involves showing the students they are honestly cared for.”

Sharon felt empowered as she noted the importance of her

work and the validity of her ideas. “I’ve gained the courage

of my convictions,” she explained. Through risk-taking

themselves, teachers were becoming learning experts.

The second difference teachers observed was in their

classroom relationships. Nearly all the respondents found

insights into their own classroom interactions as they

showed themselves as teacher-learners. Moreno noticed

that he observed students more carefully and became more

sensitive to their needs. He feels more and more justified in

stepping into the workings of the class. Nick, similarly,

found that as he developed a more learner-centred

approach, he was more able to meet the needs of his

students who have difficulty reading and writing. He

writes, “In the end, what this research project has taught

me, is that the more I eliminate the split between teaching

and doing, the more effectively I teach and the more

effectively my students learn.”

Most respondents indicated a growing or rekindled

awareness of classroom dynamics and their own classroom

behaviour. Kris explained, “It reminded me that I need to

be sensitive to students as people. Teaching is not just

“Curriculum has

become less

curriculum driven

and more

relationship

driven.”

Nearly all the

respondents found

insights into their

own classroom

interactions as

they showed

themselves as

teacher-learners.

168


“It reminded me

that I need to be

sensitive to

students as people.

Teaching is not

just about getting

the job done; it is

about getting

something out of

the experience—

both myself and

them.”

about getting the job done; it is about getting something

out of the experience—both myself and them.” When

students see their teachers taking risks as learners, they all

become part of an inclusive learning community, an

important element of change. Dighton believes it is time to

re-examine the current practice of removing low academic

achievers from sports teams. He will work towards a goal of

encouraging participation of students in extra curricular

activities as a way of boosting self-esteem through his dual

roles as a school coach and as a member of the Terrace

Elementary School Sports Association.

Jack Whitehead, from the University of Bath, would agree.

As a strong proponent of action research, he writes,

“Perhaps the most important qualities to think about and

feel in doing your action research are the values that

inspire your commitment to your own and your students’

learning.” 3 Themes of reconnection and revitalization

emerged as teachers evaluated their changing feelings.

My next three questions asked how teachers would assess

action research as a means of continuing their learning.

First, I asked teachers if and how they would continue

action research. Although most respondents didn’t plan to

formally research another question, most saw themselves

willing to ask new questions through reflective practice or

by continuing their present research informally. Some felt

encouraged as researchers to value the work upon which

they had embarked and were determined to follow other

questions that had emerged during their studies.

But when I asked colleagues how they viewed the

relationship between professional development and action

research, a definite pattern emerged. A majority felt

strongly that they had a valuable tool for evaluating

classroom teaching and learning. Janise offered, “There is

no doubt in my mind that action research is much more

meaningful than attending workshops and classes that

introduce ideas that are basically irrelevant to one’s

teaching situation.” Sharon added, “I think the relationship

is incredibly significant. Knowledge equals power, which

equals success—that is, professional/personal success for us

as well as for our students.” Kris agreed. “It was the best

experience I’ve ever had to get me to think about my

actions in the classroom and the impact those actions

have,” she said.


When asked what support structures teachers had created

to facilitate their action research, a range of replies resulted,

from none, to working in pairs, to one group of four who

taught in the same school and found time to engage in

dialogue at school as they enlisted the support of other

staff. As Elizabeth said, “Working with the group in my

school encouraged and supported me.” At a secondary

school, Moreno called upon the support of colleagues who

worked in the same subject area. The majority of the group

relied upon and valued the time allocated in class for

support and feedback.

In my last questions, I asked about the general impact of

action research. Would the participants recommend it to

their colleagues? Why, or why not? What suggestions could

they recommend to improve the process? What conditions

were necessary to carry out action research effectively? In

their responses, the group clearly indicated three

necessities: simplicity, group support, and time. Some

teacher-researchers found that what appeared to be

manageable at the beginning of a project became unruly in

terms of data collection and related questions that

emerged. Moreno suggested that if teachers were

introduced to action research before the course started,

they would have more time to consider possible research

questions. He added that a group that had already done

action research could mentor others. Teachers valued group

support to motivate them, to keep them on task, and to

support their ongoing queries.

All teachers agreed that sufficient time must be allocated

for action research. The secondary teachers who had no

prep time in the term when we did our research were quite

frustrated with the extremely demanding semester. Some

conceded that if they had asked a smaller question, their

time would have been manageable. Nick and Shelley both

suggested that if a project were longer, for example, two

years, they would have the luxury of a long-term approach.

Reid suggested, “Get a partner or a support team, find an

issue, and go to it!” Maureen cautioned, “ Keep the study

small, and have a clear idea before you begin.” Dick stated

that his research team’s research went smoothly because he

“narrowed down the topic right away.”

All teachers agreed

that sufficient

time must be

allocated for

action research.

Some teachers found muddling around before getting to

the essence an important part of their studying. Donald

Schon, author of The Reflective Practitioner, concurs.

170


“I believe,” he writes, “the experience of the students in

any reflective practicum is that they must plunge into the

doing, and try to educate themselves before they know

what it is they’re trying to learn. The teachers cannot tell

them. The teachers can say things to them, but they cannot

understand what’s meant at that point. The way at which

they come to be able to understand what’s meant is by

plunging into the doing—the designing, the teaching, the

examination of their own learning—so as to have the kinds

of experience from which they may then be able to make

some sense of what is being said. But that plunge is full of

loss because, if you’ve taken that plunge yourself, you

know the experience. You feel vulnerable; you feel you

don’t know what you’re doing; you feel out of control; you

feel incompetent; you feel that you’ve lost confidence.”

“It is empowering.

Having ‘data’ as

opposed to

‘hunches’ lets me

talk confidently

about the results

of my work,” said

Sharon. Walter

agreed, saying, “It

is exciting,

revealing,

groundbreaking,

fundamental

stuff.”

Schon’s invitation to plunge into the waters of action

research must appeal, because all of the teachers

responding to the survey recommend action research to

their colleagues with the proviso that two essentials be

provided: sufficient time and group support. Given that,

the cohort members were strong advocates for the benefits

of action research. “It is empowering. Having ‘data’ as

opposed to ‘hunches’ lets me talk confidently about the

results of my work,” said Sharon. Walter agreed, saying, “It

is exciting, revealing, groundbreaking, fundamental stuff.”

My last question asked teachers to share any other

thoughts and advice they had. Action research had made

profound changes in their lives, they told me, from the

personal to the professional, and to the political. Janise

said, “Participating in this action research program has

been a wonderful learning experience. Even though I have

struggled with the work, I can see nothing but value in

doing it. Even without doing formal research projects in

the future, I do believe the process is going to be used

consciously in a more informal way.”

Sharon endorses action research. “This work has given me

courage. I feel like I’m a new person. Actually, I’ve just

become the professional I’ve always wanted to be.”

Julie disagrees. “I have serious concerns over the validity of

action research. Just because I say the results turned out

one way doesn’t mean that the results actually support my

conclusions. From a scientific model, results must be

repeatable, which does not have to be recognized according

to action research.”


Nick suggests that others engaged in action research relax

about whether or not they are doing “good” research.

Caroline summed up her experience. “The research was

part of my curriculum and could become a way of life,” she

said. “It didn’t feel like research. It felt like life.”

Implications for further research

I am encouraged by our explorations in action research. My

hope was that we could choose creative inquiry as an

alternative to the imposed professional-development

marathon, the burden of Sisyphus. Once free, we found

that thrashing about in unknown waters is a risky but

essential part of learning to swim. As we faced our feelings

of vulnerability, insecurity, and lost confidence, we

embarked upon journeys of personal inquiry and creativity,

travelling right to the heart of teaching and learning. The

excitement and surprises we found invited a deeper

examination of a focussed question that arose or propelled

us to explore related issues. I agree with my colleagues that

the resulting discourse between teachers as learners can

lead not only to improvements in our practice but also to

confident practitioners who lead by example in creative

inquiry. I have no doubt that many of our cohort members

will continue their research and mentor others who may

choose to examine an important question. We agree, too,

that continued research must be facilitated by the necessary

structures of sufficient time, resources, and support.

As we dare to engage in ongoing examination of our living

practice, we break the chains that bind teachers-astechnicians,

like Sisyphus, to the uphill burden of packaged

curriculum. Our cohort members examined real issues that

concern us all, like reading, and involving students in

meaningful studies. When, as Michael Fullan, says, teachers

believe they can make a difference and work toward that

end, real educational change results. As we support action

research for our colleagues and ourselves, we begin healing

the splits between research and practice, between thinking

and doing. The gift of reflexivity from society at large to

education will be magnified through this kind of work, as

we learn to value true learning that arises from examining

our own practice and encouraging students to do likewise

as a vital part of school experience.

I am encouraged

by our

explorations in

action research.

My hope was that

we could choose

creative inquiry as

an alternative to

the imposed

professionaldevelopment

marathon, the

burden of

Sisyphus.

172


1. Fullan, M. The New Meaning of Educational Change.

London, Cassell. p. 117, 1991.

2. Chomsky, N. “Public Education and Moral Monsters,”

Our Schools, Ourselves. Volume 10, No. 2, Jan. 2001.

3. Whitehead, J. “Creating a Living Educational Theory

from Questions of the Kind,” How Do I Improve My

Practice? Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 19, No.1,

1989.


174


Strategies for

developing self-esteem in

intellectually disabled students

Carol-Anne Rauschenberger

“I just phoned to tell you what I put on the emotions board

when you were away today (student).”

The action research recorded in this paper focusses on

developing self-concept in students in the School-

Completion Program who are identified as mildly to

moderately intellectually disabled. The focus is on students

learning to identify and monitor their own emotions.

Initially there were 10 areas that I focussed on, but as I reevaluated

these strategies and lessons, I found that there

were two activities that the students really enjoyed doing,

and they became the focus of my research. I wish to present

these lessons to you along with the benefits that I recorded.

Before I continue explaining my research, I need to provide

background on myself and why I chose this area. I am a

special needs teacher who has worked with learning

disabled and intellectually disabled students in Grades 3 to

12. The students I have taught have often developed

behaviours that evolved from a poor self-concept as they

moved up into intermediate grades. By the time I receive

students at the Grade 11 and 12 level, some have firmly

established beliefs about themselves. It has been my heart’s

desire to help these students to change their selfperceptions;

consequently, this has been the driving force

of my research.

The tools of measurement

that I used were a

questionnaire and a selfesteem

thermometer.

Initially, the students I chose

to examine were mildly

intellectually disabled, but I

found that even the lower moderates, and one

profoundly intellectually disabled student were

able to handle the two tools with the support of a

scribe or reader.


The questionnaire gave a general idea of how the students

felt others perceived them, and how they perceived

themselves. The types of responses were qualitative, and

subject to interpretation. The questionnaire was

administered in the initial, and final stages of testing.

The self-esteem thermometer was simply a bar graph that

the students copied from the chalkboard. They put five

boxes on top of each other with a label on each box.

Starting at the bottom, the categories read: I am bad, I am

okay, I am good, I am very good, and I am wonderful. The

students chose a colour, and starting at the bottom,

coloured until they reached the description that best

described how they felt.

Specific lessons and activities were planned and carried out

over the course of ten weeks. The main activities and

lessons were:

• Learning the meanings of their names

• Making a name acrostic

• Describing their feelings each morning on an emotion

board

• Pre-planning to make their day special

• Pre-planning to make someone else’s day special

• Developing a self-poster showing who they are, and

containing words and pictures to describe themselves,

their gifts, talents, hobbies, interests, friends, and

favourite expressions.

• Webbing of who they are

• Listing things that hold them back from being successful

and what they could do to change

• Webbing what happens when they are in a bad mood or

a good mood.

• Brainstorming all the successes in their lives

The two daily questions and the emotion board became the

focal point of the research. The students immediately

bought into the activities with little prompting. Even when

I was absent, the students continued to complete the

emotion board and fill in the two questions.

One further activity that I ensured was in the curriculum

was student praise toward specific abilities that each

student had. This took some premeditated inquiry, because

praise had to be genuine, honest, and observable by all.

The praise attributes I used were individual descriptors:

176


gentle, kind, patient, encourager, hard worker, always on

time, good choice of clothing, fashion sense, beautiful

smile, good at using the computer, good at putting feelings

into words, and poetic writer. The students responded very

positively to receiving praise of their individual character

strengths. By week five, some of the students referred to

themselves using the attributes they had been given. The

poets wrote more poetry to share with me, and by week 10

they shared it with one another. They also used the praise

words toward one another. I noticed that the one student

who attended only one block a day went without the praise

that the others received; he also did not show any

acceptance toward the class or the activities in this

research.

During the 10th week, a number of factors kept students

from fully engaging in the research. Within a few weeks of

initiating the curriculum, one of my students was expelled;

by week seven, another student moved away. Short

suspensions, sickness and absenteeism came into play. The

student who came one block a day also skipped a number

of blocks per week. He remained uninterested in anything

that was happening in the classroom. Students’ personal

crises and relationships also affected mood choices that

students were making.

Prescription drugs also affected student behaviour and their

perceptions of themselves. For example, a student with

diabetes had a substantial change in behaviour, and

response to activities when his sugar levels were too high or

low. More than half the students were on some type of

mood altering medication. This was significant for

collecting data to do with perceptions, especially when

those perceptions were continually changing.

Psychological disturbances, as well as intellectual

difficulties, also affected data collection. Students with

deeply entrenched behaviours were the most difficult to

reach.

Lesson plan A

Emotion board

Purpose: Students were to identify their feelings, and

represent them through the use of picture symbols and

words on an emotion board on a daily basis.


I let the students know they were doing this activity

because I cared about them and how they were doing. I

also told them that I would not ask them to do anything

that I would not do. I discussed confidentiality with them,

assuring them that what they shared should stay in the

classroom and not be spread around the school.

Materials:

1. Emotion board, large cardboard with names attached. I

used paper clips that go through the laminated board to

place names that can be changed and Velcro strips next

to the name to apply the emotion cards.

2. Emotion cards, I used 63 assorted negative and positive

emotion cards that contained a picture and a

description. I also used picture cards without words for

students who could not read. The pictures were cut

from magazines, glued to cardboard, laminated, and

then Velcroed so they would stick onto the emotion

board.

3. Paper clips held the names onto the emotion board,

making them easy to reuse.

4. A shoe box

5. Student names on cardboard (1" x 2 1/2")

Procedure:

I led students through the procedure of choosing a card

from the box and placing it by their names. The procedure

was modeled and talked through. Examples of pictures of

various emotions were provided and discussed. Students

were asked to choose an emotion card every morning as

they entered the room. Some students required

preliminary training to determine how they felt and how

it related to the picture.

Self-esteem

thermometer

Starting from the bottom

block, fill in the spaces that

best describes how you feel

about yourself.

Response envelope

for the two

questions

Closure:

I checked the board on a regular basis during the day and

asked how students were doing. Students did not have to

share their reasons unless they wanted to. They also had

the choice of sharing privately.

Follow-up:

Students examined how other students were doing by

looking at the emotion board, listening to stories, and

then fitting it into the question. “How can I help someone

else have a good day?” Students started doing that without

being asked.

178


Emotion board findings

Week one: Some students complained about doing the

activity. The students with difficulties establishing

classroom relationships seemed to have the most difficulty

placing an emotion on the board. A student who

infrequently attended class refused to participate.

Week two: Most students had established a pattern of

choosing an emotion without prompting.

Week three: A previous student arrived in the morning,

put up the name and the emotion. The student then

walked over and explained the choice and left. All

students who spent more than two blocks per day in class

were using the emotion board daily with very little

prompting. They started reminding me to put up my

emotions if I had been too busy to get it done before they

arrived. This showed that they were reading the emotions

and checking one another’s responses.

Week four: Students became willing to share their choices,

and why they had made them with regard to specific

emotions. They did not require prompting. The previous

student continued to arrive before class, place his emotion

on the board, come over and tell me why and then leave.

Students noticed and commented on how he was feeling.

Another student I had previously taught noticed him, and

also came in and put hers up. She started coming in on a

regular basis, chose an emotion, told me how she felt, and

then left. I found it very interesting that two of my

previous students wanted to continue the emotion board

without prompting. It seemed they needed to tell

someone how they were feeling and why.

Week five: Students made their own emotion cards. They

said that the box did not contain enough emotions to

describe their feelings. This showed that they were truly

trying to tell how they felt. They chose paper strips and

wrote whole emotions (for example: tired but managing).

Week six: Students were taking liberties. Some wrote their

emotions out, some chose emotion cards, and some

borrowed other’s cards. When I was at an all-day meeting

and unable to read the board, a student wrote down all

the responses and then made copies for me. They were

taking ownership of the emotion board, as well as making


sure that I knew what they had chosen. Students started

using contrasting emotions such as: “sick but happy”, “sick

and depressed”; “happy and depressed”. They were learning

that it was okay to feel down, physically but still have good

things happen. It became obvious that emotions were

being affected by medications, by medical conditions, and

by relationships. Students were making open comments as

they filled in the emotions about having a medication

make them dizzy or tired.

Week seven: Students liked a sunshine drawing, and it

caught on. They used more positive emotion descriptions

the week the sun came out, and commented that the sun

put them in a better mood. Students added the following

emotion cards: “HYPER”, “hungry and tired”, “tired but

managing”, “loved and happy”, “uptight but managing”,

“positive”, “not so good”, and “Happy that it’s sunny out!”

Weeks eight to ten: Another adult working with the

students asked to be added to the list. The two previous

students were still arriving before class, and filling in the

board. Students talked about how they could use the board

to know what moods people were in. They even expressed

that they could tell when it was PMS time. They said that it

helped them know when someone needed help, and it

warned when to stay away from each other. A few of the

students were placing up to five emotions on the board.

Some used a combination of pictures to show how they

felt.

The student who infrequently came to class, entered, and

went over to the board, without prompting, he grabbed

two cards and stuck them on the board. I went over, and

showed him that one of his cards was backward, and the

other was upside down, and barely hanging there. He went

over and straightened it. I then read his choices to him and

his face turned red. He was the only student who did not

participate in the activity yet he did respond without

prompting. Throughout the research, he would not share

his feelings. The students never asked permission. They just

took responsibility for the activity. I never told them to do

it in a particular way. It was their choice. They made

changes as they felt necessary. For example, they posted as

many or as few emotion cards to their names as they

wanted. One student turned her name over and did not put

a card down in the morning. In the afternoon sometime,

180


she went over and put an emotion on the board. When I

asked her about it she said that she was not ready to share

her feelings.

After the research

After the research was completed, the students continued

to fill in the emotion board every morning without any

prompting on my part. Two weeks after the research, I was

off work for a week. I received calls from three students

during the week sharing how their week had gone. One

evening, I received a phone call that startled me. The

student started the conversation by saying, “I just phoned

to tell you what I put on the emotion board today.” The

student seemed distraught, but went on to tell me that he

had chosen frustrated and angry for the two emotion cards.

In the next few sentences, I discovered that this student

was in crisis and required immediate attention. Without

the emotion board, I doubt this student would have

phoned me. It was the student’s opening statement that

told me that he was taking the emotion board seriously,

and that it was the only way to get help.

A second student also phoned with a similar statement. “I

know you care about me but no-one else does.” This

student was also going through a trauma that he was

unable to work through alone, and so took a risk by

phoning to share his burden. I feel that the students

believed me when I told them that I cared about them, and

I believe this is the reason the majority of them took the

emotion board seriously.

Lesson plan B

Two questions to ask

Purpose: Students answered two questions daily to help

them have a good day, and help someone else have a good

day. The long-term goal was for students to learn that they

could have some control over their lives and the lives of

those around them.

Materials:

1. Strips of coloured paper to write on

2. An envelope taped to the wall to put responses into.

Procedure:

On the board was written:


1. How can I help myself have a good day?

2. How can I help someone else have a good day?

I led discussions on possible responses to both questions.

We discussed possible outcomes from the choices we made.

Students wrote out the two questions, one on each side.

They then filled in their responses to the questions on the

strip of paper. The activities the students chose to do were

carried out during lunch or break time. Students were

allowed to have a pop or a bag of chips in the classroom, if

that helped them have a good day. They were also given

time during school if they were helping someone sort out a

difficulty and that was their targeted goal for the day.

Follow-up:

At the end of each school day, I read the questions to the

class and asked the students how things had gone for them

and for someone else. They discussed how it felt to do

something for themselves and for others and also the

benefits from so doing.

Responding to the questions became a daily occurrence

after the students had finished choosing a card for the

emotion board. The entire process for both the emotion

board and the two questions took 15 to 20 minutes.

Findings from

the two questions

In the initial stages, considerable discussion was needed. At

the end of the day, I needed to read the responses or the

activity was not as important to them. Students quickly

took ownership of this activity. They made the connection

between the two activities before I brought it to their

attention. By the end of the 10 weeks, the students were

trying to encourage one another based on the responses on

the wall.

Students felt the things they wrote and followed through

with did make a difference. Students tended to choose

smiling and saying hi to others as an activity for the day.

They also said that it made them feel good because people

smiled back at them. Discussing outcomes from smiling

and doing good for others was an area we expanded on.

182


They used the emotion board to help them know who they

could specifically support. Some students chose to support

only one student, while others chose more general

activities that involved a number of people. At the end of

the 10 weeks, I noted that the students had changed from

providing themselves with some form of junk food to

taking someone else along. Relationships were on the rise

in the classroom, and the goals the students were choosing

were directly linked to those relationships. The choices the

students made for themselves involved social interactions

and there became an overlap in helping self and others.

The emotion board and the desire to help one another

overlapped somewhat. Some of the girls frequently went

and hugged other girls in the class who were feeling down.

At the end of the research, I asked the students what they

liked about the two questions, they unanimously agreed

that it helped them to get into a better mood.

The one student who infrequently attended did not like the

activity. When he was asked to participate, he would write

inappropriate responses that were not attainable. “I’m

going to get a truck to make myself feel good. I’m going to

give out money. And I’m going to ask people for money to

make myself feel better.” When asked about his responses,

he would reply “Why do I have to do this. It has nothing to

do with school?” The other students did not respond to

him. There was indifference toward him, and I felt bad

about that. Could it have been that he would not take a

risk? Did he need more time to learn to trust?

The students were encouraged to care about one another

and it was evident that they did, except the one student

they did not interact with.

Findings from

the questionnaire

Responses were very qualitative and difficult to evaluate.

The students who described themselves as not being loved

changed their response to feeling loved. The students who

had felt that life was not worth living changed to respond

it was worth living, or added the word ‘sometimes’ in the

margin. Answers were more realistic on the final testing.


Students’ responses at the end of the research showed that

they had learned they had gifts and talents. It also showed

that they had hope for their futures. Students used more

descriptors and even sentences to describe what they could

do. That was not as evident in the initial stage of the

research. The self-esteem thermometer provided a quick

overall sense of for how the students felt about themselves.

The questionnaire provided richer information about

specifics. The students who felt that others perceived them

badly were not so harsh on themselves in the second

testing.

Self-concept thermometer findings

The first of the measuring tools that I used was the selfesteem

thermometer. In the initial week of the research, the

students had an average of 2.75, or I’m okay category. The

lowest category chosen was 1, or I’m bad, and the highest

category chosen was 5, or I’m wonderful. The student who

attended one block a day did not enjoy this activity and

voiced it openly. While working on this activity, he said he

did not see the reason for doing this because it was a waste

of his time. He was the only student who gave himself a 5,

and expressed that he was wonderful. I also noticed that

another student was talking to herself about her choice.

The comment she made led me to believe that she was

scoring herself based upon her behaviour, and not on who

she was. During the initial sampling, the scores ranged

from 1 to 5.

During the final week, scores ranged from 3 to 4. The

overall mean response was in the 3.46 category for, I’m a

good person. This was an increase of 0.71 of a category. I

also noted a difference between students who attended all

day and those who attended two blocks a day or less.

There were factors that affected this research. The student

who came once a day and chose the top category (I’m a

wonderful person) because he didn’t like the activity the

first week, later moved down one category to, (I’m very

good) when he submitted it for the second time. For some

reason, his face looked a lot more serious the second time

around.

The students who attended full time had the most

184


significant move up the self-esteem thermometer. These

students moved up the scale 1.31 categories. The students

who attended part time moved down 0.34 categories. All

the students who attended part time had scores equivalent

to their original score; the one student who did not want to

participate moved down one space. He was the student

who missed the most classes and had the most resistance.

Even so, he appeared to stop and think about what he was

doing the second time and this showed a definite impact

on the choice he made. His second response appeared to

involve honesty. Where did this change come from? Was

he beginning to develop trust? Would he have become

more involved if the research had continued? Would he

have had a different score were he in class full-time? It

appeared that the more exposure the students received to

the activities, the better the self-esteem.

Concluding thoughts

The big question was “Did my students’ self-esteem

improve?” I strongly feel that the students who attended

full time (the majority) did feel substantially better about

themselves and their abilities. They appeared to accept

their uniqueness. They even referred to themselves by the

gifts and talents they discovered they had. Most of my parttime

students also began doing that. They responded

exceedingly positively to the two main activities and

worked hard to participate.

Three students were obviously listening when I told them I

cared about each one of them. They phoned me at home to

discuss issues of grave concern. I would have lost their trust

had I not responded to them. For one of the students, there

would not have been the support needed at that specific

moment. This proved to me that much more than teaching

strategies was involved. The way those strategies were

presented was vital to the success of the project.

The activities were a sounding board for the care that the

students had developed for one another and that they felt I

had for them. If I had turned away the three students who

phoned outside of school hours, I would have lost their

trust and decreased self concept. It wasn’t just the activities

that helped the students; it was the relationship in the

classroom, the trust they were building, that helped the


students take chances and realize that people around them

did care. They were beginning to feel that they had control

over their lives and they could support others.

Toward the end of the research, the focus changed.

Students had started off focussed on what they could do to

have a good day. The focus shifted toward how they could

help someone else in their lives have a better day. This was

a very unexpected part of the research.

Strong relationships were established. Two of my students

have never had relationships that lasted this long with

peers before. This must account for how they feel about

themselves. Trust, time, and care were key ingredients in

the research. Students who were with me all day learned to

trust in the activities and in one another. Those who were

part-time or less were not exposed to the same number of

discussions; they missed some of the interactions that were

vital to accepting the activities. A question that repeatedly

popped up was “Had more time been available, would the

students’ self-esteem have increased?”

I learned from the research that not only the activities

presented to the students could cause change in their selfesteem,

but also the attitude and motives of the teacher.

Students learn when there is “pedagogy from the heart.”

The activities were just a vehicle to aid in this delivery.

186


Weeding the garden

Shelly Jackson

I, on my side,

require of every

writer, first or last,

a simple and

sincere account of

his own life, and

not merely what

he has heard of

other men’s lives;

some such account

as he would send

to his kindred

from a distant

land.

Henry David Thoreau

a

man

a life

nature

metaphor

metaphysical

Zen Buddhism

goals in education

challenge in education

valuing the world intrinsically?

learning to understand to know to care?

creating workers or Renaissance man?

nurturing constructing encouraging creativity?

we are being stifled we are under surveillance criticized

we are held accountable constrained counted and curtailed

is the purpose of life to vote and to work and to consume

and have

or is life meant to be lived in the world and should we

want to have to be?

Shelly Jackson. May 2001


My research—

planning my garden

The context in which I teach is a difficult one, but this

does not discourage me. Instead, I reflect on an incredibly

empowering prayer used in twelve step groups: God grant

me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the

courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to

know the difference. If it works for one’s personal

problems, I ask myself, can it help me to focus my

research? And so, I review in my mind the stories I share

only with my husband Joe, who is my sounding board.

These are the problems which return to conscious thought

when I least expect them: while I am driving to school,

only half awake, or while I am sipping lemon green tea and

gazing at my flower garden. I think about the students who

are failing, the steps I have taken to help them, and the

fact that they may fail just the same. Am I doing enough

for them? I mentally flip through my daybook for openended

activities that will interest or challenge the gifted

students. What grade would I give myself this week for

meeting the needs of these students? I think about the

diverse learners in my classroom, about brain-based

research and multiple learning styles. Am I doing enough

for the kinesthetic learner? I go over in my mind the latest

department discussion on communicative verses theory,

and grammar approaches to language acquisition. Does it

matter that the students only did worksheets today? And

what about the non-readers in my Social Studies class, my

conscience nags? Shouldn’t I be doing more research into

the most recent theories on literacy? And I reflect on the

importance of fun and mystery and magic in a classroom

full of energetic fourteen year-olds. Did I see anyone’s face

light up in my classroom because of something I had

planned? And I am haunted by critiques of schools as

“incredibly boring, insensitive places which frustrate

originality and ignore the deeper needs of its students.”

(Don Sawyer, Tomorrow is School and I’m Sick to the Heart

About It; Bendall Books, Canada, 1998, p. 100.) Too many

issues to tackle all at once, I think to myself. I can’t start an

educational revolution. Nor can I instantaneously solve all

of the problems I would like to. I can only research one

thing but what? I must begin with small steps, make small

changes, I decide. I will have to choose an intervention

that will help just a few of my students.

188


“Imagine them as

your own children,

she urges, and you

will see them each

as unique

individuals that

you care about

and want to help

become confident

and competent

persons.”

Sitting in class on a Saturday afternoon, I stare at a blank

sheet of paper, pondering what can I do that will make a

difference, but not increase my workload to the point

where I can no longer manage? I begin to write: Over the

years, I have met many students who most people would

say don’t fit the system. B.K. hates school even though he

does well, and wonders if any of his teachers know this; M.

wandered into my room and wandered out again, but we

never really connected; N.K. wants to be a mechanic, and

doesn’t really need French but takes it because Mom says

he has to; D.M. needed more help in believing in her

dreams than she does with verbs; J. V. is always so very,

very quiet, but I know instinctively that her needs are not

being met; E. V. always got good grades, but told me she’d

learned nothing of real importance to her life; J.P. has been

having a hard time with life, and last year was suicidal, but

this year only talks about how drunk he got Friday night;

M.B. scored 10% on the last quiz, and admitted to me that

he spends more time counting the tiles in the ceiling than

he does listening in class. I myself prefer to think that it is

the system that doesn’t fit the students.

In his foreword to Nel Nodding’s book The Challenge to

Care in Schools, the editor, Mr. Solits summarizes:

“Each child has unique talents, abilities, and interests in

need of engagement and development by caring teachers

and others in schools. Noddings uses the image of a very

large family to convey the caring way to think about the

task of schooling a diverse group of students. Imagine them

as your own children, she urges, and you will see them

each as unique individuals that you care about and want to

help become confident and competent persons.” (Nel

Noddings, The Challenge to Care in Schools— An Alternative

Approach to Education, Teachers College Press, New York,

1992, p. 13.)

What about mentoring? I ask myself. Could a mentor

provide for the needs of some of my students? Could a

mentor help them in their studies, or in their lives in

general? I feel good about this possibility. I realize that I

may not be the only person who can provide

meaningfulness in my student’s life, but that I can help to

create meaningful connections in their lives. Just as a

parent requires the assistance of other caregivers such as

grandparents, or aunts, or uncles to raise a child, so a

teacher can invite other’s into the lives of their students.


My Journal Entry: I have noticed that some students in

French as a Second Language, and French Immersion are

not successful, despite what I feel to be their potential to

succeed. Various factors may be influencing their lack of

success:

1. effective filters, such as lack of personal motivation for

learning a second language, or rebellion against parental

or school authority mandating certain courses

2. semestered/timetabled learning of a language—a process

which does not reflect that natural pattern of language

acquisition involving a slower pace of learning and large

number of hours of exposure to L2

3. lack of support structures for students experiencing

difficulties such as:

a) a French-speaking person in the tutoring centre

b) provision of remedial assistance for students with

Learning Disabilities

c) a reading recovery programme for those reading

below grade level

d) parental support for second language learning, or for

reinforcement of important study habits

e) the emotional impact on self-concept from speaking

in a second language in front of peers

Although I have long been aware of some of the factors

contributing to failure or underachievement, I have often

been frustrated in my attempts to help these students.

There simply are not enough hours in the school day for

me to be able to connect in meaningful ways with all of

these students. The resulting report card mark of F or C- or

even C reflects (in my view) the failure of a school system

so rigid that I am unable to teach these students a life-long

love of learning. I have noticed, however, that students

who “connect” with a buddy are much more often able to

be successful in a second language class. Surprisingly, this

occurs even when the student’s innate ability to process

language concepts (grammar) or to input language into

long-term memory is not very high. What, then, makes

these students successful? I believe it to be the relationship

with a significant other. And I believe that it is the quality

these other students possess, and that they are able to

model or share, that contributes to this success.

My hypothesis is that students acting as “mentors” or “role

models” are able to provide assistance with motivation, to

190


What, then,

makes these

students

successful? I

believe it to be the

relationship with

a significant other.

And I believe that

it is the quality

these other

students possess,

and that they are

able to model or

share, that

contributes to this

success.

share tips on study skills, to instill an enthusiasm for the

sounds of the language, to bring acceptance of the

necessity or importance of completing homework or

written class work. In short, they are able to encourage and

share their LOVE of learning. (I remind myself often that

the word encourage contains the French word “coeur”,

meaning “heart”.) At the very least, these students may act

as tutors who can really connect, being able to share their

own understanding of the concepts needed to be learned in

a language accessible to the student, rather than in “teacher

language” I ask myself again: Could a mentor provide for

the needs of some of my students? Could a mentor help

them in their studies, or in their lives in general? And thus,

finally, I arrive at my question:

How can I provide my students with meaningful

relationships involving mentors?

Research methodology—

mucking about in the dirt

I had much to say about our education system, having

worked as a teacher for almost ten years. However, I still

doubted myself. How could what I had to say add to what

had already been written about schools? How could my

story be of significance? And what if what I had to say was

nothing new? And even if my story were unique, why

would anyone want to read it?

Some gardeners create gardens that are full of order: In

their gardens, each individual carrot or radish or onion

plant grows in well-spaced rows. There are no weeds. There

are no footprints left by wayward children. While I am still

choosing a seed packet, they have grown seedlings in

greenhouses. While I am still thinking about taking out the

weeds, they have prepared the weed free soil, sifting the

soil so that it contains no stones, or half-rotted sticks. And

when I plant my seeds, the rows behind me look like some

war-torn wasteland or forlorn moonscape. And yet, I

continue to look forward to spring, and planting my

garden.

For me, teaching is like gardening. In my garden, I pull out

weeds that keep growing back. I shovel mounds of dirt,


simple elements of the universe, yet mysteriously capable

of nurturing the loveliest of flowers. I attempt to create

order out of chaos, sowing seeds with my hands while

bestowing on them the warmth of heart-felt wishes for

strength, and tremendous growth. And as I plant, I am

always aware of the potential for creating something

wonderful. In my classroom, I am a puller of weeds; seeking

ways to remove the obstacles that prevent my students

from learning. I am a shoveller of dirt, toiling each day to

bring resources to my students or to sort through mounds

of marking. I am a visionary, seeking to order the chaos in

children’s minds, to interpret the disorder in the universe,

to help my students find meaning in the profusion and

confusion which is life. Secretly, I am a mystic, believing

more in the intuitive, in magic, and mystery, than in any

pre-packaged formula or programme designed to teach.

In The Reflective Practitioner, Donald Schon compares

reflection in action “a swampy lowland where situations

are confusing “messes” incapable of technical solution …

[a] swamp where [the practitioner] can engage the most

important and challenging problems if he is willing to

forsake technical rigor.” Further describing those who do

not base their findings on research-based theory, he writes:

“They deliberately involve themselves in messy but

crucially important problems, and when asked to describe

their methods of inquiry, they speak of experience, trial

and error, intuition, and muddling through.” (Schon; Basic

Books. Library of Congress, 1983, page 42–43). I liked this

metaphor, because it helped me to understand how I was

feeling about undertaking a project in action research. I was

planning to begin a mentoring programme, basing my

decision on what I had observed and believed to be true

about my students, but I had done no research prior to

beginning the project. How would those who read about

my research judge this plan? I was afraid they would

perceive my methodology as lacking, because it did not

involve the Scientific, Rational Model. However, I decided

to continue. As Captain Janeway of Star Trek Voyageur says:

“You can use logic to justify almost anything. That is its

power and its flaw.” It is not only logic that must

determine our actions, but our hearts. In my heart I felt

that my mentoring programme would be successful. And

so, thinking about my messy garden and Schon’ s swampy

lowlands, I prepared a list:

I attempt to create

order out of chaos,

sowing seeds with

my hands while

bestowing on

them the warmth

of heart-felt

wishes for

strength, and

tremendous

growth.

192


1. Obtain

a) parent permission forms signed and returned

b) school board permission package completed, then

returned to me signed

c) permission from my school principal.

2. Choose five mentors who might be compatible.

3. Obtain information for mentors (brief training session).

4. Plan initial meetings for mentors and mentees.

5. Prepare and administer a survey (pre-test) for mentors

and mentees.

6. Monitor on-going mentoring programme.

7. Prepare and administer a survey (post-test) for mentors

and mentees.

In addition to a survey, how might I show that I had been

able to make a difference in my student’s lives? I could

analyze marks to see if there was any difference, and report

my observations and the students’ impressions. In

addition, I decided that I needed to define success.

Definition of “success”

1. More than just passing grades.

2. Substantially improved grades

3. Able to confidently communicate during in-class whole

group activities.

4. Speaks with some degree of fluency & correct

pronunciation.

5. Can speak with some degree of accuracy (grammar &

vocabulary).

6. Can write in simple sentences with correct spelling and

grammar.

7. Can work independently (uses resources more

frequently).

8. Completes assignments with high degree of attention to

detail & visual presentation.

Choosing students as mentees—

choosing what flowers to plant

I had planned to select students in my three classes who

would benefit from peer mentoring, so I sat down to look

at my class lists and mark records. What I didn’t anticipate

was that I didn’t really know who I wanted to help. Would

it be the students who were failing (either the very


noticeably disruptive ones who question the system, or the

silent ones falling behind due to poor attendance, and poor

work habits)? Would it be a few of the verbal, highly

motivated, dynamic, or even gifted students in my class?

Or would it be the too quiet, but obedient students, the

ones whom I’m never sure are there in mind and spirit as

well as in body? Almost all of my students, I realized with

dismay, could benefit from some form of mentoring. I had

to decide, but how?

I thought about the failing students. I think about them

often, already, I thought. I do a great deal to try and reach

them, motivate them, coach them, cajole them. Mentoring

could perhaps help them, I thought, but would many of

them be willing to participate in my study that would be

on their time? And would I be able to find student mentors

who would have the patience and skills to help them when

I had so little time in which to train my mentors?

I thought about the strong students. They love school, I

thought. What is more, they find joy, and purpose and

meaning in their lives. Perhaps there are a few students

who might be gifted, but not achieving their full potential.

Nevertheless, how do I identify them? In addition, how do

I recruit them? I could only name one, perhaps two

students who might fit this category. This did not fit my

plan to have four or five students in mentoring, one for

each lunch hour.

I thought about

the failing

students. I think

about them often,

already, I thought.

I looked at the third category. Quiet students, private

people. The non-verbal ones. Some of them shy. Some of

them simply complacent. Students with few social

connections in the classroom. Students who willingly

participate in classroom activities, but who rarely display

their feelings. As a teacher, I seek to inspire, to motivate, to

intrigue. Since I want to instill joy and meaning into

student’s lives, this group of students troubles me. Could I

make a difference in their lives, with so little time to

converse with them and get to know them well? Is the

answer mentoring, I wondered? Therefore, I decided that I

would choose this third category of students, and sat down

to try to define the students I would select. I wrote the

following list:

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Peer mentoring case study:

criteria for selection

1. student who is not succeeding but who seems to possess

some attributes for success

2. student with few social connections in class.

Definition of “some attributes for success”

1. not necessarily someone who is getting a failing grade

2. someone who demonstrates some difficulty acquiring

concepts (grammar)

3. a person who seems to have difficulty recalling

vocabulary

4. someone who demonstrates some interest in succeeding:

a) participates orally (even if not consistently)

b) completes most assignments

c) not disruptive

Then I reread my list. It seemed that I had pretty much

ruled out students who are failing, or who are rebellious

and troubled. Why? I struggled with this question for a few

days. Wasn’t this attempting to skew the results of my

intervention? I reflected, and decided that I had

instinctively based my choices on factors, which I was only

vaguely aware of consciously. First, I felt I didn’t have

enough experience with, and knowledge of, mentoring to

begin an intervention with troubled students. Secondly, I

knew I didn’t have the time to properly train mentors, and

it would be difficult for them to make a difference in

student’s lives in a period of a few weeks. For the purposes

of my research, I needed students who might benefit from

a mentoring programme with relatively little preparation.

And so, I redefined my research question:

How can I provide students with grades ranging from C- to

C+ who are also very quiet in the classroom, with

meaningful mentoring relationships?

Choosing mentors—

choosing garden companions

The plan sounded good, I thought—simple. I wanted to

work with five students because this would allow for one

mentoring pair to work in my classroom each lunch hour.

Then I sat down to choose the students, and things started

to get complicated.


The selection of students who could act as mentors was

highly dependent on the amount of time I had. I needed to

find them within days! Since our school does not have a

mentoring programme involving students, I would have to

rely on my own resources, so I decided to try and match

the students who would be mentored with students in

senior grades that I know because I have taught them. I

chose students who I felt might possess the necessary

qualities and skills that would be of benefit to each of the

individuals in the study: students who produce work that

demonstrates pride, creativity , and love of learning,

students who demonstrated determination, the willingness

to work to achieve goals, and the ability to persevere.

Students who would be patient and kind, and who might

be willing to encourage another, or who could be good

listeners.

Unexpected garden weeds & flowers

I hadn’t really considered how extremely personal a

mentoring programme would be. It turned out that the

success of the programme depended partially on my values.

I was able to match students with mentors because of my

rapport with them. I care enough about my students to

follow up on their progress, monitoring the frequency and

quality of their interactions. Also, the success of the

programme depended on who the mentors were, as well as

on the students being mentored. Even selecting mentors

and mentees was extremely personal.

I asked Sandra: “Would you be interested in becoming a

mentor” “What’s that?’ she wanted to know. I could tell

right away that Sandra, a very intelligent, but independent

and inquisitive grade eleven student would not be satisfied

with a simple answer. And so I found that I had to spend

more than half an hour after school, explaining at length

my plans for mentoring.

I asked Mrs. Anthony: “Do you think your son might

benefit from this mentoring programme?” I’ve known her

for three years now, and talking to her always means a

long, friendly conversation. “Well, perhaps, she answers,

but it would depend on who the mentor is.” An hour long

conversation ensued, during which we determined that her

son would need to have a mentor who was male, gifted, or

highly motivated in French, and having difficulty in her

son’s Math 11 class. Why male? I asked? ‘Well, she

answered, “He has a girlfriend now “

196


Then I asked Debbi: “Would you like to have a mentor”?

“No, I don’t think so,” she said, but wouldn’t elaborate. I

wanted to know why. And I wanted her to agree to have a

mentor. So I explained the programme at length, and asked

her to take a letter home to her parents explaining the

programme and asking their permission for her to

participate. A few days later, she had still not returned the

permission form, so I asked her why. Didn’t she want to

participate in the mentoring programme? “No, I don’t

really want to.” was her laconic response. That evening at

dinner, my daughter who is a friend of this student told me

why; “She thinks you think she’s stupid” she said, glaring

at me accusingly. “How could you?”

This was a surprise. I had been so busy thinking about

“making a difference” that I hadn’t stopped to think that a

student might think I was judging them as inadequate, in

need of “help” because they couldn’t manage on their own

or because they were “stupid.” I needed to do some

background reading, and so began pouring through book

after book written about mentoring. A brief survey of the

literature on student mentoring provided little

information. It would seem that, there are many mentoring

programmes intended to assist university students, and

even more seeking to provide adult mentors of either gifted

students or socio-economically disadvantaged youth. I was

unable to find even one detailed case study of high school

students mentoring students younger than themselves. I

did however, find information on the type of student I

might want to “recruit” for a mentoring programme.

In order to get the maximum out of the mentoring process,

the mentees, must be committed to the concept of

mentoring. They must volunteer to be a participant, and

have parental consent to be mentored. The mentee must

agree to see the mentor on a weekly basis, and demonstrate

his or her interest, concern and willingness to live up to the

responsibilities of mentoring. A mentoring approach only

works when both sides are dedicated and agree to work one

with the other, parents of the mentees are involved in the

Student Mentor Programme to make sure high school

students live up to their commitments.

Reluctantly, I concluded that with the limited amount of

time I had, I would not be able to do anything to help

Debbi, even though I sensed that the mentoring

programme would benefit her enormously.


CASE STUDY #1—

Peter K. and Sandra N.

At the beginning of the year, I observed Peter to determine

what kind of student he was. This type of informal

assessment always helps me decide how best to help my

students. I thought to myself: Peter is always smiling and

cheerful. I admire his good nature and his calm approach

to learning activities. When presented with an assignment,

he quietly gets to work. Peter writes in very simple

sentences, that often includes spelling and grammatical

errors. Occasionally, these errors stop me from

understanding what he is trying to say. Also, like many

high school boys, his handwriting is difficult to read.

Peter’s assignments are usually completed on time, but his

answers often demonstrate little reflection. While I don’t

know for certain, I suspect that his lack of emotional

involvement in concepts we are studying, affects his ability

to recall facts or to increase his understanding of their

impact on his life. He rarely volunteers answers in class. I

sometimes wonder if this is a defence mechanism. Perhaps

he doesn’t want to show himself as less competent than his

classmates. Also, I am concerned that Peter’s grades in this

class are lower than his grades in his English classes. I

worry—will he decide to drop out of the Immersion

programme?

During the year, I discovered that Peter doesn’t seem to

have a very clear idea of what acceptable, good, or excellent

work looks like. When I gave the class an assignment where

they would decide what to research and how to present it,

Peter’s work was outstanding. When I compared his work

to that of his classmate’s I could find no reason to give it

less than an A. His own opinion of his work, however, was

not so high. Even though he thought it was “well done”,

he believed it to be B quality work. In a reflection

assignment for the project, Peter wrote the following:

What did you like about this project? What didn’t you like?

“I liked the freedom of not having criteria assigned by the

teacher. There were no limits on what I would research, or

on how I would present what I had learned. I also disliked

the lack of criteria, the freedom to do whatever I wanted.

198


What did you learn while working on this project?

I learned a lot of information that most people don’t know

about the inventor I researched.

What should your mark be on this project?

My mark should be 80% because I worked hard and my

project is well done.

Sandra is a student who I have taught for more than one

course. I think of her as a mentor for Peter because she has

a similar personality. She is quiet, cheerful, and has a

strong self-concept. She does not appear to be unduly

influenced by peer pressure, has taken the same course as

Peter, struggled with a need to find personal relevance in

the topics studied, and I suspect this to be the case for

Peter. Finally, I know that she has had many positive

experiences not related to school, in which she has become

involved, because of her own interests and passions, and I

feel that she may be able to model goal setting and selfexploration.

While not the strongest student academically,

Sandra is hardworking, and when interested in what she is

learning, the work she produces is a testimony of her

artistic talent, her willingness to work hard, and her ability

to go beyond minimal learning expectations for the

assigned task. Sandra remains, however, an individual who

possesses strong qualities in more than just academic skills,

and I feel that it may be in this domain that she will best

fulfill her role as mentor.

Mentoring

Of all the mentoring dyads, Peter and Sandra have met the

most often. They completed the stated goal of a minimum

of 10 sessions, meeting almost every week. For the most

part, their work together was independent of supervision

or prompting. They arranged their own meeting schedule

and required very little input from me as to what they

would discuss.

A statistical analysis of

student progress in Peter’s class:

A comparison of two students in the mentoring

programme with each other (and also with a student with

initial marks quiz and test scores that were quite similar)

provided some valuable insight.


For all three students, scores for the first quiz were below

50%. Student F’s scores initially improved throughout the

course of the first Term, but dropped significantly at the

beginning of Term 2. For example, a quiz on Canadian

Government score of less than 30% and on the American

Revolution (QU4) of 35%. Mentee 1, who was actively

participating in regular mentoring sessions, was able to

obtain scores significantly higher; For the same quizzes,

this student’s marks were 66% and 67%. (See Figure 3)

Mentee 4 joined the mentoring programme late in the year.

I invited him to join because his marks were slipping

(achieved marks were similar to those of Student F).

For Mentee 1, performance indicates considerable

improvement throughout the year. This would seem to

indicate increased understanding of the concepts taught.

This hypothesis is supported by the student’s in-class

behaviour. When reviewing material in class, Mentee 1 is

able to participate much more often because he knows the

answers!

For Mentee 4, marks have improved slightly. However,

discussions concerning the possibility of mentoring and

home contact were both initiated at approximately the

time when marks began to improve. It may be difficult to

determine how much of the initial improvement is due to

the Hawthorne effect or to increased parental involvement,

rather than the mentoring I initiated. For some students,

any attention at all from me or from parents will cause an

increase in marks!

I am not convinced that the above analysis of statistics can

provide, on it’s own, conclusive evidence that a student

mentoring programme is successful. Many variables, both

known and unknown can affect improved scholastic

achievement. For example, Student F who is not in the

mentoring programme, has achieved results varying from

over 90% to 25%.

So did mentoring make a

significant difference for Peter?

In book after book about mentoring, student scores are

quoted as a means of proving that mentoring is a good

idea. And yet, while Peter’s quiz and test scores are only

slightly improved, there are other indicators that Peter

perceives the learning experience in a more positive light.

200


Homework, for example, is being completed more

consistently. As well, the student has a lovely smile when

entering the classroom, indicated enjoyment or an

emotional link which, I feel, will keep this student in the

French Immersion programme, despite academic

difficulties!

What Peter had

to say about mentoring:

Mentoring is a good programme. It helped me to improve

my marks a little. We didn’t always talk about school work

though. Often, we talked about our families, or about

things going on at school. It’s a good programme for

someone who wants to participate. It wouldn’t work for

someone who doesn’t want to talk. I think it worked so

well for me because I already knew the person who was

mentoring. It made it easier for me to talk about things.

CASE STUDY # 2—

Nathalie C and Donna C.

Nathalie is a quiet girl in my French 9 class. She begins

assignments very slowly, and often seems to have some

difficulty recalling the meaning of French words when she

reads them. As well, when she writes in French there are

many grammatical and spelling errors. Quiz and test scores

are low. I feel that this means she is at risk of either failing

French this year, or of not choosing to take French next

year. I can only recall seeing her smiling and happy once

when she came into my class room. Her face was alive and

radiated inner joy. I also recall that for several days after I

initially sent home an Interim Report that she made an

effort to participate orally, and seemed to be showing she

understood more than her quiet manner and low reading

and writing skills demonstrated.

In a self-reflection assignment,

Nathalie made the following comments:

What did You like about this unit? What didn’t You like?

I liked learning about the family and my, your, his, her, and

the review sheets. Most of these things I hardly knew in

Grade 8. I didn’t really like the ER verbs because they were

quite confusing, the endings had er or ent or ez. I always got

mixed up.


What could you do differently that would help you learn?

I could try to come in after school, but I can’t because of

the bus I catch, and my Mom can’t find time to pick me up

if I don’t take the bus.

Do you enjoy being in this class?

It’s OK being in this class. I hardly have friends in here but

that’s good because I can get more work done.

My journal entry

I thought I had explained it all so well! And I had thought

that Donna would be the ideal person to mentor Nathalie.

They were both quiet girls, and Donna was very kind and

gentle. She was also a very hard-working student, who

always did her best, even when she had difficulty with a

concept. When Nathalie wanted to know what mentoring

was about, I had a well-rehearsed explanation for her:

“Mentoring is a programme I’m trying as part of my

Master’s programme, I want to find out if I can help

students in other ways besides what I do in the classroom. I

want to know if a mentor can make a difference in their

lives, either on a personal level, in their classes in general,

or in French. Mentoring can be about just talking, or it can

be about doing things together such as working on

French.”

Nathalie came to one mentoring session, then didn’t show

up the following week. “I forgot” she said. Well, I thought,

this is a voluntary programme and it is during her lunch

hour and she is in grade nine, a year when lunch hour

social life is the best part of many students school days.

Ingrid was annoyed. She waited almost all lunch hour, but

no Nathalie. I told Donna I would talk to Nathalie, and be

sure to set up another meeting. But the following week

there was a change in the schedule because of a Noninstructional

Day, and I thought I had explained it clearly

to Nathalie, but again she didn’t show up. Donna was very

annoyed now. Nathalie takes a bus to school, so I thought

the chances were pretty good that she would be in the

school cafeteria. So Donna and I went looking for her. I

suggested to Ingrid that she also try the hallway near the

bus stop. I stopped to buy some lunch in the cafeteria, then

asked if she had found Nathalie. She hadn’t. I went to look

for her, and she was in the Art wing, having lunch with a

friend. I suggested that NEXT week they meet on a day

when they had French right before lunch. That way I could

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be sure she’d be there. Nathalie agreed, so I went to find

Donna and tell her. Donna looked even more annoyed, and

said she would see what her Mom thought.

The following week, Monday at recess came and there was

Donna at my classroom door. “I might not be able to be

there,” she said, “ I’m not really sure that Nathalie wants to

do this, and I don’t like staying at school when she doesn’t

show up. I usually go home for lunch.” My heart sank. I

was certain that Nathalie and Donna were compatible.

What had I overlooked? Donna and I talked some more,

and she agreed to come at lunch to talk to Nathalie, but

only for a few moments. The topic of discussion would be

whether or not Nathalie felt she would benefit from

mentoring. And Donna would only agree to continue if

Nathalie would commit to showing up for scheduled

meetings. Lunch hour arrived and so did Nathalie. I asked

her why she wasn’t coming to her sessions. She told me

that it wasn’t really what she had expected. What did she

want to get from mentoring? I asked. Help with French, she

said. At this point Donna arrived, and I mediated for a few

minutes, scheduling their next meeting for Thursday again.

I was nervous when Thursday arrived. Would Nathalie

show up? I had her called on the school’s intercom. With

relief I saw her walking towards my classroom, just seconds

later. She had not forgotten! Nathalie and Donna have

since met several more times. Nathalie’s response sheets

indicate she is finding the sessions useful, and Donna told

me the other day that she thought Nathalie is really good

at French. This indicates that Donna must be providing

Nathalie with some positive feedback.

The interactions between the two students at the beginning

of the mentoring relationship, as well as the quality of

communication between me and the students was crucial

to the mentoring experience. This was something I had not

anticipated. I was relying on rational thought and

procedure to set up the mentoring programme, when I

needed to attend, much more, to the emotional impact of

the experience for these two girls!

Donna is a kind, gentle, quiet student who was in my

French 10 class last semester. I thought of her when

selecting potential mentors, because I remember how hard

she always worked. She persevered even when she found a


concept difficult, often spending a few minutes after class

to get extra help, or to ask me to check her work. She

always wanted to know how to improve, and took to heart

any advice that I gave her. I remembered that in February,

she dropped by my class one day to ask me for advice for

her brother, who is having trouble in grade 7. Her caring

and concern for her brother, I felt, showed her to be an

individual who was strong in more than just academic

skills.

My journal entry

Thursday, May 18 was a long day for me. I was tired, and

discouraged. How would I ever get through the long list of

things I wanted to do on the May long weekend? I was

envious of students planning to go camping. There was

marking to be done, I needed to get ready for my

daughter’s thirteenth birthday, I had to plan my lessons for

the next two weeks, I had to prepare for a teacher-on-call

for Wednesday when I would be administering a provincial

exam, and there was that report to type for the staff

meeting. And I needed to work on this Action Research

Report.

At the end of the day, a few students were still in my room.

One wanted to write a quiz. Another was there for a

detention. A third wanted to hand in an assignment.

Another needed some help with a project. And then,

waiting in the doorway was Donna. As the last of the

students left, I walked over to see her. I dreaded speaking to

her. I was certain there was a new problem between her and

Nathalie. I really wanted their relationship to be a positive

one, but felt that if there were any more complications,

Donna would decide she didn’t want to continue

volunteering her time.

To my surprise, my negative expectations were not fulfilled.

Donna explained that she was applying for a job at the

museum, and wanted to use my name as a reference.

“Absolutely!” I replied, without hesitating. Of course, I

would be willing to recommend her to work with children.

She would be a wonderful employee, and a wonderful

person to work with children. I wished her well, as she left.

It seemed that my decision to choose Donna as a mentor

had changed the relationship between Donna and I. I was

glad.

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Did mentoring help Nathalie with French?

Since Nathalie stated that what she wanted from

mentoring was help with French, I decided that I would

only consider her progress in French as a measure of

successful mentoring.

Conclusion

To date, this student has not participated in enough

sessions for a statistical analysis of marks to be of value.

Also, I think it is important to note that any improvement

in her marks may have been offset by a change in her

social status in class. She has become much more social,

and in her self-reflection assignment, she identified this as

a potential cause of lower grades.

I am not certain if mentoring has been beneficial to this

student, as only some of the criteria I initially outlined

have been met. Perhaps the fact that this student’s marks

have remained constant might be viewed as a success. I

have observed that students whose marks are below

average in the beginning of the year become discouraged

and do not maintain the same degree of effort or

emotional engagement, which causes their marks to slip.

These students sometimes end up failing the course!

CASE STUDY #3—

Andy M. and Sandy N.

Andy is a good-natured and hard-working student in my

French 9 class. He co-operates in completing assigned

task, worksheets or partner conversation activities, and

seems to understand the concepts we are working on. He

frequently asks me to check his work to see if he is “doing

it right”. Occasionally, he forgets to do his homework.

However, quiz and test scores are not very high, and Andy

rarely participates in class. Early in the semester, I

wondered: Does his reluctance to participate orally

indicate a lack of confidence in his knowledge of French?

Does this mean that in French 10 or 11 his grades will

drop? Surprisingly, he wrote in a journal entry that he

“doesn’t like French”. This gave me a clue as to why Andy

isn’t doing better. Current research on language

acquisition indicates that emotions can act as a “filter”

which blocks effective learning. I question Andy’s

“dislike” of French, though. He shows that he wants to


get good marks and is often in my classroom after school

checking to see if he has any missing assignments. Maybe

he only dislikes French because he finds it difficult.

In a self-reflection assignment, Andy wrote:

What did You like about this unit? What didn’t you like?

The “Think Fast” game made me learn the verbs and stuff

faster. I didn’t like the quizzes because we didn’t get

enough time.

What could you do differently that would help you learn?

I could study more.

Do you enjoy being in this class?

No, because I don’t like French.

Journal entry

The Student Who Volunteered—Sometimes we don’t notice

what is most obvious. One day at lunch hour, I was busy

getting ready to leave the classroom. I was thinking about a

million things at once. Meanwhile, I had a student who

wanted to talk to me about some missing assignments, plus

two other students who were supposed to be meeting in

my classroom for a mentoring session, but the mentee

hadn’t shown up... So, I spoke briefly with Andy about his

missing assignments, and then left to find Peter. (I know

where he hangs out at lunch time). As I was walking out

the door, Andy told me he was going to “Stay, because he

might learn something”. I barely paused, as I really needed

to use the washroom, and I was hungry , and I had all

those errands to run plus the photocopying to get done

and where was Peter? And so, I didn’t discourage Andy

from “hanging out”. I wasn’t sure why, but my instinct was

to agree, even though I hadn’t thought things through. I

had no rational reason to say “yes”. I didn’t want other

people interfering with a mentoring session, but a teacher

operates on two levels, one rational and the other that is all

“gut feeling”. So, without knowing why, I trusted my

instincts.

After completing all my errands, I was finally able to eat my

lunch, which was in the staff room fridge after all! I was

halfway through my sandwich when I began to wonder

just what was Andy doing in my classroom while Peter and

Sandra sat and talked? I quickly gulped down the rest of my

206


food, and left for class. I arrived in my classroom to

discover Andy doing nothing in particular, just looking at

the bulletin board in my room. So, I suggested it was time

for him to leave to go to his next class which would be in

about 15 minutes.

That night, I was at home enjoying a cup of Earl Grey tea

when I finally had a chance to reflect on what had

happened. I was concentrating mostly on enjoying the

soothing heat and lemon scent coming from my cup, but

also running through possible motivations for Andy’s

behaviour. And then, it came to me! Andy wanted to be in

the mentoring programme!!! He was a volunteer student, in

much the same manner as I sometimes have flowers that

volunteer to grow in my garden! Had Andy made a

conscious decision to join my programme? Was he seeking

something that would provide greater meaning in his life at

school? Was he looking for a tutor? Perhaps he had simply

recognized that Peter and Sandra were participating

together in a relationship that was mutually beneficial.

The details were easily arranged. The next day I asked Andy

if he wanted to be in the mentoring programme, and he

said “yes”. I asked him who he thought he might like to

have as a mentor, and he said Sandra. I wasn’t sure if she

would be interested in giving up a second lunch hour, but

when I asked her she agreed without hesitating. And so,

within two days, a mentoring relationship began.

What Andy said

Mentoring helped me bring my mark up. A person who is

your mentor helps you, but in a fun way. Sometimes we did

more talking about other things, not about school work.

This is good because if you can talk about other things too,

then you learn more because you are relaxed and having

fun too. I think it’s a good idea for older students to mentor

younger students, but it’s important that the students want

to be mentored. You can’t just talk someone into

participating. I would definitely recommend mentoring for

a student who wants help bringing up their mark, or who

wants to practice speaking French so they can participate

more in class.

What Sandra told me

I think mentoring is a good thing. It’s important to give a

chance to do well to students who are not the strongest.


When they are not understanding the teacher’s

explanations, then they have someone who can help them

... someone who is their age or close to their age... so they

can be more comfortable getting the help they need.

Mentoring offers an opportunity for students to get help in

a relaxed, more comfortable atmosphere outside of the

classroom context. Mentoring offers more than just

tutoring though. A student mentor is someone the student

can talk to about things other than school work, a person

they can look up to... it’s like bridging the gap between the

grades... the student knows someone not in their grade

who might have information people of their age group are

unaware of, as a mentor, you can talk to them about, your

experiences, and this will get them to think about, or

anticipate what it will be like for them in a few years. I

would recommend mentoring for students who want to

participate, who want to do well but are struggling.

Mentoring can benefit the mentor as well. For example,

they can review concepts they are helping someone with,

things they learned before... it’s like a review for them. It’s

useful to strengthen your knowledge of basic concepts. The

material is simpler than what you are learning now. You

can’t develop a mentoring relationship unless the person

wants to though you might only be a tutor for them.. if the

person doesn’t develop a relationship with you... if they

don’t want to talk about things in their life... what their

friends are doing after school... what happened first block

in the morning... it depends on what the person wants. I

think you could still have influence over a person like that

though, if you have a subject you enjoy, or are passionate

about. I love English so I might be enthusiastic about it. If

you don’t like a subject, like Social Studies, then you can’t

encourage someone with the subject.

Did mentoring help Andy?

I believe that mentoring benefited Andy academically.

Andy’s mark for Term 1 was C+ and his mark for Term 2

was a B. As well, in the first months of the course, he had

several assignments not handed in. During second term, he

handed in all assignments. This is a tremendous

improvement.

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CASE STUDY # 4—

Steve R. and Leslie J.

Steve is a very quiet student. In class, he always tries to do

his best, but works very slowly. I find it difficult to help

him. He very rarely asks for assistance, and seems very

proud when he achieves good results on his own. His

independence does cause him difficulties though.

Sometimes, he will work very hard on a project only to

discover when he hands it in, that he has completed the

wrong task or that he hasn’t followed directions.

Steve gets very enthusiastic about bonus or enrichment

activities, and will spend many hours creating games,

artwork, or 3-D projects. However, he also tends to “forget”

to complete written assignments. You know the ones...

those less thrilling but necessary questions designed to

reinforce long-term mastery of vocabulary or grammar, or

to help recall concepts students are required to remember

for standardized testing.

Steve is an independent learner and a creative thinker.

While these are highly valued qualities, they are not wellrewarded

in a system that stresses memorization on

standardized tests. And so, although he is very talented, he

doesn’t achieve academic success within our school system!

He is exactly the type of student that concerns me. Some

would say he doesn’t “fit” the system. I myself prefer to

think that it is the system that doesn’t meet his needs.

Recently, Steve’s quiz and test scores have begun to drop. I

began to worry about the lower marks, and the increasing

number of missing or late assignments. I sent home interim

report cards and asked for an interview with Steve’s

parents, but heard no word. I invited Steve to stay after

school for tutorial, but he didn’t come. I decided to ask him

again if he’d be interested in the mentoring programme (I

had asked him several weeks before, but he hadn’t returned

the permission slip). “yes”, he said. I asked him if he knew

of anyone whom he might like to have as a mentor, and

suggested a student I know, Leslie. “Oh, yes!”. He was

pleased! It turns out that she had been his tutor in the past!

I was surprised! I had somehow instinctively known exactly

who would be a good “match” for a mentoring partner!


Leslie is an out-going, energetic and hard-working student

whom I have known for several years. I recall that when

she was in my class, her work was of outstanding quality.

As well, she would complete all of her work, whether it was

a creative project or a less interesting worksheet or set of

questions from a text book. Leslie is involved in many

extra-curricular activities, but for as long as I have known

her she has always put her school work first. She is the type

of student who is not satisfied unless she has given her very

best effort. I thought of her as a possible mentor for Steve,

and so I stopped her in the hall one day at recess to ask her

if she’d like to participate in my mentoring programme.

She said “yes” which surprised me because I know she is

very, very busy this year.

Something unexpected:

This was the third time that a mentoring dyad would

involve students who already knew each other! We live in a

town with a population of about 10,000, and I teach in a

school with almost 1,000 students in grades 8 to 12, yet the

one person I had thought of as a possible mentor for Steve

was a student who had helped him in the past!

Did mentoring make a difference?

Steve and Leslie have only been able to meet a few times, as

mentoring was implemented late in the year, so it is not

possible to provide a statistical analysis of the results of the

mentoring sessions. Initial results seem encouraging. Steve’s

understanding of the concepts taught in Unit 4 was greatly

increased after just one tutoring session. His first quiz

(U4Quiz 1) score was 35%, yet he was able to achieve a

mark of 59% on the Unit Test, which is an impressive

improvement!

Steve’s parents are very supportive. They perceive

mentoring as extremely useful, and have even requested

that the mentoring sessions be twice weekly. I believe that

Steve will continue to need support next year. I am hopeful

that through continued participation in the mentoring

programme next year, he will benefit from a relationship

which can provide more connectedness and caring in his

school day.

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Conclusion:

mentoring is about relationships

I garden like I teach. I learn by doing, more than from

“how to” books. This year, I have learned about mentoring

and its potential to make a difference in the lives of my

students. While mentoring can be time-consuming, I

believe it to be a worthwhile endeavor. Numerous books

and articles on mentoring discuss how gifted students

benefit from mentoring with adults, or how at-risk students

can be helped through mentoring relationships with

specially trained mentors. It is my view, however, that

mentoring can also benefit students who achieve low to

moderate success in schools, and that students can mentor

students. As well, I remain convinced that mentoring can

help to improve not only scholastic achievement, but also

the schooling experience.

I have also learned that mentoring is complex, because of

the need to make a very personal connection between two

students. Anyone considering establishing a mentoring

programme at the high school level should proceed with

care. It would be a definite advantage to select mentors that

you already know personally. If this is not possible, I would

recommend taking the time to get to know the student

mentors well enough to ensure a good match with a

student. If you decide to implement a mentoring

programme, it will mean talking to individual students

outside of class time. Care must be taken in explaining the

programme, so that students do not feel labeled as

“inferior” or “stupid.” If at all possible, it would be a good

idea to meet with the parents and students in order to

explain expectations for participation. Parental support

would help ensure that students follow through on their

commitment to the programme. I didn’t involve the

parents, and then found myself reluctantly assuming a

“parenting” type role of reminding students to show up for

their scheduled sessions!

I continue to believe that mentoring can begin to address a

need for more personal relationships in the daily routines,

which comprise a student’s school experience. As an

educator, I want to make the lives of my students less

fragmented, I want to increase opportunities for them to

find a sense of belonging, connectedness, kinship, and

wholeness. Madonna Kolbenschlag speaks of our need to


experience connectedness with others, and of the

increasing fragmentation experienced by members of our

society.

“...what we experience in common is becoming much

more significant than the unique experience of the

individual. The web of life that connects us is drawing us

closer together, even as we feel more and more alone. We

begin to see that our personal difficulties, struggles, and

inadequacies are woven into a context of shared human

condition that is radically flawed.” (Lost in the Land of Oz,

Harper & Row, New York, p. 1).

The fact that a few of my students seem happier, is, in my

mind, an indication of success. I don’t want students to

come to my class because they believe they will learn a few

facts, but because they perceive it as a place in which to

learn, and grow, and explore their potential, and because it

is a place where they can have meaningful relationships.

Whether or not quiz and exam scores became significantly

higher, I believe that a need to belong, and to feel cared for

has been met for the students who participated in this

mentoring programme.

relationship

is the state or character of being related

the state of being interrelated

having a connection to another

connectedness

is a means of communication

a sense of personal intimacy

a sense of coherence and continuity like kinship

kinship

is akin or kindred

alike in mind or in body

to be part of a group of a whole

wholeness

is to be whole, healthy, unhurt

unbroken, uncut, complete,

to be part of a whole, to find oneself, to belong

belonging

is a sense of close or intimate relationship

to be a member of a club or organization

to be or become part of a whole

longing

is a strong desire or craving,

for something we wish to attain, a wish for

belonging, relationships, connectedness, kinship, wholeness.

Shelley Jackson, June, 2001

212


Bibliography

Jane Cawthorne, Letter of Resignation, in The Calgary

Herald, Thursday, May 10, 2001, page A23.

Jack Birt, Fraser shortcomings, in The Calgary Herald,

Thursday, May 10,2001, page A22.

Arthur Drache, Credit supports private schools, in The

National Post, Friday, May 11,2001, page 04.

Madonna Kolbenschlag, Lost in the Land of Oz, Harper &

Row, New York, page 1988.

Naomi Lakritz, Fraser figures fodder for folly, in The Calgary

Herald, Thursday, May 10,2001, page S2.

Benjamin Levin, Criticizing the Schools, Then and Now, in

Educational Policy and Analysis Archives, Volume 6,

Number 16, August 20, 1998.

Nel Noddings, The Challenge to Care in Schools, An

Alternative Approach to Education, Teachers College Press,

New York, 1992.

Nel Noddings, Care, Justice, and Equity, in Justice and Caring,

Editors Michael S. Katz, Nel Noddings, Kenneth A. Strike,

Teachers College Press, New York, 1999, page 14.

Don Sawyer, Tomorrow is School and I’m Sick to the Heart

About it, Bendall Books, Canada, 1998, page 100.

Donald Schon, The Reflective Practitioner, Basic Books,

Library of Congress, 1983, pages 42–43).

Statistics Canada, Historical Data, for 1951–1975, for 1993–

1997 and for 1990–1998.

Mr. Kim Van Tine, Enough is Enough, in The Kamloops

Daily News, Saturday, May 12, 2001, page A 4.

William A. Gray and Marilynne Miles Gray, Mentoring: Aid

to Excellence in Career Development, Business and the

Professions. Proceedings of the First International

Conference on Mentoring, Volumes I and II.


ACTION RESEARCH

QUESTIONNAIRE—A POSTSCRIPT

Shelly Jackson

A. What did you propose to do in your action

research?

To establish a mentoring programme for students in

my class… not for gifted or challenged students… but

for students who demonstrate interest and motivation

and do not experience a high level of academic success.

One of the criteria was a grade between C- and C+. The

other was that the students were very quiet… and thus

would not have developed any spontaneous

“mentoring” relationships with friends or classmates.

B. What concerns arose for you during the course of

your research?

I wanted to arrange for informal mentoring between

older students and students in grade 9 (because I am

teaching grade 9 this year). It soon became apparent,

though, that it is difficult to implement mentoring for

14 year olds… the need to be with friends at lunch

hour (when the mentoring meetings took place) is

great for students at that age, and so they tend to

“forget” to come to their mentoring sessions.

I wanted to arrange a mentoring programme that

would NOT require a great deal of work on my part… a

system that would benefit students while NOT

burdening the teacher. Because I had selected mentors

who were responsible and mature, this was mostly the

case… however, I did spend many lunch hours chatting

with students that I normally would have spent

replenishing my energies. I also spent a few frustrating

lunch hours trying to find students who had

“forgotten” their mentoring sessions.

In hindsight, I determined that it would be important

to involve parents in initially inducting students into

the mentoring programme, so that the parents could

take on the role of ensuring students show up on time.

Also, when I almost finished the research, I happened

to stumble upon someone else’s research that echoed

my thoughts… that a mentoring programme should be

“screened”. Mentoring is NOT going to benefit

214


RELUCTANT participants; due to its “voluntary” nature,

the mentor must feel that they can “reach” the

individual. This will not be the case if attendance is

sporadic, for the mentoring relationship will not

properly develop!

C. Your Conclusions:

1. What Excited you?

There was nothing “earth shattering.” It was nice to get

to know a few students a little better than I would in a

busy classroom. I also enjoyed observing the student

mentors and noticing that they were “growing/

learning.” I hadn’t considered how the programme

would benefit the older students!

One exciting idea is that I have, in a small way, learned

how to “expand” the learning environment so that it

no longer happens only in classroom between 8:39 and

10:00 am with a teacher in front of the room. I feel that

it is important for schools and teachers to explore ways

to meet students’ needs in ways that are not

“institutionalized” or in a formal setting. Another

exciting thing is the way Action Research involves me

(a teacher) in making links between the practical (the

classroom) and the theoretical (information in books,

articles). I loved pouring through information from the

library and on-line about mentoring. I especially

appreciated hearing about teachers who were reporting

on Action Research and found their conclusions much

more interesting than any purely theoretical work. This

was not, for me, something “earth shattering” though,

as I had already learned the benefits of mixing practice

and theory from the prior courses we took during our

Master’s Programme.

2. What Surprised you?

Establishing a voluntary mentoring programme is

intensely personal.

I think the teacher’s role changes... and becomes

something like that of a counsellor or advisor. It is a

very different role from that of a classroom teacher. I

initially found it difficult to adjust to a new kind of

“teacher-student” talk. It wasn’t too difficult or

uncomfortable for me, as I chose to begin with mentors

I know very well, but I did notice feeling very


personally involved with the students. For example, I

will be inviting the students who completed the

programme to a pizza lunch this coming week!

3. How do you see yourself differently as a result of this action

research project?

I don’t know that I learned much about myself as a

teacher. I already knew that I care a great deal about my

students as individuals. I didn’t learn as much as I had

hoped about mentoring either. I guess, there’s too much

to learn in one semester. I simply don’t know enough

yet about mentoring... I’ve learned a great deal but need

to do even more background readings and continue

observing students in mentoring relationships.

I am perhaps a little more aware of the social dynamics

aspect of a classroom... I remain curious about the role

social connections play in the classroom. I have noticed

that students learn more or LESS depending on who

they are working with.

4. Tell about any changes in your thinking and teaching as a

result of your action research. What do/will you do

differently?

I have taken a “baby step” in learning how to establish

a mentoring programme for students in French. Next

year I intend to formalize the programme, and to try

having MORE students involved... perhaps as many as

10 students with 10 mentors. I am also considering the

idea of developing a for credit course which could be

offered to students inside the time-table in order to

“train” mentors. It’s a very exciting idea that I’m

thinking of making a part of the work I undertake for

the last course in the Master’s programme.

5. Do you see yourself continuing your own action research?

How? How do you see the relationship between professional

development and action research?

Yes. I want to continue my research into the benefits of

mentoring of junior high school students by senior

high school students. One thing I did not have time to

do this year was discuss student-student mentoring

with teachers in other schools. To date, I only know of

one school in Vancouver that has a mentoring

programme. I am looking forward to visiting their

school in the fall to find out how their programme

works.

216


I am also planning to continue to encourage teachers in

my school to participate in a teacher-teacher mentoring

programme. In addition, I would like to start an Action

Research group at the High School.. an informal one...

perhaps a Monday morning breakfast group but I’m not

yet sure how to proceed. I’m going to think this

through over the summer, and perhaps make it part of

my Independent Studies course.

6. What support structures did you put into place to facilitate

your own or your group’s action research? What would you

recommend to another group engaged in action research?

Action Research is something that teachers DO already.

They implement something, then monitor its success.

What is interesting about formal Action Research,

however, is that I noticed that it encouraged members

of our group to begin working on Big Ideas... on

problems that had been in the back of their minds for a

long time. In a way, it encouraged them to FOLLOW

THEIR DREAMS and DO WHAT THEY REALLY WANTED

TO... TO MAKE TIME FOR WHAT REALLY MATTERS...

Personally, I find that it is always difficult to remember

to do this. It is all too easy to allow the daily tasks, the

unexpected crisis, and the giant pile of marking... to

swallow up all of one’s time as a teacher so that one can

lose sight of these dreams. I would encourage ALL

teachers to consider pursuing Action Research for this

reason. I didn’t really develop much of a support

structure for my research. I relied on the idea that

someone would be reading my work when we met

again during one of our Saturday classes. One thing I

found VERY FRUSTRATING, though, was the need for

us to adhere to a very telescoped timetable... the Action

Research I was undertaking couldn’t be “over” until

after our course is over, so I wasn’t able to reflect on the

process (no time) or to report on students’ viewpoints as

much as I wanted to because our assignment was DUE. I

would recommend building a programme with more

flexibility. I would also STRONGLY RECOMMEND

THAT AN ACTION RESEARCH PROGRAMME NOT BE

DONE SECOND SEMESTER. People just get TIRED by

year end... and it is the wrong time of year to add more

work!!!


7. Would you recommend action research for your colleagues?

Why or why not? How would you see it carried out?

I would caution teachers to be careful when planning

their research. Action Research should not become an

additional burden in an already stressful job. If poorly

planned, action research could become just one more

thing that must be attended to before locking the

classroom door each afternoon. Done properly, action

research can free the spirit.

8. Other thoughts you want to share...

Go to the International Conference on Teacher

Research. It is the BEST Conference I have ever

attended (and I have attended many).

Conferences tend to present “the answer” in a package

for other teachers... but I have learned over the years

that someone else’s answers are NOT going to be very

useful to ME... teaching is intensely personal and I

CANNOT simply apply a formula and magically

transform my classroom. As a teacher, I glean a little

bit of wisdom from conferences, books, courses,

colleagues and other sources of professional

development. I incorporate them into my own

teaching, in much the same manner as an artist

weaving a tapestry might incorporate bits and pieces of

fabric and colourful thread into her design.

This Conference is different. It doesn’t provide answers

in pre-packaged programmes... the presenters do not

peddle their mysterious, magical cure-all. Instead, you

will be shown glimpses into the lives of many, many

professionals asking questions and seeking answers.

And, you may come to feel on the last day of the

conference what I felt, the excitement generated by a

tremendous professional undertaking, Action Research!

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Notes on the authors

Maureen Atkinson’s life of varied experiences has

brought her to Kitimat after her parents took her to

Australia for a childhood adventure of a few years. She

learned French as a waitress in Montreal, before

studying it in depth for her teaching which required a

never-ending drive to Kitimat, a place she thought was

at the end of the earth. Her experiences include

teaching French and English Kindergarten for nine

years, teaching Art and French at the secondary school,

and enjoying learning with her colleagues. An

accomplished artist herself, Maureen illustrated a

French alphabet book that she and two colleagues

wrote. Now travelling around the world, Maureen is

missed by her friends who look forward to hearing

travelling stories upon her return in the summer

of 2003.

Madeleine Christiansen was raised in Vancouver, British

Columbia, but has spent her teaching career working in

the Central Interior, Bulkley Valley and now lives and

teaches Grade 2 French Immersion on the North Coast

in Kitimat. She has taught Kindergarten, High School

Resource and French Immersion K-3. She has a keen

interest in the study of language development and

early literacy.

Elizabeth Coulter began her teaching career in Sooke

School District at the age of 19, with a two year

certificate. She moved to Victoria and then to Kitimat,

teaching both Primary and Intermediate grades while

attending Summer Schools to complete her degree

requirements. She then stayed at home for seven years,

raising her own three children. Returning to the school

system as a substitute teacher, she worked with all grade

levels and specialties, in a variety of situations. She has

spent several years teaching primary split grades.

Elizabeth and her husband now live in Texas, but plan

to return to B.C. in a few years.

Heather Gordon-Hall was born in Hong Kong, raised in

Zimbabwe and emigrated to Canada in 1982 to attend

Queens University. She taught intermittently while


raising four children. She is a Kindergarten/Librarian

teacher at Cormorant Elementary School in Kitimat.

Mareno Guizzo has been a high school core French

teacher in Kitimat since 1983. Originally an Industrial

Education teacher, he gradually changed subject areas

because of a deep interest in language acquisition.

Before starting his Master’s Program, Mareno spent time

in France, Italy and Taiwan. These experiences exposed

him to many learners and teachers who were

attempting to experience language in many ways. The

Master’s Program was important in giving him the

chance to explore practical and theoretical background

in the Foreign Language Acquisition Field. Moreno

considers every day an opportunity to gain insights into

the acquisition process and to pass these insights on to

his students.

Dighton Haynes has taught Grade 7 in Terrace for the

past fifteen years, with a one year exchange to Perth,

Australia. He began his career teaching High School,

mathematics and physical education, and after five

years switched to Elementary School. He presently

teaches Grade 4/5 and works as a vice-principal. He has

been coaching sports for many years, and has initiated

community sports programs. He has also worked with

students in leadership roles in intramurals, school pride,

yearbook, and year end committees.

Dennis Horwood’s love of the outdoors began with many

explorations of southern Vancouver Island. He went on

to study biology at the University of Victoria and to

work as a park naturalist in the summers. In 1979, he

moved to Kitimat where he teaches elementary science

and as much outdoor education as possible. An avid

birder, Dennis has also provided the Royal BC Museum

with many thousands of bird sightings from the Kitimat

area. In 1992, he published a second book Birds of the

Kitimat Valley.

Shelley Jackson has two daughters in high school:

Christine and Sarah. Shelley teaches French Immersion

Language Arts & Literature 8-12, Social Studies (en

français) 8-11, as well as core French. Her teaching

philosophy is based on caring and nurturing. She hopes

to see the school system adopt a humanist approach

which favours teaching the whole person, rather than

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subject matter; learning to understand, rather than to

memorize; being and becoming, rather succeeding at

government imposed standardized tests. Her current

passions are Global Education and Social Justice.

Janise Johnson was born in the interior of British

Columbia and grew up in various communities

throughout the province. She settled with her husband

in Kitimat after receiving her three-year teaching

certificate from the University of Victoria. During an

eleven year hiatus she raised her three children, and

then returned to teaching and university. She

completed her Bachelor of Education by

correspondence and summer school and recently

completed her Master of Education, with its focus on

action research through the University of British

Columbia’s cohort program.

Richard Jones was born in Port Alberni and grew up in

White Rock, British Columbia. He completed his

Bachelor of Arts degree and Certificate in Liberal Arts at

Simon Fraser University, prior to moving to Kitimat to

complete his Professional Teaching Certification.

Richard has recently completed his Master of Education

in Curriculum, and Instruction at the University of

British Columbia. He currently teaches Musical Theatre/

Drama at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School in Kitimat

where he lives with his wife, Miranda, and two-year-old

son, Jacob.

Richard Krickan was born in Saskatchewan but moved

to British Columbia in his pre-school years. He grew up

in Greater Vancouver and obtained his Bachelor’s

degree in Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University in

1972. He has been teaching science and mathematics in

Kitimat since 1973. He has a beautiful and patient wife

and two wonderful children. He also has a dog named

after a dead Russian poet that, for some reason, is

happier than the entire population of the Pacific

Northwest.

Carl Leggo is a poet and associate professor in the

Department of Language and Literacy Education at the

University of British Columbia, where he teaches

courses in writing, curriculum, and narrative research.

He has degrees from Memorial University of

Newfoundland (BA, BEd), University of New Brunswick


(MA, MEd), University of Alberta (PhD), and Tyndale

Seminary (Biblical Studies). He taught in Newfoundland

for nine years before moving to B.C. in 1990. His poetry

and fiction and scholarly essays have been published in

many journals in North America and around the world.

He is the author of two collections of poems titled

Growing up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill and

View from my Mother’s House, as well as a book about

reading and teaching poetry titled Teaching to Wonder:

Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom.

When not teaching or writing, Carl enjoys biking,

running and walking on the dike in Steveston, where he

lives joyfully with his wife and two children.

Sharon Leonard is a primary teacher at Nechako

Elementary School in Kitimat. Although currently

teaching in a Grade 1/2 multi-age classroom, she spent

eight years teaching Kindergarten and five years

teaching at the local Secondary School. Early literacy

acquisition has always been a passion for Sharon and so

she was more than enthusiastic about participating in

action research on this topic. She is looking forward to

continuing her research in the areas of primary reading

and writing.

Kristine Lewis currently teaches English in Kitimat, at

Mount Elizabeth Secondary School. She first became

interested in teaching when she was working with teens

at a youth centre. She enjoyed the teenagers so much

that she returned to UBC to finish her B.A., and then

went on to complete the Professional Development

Program at SFU. Kristine has been teaching in Kitimat

since 1997, and during that time, she has completed

her M.Ed. through UBC.

Reid A. Nelson is a teacher at Mount Elizabeth Secondary

School in Kitimat. Reid has been teaching for 20 years

in the district. The last few years have been primarily

devoted to the teaching of Social Studies and more

recently to Tourism 11 and Tourism 12. An enthusiastic

supporter of extra curricular and co-curricular activities,

Reid has been the teacher sponsor of the high school’s

year book for the last ten years and has sponsored the

Fine Scale Model Club, Duke of Edinburgh Award

Scheme and Mount Elizabeth European Adventures

as well.

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Carol-Anne Rauschenberger is a special education

teacher in Terrace, British Columbia. She has worked in

Gifted and Talented Education, Resource Room

Assistance, as well as the School Completion Program.

She currently teaches the Grade 11 and 12 School

Completion as a Program at Caledonia Secondary

School. Special education, teacher has been working on

developing self-esteem and self-respect in her students.

The research here is just the beginning of pedigogy of

the heart for reaching her students.

Nick Sluyter was born in Kitimat and grew up in a

multicultural, working class community. He worked as

an aluminum smelter for 15 years, before returning to

school and obtaining his qualifications as an Industrial

Education teacher, beginning his teaching career at age

36. He has returned to Kitimat and is teaching

Industrial Education at the high school from which he

graduated.

Walter Thorne currently teaches a Grade 6/7 class at Roy

Wilcox School in Kitimat and has a total of 25 years’

experience at all three Kitimat schools. When Walter is

not teaching, he enjoys outdoor pursuits such as photography,

fishing, gardening, skiing and biking. He is a

Level 3 ski coach. Walter’s wife, Susan, is also a teacher

and they have three grown children.

Jacqueline Worboys spent most of her life in the north

by choice, and now enjoys the challenges of city life

after moving to Vancouver in 2000. Living in Kitimat

offered a unique opportunity to hear stories of people

from around the world, many from people who found a

new life and hope living and working in a single

industry town. As a mother of three, a veteran teacher

and a long-time political activist, she enjoys learning

from people of all sorts, teaching, and writing about her

teaching experiences. Jackie found the best professional

development of all was engaging in meaningful

dialogue with the colleagues in her cohort about

matters at the heart of pedagogy. She thanks her

Kitimat colleagues for having the courage to tackle our

innovative UBC northern Masters’ program.


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