King Elementary School educates parents about reading, writing
Ann Arbor King Elementary School teacher Becky Gracey teaches a lesson to a group of her students as parents look on during the school's Literacy Night.
David Jesse | AnnArbor.com
It could have been any day in Becky Gracey’s third-grade classroom at Ann Arbor’s King Elementary School.
A group of students gathered around a semi-circle desk, books in hand, ready for a group reading lesson.
Gracey began by outlining some key concepts she wanted the students to look at in the reading for the day, asking them questions about words they might not know, and explaining them as she went. Then, she turned them loose to read for a few minutes on their own, asking them to try to figure out who the main character was and explain how they figured that out.
Then, as the quartet of students dug into their books, Gracey stood up and turned to the crowd of parents watching and began to explain why she had done what she did.
The session was one of several held for King parents during Literacy Night. Parents could attend two sessions during the night. There were two large group sessions offered covering reading in the lower grades and reading in the upper grades. Also offered were sessions at each grade level on writing.
The goal of the evening? Parent education, said Principal Kevin Karr.
“The most important thing is that it will help you have a common language with teachers,” he told the parents at the start of the event.
That’s why Michelle Tol came to the event. Her partner’s daughter goes to King.
“I think it will help us do a better job at knowing what’s going on and how the teachers are teaching and what the curriculum is,” she said.
During the evening, teachers, who volunteered to staff the night, walked groups of parents through lessons, talking about writing processes, reading strategies and other curriculum issues.
In addition to delivering information, they also spent time showing videos, or in Gracey’s case, using students to illustrate what they were talking about.
They also answered questions from parents.
Gracey handled questions about how often teachers benchmark a student’s reading ability; how many reading levels a student should move up each year; how big reading groups are; how parents should work on reading with their kids at home and how many books a student should be reading at one time.
More than 70 parents attended the event on Thursday night. The school had a similar event Tuesday night.
In addition to tons of information about the curriculum at King, they also got some inside information about teaching, like this insight from Gracey:
"The hardest part is finding the word in my text and pointing it out to them upside down."
David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.
Comments
Sherry Knight
Sun, Jan 31, 2010 : 5:15 p.m.
Excellent effort to partner with parents. Thank you, King Elementary!
Anne R.
Sat, Jan 30, 2010 : 9:38 p.m.
The key to reading is getting kids realizing that reading and writing are ways to communicate. Get 'em writing notes to each other and reading those; get 'em writing little stories, making little books, feeling pride of production. A recent British report found that texting was creating a boost in literacy. Children are enthusiastically writing back and forth to each other. They are getting the idea of the sound and flow of speech and written words. Creative spelling is metamorphosing into "accurate" spelling -- all the better to communicate. Excitement, enthusiasm are fundamental. They build motivation and the inquiry that's such a powerful part of the human brain. Best to minimize artificial evaluating and testing situations that make students worried and self-conscious and watching how "well" they do. That slows thinking and makes learning harder.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
Sat, Jan 30, 2010 : 8:26 a.m.
What can be done to ensure NO student leaves King Elementary while reading at a level below their own grade????? That would be something to crow about!
GriswoldKJ
Fri, Jan 29, 2010 : 9:19 p.m.
Thanks for a positive story related to student achievement and to principal Karr and the staff who volunteered their time. Please balance your valuable district-level budget coverage with more stories about whats happening in the schools. There are many interesting examples of school staff and parents working collaboratively for the benefit of our students.