In my first week as an English teacher at an urban high school in the Nashville school district, I learned my department had already agreed that summer reading would only be assigned to the AP and honors students. It was my understanding that over the years, students had done less and less summer reading, to the point that teachers became frustrated and stopped assigning it. Though I wrinkled my face at this idea, I understood my colleagues鈥� frustrations鈥攁nd since I was new to the school, I decided not to speak up yet.
Many of us have experienced it: the point when you want to throw your hands up in the air, signaling defeat, because you simply can鈥檛 engage your students. But after a few months spent reflecting on the dynamics of my school, I realized that this kind of rationale, where teachers assume 鈥渟ome kids鈥� just can鈥檛 or won鈥檛 do the work necessary to succeed, was unacceptable. It was having a detrimental effect on students and the school as a whole.
You see, as a Title I school nestled in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of an urban district, our school struggled to address a 鈥渉aves鈥� and 鈥渉ave-nots鈥� dichotomy. In our neighborhood, most parents sent their kids to private school, and the rest went to our school to engage in diverse learning experiences with predominantly poor urban students. We needed help unifying our curriculum and raising standardized test scores for our neediest students.
That鈥檚 where I came in. With a master鈥檚 degree in education focused on teaching and learning in urban settings, I was hired to fill a void at the school. My task was helping the school better educate the urban student population鈥攁 critical and complex undertaking. As I do with any project in life, I started small. My first goal was to convince our department that standard classes needed summer reading, as students in these classes were the ones who most suffer from the 鈥渟ummer slide,鈥� the research-backed phenomenon in which students, especially from low-income families, lose some of the achievement gains they made during the school year. I explained that a little progress was better than none. Even if just a few students did the reading, it would still be an improvement over previous years, when no students did the reading. With a little persistence on my part, my colleagues agreed, and this was the start to our school鈥檚 educational and cultural transformation.
These are the four major steps we took to create a summer reading program鈥攁nd a school culture鈥攖hat served all our students:
- Purposeful Planning. Simply assigning the summer reading wasn鈥檛 enough. I prepared a detailed mini-unit, asking students to create visual representations of recurring themes they noticed in their summer reading and to cite evidence to support their analysis. Most importantly, students knew they were expected to read the books carefully鈥攑aying close attention to setting, characters, and plot鈥攁s there would be a test coming up within the first two weeks of school.
High Expectations. When one of my students complained that she chose to join the school pathway where I taught English because it was considered 鈥渆asy,鈥� I responded, 鈥淚 apologize for that being the pretense my academy gave off, but I鈥檓 here to change that.鈥� I never knew the true impact I had on that student until years later, when she came to her little brother鈥檚 graduation and hugged me, mentioning that she was in her last year of college to become an English teacher鈥攁ll because I had pushed her thinking.
My students weren鈥檛 used to rigorous coursework, so I enforced my expectation from day one because I had faith in them. For instance, my students鈥� first assignment of the school year involved the summer reading. I encouraged students who had read the book to progress with the assignment. I divided the new students and the students who had chosen not to read into groups, gave them the book to read in class, and assigned them reading comprehension reviews for chapters of the book. Their homework was to continue reading, while the rest of the class worked on summer reading extension assignments. This was the perfect blend of differentiated instruction and implementation of high standards.
Persistence. True change takes time, so one must never be discouraged when things aren鈥檛 perfect at the beginning. The first year we mandated summer reading for all students about 50 percent of my students did the reading. I felt like this was a win. Remember, 50 percent is much better than zero percent. By the second year, word had spread and previous students warned new students about how, 鈥淢rs. Skae don鈥檛 play!鈥� That year, I had roughly 70 percent of my students complete the summer reading and the paired assignments. The next year, 90 percent of my students did the summer reading.
With the rise of students participating in summer reading, another trend appeared as well. Our standardized test scores rose every year, and for two years in a row, my course, English II, topped the district. Overall, the department鈥檚 literacy score improved as well, further proving that when we raised our expectations and improved our teaching, all of our students could succeed.
- Celebration. Engaging, creative, and collaborative lessons made the students feel like the work was worth it, and I always praised them for doing their best. For instance, my student Harmonie once struggled with English and told me she didn鈥檛 think she was smart enough to be proficient on her end-of-course exam. After reviewing the data and showing her that in previous years she had shown steady growth, she felt inspired to do her best for the upcoming exam. When the results came back, she ran to me and hugged me and we took selfies and tweeted about her amazing progress. A simple tweet meant the world to her.
I knew the summer reading implementation struggle was all worth it when our students began showing signs of motivation without prompting, like celebrating their improvement on the end-of-course state tests. I was especially proud when one of my student athletes came to me one day and said, 鈥淢rs. Skae, I never used to really like reading, but the books you gave us made me think. I went and got the sequel to this book from the library.鈥�
Whether my students were checking out a book from the library, improving test scores, or pursuing successful careers, I could tell that one small push had transformed their lives in meaningful ways. They went from viewing themselves as 鈥渓ess than鈥� to believing they were 鈥渃apable"鈥攁nd this is an attitude my students will carry with them as they continue to learn and develop new skills, in school and life.
