NW Laboratory Home

Teaching and Reaching Each Child as an Individual

Students at Cherry Valley Elementary School in Polson, Montana, are deep into literacy, language, and the love of words.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY TONY KNEIDEK

OLSON, Montana—When first-grade teacher Doug Crosby needs help with his writing, he doesn't have to look far. Any of the 20 children sitting comfortably on a braided rug, an easy chair, or an overstuffed sofa will chime out letters, concepts, and sounds that help Crosby get his thoughts down on paper.

It's a group writing process that Crosby begins with a story plan—a drawing of what he is about to write. Once children identify the drawing, Crosby moves onto the story writing. "I'm going to start my story with a special letter called . . . now what is that special letter that starts a story?" Crosby asks.

"A capital letter," the children answer in chorus. "Yes, yes, that's it. But why a capital letter?" Crosby prods. "Because it's the first word in the sentence," children answer. "Ah, of course. And we know that the first word in a sentence starts with a capital letter. Thank you," says Crosby.

He continues his one-sentence story: "Last night I had hot dogs for dinner." When he gets to the word "hot dogs," Crosby again asks the children for help. "What sounds do you hear in 'hhhhot dog,'" he asks, drawing out the sound of the letter "h." Again, the children chime in, identifying the letter and assisting in spelling the whole word. (Such learning, Crosby notes later, is phonics with a twist. Children are identifying letters in the context of words and stories, not as isolated bits of information without real meaning to them.)

When the story is complete, the children have participated in a process of writing, drawing, spelling, and storytelling that lays a foundation for their own work. "Now I want you to close your eyes for a minute," Crosby instructs his students, "and think about something you want to write." He offers suggestions for students to reflect upon before they scatter to tables and begin their own writing and publishing projects. Later that day, they will read their work to the class during Author's Chair, a time for sharing and feedback.

Throughout the day, similar scenes unfold in classrooms at Cherry Valley School. The school, which serves nearly 400 children in kindergarten through fourth grade, has created a vision and mission built on a foundation of language and literacy.

Building a Literacy Team

Principal Elaine Meeks had been a special education teacher and administrator at Cherry Valley for 11 years before becoming principal in 1989. "At the time I was hired as principal," Meeks notes, "the curriculum was resource- and textbook-driven. I wanted to create an educational environment where literacy would be the umbrella for everything we did here."

Such shifts do not come easily. They require research-based practices and strategies and an ability to communicate them clearly. Meeks brought with her a philosophical approach steeped in developmentally appropriate practices, individualized education, and child-centered learning. "I have a deep, internalized belief that all children can learn," Meeks says. "I just know that to be true."

What Meeks needed was to lead her staff to a shared understanding about the concepts behind the educational jargon. When she talked with staff members, they all said their approaches were child-centered, but each had different views of what that meant.

Meeks began a process of inquiry that helped teachers focus on literacy and children. "When I observed teachers in their classrooms, I was looking for developmentally appropriate practices they were already using," she says. "I wanted to reinforce those strategies and build upon them."

Meeks also sought information from teachers about their strategies and practices. "I would say, 'Talk to me about why you group children this way. How does it benefit them? Tell me about the information you used in that activity.'

"I wasn't standing there with a clipboard checking items on a list," Meeks says. "I was asking teachers why they do things the way they do. It's incredibly powerful for teachers to be reflective about their practices."

In 1992, Meeks and a handful of teachers attended a NWREL-sponsored workshop, Building Equity in Early Literacy: A Team Approach, that helped guide and direct their literacy project. When they returned to Polson, the newly formed Literacy Leadership Team began a schoolwide process to develop a research- and literacy-based vision for Cherry Valley School that focused on developmentally appropriate practices in a child-centered environment.

Over the years, nearly all teachers at Cherry Valley have served on the leadership team, which has remained true to and expanded upon the literacy values and philosophy that shaped it (see related story, page 12). For example, while there are no multiage classes at Cherry Valley, the school has implemented buddy activities in which students in mixed-age groups work together on literacy activities, and cross-grade teaching teams where first- and second-grade teachers plan together but maintain separate classes.

Two years ago, the school also implemented the Reading Recovery program to assist first-grade students. The program, which was developed in New Zealand 30 years ago, provides one-on-one enrichment for first-graders who are struggling with reading. At Cherry Valley, two teachers trained in Reading Recovery's strategic approaches meet for 30 minutes a day with individual first-graders. Daily take-home reading activities draw families into the program, which relies on a variety of strategies designed to enhance children's reading skills and comprehension.

The school also has begun Friday Afternoon Clubs, in which children have identified things they want to learn and do that may not be included in daily classroom activities. Each class lasts for six weeks, includes 10-12 children of different ages and grade levels, and is facilitated by a teacher, an aide, or a community member. Clubs include crafts, needlework, dancing, Native American culture and traditions, hands-on computer, science, health, drama, sports, games, and art.

Meeks notes that the clubs address student-identified activities that promote health and well-being as well as a variety of learning styles. "When you put an overlay of the multiple intelligences on this, you've really addressed them all," she says. "And it came from the students. They created it. It's another example of being child-centered. If you want to meet the needs of children, you have to ask them what those needs are."

Creating a Partnership with Families

Highway 93—a long and winding road with equally long stretches of straightaways that disappear into the horizon—cuts a path north from Missoula through the Mission Valley. At times, the mostly two-lane road climbs so long and so steep that it seems flat has been left behind forever. Then presto! Another high plain where the morning fog lies on rangeland like a lace comforter while the sun warms the tallest peaks in the Mission Mountain Range. And the sky is bigger than God.

Polson snuggles the south shore of Flathead Lake, a 27-mile long stretch of blue and the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River. The city is the largest on the Flathead Indian Reservation, 1.2 million acres of wilderness and water, meadows and mountains. About 30 percent of the students at Cherry Valley School are Native American, and the school's diversity efforts focus on the culture and traditions of the native people of the area.

As an outgrowth of its focus on literacy, staff at Cherry Valley decided to address the social and health needs of families as well as the education of their children. "We're learning to take our children where they are and build on what they know," Meeks reported at a NWREL literacy institute in 1993. "We're reversing our thinking about children having deficits—we're looking at what kinds of opportunities we can provide for our students. When we really approach instruction through a holistic view of the child, we can't separate the child from the family. All needs must be addressed, including human services."

As a result of those concerns, the Polson School District and other community agencies formed the Polson Partnership, a community-based, family-focused project that provides direct social services and referrals to children and their families. The project established a Family Resource Center at Cherry Valley School in 1993 and hired Co Carew, a licensed clinical social worker and counselor, to direct the partnership.

The project also has provided staff development to meet the growing list of teacher-identified concerns and responsibilities. Courses include addressing fetal alcohol syndrome, identifying and reporting child abuse, understanding the historic conflicts between public education and Native Americans, working with children who have attention deficit disorder, and using art therapy techniques.

Teachers are a main referral source when children appear to be having difficulties that go beyond the classroom. "We live in a small community—a rural area—and there's a lot of pride," says Carew. "So the chances of people coming forward for help are slim. We identify children's needs through the teachers."

Carew also visits families in their homes, helps them identify needs, and offers positive parenting tips. "My role is to approach families in a very soft way and suggest that there are services that could help them and their child," she says. "I meet with children and families and try to connect them with available resources. If no resources are available, then I can work with them as a counselor."

Carew says that one of the most beneficial components of the Polson Partnership has been its family involvement activities. "There's so much research that shows that when you increase parental involvement in the schools, you increase the possibility of academic success for the children," she says. "We need the entire family to support the children and each other."

At one of its first family-enrichment nights—Play-Doh making for kindergartners—150 families showed up. "We realized that we were onto something really wonderful," Carew says. Other family-oriented activities have included noncompetitive math and science games, literacy fairs, hands-on computer night, and a schoolwide picnic. The activities have drawn between 30 and 100 families. "We've really found that the children's excitement inspires the parents," Carew notes.

Since its inception in 1993, the Polson Partnership has:

Bringing the Theories to Life

Educational theory comes to life in Doug Crosby's first-grade classroom.

It's a world where research is practiced, where learning focuses on the needs of individual children, and where students are engaged in hands-on activities. Crosby teaches children individually, in small groups, and together as a class while providing interactive group activities.

His is a child-centered class where individual children learn cooperatively and progress at a rate that is comfortable and challenging for each of them. Don't look for basal readers or packaged lesson plans in Crosby's classroom. Instead, children select reading materials from color-coded buckets of books, based on their levels of expertise and comfort. They write stories about their own experiences and illustrate them with their own drawings. Their progress is charted weekly in individual graphs and in detailed personal notes maintained by Crosby.

"What we're doing is an individual educational plan for every child," notes Crosby, a native of New Zealand who taught for six years in his homeland before settling in at Cherry Valley School three years ago. "My basic philosophy on reading and writing," Crosby says, "is that I teach reading through reading. I teach writing through writing."

This basic approach shows in Crosby's classroom, where children's literature is prominently displayed. In just the second week of classes, students read aloud to each other or silently. They write and illustrate their own stories. And they share their work with their classmates during Author's Chair.

In a typical day, Crosby meets in semiformal conferences with each child one or two times. They discuss the child's writing and reading as Crosby nudges students from random letter patterns to whole words to sentences and more complex ideas.

"In a developmentally appropriate classroom," Crosby says, "kids write from their own experiences and at their own levels. Each conference I have with a child is different. One child might be using random letters while another is writing stories. The key is that the kids work at their own levels, and I work with them."

Crosby embodies Cherry Valley's commitment to developing reading, writing, and listening skills. If children have a solid foundation in literacy and language, Crosby says, they will have a better chance at success throughout their school years.

"If we can get the kids on track with their reading, writing, and listening, then everything else will fall into place," he maintains. "The core problems that children have come from an inability to read and write. If children can't read the math problems, then they can't do the math problems. It's not a problem with math that they have; it's a problem with reading."

Crosby says that discipline is rarely a problem in a classroom where children are challenged at their individual levels and encouraged to progress in a timely manner. "When kids are challenged, they're interested in learning. And when they're interested in learning, you don't have the discipline problems you have when kids are bored."

The conventions of reading and writing are not lost in Crosby's literacy-rich classroom, either. Each day, children follow a five-step activity plan that includes spelling, handwriting, choosing and reading a take-home book, writing and publishing, and an activity called SQUIRT (super quiet, uninterrupted, independent reading time). Students select the order in which they will pursue their activities and work individually, with another student, or in small groups. Crosby also meets individually with students who read with him, go over spelling words, and review written work.

While most spelling is learned in the context of reading and writing, the school has identified 230 essential words that all students are expected to learn by the third grade. Each week, first-grade students take home three new words to learn, with at least one of them selected from their own writing. The number of words students are expected to learn increases as they advance through the grades.

Each day, children also choose a book to take home in their Cherry Valley book bags, which were custom-made by middle and high school home economics students. Children read their book to parents or other family members, who then write comments about the story and the child's reading. "The book bag, in and of itself, is one of the most important things we do to foster parental involvement," says Meeks. "They go home every night and create a strong connection to the school."

Parents and other volunteers also flow freely into classes at Cherry Valley. The school invites community members to work with students as reading buddies. "I feel really fortunate to be able to give something back to the school," says parent Judy Carte, whose daughter is in second grade this year. "Volunteering gives me an appreciation for what teachers do and all they offer children. Another gratifying thing is that when I come into this school, all these little kids come up and give me a hug and say, 'Hi, Judy.' It's just very rewarding."

For Principal Meeks, the mission of Cherry Valley School is to meet the growing needs of children and help them develop into lifelong learners. "Our job," she says, "is to take children from one level of knowledge to the next. We do that at Cherry Valley by knowing our children and their needs."

Resource Notes: For more detailed discussions about Cherry Valley School, see Building Equity in Early Literacy: Two Case Studies on Improving the School Literacy Program, by Dr. Jane Braunger; and Cherry Valley Elementary School: A Case Study, by Dr. Rebecca Novick. The publications are available from NWREL by calling Linda Revels at (503) 275-9519.

For related information, see Principles and Philosophy Detail Literacy Approach.

This document's URL is:

Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics

© 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Date of Last Update: 9/28/01
Email Webmaster
Tel. 503.275.9500

NW Lab Home