Houghtaling Elementary School

Location
Houghtaling Elementary School
2940 Baranof Road
Ketchikan, AK 99901

Contact
Linda Hardin, District Curriculum Director
Phone: 907-225-2118
E-mail: hardinl@kgbsd.org

Paraeducators Provide Group Instruction in Reading and Writing at Houghtaling

At 9:05 Katy Hook, Title I instructional tutor at Houghtaling Elementary School, pops into a first-grade classroom and lets three children know it is time to come with her to her classroom. Mrs. Hook asks each child, "Did you read your book to someone at home last night?" If one child hasn’t, Hook has the child read to her as they walk.

Once inside the classroom, the children take their seats excitedly at the semicircular table with Mrs. Hook in the center. She asks the children if they would rather "do their writing job" first or phoneme skill cards first. "Writing job," the children say. Mrs. Hook pulls out each child’s writing folder. She explains to a new child in the group that "when we want privacy while we write, we prop our folders up so others can’t see and call it ’our office’." Mrs. Hook pulls out a book, reads the story once, and then instructs them to write each word as she speaks it. With longer words, she says, "Write the sounds that you hear."

Following the writing job, Mrs. Hook pulls out phoneme flash cards and the children quickly sound them out. For the last few minutes of this 30-minute period, the children select a book to take home and read aloud to someone at home for the next day. Mrs. Hook and her students have created a game board in which students advance a step as they read a book.

Katy Hook has been a paraeducator at Houghtaling, one of five elementary schools in the Ketchikan Borough School District, for about 15 years. Of the 419 students, 156 are Alaska Native, and 133 (or 32 percent) are on the free and reduced-price lunch program.

At Houghtaling, paraeducators who are hired under Title I funds provide group instruction with teacher direction in reading and writing for students who have scored below the 35th percentile on the Gates standardized test. Currently there are two Title I tutors, one Indian Education tutor, and one ESL tutor. Paraeducators also work in the school media center and with special needs students.

Each tutor meets with a group of three to four children by grade level for 30 minutes a day, four days a week. Tutors also work with kindergarten students for 30 minutes to an hour each day. The tutors use Fridays for planning time (this time is paid), as well as time for working with individual children and assessing new students.

In the fall, the tutors and teachers meet to discuss the reading scores of students who have not met the required percentile. The teacher and tutor work together to coordinate instructional groups, both times and goals. With the tutor’s input, the teacher makes the decision regarding what instructional methodology, such as guided reading, phonemic awareness, or vocabulary, would be best for the group. All the tutors have been extensively trained in a program that integrates spelling, writing, and comprehension skills with the classroom reading curriculum. Each quarter the tutors use skill tests, which they have been trained to administer, to assess their students’ progress. They then meet with the teacher to discuss the results.

On the day we visited the school, Hook was performing reading assessments for each student in her instructional group. During a typical session, Hook concentrates for the first 10–15 minutes on phonogram review and dictation (based on a districtwide reading program), and then moves into a guided reading format during which she reads a story, and has the children read the story while she cues for reading strategies. She concludes the session with children responding to the story in their journals.

All the paraeducators are full-time staff members, paid for a seven-hour work day (as are the teachers). The paraeducators and teachers are in the same union, although the paraeducators’ contract is bargained separately from the teachers’. Paraeducators also bargained to receive the same health and professional development benefits as teachers.

The principal evaluates the tutors as he does all his staff. Each year he observes the tutors four different times for 30 minutes each. He also conducts two half-day formal observations per year. Teachers are on the same evaluation schedule.

Structured planning time for teachers and tutors is available twice a month before the start of classes.When teachers and tutors aren’t able to meet, they meet at other times whenever either one sees the need. For example, if the teacher or the paraeducator has concerns about a student’s progress, they will meet to discuss strategies. Tutors receive a copy of the teacher’s lesson plan for the week and use it to guide their tutoring sessions. Additionally, tutors have a copy of the teacher’s reading instruction manual so they can follow the same curriculum as the teacher. In this way, the tutoring sessions complement the regular instruction.

First grade teacher Mark O’Brien makes it a point to communicate frequently with the tutors who work with his students. Each week he creates lesson plans for the tutors that include the vocabulary words and phonograms that he uses with the students. O’Brien, who has taught at Houghtaling for nine years, sees the work the tutors do with the students as an added reinforcement of the skills he teaches in his class. Although he is ultimately responsible for creating the lessons, he asks the tutors for their input on adjusting lessons to meet the needs of the individual students.

"I can see the impact [tutors have on the reading skills]," comments O’Brien. "Many children oftentimes need the extra time spent on these skills to reach grade level," he says. Time with tutors gives them more of that opportunity in a small-group setting and gives them more individualized support.

The tutors are included in staff meetings and offered paid staff development opportunities for training throughout the year. This past year, Hook was invited to attend the International Reading Association with nine other district staff members. During her 15-year tenure at the school she has been able to take advantage of district curriculum training sessions to provide her with more skills in tutoring students. Hook’s job has evolved considerably from when she started. When first hired, she worked with special needs children in a special education classroom. At that time, aides, as they were called, were only employed in special education or as building aides, performing duties such as correcting papers, supervising playground activity, and designing bulletin boards. Says Hook, "As Alaska’s oil money dwindled and schools were forced to cut corners, building aides were cut and certified positions were replaced with aides." As accountability for student achievement has grown, paraeducators have been employed to assist with student learning goals. For the past 10 years, Hook has worked as a Title I small-group instructional tutor.

Because of her extensive experience at the school, Hook is the informal mentor to new tutors. When tutors Paula Varnell and Debby Hoyt first started, Hook spent at least one week with each—helping them find resources, introducing them to the staff, and reviewing curriculum strategies. Hook has an open-door policy for the other tutors and they feel free to come to her for questions.

Hook is forthright in discussing drawbacks to paraeducator employment, such as high turnover due mainly to the low pay scale (which is true in many schools). However, Hook would not still be assisting in instruction at Houghtaling after 15 years if she didn’t obtain immense satisfaction from her work. What she sees that really makes a difference is her ability to provide extra support to those children who are struggling. "What I can guarantee is that the personal attention these children receive is important." As for her relationship with teachers, Hook says she feels teachers and administrators truly value what she has to offer and view her and the other tutors as integral members of the instructional team.