Struggling to Read

Like Jessica Staff mentioned in her second post, I noticed a couple of children at Lighthouse Elementary struggling to read very simple words. We were working with them in completing different exercises in their text books when a few of them couldn't get the word. This wasn't just a one time thing... it was on almost every page. The third graders could read words like "the" and "or" with ease, but other terms provided a lot of difficulty of them. I was thinking to myself, how are these children completing their assigments if they can't even read the directions? If I remember correctly, my third grade class was reading books. I've seen them complete other tasks, with harder concepts, but they can't even read simple language. It was just shocking for me to see them struggle with words that a third grader should definately be capable of reading.

expectations

When i first went to community academy charter school I had high expectations for the school. I had heard that charter schools created there own curriculum to try and teach there students in a different way. But none of the teachers that i have encountered seem to use any new teaching skills. When the school was originally stated it was supposed to be bilingual with lessons being taught in both English and Spanish. The idea was full Emerson into another language at a young age. However, none of this exists any more. The school still has a Spanish class that all the students take part in, but all the lessons in the classroom are done in English. I truly expected to find teachers at this charter school teaching there students in new and interesting ways, but all i have found is activities that i remember doing when i was in the first grade. It seems to me when it comes to curriculum there is not much difference between charter schools and public schools.

Post 2: Lack of Consistency

Similar to Professor Moomau’s experience, my group and I witnessed preparation for a special event put on by our charter school, Potomac Lighthouse Public Charter. Although we were not able to attend the event we had the pleasure of seeing their rehearsal for a night dedicated to presenting to their parents, friends, and family the work each class had done thus far in the school year. As we entered the building the halls buzzed with the student’s singing, and the excitement of the upcoming event. In one classroom the students demonstrated their presentation, which consisted of quotes by historical African American figures. Each student was to make one statement, with character and enthusiasm, as memorization was required. If they had not memorized their quote they were not allowed to perform that night, which provided each student with incentive as they did not want to miss out on the show. As the students glowed with excitement, we regretted missing out on they actual performance.
Although event such like these give me hope that charter schools may provide a better type of learning environment, I remain skeptical due to other aspects of this charter school. Regardless of the one on one attention some, recognizably needy, children others remain left to save themselves from falling behind. I was surprised at how the faculty at our school treated two very similar situations completely differently. One first grade girl, who has been absent quite a lot, receives extra attention whenever someone is available to sit with her. They make her special flash cards and work hard to bring her up to her fellow class member’s reading levels. In contrast, a third grade boy with the same attendance issues is left to catch up alone. Although they recognize the obstacles he has to overcome the teacher is unable to dedicate time solely to him. Although I am happy for the attention given to the girl, it is depressing that they lack the means to provide the boy with the same attention.

Post 3: A Step in the Right Direction

Although my experience at Potomac Lighthouse Public Charter School has been quite similar to Peggy’s at Next Step charter school, the picture has not become one of the ideal situation as I have, as she stated, “move from the nose bleed section to the front row”. As she pointed out the facilities are definitely clean, class smaller, and in some cases teachers more experienced. However, I have also experienced interaction between the adults and students that worries me. While speaking to students I have heard adult volunteers brought to tutor, as well as teachers, use improper grammar and sentence structure. How are these elementary school students, which are still learning the proper grammar, expected to speak and form sentences correctly if they are constantly presented with incorrect way of doing so. Although volunteers are important to lessen the load for the teachers, it is vital that such volunteers are aware of their influence on students.
In addition, with the exception of smaller classrooms and cleaner facilities, I fail to see how charter schools differ significantly from public schools. My charter school emphasizes the importance of standardized testing, placing countdowns in the halls, and has strict regulations. These two characteristics represent two flaws Kozol described as detrimental to the success of public schools in urban environments. It is important to note, that although a step in the right direction, charter schools are not the perfect solution to D.C.’s problems.

Charters Give Parents Choices

The charter school that I visit, Community Academy, is very similar to Peggy's school. The facilites are clean and the class sizes are small. However I have discovered that they have their own set of problems. When the school was started it was designed to have a bilingual program. But its third year, this current school year, the program has been canceled. I have been talking to the teacher that I help and she says that the school is losing most of their students because of the curriculum changes, and believes that the school will be closed soon because of the lack of students. Parents chose Community Academy for the education that it promised, and when the school decided to seriously alter their curriculum the parents have responded. As a parent of a student at a charter school this is their right, which hopefully will give their children the best education possible (at least in a perfect world right).

Response to “Second Visit; reality sets in” (Post #3)

“Although, the school had impressed me on my initial visit I was beginning to question the academic quality of the school now that I could see the students not only Jacquelyn where struggling with even the most basic concepts.”

I had some of the same feelings of disappointment with Turning the Page. Their philosophy seemed great, but the reality was the program was too focused on parent workshops and ignored the children who were the ones the program was meant to help in the first place. The tutors were free to determine what they wanted to do with the children and often all they could do was keep them under control. Getting a children to sit down and read a book was an accomplishment. Then for the second half of the community night the kids would color. While I support the arts, this type of unstructured activity was clearly not helping them. It was even more frustrating when I was reading with a child and others would start coloring and they would want to keep reading…and then they felt they had to color. I had expressed these concerns to some of the employees but ultimately nothing changed, it got worse actually, and it led me to find a new organization.

Post #2- Perfect Evidence

Both of the schools I worked in while volunteering with TTP had the exact types of environments which I am talking about in my paper. Aiton Elementary, the school I wrote about in my last blog, is 100% black and 94% of the kids qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. In addition, 95% of the kids are from the Lincoln Heights housing projects (I got this info from Aiton’s website through the DC Reads Page). Kenilworth Elementary is 99.7% black and 84.7% economically disadvantaged. I interacted with kids that were obviously facing problems with their home life. Many didn’t want to work because they were hungry, others were too worried about things going on at home to care about the latest adventures of Clifford the big red dog. It was obvious the parents weren’t able to give their kids the time they needed- these kids would do anything for attention. There was also a girl I suspected of being abused- she would cry often and when I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her she shuttered. It is all of the struggles these children must go through before they even reach school which I wish to highlight in my paper. Additionally, I saw how far behind the children were in their reading skills—I tutored 3^rd graders that struggled to sound out “don’t.” Actually sitting down with the kids and seeing them struggle with every word really puts the statistics into perspective.

Response to Elise 'New Teachers'

I thought Elise's discussion of materials and the inexperience of new teachers was very interesting. I'm at Georgetown's City Collegiate Charter School, and the teacher expressed her dislike of the math book. This 'book' is simply a workbook- not a text book. It provides students with brief demonstration of the material and many work problems. The use of this book provides the teachers' lectures to be the only source of explaination for the students. So, this shows that the books being selected are not the best quality. City Collegiate is a first year charter, so hopefully they get new math books next year.

CSLP Assignments

The fourth credit for which you have signed up is Pass/Fail. To Pass the CSLP, you must successfully complete the following tasks:
• Turn in a signed time sheet that shows you have volunteered at least 40 hours for the approved community partner.
• Respond to the weekly blog prompts.
• Write an essay at semester’s end, the details of which are below. You will turn in your time sheet along with your essay on the due date.



CSLP Reflective Essay
Due: Thursday, May 3
Length: 1200 words

You may choose one of the following prompts to expand into a reflective essay, or you may propose to the instructor a topic of your own.

1) Describe a significant event that occurred as part of the service experience? Why was this incident significant for you? What did you learn from this experience? How will this incident influence your future behavior?

2) Addressing specific aspects of your service experience, how has that experience related to this writing course’s content and purpose? How might this experience and course content be applied to your personal or professional life?

3) Draw a portrait in words of a significant person you encountered at your community site.



By the time you begin writing this essay, you will be well acquainted with the criteria for successful essays. However, in case we forget, this essay will be direct, specific, with a thoughtful title and a quick beginning. The essay will employ fresh language, variety of sentence structure and style, and won’t bore the reader. Since all three of these essay topics focuses on a particular, specific subject, the writer will be able to express the essay’s point of view in a claim or thesis statement. I’ll be happy to look at drafts before the due date.

Third Blog Post

Hi CSLP Bloggers,
For our third post, I want you to respond to someone else's post. You can respond any way that you like. One way would certainly be to discuss the similarity/dissimilarity of your experiences at the respective charter schools. However, I'll leave it up to you to make whatever observation you want. Do me a favor, though: make your response a "post" not a "comment" so that it appears in the main part of the blog. Be sure to tell us what post to which you're responding, and please try to use standard English spelling and punctuation :).
Please post by Sunday, March 25.

Autopsying Charter School

In the opening of a classic Law and Order episode, an innocent bystander walks by, notices something funny, and upon further inspection, finds a corpse buried in the trash. Soon, forensic scientists and detectives meticulously probe the body bit by bit and begin uncovering the history and events leading up to the demise of the corpse.

Parents and students of the DCPS are the innocent bystanders. They notice that there’s something just not right with the system. As of February, I was introduced to the “corpse” or DCPS’ ineffectiveness and began using my research and reasoning skills using works from scholarly authors or “forensic scientists” to uncover the realities of the DCPS.

Next Step charter school serves as a comparison model. Readings on DCPS can only extend so far. Yet, being part of the process, part of the inner workings of a school allows for greater insight. It’s like being moved from the nose bleed area to the front row in a game. Upon closer inspection, Next Step had smaller class sizes, clean facilities, and experienced teachers– a few factors that numerous articles in the Washington Post and scholarly journals have reported lacking in most DCPS schools. As a result, students are given a safe and attentive environment.

Second Visit; reality sets in

The melting snow created a sloppy mess all around the school but once inside we where quickly put to work with the children. Because I am a native speaker of Spanish I was singled out to help tutor Jacquelyn a first grader girl who had miss a considerable amount of school this year. We went upstairs and we began on her flash cards of letters then words and we finished with a story book. The principle had told me that her teacher had worked with her as much as she could but since none of the faculty spoke Spanish and had no experience in any sort of ESOL program it was difficult for them to teach or asses how much Jacquelyn actually knew. I could tell that this would be very difficult although I consider English as my mother tongue I did learn Spanish first and although I don't remember the struggles of first learning English, I often don't feel as steadfast as some of my peers. Although she would sometimes confuse the sounds and she had not learned her vowels yet she did have some limited vocabulary of English and understood most instruction. However, I felt that even though she was sounding the words out phonetically she was not retaining much if any of the words. I drew that this lack of understanding of the words derived from a failure to comprehension of what the words represented. She would see Dog and quickly would respond but the other words seemed more of a mystery. I told her teacher if it would be alright to try to teach her what the words meant in Spanish, but she was at odd with me saying that it would only overwhelm her. Although I agreed that it would be allot it would help her to link the words and objects otherwise it may seem pointless memorization of symbols to her.Although, the school had impressed me on my initial visit I was beginning to question the academic quality of the school now that I could see the students not only Jacquelyn where struggling with even the most basic concepts. Some of those proponents of charters have argued that how could charters be expected to undo years of poor academics when now even there students seem to lack the necessary fundamentals. Also I was surprised the Jacquelyn had been permitted to stay in a school where there was obvious need for a specialist in English-Spanish teaching, even the most basic schools should provide to Spanish speaking students some sort of assistance in their transition to a new society.

First Impression

After getting lost in Northeast Washington, Kat, Katie and I arrived at Potomac Lighthouse Charter. Set in a church, the school is small and colorful filled with the student art and posters. We were greeted by the principlal who introduced himself and after all the paper work was finished, began to show us around the school. As we passed from grade to grade it was more and more revealing of how small the school was. And every time we entered a class the principle would introduced us to the teacher, but surprisingly he also seem to know most of the students by name sending them a smile or a word of encouragement. It was amazing to see that all the students where called by name, not hey, yea you, young lady or young man. This was the standard not the exception in how students where treated. The students seem to respond to this by being well mannered and well behaved much better than students at the traditional public school. It was hard not to notice that the school was predominantly African American. The statistics came running back in my head about how the majority of charter school where notoriously segregated. The tour ended and I could not help but feel happy to see these students in an environment where people cared about them and that structure existed for these students who often lack normality. Although, we did not have any insight into the academic quality of Potomac Lighthouse, at least an environment of learning did exist.

interesting lessons

Our visit to the Potomac Lighthouse Elementary School was a lot of fun this week. The kids are always excited to see us and eager to have us help. Because we hadn't been in about 2 weeks (snow day and Lucas & I were sick), the students seemed especially welcoming. It's also nice to recognize them and their names now.
Although my paper doesn't really deal with charter schools, I can say that I saw problems with water fountains in the Lighthouse School as well. I didn't ask why, but I did see that they were covered up and unusable, unlike previous weeks. I'm not certain, but perhaps there were also problems with the lead.
On a happier note, I noticed that the school is incorporating some really interesting things into the student's lessons. For example, the teacher had them compare various Picasso paintings to one another--describing the colors and shapes that they noticed. I just thought it was a cool way of having them appreciate some artwork, and learn at the same time. It was really impressive to watch these second graders draw these comparisons and it was fun to participate!

post # 2

Dear fellow CSLP attendees,
I am volunteering at the Next Step Charter School in Columbia Heights. The second time I visited the kids at Next Step, the lower level math class that I would normally be helping had standardized testing (woohooo!) that day so I was sent to a high (er) level English class. I had a great time helping the kids construct some sentences in English and although community service should not be about stroking one’s own ego, I must say I was very happy that I was able to explain these concepts to the kids in Spanish as I helped them. This particular charter has a small student body (roughly 75 students) and targets primarily students with a Latino background who have ‘fallen through the cracks’ of the DCPS- so to speak. My paper is a criticism of ‘market-oriented’ charter schools that are controlled or influenced by organizations that seek profit over the improvement of education. Next Step exemplifies a type of charter that would qualify as a ‘mission- oriented’ school, so one that seems to have honorable intentions and effective improvement behavior. Maybe I could talk about Next Step as an example of a charter school that is in fact fulfilling the intended goals for charter schools when they were first introduced to the school system here. Alright, that’s really all I have to say about that. Over and Out.

Haha catching up a bit

Ok so I went last Wed and this Mon and just now posted for Wed, so time to post for Mon as well. (Because of Spring Breaks and other conflicts, it became clear that going both Wed and some Mondays was the best answer)
I got to Next Step pretty early on Mon because something amazing happened- the shuttle came 5 mins after I went out to wait for it, and the bus came only a minute or two after the shuttle got to Tenley. It took 35 mins flat to get from AU to Next Step. That will probably never happen again, lol.
I got there and Micah informed me that they have a "community meeting" on Mon mornings, so I got to watch that. It was mostly just announcements, but I thought it was pretty kewl that everything was in Spanish and English; a sentence was spoken in English, and then the same sentence was translated, or vice versa. I also met a student from Howard U originally from North Carolina who is a Psychology major and Spanish minor also volunteering. She worked with me in the math room for the first period.
Math was more of the same- just problem solving and doing most of it in Spanish (which I still find really fun) But English class was awesome. The teacher set me up with half of the class to read and go over a chapter that we were reading- basically giving me co-teacher status. And one of the students called me "miss" like they do to their teacher. It was pretty kewl.
Though I did have a few problems with some kids- the boys didn't want to read and one boy had his coat on him like a blanket and just wanted to sleep- the girls were really inspiring and all in all, it was a really good day.

Revolutionary

It's funny that the 2nd prompt is what it is, because the 2nd visit was the visit when I made a point to interview the English teacher that Peggy and I work for. I asked her to break down the curriculum and how different Next Step is from the traditional DCPS schools. As we read in class, I included a great amount of data from Next Step as a support that charter schools provide parents with options which traditional public schools simply cannot. Students at Next Step are in school year-round and their promotion to the next "step" is highly individual- teacher recommendation, scores on pratice GED tests, and their classwork determine whether or not they are promoted- not that June has come and summer's here and in the fall they move up. And the system works. It allows each student the time they need in each step in order to really master what is being taught. And teachers love working there. The English teacher we work with is highly educated and made the choice to come work at Next Step in order to help educate these kids.
Also, because the teachers trust Peggy and I to work with students alone in groups or on a one-on-one basis, we're given lots of time to speak with the students directly about their experiences in charter school. One girl I work with regularly told me that she thinks charter schools really do work. As she is 21 and math is what is keeping her from getting her GED, I think the only way she is able to continue working to educate herself is through charter schools. Public schools would not have been the answer for her.

The kids at our school

When visiting community academy charter school i have meet many kids who have a certain innocence when describing there school. for example, when visiting the school with my group we where told that they could not drink from the water fountain today because the water was poisoned. We tried to ask them if they meant there was led in the water but all they said was that it was poisoned today. There was something very honest about the way they said it, like it was a matter of affect kind of thing, like it must have happened all the time. I learned a lot that day about what it must be like to go to these schools and not knowing what days you can clean water to drink and what days you cant. It something i never had to worry about, but the way they talked about it seemed to be something they dealt with all the time. It was a experience that i will never forget.

Communitas

I like this prompt question because I find that I ask myself this question every time I visit Georgetown’s City Collegiate Charter School.

My paper is in support of the charter system, as I believe families should have the right to choose schools and have the right to be satisfied with the education their children are receiving. The schools should pass government standards (academic, facilities, etc). As long as the families are satisfied—I believe charter education is doing its job.

I stated in my previous posting that I’m aiding a teacher in two ‘pull out’ sections, where all the children have learning, social, and emotional disabilities. Both of these sections have four students—making the student to ‘teacher’ ratio 1 to 2. I think that’s pretty impressive, despite the fact that I’m only a college student (not a teacher) and the fact that it’s only a ‘special-ed’ section. So, one could argue that charters provide small class sizes and that students who do need extra help are receiving aid for their personal needs.

Also, I observed that all faculty members know each other and the course materials for each others’ classes. The teachers know their students’ parents and have a general understanding of each of their students’ home lives. I think this is important because City Collegiate seems to be building a well networked community of teachers, administrators, parents, and students.

An Eye-Opening Community Night with TTP

I have not visited my charter school yet but I have had two “first” experiences with my DC Reads sites. The most interesting was last semester when I volunteered for Turning the Page (TTP). TTP is a family based program which hosts what they call “community” nights. Parents and children sit down for a dinner. Then the parents go with session leaders to discuss ways in which they can help their children with school. The children stay with the volunteers and read. The children then get to take home a book to add to their personal library.

This plan sounds great in theory. In reality TTP lacks any structure at all which makes it hard to get things done. Once the parents and TTP employees go upstairs for their sessions the 8-10 volunteers are left with a cafeteria full of 30-40 screaming children that are making laps around the cafeteria. After the volunteers and I devised some sort of “round up” plan, we divided the children into grade levels which ranged from pre-K to 6^th grade.

Two other girls and I sat a group of about 10-12 first through third graders down. Only the kids closest to the book were really paying attention and the rest of the kids were so wild, I grabbed another book and took some kids that were at the end of the table. I was reading with second and third graders that were reading at a kindergarten or first grade level. They had trouble sounding out “don’t.” I was shocked, I had heard about it before—that was why we were there—it was just so different to have that child I had heard about sitting right next to me. In addition to the shock I was so angry that disparities like this could even exist. Yet they were very eager to read, which made me happy but again mad—I was thinking here are these kids who are so eager to read, yet they are being denied the opportunity.

Lastly, for half of the time we had with them the children were instructed to put their books down and color- yes color. Two of the girls I was reading with did not want to stop reading the book so I finished reading it with them…even though it was cutting in to their coloring time. Again I was angry—these kids are getting priceless time to sit down and read with someone and they are coloring.

Help for New Teachers

Last Tuesday, at Community Academy, the first grade students that I have been working with were out of the classroom with an art teacher, so I helped prepare an activity with their teacher, Ms. C, for Womens HERstory Month. While we were working I took the opprotunity to pick her brain about the school and students. She told me that this year the students were doing so much better than her class last year, but then quickly told me that last year was tough because they didn't have any books. She said that she managed beause she had been teaching for 10 years so she knew where to find materials, but the new teachers had a very hard time. She then talked to me about the importance for young teachers to have mentors to help them adjust to having a class. In a school system where materials can not always be provided teachers have to work harder and compensate for the benefit of their students, which is not fair to the teachers or the students. In my paper I am discussing the problems with curriculum and instruction in the DCPS, and I intend to include my conversation with Ms. C about extra assistance or a mentoring program for new teachers. It is so important to give our teachers the resources they need to build a successful learning community for our students.

Second Blog Prompt

Your responses to the first prompt have been enlightening and sometimes amusing. Feel free to comment on each other's posts. Also, when responding to my prompts, make a new post rather than a comment: that makes for easier blog reading.
The great thing about service learning is its unpredictability: sometimes you will find yourself as Julia did judging a contest. Two years ago we arrived one evening at SEED school prepared to do homework with our students. No one told us that a school-wide awards banquet had preempted all other activities. However, we were invited to the dinner and ending up sitting with a father, mother, and their SEED 8th-Grader. In a relaxed setting, we heard from two parents about their aspirations for their child, their own educational background, and a whole lot more. When we see people instead of statistics, our thinking only can deepen. And, at least that night, we didn't even know what pleasant surprise--dinner and enlightening conversation--awaited us at SEED school.
So now that nearly everyone has visited their site, here is the second prompt: what have you witnessed that you might use as primary evidence for the essay you're currently revising? What point would that evidence support? Certainly, Ariel's purse-mouse and the drinking fountain would be a great anecdotes about DCPS facilities problems. Also, be sure to tell us what school you're visiting because not all of us are in the same class.