 No simple answers to teaching reading During 1st year on job, new teacher grapples with differing methods
By Holly Yettick News Staff Writer
Room 121 at Ebert Elementary had been temporarily transformed into a tiny theater. First-year teacher Erin O'Grady sat alongside her students in a makeshift auditorium of straight-backed chairs. "On stage" that November day was reading teacher Jane Paz. Surrounded by a small circle of O'Grady's students, she acted out "guided reading" -- a teaching method where students are grouped according to ability, then assigned a book carefully chosen to be challenging, yet not frustrating. Later, O'Grady would come to appreciate guided reading, which is part of the Collaborative Literacy Project reading program Ebert uses. She would luxuriate in the fact that three other adults -- a teacher's aide, a teacher trainer and Paz -- would descend upon her class daily to work with her guided reading groups. She would watch with wonder as a class that started the year with all but one student reading below grade level was transformed. Transformed into a class where only eight of 22 are below grade level and several are above grade level, as measured by the Qualitative Reading Inventory exam. But that day as she watched Paz, she felt frustrated and sad. Fresh from the University of Denver's teaching program, O'Grady, 23, had arrived at Ebert already armed with passionate ideas about how reading should be taught. Unlike guided reading, the "readers workshop" approach that O'Grady still favors avoids grouping children according to ability. Instead, children select their own books, then work one-on-one with the teacher on concepts that are first taught to the entire class. O'Grady had learned about the readers' workshop method at DU. She had practiced it during her student teaching at southeast Denver's Cory Elementary, which embraces the method. Knowledge of literacy is No 1. among tough new state standards that DU was putting in place as O'Grady studied to be a teacher last year. O'Grady was required to take two extensive literacy courses at DU, as well as demonstrate her knowledge of reading and writing instruction while student teaching. But different schools use different reading programs. And there is no guarantee that the methods a prospective teacher learns in college will be the same methods used in the school where she will eventually teach. O'Grady worries that children may fall through the cracks with guided reading, where a teacher picks a single book that may or may not interest and challenge each of the four or five children she works with in a group. She thinks children should pick their own books. "I would not adopt this 100 percent," she said of guided reading. "Yet I'm this baby teacher." But, O'Grady said, "I do think it's important for a school to have one philosophy and stick to it so the kids aren't turned around every year." The school at first allowed her to use the readers workshop program. "It was what she was comfortable with," master teacher Donna Paolantonio said. "It's hard to force something on someone. As long as it wasn't harming the children's reading progress, I felt it was okay to go on." It was around Thanksgiving that Paolantonio decided it was no longer OK. "I thought children needed more scaffolding," she said. "I felt they weren't always reading texts at their instructional level. It was too easy or too hard. If it's too hard, they're not understanding. If it's too easy, they're not gaining any comprehension skills."
Ensuring children gain comprehension skills is even more important than ever this year at Ebert. It could mean life or death for the school itself. Two years ago at a press conference in Ebert's own library, Gov. Bill Owens announced a plan to rate schools based on Colorado Student Assessment Program, or CSAP, scores. Chronically low-scoring schools may be converted to independently-run, publicly-funded charter schools. Last year, only three Colorado elementary schools had lower CSAP scores than Ebert did. That earned Ebert an "unsatisfactory" rating. Unless scores improve this year and next, the school could be dismantled. Into this mix came O'Grady. Like many other teachers at Colorado's lowest-scoring schools, O'Grady was a novice. But eight months into her teaching career, she believes she is academically well-prepared to teach, to help turn Ebert around. O'Grady herself had been a top student. She graduated from the University of Denver cum laude with a GPA of 3.8. She passed the PLACE, the standardized teachers' test, on her first try. She spent her senior year in a DU teacher education program where all but a few of her classmates were graduate students. On her evaluations from Ebert Principal Joan Wamsley, O'Grady says she has received ratings of "good" in all categories except for two "needs growth" in classroom technology and lesson plan standards. O'Grady acknowledged that she could visit the computer lab more often. As for the standards, she says she already follows them. She just needs to remember to note them on her lesson plans. O'Grady also benefits from teacher trainer Paolantonio, who visits her classroom daily during reading time to work with children, demonstrate methods and offer advice. Less helpful to O'Grady are the day-long Collaborative Literacy Project training sessions she's been attending throughout the year. For one thing, unlike Paolantonio's demonstrations, the sessions don't include any actual practice with kids. In a school auditorium smelling of sugary coffee on a January afternoon, literacy specialist Debbie Milner administered a spelling test to the teachers in attendance to demonstrate the difference between teaching kids about words that can be sounded out and words that must be memorized because they're not spelled the way they sound. "It's scary to me to think some of the people in this room don't know this," O'Grady said. "I don't know if they don't know it, or if they're just reminding us. It seems pretty second nature to me, at this point." But Milner said, "Unfortunately, a lot of this is new to some people. The colleges don't get to spend as much time on reading instruction as they'd like to. There may only be one class to teach the students reading and that's not enough." O'Grady is puzzled by this criticism. "The University of Denver Teacher Education Program prepared me very well for the curriculum and instruction aspects of my job," O'Grady said. "In fact, I believe this was one of the TEP's greatest strengths."
In addition to feeling academically well-prepared by DU, O'Grady feels well-prepared by her own life. At 23, she still recalls her second-and third-grade experiences. "She wasn't one of those firecracker kids that was off and running," said Lori Conrad, who taught O'Grady to read in the second grade, then inspired her eventually to teach. "Learning to read wasn't an easy thing for her." In fact, O'Grady says she didn't start to truly enjoy reading until, as an undergrad, she started teaching reading. When one child teased another about reading out loud last fall, O'Grady was armed with an experience of her own. "When I was in school, I especially remember in third grade, I was petrified to read out loud," she told the class. "I was afraid people would make fun of me. We really need to work on respecting each other when we read out loud." Conrad says the ability to share these experiences makes O'Grady a better teacher. "She can look kids in the eye and say, 'I know it's hard and I know you can do it,' " Conrad said. "I think it builds on her capacity to be empathetic. 'You can get over the hump because I did it.' They'll know she's genuine about that." Contact Holly Yettick at (303) 892-5082 or yettickh@RockyMountainNews.com.
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Age: 23
