Center for Social Organization of Schools
Keeping Middle Grades Students
On Track to Graduation
Initial Analysis and Implications
Robert Balfanz, Johns Hopkins University
Liza Herzog, Philadelphia Education
Fund
March 18, 2005
Support Provided by the William Penn Foundation
Research Question
How early in the middle grades
(grades 6-8) can we identify
students at high risk for
falling off the graduation
track?
Findings
Four Powerful 6th Grade
Predictors of ‘Falling Off Track’
• Attending school 80% or less of the
time
• Receiving a poor final behavior
mark
• Failing Math
• Failing English
Talent Development Middle Grades
Reading and
English Language Arts
Student Team Literature
Listening Comprehension
Talent Development Writing
CATARA
Student Team Literature
•
•
•
•
thoroughly researched
trade book-based
Partner Discussion Guides
cooperative learning teams
The Focus of Instruction
■ building background
■ developing vocabulary
■ increasing fluency
■ fostering thinking while reading text
■ providing opportunities for speaking
and listening
■ conveying aspects of the writer’s craft
■ using writing to convey
comprehension
■ developing social skills that facilitate
learning
Student Team Literature
• Materials
• Classroom Organization and
Management
• Methods
• The STLit Cycle of Activities
• Assessments
Student Team Literature: Materials
Quality Literature for Adolescents
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
-- 1963
Student Team Literature: Materials
Partner Discussion Guides
Comprehension Exercises
that organize students’ activities
as they complete a reading selection
Student Team Literature: Materials
Partner Discussion Guides have
five major parts:
1. Vocabulary Lists
2. Partner Discussion Guide Questions
(two sections)
3. Selection Review questions
4. Literature-related Writing Activities
5. Extension Activities
In Addition:
About the Author
So, You Want to Read More
Student Team Literature:
Classroom Organization and Management
Teaching Social Skills,
Teaming Students, and Managing a
Cooperative Learning Classroom
A Teacher-selected, Mixed-ability
Cooperative Learning Team
Partnership A
Partnership B
Student Team Literature: Methods
Introduction to the
Reading Selection
Teachers use information in the
Building Background and
Preview/Predict/Purpose
sections of the Partner Discussion Guide to
activate students’ prior knowledge, fill
knowledge gaps, and set expectations for
reading.
Student Team Literature: Methods
Teacher-led Direct Instruction in
Vocabulary Development:
Focus on high frequency (starred*)
words
■
Oral language work during vocabulary
presentation
Talk about
the words!
Student Team Literature: Methods
Teacher-led Direct Instruction in
Vocabulary Development:
Work with students to build
definitions using their prior knowledge
and direct instruction in identifying roots and affixes
and parts of speech.
Student Team Literature: Methods
Teacher-led Direct Instruction in
Vocabulary Development:
Vocabulary as a Tool for Making Predictions
VOCABULARY PREDICTION CHART
Characters
Setting
Starred Words
from
The Giver
distraught
apprehensive
irony
intrigue
aptitude
Action
No
Prediction
Student Team Literature: Methods
Teacher-led Direct Instruction in
Vocabulary Development:
Daily Rapid Reviews
After activating students’ prior knowledge,
filling gaps in background, and working on
vocabulary …
Silent Reading
There is dramatically
more frontal lobe activity
(higher level thinking)
when people read
silently.
When reading aloud,
almost all activity is in the
motor cortex, very little in
the frontal lobe.
Student Team Literature: Methods
Strategies to Build Fluency
Partner Reading of “pivotal passages”
Partner Reading provides:
• practice in building fluency
• opportunities for correction, clarification,
etc.
• stigma-free practice, specially for ESL
students and poor readers
• opportunities for teachers to observe and
diagnose problems
The Partner Reading Fluency Assessment
Once each quarter a teacher listens to
each student as he/she participates in
Partner Reading in order to assess the
reader’s
► Phrasing,
► Smoothness, and
► Pacing
Strategies to Build Fluency
Alternatives to Partner Reading
Choral
Reading
Echo
Reading
Readers’
Theater
Student Team Literature: Methods
Fostering Thinking While Reading Text
Recent research supports the notion
that before-, during-, and afterreading strategies assist students in
making meaning of text1. Teachers
using our program begin by building
background and engaging students in
making predictions about what they
are going to read.
Students
examine covers of trade books and
illustrations, captions, and pull
quotes2 in textbooks (some call this
“textwalking”3).
They also skim
pages and offer predictions about
what they are going to read.
 ?
Logographic
Cues
Student Team Literature: Methods
Teachers use the contents of
Writers’ Craft Boxes
to teach mini-lessons on aspects of the
writers’ craft that students are about to
encounter.
Student Team Literature: Methods
Teacher-led Direct Instruction in
Vocabulary Development:
Composing Meaningful Sentences,
sentences in which a writer embeds
context clues that indicate
his/her understanding of new words
I saw a balloon.
I saw a big red balloon.
During the birthday party, Mike’s big, round red balloon
slipped from his hands and floated quickly toward the
clouds.
Additional Activities
Literature-related Writing
(using the writing process)
Extension Activities
(research, exploration, technology, art)
About the Author
So, You Want to Read More
(options for independent reading)
The Student Team Literature
Cycle of Activities
Direct Instruction
Individual
Assessment
Partner or Team
Practice
Individual
Practice
Student Team Literature: Assessments
Peer Pre-assessments
Assessments
Words Out Loud
Practice
Words Out Loud Test
Selection Review
Literature Test
Checking Meaningful
Sentences
Vocabulary Test
Peer Response to
Literature-related
Writing Assignments
Literature-related
Writing Assignments
Unit Tests in
Standardized Test-format
Listening Comprehension
Listening Comprehension is a component of
Student Team Literature in which students are
read to by a model reader, their teacher, for about
20 to 30 minutes once or a week in order to:
•
•
•
•
hear a fluent reader read and think aloud, and
make meaning of text
exercise their comprehension skills
learn about literary elements and devices, and
types of literature
improve their listening skills
Computer And Team Assisted
Reading Acceleration
Our ten-week “double dose”
of reading instruction for
students who need
additional support.
Reading
Strategy
Instruction
Independent
CATARA
Reading
Learning Center
Rotations
Core
Novel
Because of the unique nature of the language arts, all
teachers in a school will use the Reading, Writing,
Speaking and Listening Standards. The standards
define the skills and strategies employed by effective
readers and writers; therefore, all teachers will assist
their students in learning them through multiple
classroom situations in all the subject areas.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
All Hands on Deck!
Marshalling the Forces
of Content Area Teachers
to Improve Students’
Literacy Skills
Professional Development
• Initial Trainings: Three days
• Coaching: On-going
• Follow-up Trainings:
Individual and Small group (can be during
team meeting time or planning time)
Half-day
Whole-day
Talent Development Middle Grades
MATHEMATICS
UCSMP Series
5th & 6th: Everyday Math
7th: Transition Math
8th: Algebra
(Alternate programs: Math in Context and
Connected Math)
Talent Development Middle Grades
SCIENCE
Full
Option
Science
System
and other science modules supported by the NSF
and
The Story of Science
Talent Development Middle Grades
SOCIAL STUDIES
A History of Us
By Joy Hakim
10-volume series
• Teaching Guide with Lessons
• Masters for:
– Student Sheets
– Team Sheets
– Transparencies
– Review Games
– Assessments