Highlights - February 2001

Staff at PS 196 try to take full advantage of a variety of professional development tools, including use of a professional development bulletin board, PS 196 Steps Up to the Standards, their ELA Teaching Partnerships, plus study groups and regular classroom work with students. Their dedication, work and knowl-edge seem to be really paying off. In January PS 196 was removed from the list of schools under registration review. But this is not enough for the staff of PS 196 who regard this as only a first step in their mission. They want to ensure that all of their students are achieving the high levels of work of which the staff feels they are capable.

Reading All Around the Calendar:
The Early Childhood Annex at PS 59X
JOAN STECKER, TEACHER, PRE-KINDERGARTEN-KINDERGARTEN, PS 59X

Fall, 2000, The Big Halloween Read-Around. Our 2000-2001 literacy theme at PS 59 is the Big Read and the plan for the Big Halloween Read-Around, also our first large event, emerged from the staff collaboration following the annual debate about how best to celebrate Halloween. Everybody loved this literacy-driven activity.

On the day before the read-around, the pre-kindergarten students’ homework included a poem, Five Little Pumpkins, and a finger play to act out with their parents. On the same day, parents received invitations to a breakfast and a workshop about safe Halloween activities for young children. (Pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples and other familiar activities that are new to many of the parents who are recently arrivals to this country, were scheduled.) Each teacher prepared a 15 minute oral presentation about a favorite Halloween book and created book-theme buttons for each child.

On the morning before Halloween children sat in circles in their classrooms, wearing the buttons that had been made and illustrated especially for them. All were ready for the big surprise. Then they listened raptly as, one-by one, the teachers, some even in costume, arrived to make their presentations—reading the selected books and leading children in complementary activities like songs or finger plays.

All in all, the children heard ten great stories during that day. Mrs. Christine McHugh and Mrs. Carolyn Henderson, our principal and assistant principal respectively, came to the annex to read. Activities extended into the week in many classes when, for example, children drew pictures of favorite characters or wrote about them. These emergent-writing activities added to their enjoyment of Halloween as a wholesome day, rather than as a scary one. Teachers noted that many children were going to the library center on subsequent days to sit with and review the Halloween books that they had heard read.

Our staff reflection on the Big Halloween Read-Aloud was so positive and enthusiastic that we decided on a similar plan for events to celebrate all the different cultures’ December holidays, and to encourage the idea of additional read-arounds for the first and second grades in the main building. We were achieving our goal of encouraging children to love books and were having lots of fun too. Boo!

Winter, 2001, The Winter Carnival of Books. The weather outside may be frightful but in our classrooms? Activities are quite delightful, once again thanks to the read-around program. We’ve planned to brighten cold winter days with a Winter Carnival of Books. This time buttons will have new snowman logos. Reinforcing the winter theme, some classes will serve hot cocoa (or chicken soup with rice) and participate in craft activities, songs, rhyming and finger plays. Teachers have selected favorite winter-theme books, anticipated to be Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten sure-fire hits. Our winter book list (see text box) has fifteen strong titles in addition to Annie Bedford’s 1950 classic Frosty the Snowman (Golden Books). What’s next? The February read-around of course, featuring books about African-American history.

Professional Development,
Harbinger of Success at MS 52X

With over 90 staff members at MS52 in the Hunts Point section of the south Bronx, professional development is complex and multi-layered. It is also a harbinger of increased student achievement, teachers believe. Recently several staff members took time to write reflectively about their students’ literacy developments.

MS. FREDESVINDA IRIZARRY shares that following a curriculum originally developed by professors at the University of Puerto Rico* and now being adapted for New York City, students in four bilingual classes are participating in an exciting hands-on science project. They use authentic weather instruments (barometer anemometer, thermometer and rain gauge) to collect data to compare with that of sister school, Ricardo Arroyo Laracuente, in Puerto Rico. Students are also discussing weather patterns and climate with students in other parts of the United States.

MR. CLEMENT ROACH, art teacher, reports on the vital role art plays in the reinforcement for students of basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills. He assists students with their projects (portfolios, journals and graphic organizers) from his perspective of over 15 years’ experience as a printing industry graphic arts technician. He feels that aesthetic considerations are essential in lesson presentation and that the door opens for cognitive skills development in any content area when students invest in the idea that what they create is beautiful, valuable and aesthetically pleasing.

MS. CYNTHIA MONSANTO, teacher of language arts, has been sharing her thinking with students, modeling how she approached writing a descriptive essay on My Dream House, sharing her thinking aloud, along with each step of the process. This pre-writing activity has enabled students to understand both how to go about writing their own descriptive essays and how to think about it as they do so. She uses many strategies such as prompts and graphic organizers that demonstrate for students how they can find, retrieve, organize and use prior knowledge. After students have brainstormed, she organizes the results graphically, and encourages them to use this strategy as they are planning their writing. Students work with a rubric and that means that they can check their work independently. The students are beginning to develop new schemas for writing, she says.

MR. GARFIELD PHILLIPS and MR. JOSEPH PEREZ,
writing teachers, plan as a team and are focusing especially on the seventh and eight grade, supporting prepa-rations for the eighth grade ELA New York State assessment. Knowing the steps to follow, having a plan and then practicing their writing—all should pay off for these students, they say. Writing well is a high priority at our school and the goal is to help students develop the habit of becoming good writers. To become better writers, students need practice over time, they point out, and they hope to extend the program to the fifth and sixth grade next. Making writing interesting and fun for all of the students who attend their classes, including the English language learners and students with special needs, will increase students’ achievement while increas-ing their motivation to write and then, write even more. *The program is now being adapted for New York City students by the Puerto Rico/New York City Linkages Demonstration Project.

Wrapping Up Ancient Egypt at PS 40Q
BY BARBARA SONEK, TEACHER,
SOCIAL STUDIES, PS40, QUEENS

This fall, for about six weeks, a thematic unit on Ancient Egypt was the focus in social studies for my sixth grade students. When we had completed the chapter in the text, I used questions and brainstorming to assist students for their next steps. Students’ answers to questions such as, “What do you know about Ancient Egypt now that you did not know before the unit?” acted as both an interest-inventory for them and an assessment of their learning for me. The process supported their discovery of topics for their project: each was to write and illustrate a page of the class comic-style book. In addition to the text we had an assortment of trade books that I had collected for their use, and a video. What follows are some of our books and other materials.

Resources for Wrapping Up Ancient Egypt
Banks, J., Beyer, B., Contreras, G., et alia. (1999). World Adventures in Time and Place, (Text). New York City: McGraw Hill School Division.

Gee, S., Brompton C., Eds. (1998). Lift the Lid on Mummies. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press. A book and kit that students can use to make their own models of mummies.

Griffey, H. (1998). Secrets of the Mummies. New York City: DK Publishing, Inc.

Scott, C., Ed. (1998). Mummy. New York City: DK Publishing, Inc. This is a book of facsimile documents.

Smythe, I. (1995). The Eye of the Pharaoh. New York City: Dutton Children’s Books.
This is a pop-up book.

The Land of the Pharaohs, (video). (1999). The Ancient Civilizations Video Collection.
Chicago, IL: Questar, Inc.



ELA: Designing Tools for Transforming Achievement at PS 196X Walk through PS 196 in the Bronx and what you see in the print-rich halls and classrooms, in the engagement level of the students and staff and the inter-class visitations of teachers is a learning community-in-motion. An ETS school since September 1999, the school has focused on transforming instruction, putting into place Success for All (SFA) and Math Trailblazers, and using the 40 minute professional development periods to grow through the planning meetings, work sessions, study groups taking place before, during and after school. January is the month for the English Language Arts Assessment in New York State. As PS 196 students and staff have been completing the final review period before the fourth graders take the test, evidence of the school’s transformation can be seen in the new kinds of documents created by both staff and students. Two examples: the fourth grade teachers created an ELA Assessment strategies’ list as a review for themselves and as prompts for their students, and students have also been creating tools. The students have generated checklists like the one to the right—whose purpose is first, to focus them on the content that they need to remember and use for the test. Secondly, while such activities may well help students perform better on tests, the increase in students’ abilities to think about their own thinking gives them practice in a skill that they can continue to develop as life-long learners. Staff at PS 196 try to take full advantage of a variety of professional development tools, including use of a professional development bulletin board, PS 196 Steps Up to the Standards, their ELA Teaching Partnerships, plus study groups and regular classroom work with students. Their dedication, work and knowl-edge seem to be really paying off. In January PS 196 was removed from the list of schools under registration review. But this is not enough for the staff of PS 196 who regard this as only a first step in their mission. They want to ensure that all of their students are achieving the high levels of work of which the staff feels they are capable. Reading All Around the Calendar: The Early Childhood Annex at PS 59X JOAN STECKER, TEACHER, PRE-KINDERGARTEN-KINDERGARTEN, PS 59X Fall, 2000, The Big Halloween Read-Around. Our 2000-2001 literacy theme at PS 59 is the Big Read and the plan for the Big Halloween Read-Around, also our first large event, emerged from the staff collaboration following the annual debate about how best to celebrate Halloween. Everybody loved this literacy-driven activity. On the day before the read-around, the pre-kindergarten students’ homework included a poem, Five Little Pumpkins, and a finger play to act out with their parents. On the same day, parents received invitations to a breakfast and a workshop about safe Halloween activities for young children. (Pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples and other familiar activities that are new to many of the parents who are recently arrivals to this country, were scheduled.) Each teacher prepared a 15 minute oral presentation about a favorite Halloween book and created book-theme buttons for each child. On the morning before Halloween children sat in circles in their classrooms, wearing the buttons that had been made and illustrated especially for them. All were ready for the big surprise. Then they listened raptly as, one-by one, the teachers, some even in costume, arrived to make their presentations—reading the selected books and leading children in complementary activities like songs or finger plays. All in all, the children heard ten great stories during that day. Mrs. Christine McHugh and Mrs. Carolyn Henderson, our principal and assistant principal respectively, came to the annex to read. Activities extended into the week in many classes when, for example, children drew pictures of favorite characters or wrote about them. These emergent-writing activities added to their enjoyment of Halloween as a wholesome day, rather than as a scary one. Teachers noted that many children were going to the library center on subsequent days to sit with and review the Halloween books that they had heard read. Our staff reflection on the Big Halloween Read-Aloud was so positive and enthusiastic that we decided on a similar plan for events to celebrate all the different cultures’ December holidays, and to encourage the idea of additional read-arounds for the first and second grades in the main building. We were achieving our goal of encouraging children to love books and were having lots of fun too. Boo! Winter, 2001, The Winter Carnival of Books. The weather outside may be frightful but in our classrooms? Activities are quite delightful, once again thanks to the read-around program. We’ve planned to brighten cold winter days with a Winter Carnival of Books. This time buttons will have new snowman logos. Reinforcing the winter theme, some classes will serve hot cocoa (or chicken soup with rice) and participate in craft activities, songs, rhyming and finger plays. Teachers have selected favorite winter-theme books, anticipated to be Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten sure-fire hits. Our winter book list (see text box) has fifteen strong titles in addition to Annie Bedford’s 1950 classic Frosty the Snowman (Golden Books). What’s next? The February read-around of course, featuring books about African-American history. Professional Development, Harbinger of Success at MS 52X With over 90 staff members at MS52 in the Hunts Point section of the south Bronx, professional development is complex and multi-layered. It is also a harbinger of increased student achievement, teachers believe. Recently several staff members took time to write reflectively about their students’ literacy developments. MS. FREDESVINDA IRIZARRY shares that following a curriculum originally developed by professors at the University of Puerto Rico* and now being adapted for New York City, students in four bilingual classes are participating in an exciting hands-on science project. They use authentic weather instruments (barometer anemometer, thermometer and rain gauge) to collect data to compare with that of sister school, Ricardo Arroyo Laracuente, in Puerto Rico. Students are also discussing weather patterns and climate with students in other parts of the United States. MR. CLEMENT ROACH, art teacher, reports on the vital role art plays in the reinforcement for students of basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills. He assists students with their projects (portfolios, journals and graphic organizers) from his perspective of over 15 years’ experience as a printing industry graphic arts technician. He feels that aesthetic considerations are essential in lesson presentation and that the door opens for cognitive skills development in any content area when students invest in the idea that what they create is beautiful, valuable and aesthetically pleasing. MS. CYNTHIA MONSANTO, teacher of language arts, has been sharing her thinking with students, modeling how she approached writing a descriptive essay on My Dream House, sharing her thinking aloud, along with each step of the process. This pre-writing activity has enabled students to understand both how to go about writing their own descriptive essays and how to think about it as they do so. She uses many strategies such as prompts and graphic organizers that demonstrate for students how they can find, retrieve, organize and use prior knowledge. After students have brainstormed, she organizes the results graphically, and encourages them to use this strategy as they are planning their writing. Students work with a rubric and that means that they can check their work independently. The students are beginning to develop new schemas for writing, she says. MR. GARFIELD PHILLIPS and MR. JOSEPH PEREZ, writing teachers, plan as a team and are focusing especially on the seventh and eight grade, supporting prepa-rations for the eighth grade ELA New York State assessment. Knowing the steps to follow, having a plan and then practicing their writing—all should pay off for these students, they say. Writing well is a high priority at our school and the goal is to help students develop the habit of becoming good writers. To become better writers, students need practice over time, they point out, and they hope to extend the program to the fifth and sixth grade next. Making writing interesting and fun for all of the students who attend their classes, including the English language learners and students with special needs, will increase students’ achievement while increas-ing their motivation to write and then, write even more. The program is now being adapted for New York City students by the Puerto Rico/New York City Linkages Demonstration Project. Wrapping Up Ancient Egypt at PS 40Q BY BARBARA SONEK, TEACHER, SOCIAL STUDIES, PS40, QUEENS This fall, for about six weeks, a thematic unit on Ancient Egypt was the focus in social studies for my sixth grade students. When we had completed the chapter in the text, I used questions and brainstorming to assist students for their next steps. Students’ answers to questions such as, “What do you know about Ancient Egypt now that you did not know before the unit?” acted as both an interest-inventory for them and an assessment of their learning for me. The process supported their discovery of topics for their project: each was to write and illustrate a page of the class comic-style book. In addition to the text we had an assortment of trade books that I had collected for their use, and a video. What follows are some of our books and other materials. Resources for Wrapping Up Ancient Egypt* Banks, J., Beyer, B., Contreras, G., et alia. (1999). World Adventures in Time and Place, (Text). New York City: McGraw Hill School Division. Gee, S., Brompton C., Eds. (1998). Lift the Lid on Mummies. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press. A book and kit that students can use to make their own models of mummies. Griffey, H. (1998). Secrets of the Mummies. New York City: DK Publishing, Inc. Scott, C., Ed. (1998). Mummy. New York City: DK Publishing, Inc. This is a book of facsimile documents. Smythe, I. (1995). The Eye of the Pharaoh. New York City: Dutton Children’s Books. This is a pop-up book. The Land of the Pharaohs, (video). (1999). The Ancient Civilizations Video Collection. Chicago, IL: Questar, Inc.