More Success in Lexington, SC

Anne and I did some more observations. The students in these classes had scored below basic two years in a row on their state tests in ELA.

In all classes today all students were engaged with activities, both reading and writing.
One teacher decided to do Midwife's Apprentice with her group and was worried that it would be too hard for them based on their reading levels and the lexile level of the book, but the students are "really getting it and enjoying the book."

"Kids are asking to read all day."

"I love the books and things are going well."

One teacher said that other teachers come to her and ask, "How do you do it?" meaning keeping kids engaged and on task. She tells them, "It's not me, it's the books."

One teacher told us that she had a substitute teacher yesterday and the sub reported to her that the kids did not want to stop reading.

Lexington 1 SC

Today Anne and I observed in 4 different PITR classrooms at 4 different schools. We traveled with 2 district administrators. The way that Lexington 1 is implementing the program is in what they call Comprehensive Remediation. The students who are in these classes have scored below basic on the PACT (South Carolina's state test) two years in a row. So these are At-Risk students. We were able to view some classes doing independent reading and some doing core novels. As an overall, we saw a lot of student engagement with both reading and writing activities. This is something that has not happened typically with these students in the past. Here are some quotes and stories from the day.

One student who had never read a whole book before started reading Flipped in class and on her own went to the library to check it out so she could continue to read it at home.

Here is a quote from a district level administrator.
"Kids are so excited about the books....to see the boys not want the bell to ring so they could keep reading was so great."

The assistant principal at Pleasant Hill Middle said that skills (that they are developing in PITR class) are carrying over to other classes.

One teacher said that when she started Monster at the start of the course with the kids, the didn't believe that they were going to read a book that long and when they finished they were so proud of themselves and were much more confident.

One teacher said, "Students are so enthralled with reading."

Tanglewood Middle, Greenville, SC

Here are some of the stories and/or quotes from teachers using PITR at Tanglewood Middle in Greenville.

One teacher teaching a self contained special ed class of 19 students used Drive By and turned it into a whole class core novel using the independent reading guide as help. She said that these kids hated to write and could not stop the writing activates that went along with the book. Also, the kids were trying desperately to read ahead to find out what happened and these were kids that never liked to read before. "Kids were so into the book (Drive By), they could not stop talking about it." She also said many of these children had never read a whole book and since September have read over 615 pages.

Another teacher turned Scorpions into a whole class novel. She said, "The kids were so excited, they were 'robbing' the library for similar books."

Another teacher is the Read 180 teacher and she uses the independent reading guides along with the Read 180 materials in her class.

Another teacher taught "Skin I'm In" and said, "The kids loved it."

Alger MS Grand Rapids

We finished our first teacher directed — loved it.
The kids are this marking period doing self directed. WOW! They are loving it. I love just watching their facial expressions while they read and listen!!!! Makes me wish my summer vacation was here, so that I can read some of these books!

Angela Cook, Alger MS, Grand Rapids, MI

Making a Difference

The most rewarding part about working with Plugged-in To Reading is seeing the difference that it is making in students' lives. Teachers are creating independent, excited, engaged students. Students are developing an appriciation for literacy, an improved self-esteem, and a love of learning. These are some of the things that educators and students have shared :

Brent Yoder at Jackson IC had two students from his 8th. grade class last year come back to visit him. Both had made the Honor Role their freshman year---both had expulsion incidents in previous grades before becoming his students----I'm hopeful we are promoting higher graduation levels with our program!
Bill Caparo
South Bend, IN

"We have never been given books like the ones in Plugged-in To Reading. Before we were forced to read "baby books." Now we are reading about interesting stuff. The people in these books are people that I can relate to. These books are about things I want to know about and understand."
7th Grade Student
South Bend, IN

"I enjoy discussing the books as a class and in Literature Circles. I wouldn't even mind reading the same book twice because it is the discussion that makes it so different. I like hearing what others thought of the book and sharing my opinions."
8th Grade Student
South Bend, IN

...the kids are loving the Plugged into Reading program! Of course, the independent reading is their favorite, they just love the 30-45 minutes I give them to read on their own. They have started asking for the worksheets that go along with their books, if you can believe that! What I've also done is given each child a folder, titled "Core Novel Study." Every graphic organizer we do goes in there, and at the end of the book I ask them to put their papers in order by date, and turn them in.
That way, I can see if they're keeping track of everything. I know they're doing them, because we do them together. I just want to make sure they are being responsible enough to keep track of their own papers. I have quite a few that are a bit disorganized.
Courtney Baranay
Marshall IC
South Bend, IN


During the last 12 years teaching Special Education, one of my biggest challenges has been getting my students to read; they don’t like it and aren’t good at it! Since implementing PITR almost a year ago, my students love to read and are getting better all the time; many are finishing books for the 1st time in their life!! One student said, “I have never read as much in my whole life as I have this year.” Another said, “I have never read a whole book in my life before this year.” They literally eat them up (books)!! Before PITR, my students only wanted to have study time with me (totally avoiding reading). Now they get mad when they don’t get to read. The first thing I hear almost every period of every day is “Can we read today?” How awesome is that!! Not only do they love to read, but they are finally able to understand what’s going on in the books. Very few of them had ever passed an AR (accelerated reader) test before PITR; now most all of them score with 80%, 90%, and even 100% scores!! Finally, the most enjoyable part for me as a teacher is the discussion we are able to have with the novels. After having one-sided conversations with students for 11 years, it has been awesome to spend the last year actually having conversations with students where they do most of the talking!! I pose some thought provoking questions, and BOOM!! I get reactions!! If you have any apprehension about trying PITR, just jump in with both feet and get them wet!! The worst thing that can happen is that your students will read…a lot!!

Charlie Crouse
Special Education Teacher
Triton Middle School
Fairland, Indiana

I find these stories everywhere I go as I follow up on classroom teachers that are making a difference in the lives of their students using Plugged-in To Reading.
Angela Crouse
Consultant for Plugged-in To Reading

Principal in Awe of How Into the Books Students Are

It has been an awesome beginning!

I’ve lost count of the number of times my Principal has brought others by my office and remarked how “into the books the students are.” Our ESL Teacher is also using Bronx Masquerade with his students.

My Senior English classes are into chapter 3 of Dating Hamlet as Told by Ophelia. It, too, is going very well.

Several students come to my office (now the library) to sit and read or get a book to take to the lab to read.

S. Franklin, High School English Teacher, Phoenix, AZ

Literature Circle Succes at Young Magnet Middle

I was recently at a Literature Circle training at Young Magnet Middle in Tampa, Florida. This was a district supported training that was being taught by Ewan Brand. Ewan is originally from Canada and he told everyone that he was teaching reading through literature circles up there on his own and was seeing success with his struggling readers. He was not supported by a program like Plugged-In back then and his students were able to achieve great things just by his own trial and error method. He has been a reading teacher in Tampa for four years and has had Plugged-In in his classroom for the last 2 years. He feels that the program itself has allowed his literature circles to become "things of legend". He feels more confident in his ability to successfully conduct them with the guidance of Plugged-In as well as seeing his students get so much more out of them then ever before. I was shown a twelve minute video of his classroom literature circles in action and they really were impressive. The entire class was participating! Even students who you could tell did not want to be there were actively taking part in the group discussion. The class was made up level 1, inner city students. Ewan said that this really was an example of a normal day there and not a show put on for the camera. I could tell from the video and from hearing him speak that he is an energetic individual with a passion for teaching and he absolutely raves about Plugged-In and credits it to major success in his classroom. If we could get all the teachers like him across the country just one unit of Plugged-In, the success that would be attributed to it would make Plugged-In probably the best selling literary tool of all time.

Plugged-in Success Grand Rapids

The Following is an email exchange between a Secondary Curriculum Administrator and one of her teachers using Plugged-in at the MLK Academy in Grand Rapids, MI:

Dear Teisha,

The year started with the students begging to start reading. It was exciting to see and be part of their excitement and eagerness to start reading. Now that we have, the enthusiasm has increased. They love the activities and the novels. I have not started the literacy circles yet but am in the process of introducing the literary circle procedures.
I was wondering if you had the email address to the lady who conducted the training(pardon me but I have already forgotten her name). I sent her an email but it was returned.
Thanks
Rozannec

Hi Rozanne,
Your letter made my day. So good to hear that you and the students at MLK are excited about Plugged In and excited about READING! I would love to come to a class one day and see the students in action.
(Let me know when it would be a good time for you and the students--no rush--maybe after MEAP?)
The Plugged In to Reading trainer was Ann Cobb. Her email is acobb@recordedbooks.com Drop her a note with any questions--I am sure she would like to hear how you and the students are doing!

Best,

Teisha

Inner City PITR Success

I wanted to share this amazing experience told to me by a teacher in Newark, NJ. She had been teaching The Skin I'm In to her sixth graders, many of whom were very well able to relate to Maleeka's tale of peer discrimination and her uphill battle for acceptance. Through the various activities they engaged in as they read, students began to show clear evidence that they were connecting what was happening in the book to their own lives by sharing their own personal experiences, many of which were eerily similar to those of Maleeka's.

Students told tales of being picked on by other kids for a variety of reasons, including because of racial or ethnic differences, but also because of their weight, the clothes they wore, being too smart, or not smart enough, or any of a whole host of other, equally significant reasons. Some even told of being the "bully" themselves, confessing their habit of picking on other kids just because they could. The result of these confessions was, of course, a first for this otherwise typical inner-city classroom--an openness developed where students felt free to be who they were, to express themselves in any way they felt comfortable. Continuing to make connections between the book and their own lives, the self-proclaimed "bullies" were now looked upon with sympathy, the reason for their bullying ways now clearly understood as being a direct result of their low self esteem.

In addition, there were the usual reports of students not wanting to put the book down when they reached the end of a "chunk" or chapter, of rampant discipline problems becoming a thing of the past as students finally get to read a book about people who are just like them, and of students becoming so engaged while reading along with the Recorded Books audiobook that they completely lose all track of time and are stunned back to reality by the bell signalling the end of the period.

Plugged in to Reading succes!

One great bit of evidence demonstrating the succes of PITR is when one of my district curriculum directors made time in the school day to invite teachers from across the district to come and see this program presented. The first thing she said to the crowd was that she has never allowed a vendor to present products on a campus facility before but that this was an answer to all the questions educators have been posing concerning kids and reading.

South Texas has warmed-up nicely to PITR. The customers have not had the program up and running for full a school year yet, but the enthusiasm is palpable. Many of the administrators I sought out at the beginning of the year have begun to hear about the program in professional circles and have requested a presentation or allowed me share PITR with them and their staff. I have several strong districts with PITR in mind for a core curriculum or as a supplemental program for next year (Fall 2008). I have enjoyed witnessing the power of "Janet" for myself. I have seen the trust educators have in what Janet stands for. They just know that any product with Janets' name attached will be the real thing. Everytime I have presented this program this year it has been met with only positive responses. I look forward to 2008 because the market is ripe for this product and the word is out.

Dawn Koufakis
Houston ,TX Rep

I would like to share a few quotes that I have gotten in emails to start.

"My name is Sandy Overstreet and I am the Reading Specialist at Liberty High School in Bedford, Virginia. My classes are using the Plugged into Reading Series, and loves it!!"


"We are enjoying the Plugged-in program very much. The students have had a very favorable response as well as the teachers."-Waynette Weese Greenwood 50 Special Ed Supervisor

Another quote from Waynette--
"Our students love the program."

In addition, at several if not all of the trainings I have had supervisors come up to me and tell me that they can tell that the teachers are excited about getting started. They usually tell me about how the teachers are used to sitting through a lot of trainings to introduce new materials and they are bored, but they could see it was different with Plugged-in. At one district, Calhoun County, they had originally purchased Plugged-in as an after school program. All of the teachers in the after school program were also the regular ELA teachers during the day. After about 45 minutes into the training, they asked their supervisor to use the materials during the day instead of after school.

I was able to observe in some PITR summer school classes this summer, and in every class the kids were begging for more time to read independently. One girl even went up to the teacher and said "How many kids our age that are in summer school would be begging to have more reading time."

Baldwin County, Alabama Success

Anne and I conducted training for over 30 teachers in Baldwin County. They began using the program at the first of the school year, so they had a jumping off point for discussion. I wish you could have all been there. One teacher said that she had been teaching reading for over 10 years will all types of programs, and PITR is the one she has been waiting for. Actual tears were shed around the table as each teacher explained that they had kids who had never read, and now could not wait for independent reading time, and got mad if they had to do something else.

The language arts supervisor said that Anne's training was like a mini-conference, and that this district had never had PD like this. This was evidenced by the fact that the high school teachers stayed over one and one-half hours past the 3:00 end time. I think they would have stayed all night.

We did a small session to introduce PITR to all the central office supervisors. A lot of discussion was generated about cross-content teaching and how PITR can facilitate this. Even the science supervisor had lots of interest in which teachers used PITR. The possibilities for this district and PITR are mind-boggling because everyone is on the same page.

On a sales note, one theme that kept recurring is that the students in all the classrooms using PITR(reading,language arts, English, special education, leadership academy, alternative school) are considered at-risk students. There is money out there for at-risk-so look for it. But look at how many different types of classes can use PITR-it is not limited just to reading.

Evidence of Success

This is the place where we are going to collect everything that any of us has heard, been given, or observed that can be considered "evidence" of the effectiveness of Plugged-in to Reading. "Evidence" can come in many forms:

1. someone says to you "This program has changed the lives of my students" = evidence
2. you observe struggling kids reading silently for an extended period of time using the program = evidence
3. someone tells you that scores are up for the PITR group = evidence
4. you hear from teachers that the PITR training is the most effective professional development they've ever had = evidence
5. students tell you during an observation that they never read a book cover to cover before using PITR = evidence
6. you do a survey with a customer asking them how it is going with PITR and they respond positively = evidence
7. anything and everything that indicates the program is working = evidence

So...get writing! Everyone must have at least one post on this blog by the end of the week (Dec 7).

What Is Plugged-in Success?

We have had positive feedback from both teachers and students who have been influenced by Plugged-in to Reading. At Jefferson Intermediate and Jackson Intermediate in South Bend, Indiana, I witnessed firsthand the affect of Plugged-in to Reading being used in the classroom.

Seventh-grade teacher at Jefferson Intermediate, Jennifer Horner, says,"I have never seen students so enthused about reading and working on reading related activities. I have noticed a great improvement on my students' test scores, fluency, and overall comprehension. My students went from thinking they could never do anything successful with their lives to believing in themselves and their future."

I saw students reading, enthusiastically discussing the books, and participating in group debates. These were students who once hated reading and never finished a book. Plugged-in to Reading has exposed them to books they can relate to and now they're hooked!