Making the Grade; Teach Me!

<v Speaker>Teach Me is supported in part by Lloyd A. <v Speaker>Fry Foundation. <v Speaker>Additional funding for WTTW's ongoing programs on Chicago's school reform <v Speaker>is provided by The Joyce Foundation. <v Speaker>Teach Me and other programs in the WTTW Journal series are supported in part <v Speaker>by the Dr. Scholl Foundation. <v Speaker>[music plays] <v Speaker>The teachers basically are being retooled. <v Speaker>I am being retooled. <v Rita Rice>I've been dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century. <v Speaker>I'm rejuvenated. I I can't wait to get here in the morning. <v Speaker>The notion that one is an excellent teacher and can remain excellent for 10, <v Speaker>15, 20 years without ever doing anything differently is just wrong. <v Speaker>Next on WTTW Journal, Teach Me, what happens <v Speaker>when veteran educators must rethink the way they teach.

<v Royal Kennedy>Good evening. I'm Royal Kennedy. <v Royal Kennedy>Tonight, we present the last program in our year long Making the Grade series. <v Royal Kennedy>Since we began this station wide effort, we have covered every aspect of Chicago <v Royal Kennedy>school reform from the struggle of newly elected local school councils <v Royal Kennedy>to the controversial issue of using vouchers to choose schools. <v Royal Kennedy>But the bottom line of reform is to improve the education of Chicago's children, <v Royal Kennedy>and that takes place here in the classroom. <v Royal Kennedy>Tonight's program focuses on one Chicago public grade school where veteran <v Royal Kennedy>teachers are changing their methods to reflect the best known research <v Royal Kennedy>on how children learn. [music plays] <v Royal Kennedy>For these children of Chicago's Washington Irving Grade School, learning in the 1890s

<v Royal Kennedy>was little more than rote repetition, an endless drill. <v Royal Kennedy>Few stayed much past 6th grade. <v Royal Kennedy>Instead, they went on to become meat cutters, seamstresses, steel workers, <v Royal Kennedy>jobs requiring little formal schooling. <v Royal Kennedy>But although unprecedented change over the next hundred years would make education the <v Royal Kennedy>key to employment, teaching and learning often stagnated, becoming as <v Royal Kennedy>dangerously outdated as Irving's 19th century building. <v Royal Kennedy>By 1988, it was on the verge of collapse and people were feeling the same way <v Royal Kennedy>about Chicago's public school system. [marching band plays] <v Royal Kennedy>Illinois' then Governor Thompson came to open a new building for Washington Irving. <v Royal Kennedy>It was the symbolic setting for him to sign into law a radically new form of education, <v Royal Kennedy>one embodied in the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988.

<v James R. Thompson>Here at Washington Irving, we've built the outside. <v James R. Thompson>Let's make the inside work. Thank you very much. <v James R. Thompson>[applause] [music plays] <v Royal Kennedy>Despite its new building, Irving is a typical Chicago public grade school. <v Royal Kennedy>The neighborhood is one of urban contrasts. <v Royal Kennedy>An abandoned factory looms over new university facilities. <v Royal Kennedy>A creeping gentrification coexists with dilapidated buildings and vacant <v Royal Kennedy>lots. <v Royal Kennedy>As in most city schools, Irving's student population is primarily black and Hispanic. <v Royal Kennedy>86 percent are classified as poor. <v Royal Kennedy>These children start out bright eyed and eager, but if they follow statistics, half <v Royal Kennedy>of them will never finish high school. <v Royal Kennedy>Irving's teachers are also typical of Chicago, where 25 years of classroom <v Royal Kennedy>experience is average. <v Royal Kennedy>They, too, started out eager and enthusiastic, just like Pat Mark, who began

<v Royal Kennedy>teaching at Irving 30 years ago. <v Pat Mark>I knew I was going to change the world. <v Pat Mark>There wasn't going to be a better teacher than Pat Mark. <v Pat Mark>And I really had that feeling for a long, long time. <v Pat Mark>Until until you get into the to the system <v Pat Mark>and you get you get into that, what shall <v Pat Mark>I call it, quagmire. <v Pat Mark>It was just this this feeling of almost despair. <v Pat Mark>You know, you just go on and you think you're doing a great job. <v Pat Mark>And then up come the reading scores and up come the math scores. <v Pat Mark>And you know what to what did you do all year? <v Pat Mark>And it was that. Year after year. And you just sort of get you give up. <v Madeleine Maraldi>They were up there giving their guts, their all and they weren't getting the response <v Madeleine Maraldi>they wanted from their children. <v Madeleine Maraldi>[bell rings]. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Good morning, gentlemen. How you doing? <v Royal Kennedy>Madeleine Miraldi became principal of Irving School when it was relocating to the new <v Royal Kennedy>building in 1988.

<v Royal Kennedy>But her plans went far beyond moving a staff from one facility to another. <v Royal Kennedy>She wanted them to move to a whole new philosophy of education. <v Madeleine Maraldi>It's not only a change of technique or method, the <v Madeleine Maraldi>change of attitude. You have to change your attitude about how children learn, <v Madeleine Maraldi>to change your attitude about whether children. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Tornadoes today, huh? What room are you in? <v Madeleine Maraldi>My attitude is that every single one of these children who walk through these doors <v Madeleine Maraldi>can be the very, very best, that all the potential is there. <v Royal Kennedy>But Irving students hadn't been the best. <v Royal Kennedy>For years, they had been reluctant learners with test scores in the lowest 25 percent <v Royal Kennedy>of the nation. Madeleine presented that history to her faculty, along <v Royal Kennedy>with a disturbing challenge. <v Royal Kennedy>Maybe the students weren't learning because of the way they were being taught. <v Madeleine Maraldi>This was difficult for them to accept the fact that I was looking <v Madeleine Maraldi>at them and not at the community and drugs and poverty and everything else. <v Madeleine Maraldi>I was not looking at the parents.

<v Madeleine Maraldi>I was not looking at the children. I was looking at the teachers. <v Madeleine Maraldi>And it angered many of the teachers. <v Madeleine Maraldi>It really did. <v Royal Kennedy>In fact, Madeleine faced tremendous resistance. <v Royal Kennedy>Some Irving teachers felt so insulted, they left the school. <v Royal Kennedy>Among those who stayed, the reactions were mixed. <v Rita Rice>It makes you doubt that what you've ever done <v Rita Rice>has been of any value, for one thing. <v Speaker>It was a new spark of hope. <v Speaker>We had we had uh we had gone through other principals and and <v Speaker>other board of education mandates. <v Speaker>It just wasn't working. <v Speaker>Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Let us call this meeting to order. <v Royal Kennedy>But the new reform law had transferred power from a central bureaucracy to the local <v Royal Kennedy>school councils for the first time in Chicago history. <v Royal Kennedy>Parents, community members, teachers and the principal of individual schools <v Royal Kennedy>could determine for themselves the curriculum and how it should be taught. <v Royal Kennedy>The starting point for Irving was to find out from the teachers in which subject students

<v Royal Kennedy>performed the worst. <v Madeleine Maraldi>It was unanimous. It was writing. <v Madeleine Maraldi>They don't know how to write. They don't like to write. <v Madeleine Maraldi>We don't do a lot of writing. <v Madeleine Maraldi>I said, OK, let's start with writing. <v Pat Mark>All right, guys. Today we're going to try to be like Walt Whitman. <v Pat Mark>How many of heard of Walt Whitman? <v Royal Kennedy>The new building had come equipped with a roomful of computers, and it was Madeline's <v Royal Kennedy>idea to use them for a writing lab. <v Pat Mark>Let me read this little piece from Song of Myself, where he talks <v Pat Mark>mostly about the sounds that he has heard in his life. <v Pat Mark>I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat. <v Royal Kennedy>Eager for a change, Pat Mark told Madeleine that she wanted to teach the new course. <v Pat Mark>I jumped on her bandwagon. I mean, not because uh for any other reason, except that <v Pat Mark>she excited me and I wanted to um feel good about myself and <v Pat Mark>I hadn't been feeling good about being a teacher. <v Pat Mark>I want you to be Walt Whitman today and think about sounds.

<v Royal Kennedy>The first year, every class in the school was to come to the lab twice a week to work <v Royal Kennedy>with Pat on writing. But there was a twist. <v Royal Kennedy>Not only were students required to learn how to use the computers, so were their <v Royal Kennedy>teachers. <v Rita Rice>I would put my toe in the doorway. <v Rita Rice>Say I'm not coming in there, I don't want any part of it. <v Rita Rice>Well, I've been dragged, kicking and screaming into the 20th century. <v Royal Kennedy>By year 2, a second writing lab was set up in the school library. <v Royal Kennedy>Even teachers with reservations about the new program had learned to handle the <v Royal Kennedy>technology on their own. <v Royal Kennedy>But computers alone weren't going to turn students into writers. <v Royal Kennedy>The teachers themselves had to change. <v Harvey Daniels>I'm going to write about asparagus, but you write about whatever you ?inaudible? <v Royal Kennedy>Madeline called on Harvey Daniels of the Illinois Writing Project to bring its writing <v Royal Kennedy>workshop to Irving. <v Harvey Daniels>The Illinois Writing Project was started in 1977 as a way of helping teachers <v Harvey Daniels>to teach kids to write better. Most public school teachers, oddly enough, really don't <v Harvey Daniels>get much training in the teaching of writing.

<v Royal Kennedy>This workshop was the third one held at Irving within 2 years. <v Royal Kennedy>By now, most of the faculty had already attended. <v Royal Kennedy>But it was the first time for fifth grade teacher Rita Rice, who has taught for 29 <v Royal Kennedy>years in Chicago schools. <v Rita Rice>Well, I was rather coerced into it. [laughing] Nagged, if <v Rita Rice>you will. And so I really felt I had to do it. <v Rita Rice>So I did. I was embarrassed not to by that time. <v Royal Kennedy>By coming here, Rita and other veteran teachers are learning what their education failed <v Royal Kennedy>to give them, ideas for getting kids to write. <v Royal Kennedy>Like keeping a daily journal. <v Mrs. Banks>?inaudible? were worrying me to death. Mrs. Banks, can I write in my journal? <v Mrs. Banks>I have something to write about. <v Mrs. Banks>Some, like kids, are afraid to raise their hand if they don't understand a lesson, <v Mrs. Banks>they will put that in there. So they gave you so much information <v Mrs. Banks>and I had just stopped grading papers and all I wanted to do was read the journals. <v Mrs. Banks>[laughing]. <v Speaker>I was an R.J.S, a reluctant journal starter,

<v Speaker>but I guess I have to just take the plunge and <v Speaker>I think I'll start next week. You've convinced me. <v Speaker>I want you to start journaling. <v Speaker>OK, what you're gonna write in your journals is how these 2 characters. <v Speaker>OK, boys and girls, it's time to get your journals out. <v Speaker>It's journaling time. <v Royal Kennedy>At Irving every day in every grade, children write about anything at all in their own <v Royal Kennedy>journals and it won't be corrected. <v Royal Kennedy>That's because Irving's faculty is learning to stop using one of English teachings most <v Royal Kennedy>common but fruitless practices, the red marking of all errors in students' <v Royal Kennedy>writing. <v Harvey Daniels>We've known for a long time that that does nothing to improve the quality of kids' <v Harvey Daniels>writing in the future. In fact, no more effective than marking no errors at all. <v Harvey Daniels>And of course, it has a religious dimension. <v Harvey Daniels>People think it's the right thing to do and parents expect it and it's tradition and so <v Harvey Daniels>forth, just doesn't happen to work. <v Rita Rice>Many, many times, I've had the child corrected, make <v Rita Rice>the same mistakes over again and the corrected paper and frequently <v Rita Rice>add a few more.

<v Dr. Steve Zemelman>The question is how to teach it effectively. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>You and I, more professional people probably learned those roles pretty <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>well in school. Lots of kids didn't. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>It was not an efficient way to teach. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>And if you want me to help, raise your hand and coming over. <v Royal Kennedy>Steve Zemelman is the other co-founder of the Illinois Writing Project. <v Royal Kennedy>He's helping Rita try out some of the new techniques she picked up at the workshop. <v Rita Rice>What I'm trying to work on is the method of correcting <v Rita Rice>kids' papers, having them get more involved and taking the responsibility <v Rita Rice>for making their own corrections. <v Rita Rice>Do you see a mistake? <v Child>It's supposed to be has. <v Rita Rice>That sounds better. Okay, Samantha, c'mon. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>They did interviews and Samantha came up with a 6 page interview. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>Samantha had never written more than a couple of words or sentences in her life, <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>and we couldn't even get her to cut it down. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>She is so proud of this. And if the kids are proud, then they're going <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>to have the willing to put more energy into correcting the spelling

<v Dr. Steve Zemelman>and punctuation and so forth. <v Rita Rice>Are you happy with this sentence? <v Rita Rice>Anything there you think you might like to change? <v Rita Rice>No? Well, go on, that's OK. <v Speaker>He was born on March 8th. <v Rita Rice>In the old days, you sat them down. You went through it with them. <v Rita Rice>You said you fix this, this, this, this and this. <v Rita Rice>And that's the way it was done. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>If I just tell this kid how to change the paper, the kid's just being a secretary. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>And that's not writing. The real aim is not for me to make <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>a perfect paper. It's for that kid to learn how to make changes. <v Rita Rice>You see any spelling problems with babies? <v Speaker>It's supposed to be i-e-s. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>The trick is how to learn how to ask children questions <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>so that they make discoveries on their own. <v Dr. Steve Zemelman>That's tricky. It takes a long time for teachers to learn.

<v Madeleine Maraldi>Every one of us are learners. And I need to allow <v Madeleine Maraldi>my teachers to grow also. <v Madeleine Maraldi>This is a very stressful time, this time of reform for all of us. <v Madeleine Maraldi>This is not an easy job. This is a difficult job. <v Rita Rice>It's been a stressful year. I must say it's probably the most stressful year I've ever <v Rita Rice>had. Change is stressful. <v Royal Kennedy>Despite the anxiety, Rita is already noticing the first small steps her students <v Royal Kennedy>are making toward becoming writers. <v Rita Rice>The biggest changes in the quantity and the interest <v Rita Rice>that some of them are beginning to show and write. <v Rita Rice>That's, I think, the real change. <v Royal Kennedy>Quantity and an interest in writing. <v Royal Kennedy>That's where it starts. But teachers who had been working with the new approach for 2 <v Royal Kennedy>years are also seeing dramatic changes in the quality of student writing. <v Pat Mark>I passed out your I Hear and Listen papers and <v Pat Mark>these are the uh the finished copies. <v Pat Mark>And again, you guys have given me goosebumps.

<v Pat Mark>I just am just so amazed at the kinds of writing that you're doing. <v Pat Mark>And I said this morning we would have some of you read uh them <v Pat Mark>to us. Let's start with Regina. Would you like to read yours, please? <v Regina>I hear the sounds of shotguns in the night. <v Regina>And as I listen, I hear the people screaming for help. <v Regina>And I think why? I hear the sound of the early morning, the sun calling <v Regina>me to get out get out of bed. <v Regina>The wind telling me to come out and enjoy the beautiful day. <v Speaker>I hear the change in my pockets rattling. <v Speaker>I'm here waiting at the bus stop. <v Speaker>It's not cold, but frigid. <v Speaker>My breathing makes glaciers. A second later, it becomes a cloud. <v Speaker>I hear the whispers of gossipers talking about the enemies as it passed through the noisy <v Speaker>hallways. <v Pat Mark>When do you hear the sound? Where do you hear the sound? <v Pat Mark>Why do you hear the sound? <v Pat Mark>Some wonderful stuff is happening in there. <v Pat Mark>I can call myself teacher now.When people ask me, what do you do for a living? <v Pat Mark>I would never say teacher, especially Chicago teacher.

<v Pat Mark>I wasn't proud to be named a Chicago teacher, but now <v Pat Mark>I I boast about it. <v Madeleine Maraldi>We've really shifted away from them. <v Royal Kennedy>To keep the momentum going, the teachers and Madeline often meet in small groups to share <v Royal Kennedy>program ideas and successes. <v Madeleine Maraldi>When when we were trying to pick some things out to to talk about today, we <v Madeleine Maraldi>wanted to compare ?inaudible? George did last year to what he did this year. <v Madeleine Maraldi>He wrote last year, way down deep underneath the sea lies the Titanic. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Way down deep. Way down deep underneath the sea, a watery graveyard. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Way down deep. That was George last year, and he wrote a lot of other wonderful pieces. <v Madeleine Maraldi>He wrote this year, Tree Feelings. <v Madeleine Maraldi>I am a pine tree sitting on the edge of a cliff looking at all the wonderful things this <v Madeleine Maraldi>world has to offer. Watching an eagle soar up above me, watching it come <v Madeleine Maraldi>down slowly in a spiral motion with all the colors of the sunset flickering to <v Madeleine Maraldi>all points. Then the sky turns black, but not from the night, <v Madeleine Maraldi>but from pollution. Mankind's stupidity. <v Madeleine Maraldi>The eagle is shot down by a game hunter.

<v Madeleine Maraldi>Then I hear the buzz of the chainsaw ready to cut me down. <v Madeleine Maraldi>I wish life was like it used to be, but it isn't. <v Madeleine Maraldi>What a leap! From 7th grade to 8th grade. <v Pat Mark>I would like to bet some- we would walk into a suburban school. <v Pat Mark>We wouldn't see the kind of writing that's coming out of Irving School today. <v Pat Mark>I I feel sure about that. <v Keith Scott>Okay. What you have to do here now is you have to take the food out the shopping cart and <v Keith Scott>put it on the belt there. OK, so you do that and you you just watching the cashier <v Keith Scott>ringing up. ?inaudible? What you're doing is you just- <v Royal Kennedy>Madeline got a grant to bring actors Keith Scott and Denise Berry to Irving. <v Royal Kennedy>They hold weekly drama workshops to inspire writing among many of the younger students. <v Keith Scott>I just I just want to stand still for a second. <v Keith Scott>Please, just stand still. <v Keith Scott>Right there. <v Denise Berry>One of the things that I've discovered in working with the drama in the schools is that <v Denise Berry>it helps writing because it gives the children something they want to write about. <v Denise Berry>And if you create the experience, you create the joy and the interest. <v Speaker>So the next day, they did bring us the Nintendo and

<v Speaker>then we could not see because we'd be ?inaudible?. <v Speaker>The end. <v Speaker>And after, we couldn't sleep. <v Royal Kennedy>After working with the actors, children update their writing in a special drama journal. <v Denise Berry>There's been a dramatic change in the writing because initially the students would just <v Denise Berry>tell a story back to us that we had told them. <v Denise Berry>They've started to now take that story and do the next step, which is to create their own <v Denise Berry>story. To add on. <v Denise Berry>Junior said his first word. <v Speaker>Mom! [laughing] <v Denise Berry>Dad called mom at work. <v Royal Kennedy>Irving's third grade classes give an evening performance of their very own drama writing. <v Royal Kennedy>It is one of many programs designed to bring parents into the school, a critical <v Royal Kennedy>component for their children's success. <v Royal Kennedy>[applause] <v Speaker>What I like best about them is that they build self-esteem in a child and they build

<v Speaker>encouragement. It's really great to see that. <v Speaker>Giving them the opportunity to express themselves and to write their own stories was <v Speaker>wonderful and they did an excellent job and I'm very proud of them. <v Royal Kennedy>Pride is a driving force in the writing program. <v Royal Kennedy>Every bulletin board in schools celebrates student writing. <v Royal Kennedy>A school newspaper highlights their stories and all children have their written work <v Royal Kennedy>bound into anthologies that they are encouraged to share with other classes. <v Royal Kennedy>Ali Shareef wrote about Indians on a whale hunt. <v Ali Shareef>We went close to the whale, so close we could see its hair. <v Ali Shareef>Then with the mighty ?heat?, it threw a spear. <v Ali Shareef>The whale sputtered and ?rolled?, but we had it under control. <v Speaker>Okay, that was beautiful, Ali. Thank you. <v Speaker>And looking at the picture, we just tried to capture the essence of what it meant to the <v Speaker>student. And as you can see, this is what Alysia wrote. <v Speaker>A Walk. As I was walking through the forest on a summer day. <v Speaker>I was followed by the sun.

<v Alysia Cobbs>Suddenly I heard a voice, a strange voice. <v Alysia Cobbs>I looked around only to see no one. <v Alysia Cobbs>Relieved, I continued to walk, secured and protected by the big green trees that stood full, tall, and beautiful. [applause] <v Speaker>And Montes. <v Speaker>Montes Is doing well. <v Pat Mark>Yeah. This is just to say the sky's beautiful light is kissing my <v Pat Mark>eye. Oh, pale moonlight. <v Pat Mark>I think of what love can do. <v Joe Perlstein>Most of you have been at Irving School for the greatest part of your educational <v Joe Perlstein>career. <v Royal Kennedy>Seventh and eighth grade teacher Joe Perlstein has taught at Irving for 25 years. <v Royal Kennedy>He decided to meet with a group of his students to find out how they felt the writing <v Royal Kennedy>program had changed. <v Joe Perlstein>What was writing like the old Irving school? <v Speaker>Boring. <v Joe Perlstein>Boring? <v Speaker>Teachers always said you write a story about what you did all summer long. <v Speaker>I don't want to write about summer.

<v Speaker>What what's wrong with that ?inaudible?. Write about what you've done all summer long. <v Speaker>That's a bore. We do it every year. <v Joe Perlstein>These are the types of topics that basically do not turn children <v Joe Perlstein>on. They basically turn children off. <v Speaker>How you spend Christmas or uh how you help around the house or <v Speaker>who's your favorite movie star? <v Joe Perlstein>The Illinois Writing Workshop tried to help us develop a technique <v Joe Perlstein>of creating different topics, which would <v Joe Perlstein>interest different types of children. <v Joe Perlstein>Our children are writing poetry. <v Joe Perlstein>They're writing narratives. <v Joe Perlstein>They're writing descriptive, persuasive. <v Joe Perlstein>They're writing short pieces. They're writing long pieces. <v Joe Perlstein>They enjoy writing, and that is the crux of the whole thing. <v Royal Kennedy>The same philosophy is driving the reading program, which was started after <v Royal Kennedy>spending the first year focusing on writing. <v Joe Perlstein>They're reading books, books that they enjoy reading. <v Joe Perlstein>Do you think a man should own a woman?

<v Speaker>No. <v Joe Perlstein>They don't, so when you read this, how did you how did you feel about that ?poem?? <v Joe Perlstein>Were you cheering for any side here? <v Speaker>Yeah, for her side. Because he was trying to beat on her because she wouldn't listen to <v Speaker>everthing he said. <v Joe Perlstein>He was trying to what on her? <v Speaker>Beat on her. <v Joe Perlstein>So what'd she do about it? <v Joe Perlstein>I teach the reading lab class where they can read a pocket <v Joe Perlstein>book of their choice, but they must commit to reading those pocket books and they must <v Joe Perlstein>verify the story. <v Speaker>Did you write the book in your journal? <v Royal Kennedy>Throughout Irving, students verify that they are reading books not necessarily by doing <v Royal Kennedy>book reports, but by discussing them one on one with any adult in the school. <v Speaker>I can tell that you definitely read the book, so I will sign <v Speaker>off. <v Royal Kennedy>The signature gives credit and an accounting for report card time. <v Royal Kennedy>In Joe's class, it also means a button for every thousand pages read. <v Joe Perlstein>To the Thousand Club, I'd like to welcome Christopher Porche. <v Joe Perlstein>Here you go, Chris. Alright. <v Joe Perlstein>At first it was difficult. They really didn't want to. <v Joe Perlstein>They struggled. They fought it.

<v Joe Perlstein>But now it's starting, the tide is turning. <v Speaker>When I came to Irving I said to all my friends, I ain't read no books. <v Speaker>I ain't read no books. And I saw this book by Judy Blume. <v Speaker>It was called Superfudge. And I read it and I was like, it was like it was good. <v Speaker>Then I read another one and I found myself read another one of her books. <v Speaker>And I got to the point where I had read almost all her books, I <v Speaker>got about 2 more of them to read. <v Speaker>Readers are leaders. <v Joe Perlstein>Have a nice day. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Here's your check. <v Speaker>Thank you very much. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Going to the bookstore. OK. All right. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Have a good time. I'm gonna see your books when you get back. <v Royal Kennedy>And Madeline wanted to be sure that each child in Irving would have a book he wants to <v Royal Kennedy>read. So she went after a grant to send every class in the school to a bookstore <v Royal Kennedy>once a month. <v Speaker>Don't all get Pippi Longstocking. <v Speaker>It's ?either? One copy, please. <v Speaker>Remember, this is for our room library. <v Speaker>Benjamin Franklin. I'm looking for Benjamin Franklin. <v Speaker>That is uh 3.95.

<v Speaker>3.95. We can you can take that. <v Royal Kennedy>Children are each allotted $4 to pick a book that will become part of their own classroom <v Royal Kennedy>library. <v Speaker>I think it involves excitement. It makes them want to read their books. <v Speaker>It just enhances their interest. <v Speaker>I want to buy this too with my own money. <v Speaker>You may. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>You really need to find books the children want to read. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>So access to libraries, bookstores, give them <v Dr. Richard Anderson>an opportunity to find something they're going to want to read. <v Royal Kennedy>Dr. Richard Anderson was chairman of the Commission on Reading, whose work resulted in <v Royal Kennedy>Becoming a Nation of Readers. <v Royal Kennedy>Reading scholars from across the country pulled together 2 decades of research to produce <v Royal Kennedy>this now nationally famous report on how to turn children into readers. <v Speaker>[kid reading]

<v Dr. Richard Anderson>Children learn to read by reading. It seems obvious and I know that it's obvious when you <v Dr. Richard Anderson>think about basketball. How do kids become great basketball players? <v Dr. Richard Anderson>Hundreds of hours on the playground and in the gym, yet we're surprised <v Dr. Richard Anderson>with low test scores. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>Children who can't read so well, who may be only reading a few minutes a week. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Say it. <v Speaker>Peter Cottontail. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Peter Cottontail, that's right. Winnie the Pooh. Which one are you going <v Madeleine Maraldi>to read first? <v Royal Kennedy>Irving decided to turn research into reality for all of its 450 students. <v Royal Kennedy>If we know kids become readers by reading and by having books they want to read, <v Royal Kennedy>then the school's job is obvious. First, surround children with literature at every <v Royal Kennedy>opportunity. <v Librarian>Can I have your library card, please? <v Royal Kennedy>Besides the bookstore trips, a monthly outing to the neighborhood library guarantees <v Royal Kennedy>every child the book of his choice. <v Speaker>And what does little Sal do with all her berries? <v Royal Kennedy>Twice a week. All students in kindergarten through fifth grade come to a former store <v Royal Kennedy>room. Madeline converted into the Lit Lab, where children are immersed in a world

<v Royal Kennedy>of literature and storytelling and dramatization. <v Speaker>Hello. ?Bear? got very excited. <v Speaker>Oh boy, he thought. I'm talking to the moon! <v Royal Kennedy>And Irving has even found a way to get books into children's homes by giving them a way. <v Speaker>You may walk all around the tables. <v Speaker>You get to pick one book. <v Royal Kennedy>There's a party atmosphere here to build excitement for the theme of holiday books, <v Royal Kennedy>special ed teacher Janet O. Hausen used grant money to purchase enough books <v Royal Kennedy>for every child in the school, many of whom have never had a book to call their own. <v Speaker>?inaudible? the old man. <v Royal Kennedy>But above all, children need to spend time reading. <v Royal Kennedy>So at every grade level, a chunk of time is set aside each day for kids to just <v Royal Kennedy>read hours a week. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>We need to change our minutes into hours. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>The more you read, the better you're going to get at it. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>It figures. <v Rita Rice>I have never seen so much reading go, go on before. <v Rita Rice>I think of all the programs here that is by far the most successful.

<v Joe Perlstein>Often children come up to me and say, Mr. Perlstein, <v Joe Perlstein>that was a great book. <v Joe Perlstein>Mr. Perlstein, I love reading. <v Joe Perlstein>Mr. Perlstein. you know, it's not bad. <v Joe Perlstein>Children are reading and they're enjoying <v Joe Perlstein>enjoying it. <v Teacher>No peeking. <v Teacher>OK. <v Student>Umm. ?inaudible? No, no, no. <v Teacher>OK, look. <v Student>I know I know one of them. <v Student>?Socket? <v Teacher>Oh, yes. It is. <v Royal Kennedy>Irving's faculty's is on a journey to find better ways to teach and the fuel that's <v Royal Kennedy>driving them is cutting edge research. <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>We know through all kinds of research now that rote learning has failed us. <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>We know now that we aren't we are not turning out readers.

<v Dr. Betty Hutchison>We are not turning out writers. <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>We're not turning out problem solvers. <v Royal Kennedy>So Madeline encourages her teachers to try more effective methods by filling their <v Royal Kennedy>mailboxes with the latest research on how children learn best. <v Norma Barron-High>I sometimes feel like I'm still in school at the university level because she gives us so <v Norma Barron-High>much material sometimes that I feel a little bit overwhelmed by everything that's in <v Norma Barron-High>there. <v Jeanette Reid>Basically, it was through some of the literature that I received in <v Jeanette Reid>my mailbox that I I began to really seriously reconsider my <v Jeanette Reid>method of teaching reading. <v Jeanette Reid>Boys and girls, at this time you put your stories away and get out your reading <v Jeanette Reid>books, we're gonna start reading. <v Royal Kennedy>For 25 years, Jeanette Reid had used one of the most common approaches to reading <v Royal Kennedy>instruction. <v Jeanette Reid>We're going to read about a little boy named Julian who puts a message in a bottle. <v Jeanette Reid>For many years, I was a traditionalist with 3 reading groups, the top, <v Jeanette Reid>the middle, the low group. And it seemed to me that uh <v Jeanette Reid>those that were in the lowest reading group suffered.

<v Jeanette Reid>They felt dumb. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>What we know from research about grouping children within classrooms <v Dr. Richard Anderson>is that it generally works pretty well for the <v Dr. Richard Anderson>uh uh able child who gets into the high group. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>Now, ironically, the losers uh are children who get placed <v Dr. Richard Anderson>in the low group. <v Jeanette Reid>I no longer have the uh reading groups. <v Jeanette Reid>I've discarded that and we collaborate on reading. <v Jeanette Reid>You may now collaborate and get in your groups. <v Jeanette Reid>Where do you think his bottle might end up? <v Student>Hawaii or France, even on its way to China. <v Jeanette Reid>That's it! <v Jeanette Reid>I find that the children seem to have a much more positive <v Jeanette Reid>outlook in regards to reading, and I think it enhances their self-esteem. <v Royal Kennedy>But before the rewards are obvious, teachers must conquer the fear and uncertainty

<v Royal Kennedy>that go hand-in-hand with change. <v Jeanette Reid>You risk falling on your face, quite frankly. <v Jeanette Reid>You risk chaos and failure. <v Jeanette Reid>But what we've been doing in the past hasn't been working, so we must try. <v Jeanette Reid>We must at least try. <v Norma Barron-High>I'm going to start reading it to you and then we're going to take turns reading it. <v Norma Barron-High>Doctor DeSoto, the dentist, did very good work, so he had <v Norma Barron-High>no end of patients. <v Royal Kennedy>Second grade teacher Norma Barron-High has 10 years experience in the Chicago Public <v Royal Kennedy>Schools. But at Irving, she read some studies that inspired her to put aside the <v Royal Kennedy>traditional textbook reader and develop her own combination reading <v Royal Kennedy>and writing program. <v Norma Barron-High>What do you have to tell me first in the story? <v Norma Barron-High>Maribel. <v Maribel>That Doctor deSoto was a good doctor. <v Norma Barron-High>Yes. You have to tell me about Doctor DeSoto. <v Norma Barron-High>So one, the first thing when you go back to your seats, tell me. <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>Teachers are often afraid to depart from the <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>basal reader, the textbook, they're afraid to depart from structured

<v Dr. Betty Hutchison>learning. They're afraid to depart from worksheets because they fear <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>chaos. They fear the absence of structure. <v Royal Kennedy>But Norma took the plunge not only by departing from the textbook, but also by <v Royal Kennedy>restructuring her classroom to allow children to help each other rewrite the story <v Royal Kennedy>they've read. <v Student>What is Doctor DeSoto? <v Student>A dentist. <v Student>And? <v Student>A doctor. <v Student>So write that down. <v Royal Kennedy>And when children work together, Norma can give her bilingual students the individualized <v Royal Kennedy>attention they often need. <v Norma Barron-High>[speaking Spanish]. <v Royal Kennedy>But making these kinds of changes hasn't been easy. <v Norma Barron-High>I had lots of anxiety because I feel like, gee, maybe I don't know what I'm doing. <v Norma Barron-High>It's not familiar territory.

<v Norma Barron-High>It means letting go of what I've been trained to use. <v Student>He is a mouse and Dr. DeSoto's wife <v Student>is his assistant. <v Madeleine Maraldi>This is about a dentist? What is this- <v Norma Barron-High>I think one thing that relaxes me a little bit about this is that she has <v Norma Barron-High>stated over and over that she is evaluating us in the program <v Norma Barron-High>according to whether or not our children are reading more. <v Norma Barron-High>And are they writing more? They may not be writing perfect English <v Norma Barron-High>papers, but they are definitely writing more. <v Madeleine Maraldi>You retelling the story? It's beautiful. <v Student>The next day, the fox came in. <v Norma Barron-High>My children in the past were learning how to read, but <v Norma Barron-High>I didn't see them reading for pleasure or reading anything else. <v Norma Barron-High>Now, what I see my kids are really starting to love to read. <v Madeleine Maraldi>And you're going to read your book to 6 people? <v Madeleine Maraldi>How many are in your family?

<v Student>6. <v Madeleine Maraldi>6? OK, well. <v Madeleine Maraldi>It's very difficult for the teachers, I think, to want to take control and <v Madeleine Maraldi>be creative and do these things because they have been censored in the past. <v Madeleine Maraldi>And it's very hard to believe the person who's in charge who tells you, <v Madeleine Maraldi>go try it, be a risk taker. <v Madeleine Maraldi>I'll support you if you fall flat on your face. <v Royal Kennedy>It's that kind of support that gave sixth grade teacher, Bobbie Stockwell, the confidence <v Royal Kennedy>to try a new teaching style after 20 years. <v Student>I want to know who this is. <v Student>That's that's his wife. <v Student>That's the daughter, and that's the king. <v Student>No, that's his wife. <v Student>Well, we'll read about it. Zeus <v Student>was the ruler of the gods and the fathers of many gods and men. <v Student>That's the one ?inaudible? got. <v Bobbie Stockwell>I like to allow my students to have a little more movement and talking in <v Bobbie Stockwell>the room. And I know that in some schools that's frowned <v Bobbie Stockwell>upon that students need to be quietly working at their desk. <v Student>?inaudible? <v Speaker>Apollo.

<v Speaker>?inaudible? <v Bobbie Stockwell>I went to college in the 70s and teaching was very traditional, <v Bobbie Stockwell>textbook oriented. And I carried that through my teaching experience for several <v Bobbie Stockwell>years, even up until recently. <v Bobbie Stockwell>Half man and half horse. <v Bobbie Stockwell>That's what this is about. And you're right. <v Royal Kennedy>So when Bobby thought about teaching Greek mythology, she put aside traditional lecture <v Royal Kennedy>so students could learn how to work together in groups. <v Bobbie Stockwell>I divided the groups according to their interest in the gods and goddesses, and because <v Bobbie Stockwell>of the fact that they were able to choose their god or godess, they were much more <v Bobbie Stockwell>excited about looking for the information. <v Student>OK, one of his first services to humanity was the ?killing? with his famous bow and arrow. <v Diamond>You got to look for it, not me. <v Monique>Ms. Stockwell said you got to do it. <v Diamond>No, she said you look for it and I write it down. <v Monique>I'm the writer! You're supposed to do it. <v Bobbie Stockwell>Diamond, are you doing the writing? Then Mo'Nique should be helping you. <v Bobbie Stockwell>And I ended off having some children who chose the same God or goddess who had difficulty

<v Bobbie Stockwell>working together. <v Speaker>What section are we going to do? <v Bobbie Stockwell>You have to decide between each other how you want to do this. <v Bobbie Stockwell>If you would like, if you would like to take turns writing with her, you ask <v Bobbie Stockwell>her. <v Bobbie Stockwell>So one added plus I think to working in groups is so that children can learn <v Bobbie Stockwell>to get along together and learn to accept what each has to offer. <v Bobbie Stockwell>In many ways, I don't think the old way is really working with these kids. <v Bobbie Stockwell>So hey, you know, if what we've been doing is not working real well, why not try <v Bobbie Stockwell>something different? I mean, our kids can't do anything benefit from it. <v Bobbie Stockwell>And I find teaching more interesting, you know, as I step out in a different way. <v Speaker>8. ?inaudible? 2 times 8. 2 times 8. 5. <v Speaker>OK, see they comply. <v Royal Kennedy>But input is needed to come up with new ideas. <v Royal Kennedy>That's why staff development is a priority at Irving. <v Royal Kennedy>At this math workshop, 15 Irving teachers will each spend 30 afterschool

<v Royal Kennedy>hours to update their math instruction. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>If someone learned how to teach math prior to 1980 or <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>1985, then the world has moved on and passed them by. <v Speaker>What are the possible sums that we can come up with? <v Royal Kennedy>This week, the workshop focuses on activities for teaching probability. <v Royal Kennedy>It's led by 2 Chicago public school teachers under the guidance of its founder, Professor <v Royal Kennedy>Art Hyde. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>There are a number of teachers in the system that are absolutely fabulous, <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>working under the most extraordinarily difficult conditions I have ever seen. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>Um and yet, alongside of them are some people that are in desperate need of help. <v Speaker>Well, you know what? Why don't I give you another chance to strategize again? <v Royal Kennedy>The teachers have to do the very thing they would expect of their students. <v Royal Kennedy>Think through number combinations and predict which sums are most likely to come <v Royal Kennedy>up on the dice. <v Speaker>One on each number. <v Speaker>Well, there's only one way to make 12. <v Speaker>2 6s, but there's a lot of ways to make, wait a minute.

<v Speaker>?inaudible? more 6s than you ?did anything?. <v Speaker>Yeah. All right. Put that on a 6. <v Speaker>OK. First one, 6. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>This notion that one is an excellent teacher and can remain excellent for 10, <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>15, 20 years without ever doing anything differently. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>It's just wrong. <v Speaker>8. [laughing]. <v Speaker>Why don't you guys explain how you set it up? <v Speaker>OK. We stacked seven, uh 3 times <v Speaker>because 7 kept coming up. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>We believe that they have to experience as learners themselves the kinds <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>of teaching that we would like them to do. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>If they've never seen it and they never experienced it, then how are they going to do it? <v Joe Perlstein>You cannot do what we're doing without staff development. <v Joe Perlstein>It's totally impossible. <v Joe Perlstein>The teachers, basically, are being retooled. <v Joe Perlstein>I am being retooled.

<v Jim Dancy>The thrust now is for discovery. <v Jim Dancy>The idea is that if the children are involved, they will retain it, whereby <v Jim Dancy>if you teach them from rote memory, or just teach them and give them the answers. <v Jim Dancy>They will forget it. <v Speaker>What is the diameter of a circle? <v Speaker>This is a circumference. Now look up on the board. <v Speaker>What did you say the diameter was? <v Speaker>Oh, in the middle. <v Speaker>You're going to have to work together. One person may have to hold a circle while one <v Speaker>stretches the string around. <v Speaker>Yes. When you finish the green, go to the white one. <v Royal Kennedy>Discovery and involvement are also the focus of Irving's math lab, which opened in <v Royal Kennedy>the fall of 1990. All students in grades 4 through 6 come here twice <v Royal Kennedy>a week with their teachers to work with Herman Smith. <v Herman Smith>The ?number? Of diameters <v Herman Smith>in the circumference. We're trying to help them to understand the reasons for <v Herman Smith>what they are doing. I know when I was in grade school, nobody ever ever <v Herman Smith>told me why I was doing it. You know, it was just this.

<v Dr. Arthur Hyde>The problems of mathematics, curriculum and mathematics teaching <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>are really things like we assume that getting the one right answer <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>as quickly as possible is what's really involved in doing math or using math. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>We assume that kids understand mathematics by memorizing math facts, <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>and that's just wrong. Those things just wreak havoc with <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>mathematics teaching and learning in this country. <v Speaker>?inaudible? <v Herman Smith>OK, so we put here 3 plus. <v Royal Kennedy>In the math lab, Irving Teachers are learning to change their focus to one that gives <v Royal Kennedy>children hands on experiences that help them make sense of math. <v Speaker>2. <v Herman Smith>And that's what? <v Speaker>3. <v Herman Smith>And and what? Something left over. <v Herman Smith>We hope that they will discover that circles have something unique.

<v Herman Smith>They could see that little more than 3 times <v Herman Smith>in diameter would always approximately what the circumference is. <v Speaker>It's just gonna take how many diameters to make this circumference? <v Speaker>3.7 ?inaudible? <v Speaker>It's gonna be three around 3.7 something, won't it? <v Royal Kennedy>The children are learning the relationship between circumference and diameter by <v Royal Kennedy>manipulating real objects. <v Royal Kennedy>In education lingo, they're called manipulatives. <v Speaker>One benefit of math lab for me is that I'm learning too. <v Speaker>I never really use manipulatives when I taught math. <v Speaker>And with math lab I can see how manipulatives are used, what kind <v Speaker>they are and how they benefit to kids. <v Royal Kennedy>And that's the whole point of all the labs at Irving. <v Madeleine Maraldi>The program that I wanted to develop was to have my teachers observe <v Madeleine Maraldi>this master teacher in action with these lab experiences and then <v Madeleine Maraldi>asking them to get up and work with that teacher in a team approach. <v Speaker>?inaudible? 15.3.

<v Bobbie Stockwell>It's not sitting down with just paper and pencil figuring their problems out. <v Bobbie Stockwell>But it's doing math. <v Bobbie Stockwell>It's um moving the circles, measuring the circles that they seem to like. <v Bobbie Stockwell>It's just very different than what we have in the regular classroom. <v Bobbie Stockwell>And they like it. <v Student>And I like the work he gives us. <v Student>I like doing it because it's fun and hard at the same time. <v Bobbie Stockwell>When I see my students really enjoying school, I enjoy teaching. <v Bobbie Stockwell>I feel like the time that I spend is well worth the while. <v Bobbie Stockwell>I leave school feeling better, you know, about my job. <v Dennis Dandeles>3 4 5 6 7 <v Dennis Dandeles>8. OK. <v Royal Kennedy>The science lab is another place Irving's children and teachers are learning by doing. <v Dennis Dandeles>OK. What does this measure, class? And ?inaudible? <v Student>How fast the wind goes. <v Dennis Dandeles>Thank you. How fast the wind goes. Today we're gonna make a model <v Dennis Dandeles>?inaudible? One that actually works. <v Royal Kennedy>The science lab opened at the same time Irving's writing lab began.

<v Royal Kennedy>Twice each week, classes from kindergarten through sixth grade come here with their <v Royal Kennedy>teachers to work with Dennis Dandeles. <v Dennis Dandeles>Today, I think science is even more important than any other time in our history. <v Dennis Dandeles>Because, well, science is all around us. <v Dennis Dandeles>So to be able to decode our world, you have to know something about <v Dennis Dandeles>science, concepts and principles. <v Dennis Dandeles>Tornado maker. OK. Would you demonstrate to the class how that works? <v Royal Kennedy>Although science is a subject widely recognized as critical to our nation's future, <v Royal Kennedy>it is commonly neglected by grade school teachers throughout the country. <v Royal Kennedy>The attitudes expressed by Irving teachers are not unusual. <v Norma Barron-High>One thing in the past, there hasn't always been enough time to fit science in. <v Rita Rice>If I had a few minutes to fill out the end of the day, that's where it <v Rita Rice>came. <v Jeanette Reid>Science is not high on my priorities in the classroom quite frankly. <v Dennis Dandeles>It's probably because the way they were taught, they were probably taught to be passive <v Dennis Dandeles>students and to learn what the teacher wanted them to learn.

<v Dennis Dandeles>And it probably wasn't meaningful or enjoyable. <v Dennis Dandeles>Bottom line. <v Dennis Dandeles>I'm going to press your thumb against her palm and <v Dennis Dandeles>I'm going to put the tape around it all away <v Dennis Dandeles>around the thumb, but not the fingers. <v Dennis Dandeles>I want her to use her fingers. I don't want to use her thumb. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Teachers traditionally have taught science from the textbook. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Read Chapter so-and-so and let's do a little discussion. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Answer the questions at the end and then we go on. <v Madeleine Maraldi>This was an opportunity for them to maybe get that experience that they should <v Madeleine Maraldi>have somewhere along the line received in their education. <v Madeleine Maraldi>For the children, it's a wonderful place because most of what goes on in there are hands <v Madeleine Maraldi>on experiences. <v Dennis Dandeles>With your thumb taped down, print your first name <v Dennis Dandeles>on the line. On this line, right here. <v Dennis Dandeles>I want you to print your name the best you can. <v Dennis Dandeles>OK, let's take a look at number 3.

<v Dennis Dandeles>Lace the shoe and tie it with your thumb still taped. <v Dennis Dandeles>Easier said than done, I bet. Let's try it. <v Royal Kennedy>In this introduction to animal adaptations, Norma Barron-High's second <v Royal Kennedy>graders are finding out firsthand how hard life would be without a thumb. <v Dennis Dandeles>Hands-on science only natural uh from the time they're born. <v Dennis Dandeles>We learn from our senses. <v Dennis Dandeles>Learning is active. It's not passive. <v Dennis Dandeles>We are going to pretend that we're birds. <v Dennis Dandeles>And I'm to give you different bird beaks to use. <v Dennis Dandeles>You're going to with your beak. <v Dennis Dandeles>I tried to pick up as many of the food items as you can. <v Dennis Dandeles>The styrofoam in the water represents water bugs, <v Dennis Dandeles>the lemon drops are really snails and the macaroni, you <v Dennis Dandeles>guessed it, worms. Very, very good.

<v Dennis Dandeles>Everybody in each group should have either a clothespin, <v Dennis Dandeles>a spoon, a scissors, or a toothpick. <v Dennis Dandeles>Now, some of these beaks are going to be better suited to pick up some of these different <v Dennis Dandeles>animals. <v Dennis Dandeles>I can make what I do in here enjoyable for the children and for the teachers. <v Dennis Dandeles>They'll be more likely and apt to do more in their classroom. <v Rita Rice>I think I certainly feel more competent and I have a lot of ideas that <v Rita Rice>he gave me for one thing. <v Rita Rice>And I think it's wonderful to have it on a regular basis. <v Norma Barron-High>Now, I I am actually teaching science in the classroom and then they go to the lab and <v Norma Barron-High>they get to experience it. That teaches my children that this is this is fun. <v Norma Barron-High>This is, you know, interesting. <v Royal Kennedy>It's not surprising because Irving is trying to bring its teaching in line with what <v Royal Kennedy>educational research has already proven. <v Harvey Daniels>Every field has had a major report summarizing all the research in the last couple <v Harvey Daniels>of decades. And if you look at them, it's amazing.

<v Harvey Daniels>They're all saying the same stuff. <v Harvey Daniels>Learning should be more interactive, more child centered, less presentation, less <v Harvey Daniels>worksheets, less dittos. And they're seeing this in science, they're seeing it in math, <v Harvey Daniels>they're seeing it in English. They're seeing all across the curriculum. <v Madeleine Maraldi>What we do here, if it is a success, can't be canned. <v Madeleine Maraldi>A community can't look at it and say, that's what we should do. <v Madeleine Maraldi>What you should do is develop it. <v Madeleine Maraldi>That's what we're doing. <v Joe Perlstein>And I'm going to say to your parent, yours, your trial, self <v Joe Perlstein>evaluated, self evaluated based on what is <v Joe Perlstein>in this pile of information. <v Royal Kennedy>Irving has developed programs that involve children not only in their own learning, but <v Royal Kennedy>also in their own evaluation by letting students participate in filling out their <v Royal Kennedy>report cards. <v Bobbie Stockwell>I noticed last time you filled out your report card, you really did a good <v Bobbie Stockwell>job rating yourselves. <v Bobbie Stockwell>But I want to remind you what rating is. <v Royal Kennedy>Madeline and the teachers designed a unique report card for students in grades 4 through <v Royal Kennedy>8. They now receive letter grades and only 3 subjects math,

<v Royal Kennedy>science and social studies. <v Royal Kennedy>They do not get a grade for reading or writing. <v Royal Kennedy>Instead, they rate themselves as readers and writers based on records they keep <v Royal Kennedy>in a report card journal. <v Bobbie Stockwell>Now I want you to get your journals out. <v Bobbie Stockwell>If you don't have them out and turn to. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>I'm very impressed with the notion that the child will keep track <v Dr. Richard Anderson>of the number of books that he or she has read. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>Now, this means that a report card is not someplace uh something that drops <v Dr. Richard Anderson>out of the sky once every few months. <v Royal Kennedy>Teachers do evaluate the children in writing and reading. <v Royal Kennedy>But instead of giving grades, they check observable behavior. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>The child selects books independently. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>This next one is reads a variety of materials, shows pleasure <v Dr. Richard Anderson>in reading. Now these are truly the important criteria. <v Royal Kennedy>Even parents are included. There's a section on the report card just for them. <v Odessa Lucas>I get a chance to tell uh the teacher and my child <v Odessa Lucas>the improvement that I have seen them make from one marking period to the

<v Odessa Lucas>next. And I also look what my child opinion is of herself. <v Student>I rated myself in effort of 10 because I did really good <v Student>and an an improvement. <v Student>I really improved because last year, I only read 12 books and this year I read 18. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Children need to know how to evaluate themselves <v Madeleine Maraldi>because that's how you become a critical thinker. <v Madeleine Maraldi>That's how you become a problem solver because you are an evaluator. <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>Problem-solving initiative, thinking through ideas, <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>communicating in creative ways that these are the things that we need for this century <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>in America. Our real problem is not whether we're going to be able to have the <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>same kinds of test scores that Japanese children have. <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>But whether our children are going to finish school and whether our children are going to <v Dr. Betty Hutchison>be able to solve the inevitable problems that a new century is going to bring to us. <v Jeanette Reid>You're going to do as you've done before. <v Jeanette Reid>You will answer the questions by darkening the circle in a booklet next to

<v Jeanette Reid>the answer you have chosen. <v Royal Kennedy>Yet a nationwide obsession with test scores is all too often driving the educational <v Royal Kennedy>programs of America. And ?critics? <v Royal Kennedy>charge that as teachers are pressured to push the kinds of banal and rote skills that are <v Royal Kennedy>easily tested, real learning is undermined. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>Most standardized tests do not adequately test real understanding <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>of mathematical ideas. They test them the most and narrow form <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>of understanding kind of memorizing facts. <v Dr. Arthur Hyde>5 times 5 is 25. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>The main part of a standardized test in reading contains multiple <v Dr. Richard Anderson>choice questions about brief passages. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>It's a strained and unnatural kind of reading. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>It's not what anyone does in real life. <v Dr. Richard Anderson>Excessive emphasis on test scores tends to distort a reading program. <v Royal Kennedy>And Irving's emphasis has not been on tests. <v Royal Kennedy>It's been on the excitement of literature. <v Royal Kennedy>The understanding of math. The thrill of learning. <v Royal Kennedy>And Madeleine is confident that this focus will eventually pay off in test scores

<v Royal Kennedy>too. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Our scores are hovering just about where they were. <v Madeleine Maraldi>There does not look like this great improvement, but I'm not discouraged because <v Madeleine Maraldi>I see it in the children, I see in what they're doing. <v Madeleine Maraldi>I think that improvement will translate to scores 2 or 3 years down the road. <v Madeleine Maraldi>[music plays] [class singing] <v Royal Kennedy>As teachers and students were winding down in June, it was a time of reflection <v Royal Kennedy>on the significant impact, the changes that Irving had made on the school's one time <v Royal Kennedy>apathetic learners. <v Joe Perlstein>They do now see the power of education. <v Joe Perlstein>Many of them are walking through the halls of urban schools saying, I'm going to college. <v Joe Perlstein>[laughing] And that to me is wonderful. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Our attendance is up to the end of the year 95 percent. <v Madeleine Maraldi>So we have done what I think should be done in many, many different schools, especially

<v Madeleine Maraldi>in neighborhoods such as ours. <v Royal Kennedy>Because of Chicago's revolutionary school reform is to succeed, it must do so <v Royal Kennedy>in neighborhoods like Irving's. <v Royal Kennedy>It must succeed with black and Hispanic children, half of whom are destined to drop <v Royal Kennedy>out if they never discover that learning can be more than rote repetition <v Royal Kennedy>and lifeless drill. <v Harvey Daniels>I see this everywhere I go that people who work with inner city kids believe they need a <v Harvey Daniels>skill and drill curriculum. These kids we're talking about that are disadvantaged, a lot <v Harvey Daniels>of times they don't make that fundamental connection of the heart with words and books <v Harvey Daniels>and ideas. And so school ?shouldn't? <v Harvey Daniels>model and offer them the most holistic opportunity to go, wow, I love to <v Harvey Daniels>read, man I can really write. <v Harvey Daniels>And you do not get that from filling in 80 trillion worksheets of semi-colons. <v Royal Kennedy>And school reform must also succeed with Chicago's veteran teachers, many <v Royal Kennedy>of whom are yearning for a breath of hope after decades of discouragement. <v Pat Mark>I'm rejuvenated. I can't wait to get here in the morning, and when I go home

<v Pat Mark>I hurry up with dinner because I I'm down at the computer trying <v Pat Mark>to think of what I should do tomorrow. <v Rita Rice>I'm not the same teacher I was 5 years ago, certainly. <v Rita Rice>I guess I think I've gotten a lot freer. <v Bobbie Stockwell>I'm most proud of the fact that I'm enjoying my job. <v Jeanette Reid>And I'm not afraid to experiment. <v Jeanette Reid>I'm not afraid to fail. <v Royal Kennedy>The tide of renewed enthusiasm and commitment that has swept across Irving's students <v Royal Kennedy>and teachers all began when reform transferred decision-making power to the schools. <v Royal Kennedy>And when Madeleine brought in her vision of leadership. <v Harvey Daniels>What I'm seeing is the emergence of a new class of Chicago principals <v Harvey Daniels>that are true instructional leaders in their buildings. <v Harvey Daniels>We're making it possible for teachers to quit looking over their shoulder and look ahead, <v Harvey Daniels>try new things to innovate, to take some risks with their kids and try state of the <v Harvey Daniels>art approaches, which is great. <v Jeanette Reid>She cheers us on. She cheers us on. <v Jeanette Reid>And that's important, too, because just as children need to be encouraged by the teacher

<v Jeanette Reid>and praised, teachers need to be praised, too. <v Speaker>Madeline Maraldi. <v Royal Kennedy>Every year, the Whitman Corporation in Chicago honors 20 city principals for excellence <v Royal Kennedy>in leadership. In the spring of 1991, Madeleine was selected as a winner, <v Royal Kennedy>receiving 5,000 dollars for Irving as part of her award. <v Madeleine Maraldi>We're going to take them to the bookstore and let them spend that money on <v Madeleine Maraldi>some of the most wonderful things in the world. <v Madeleine Maraldi>Books. Thank you very much. <v Royal Kennedy>Since school reform has come to Chicago, the responsibility to find these kinds of <v Royal Kennedy>leaders now resides here with the local school councils. <v Royal Kennedy>Every 4 years they must decide if their principal is more than just a building <v Royal Kennedy>administrator. Because the children are to learn, it is the principal <v Royal Kennedy>who must give teachers the confidence and support they need to change ineffective <v Royal Kennedy>methods and to keep learning themselves. <v Joe Perlstein>It's very difficult to change.

<v Joe Perlstein>It takes a lot out of a person. <v Joe Perlstein>However, you don't mind putting in the effort if there's payback. <v Joe Perlstein>If you feel that the children are growing, that they appreciate <v Joe Perlstein>what is going on, if you see a light at the end of the tunnel, <v Joe Perlstein>then you say to yourself, don't stop now. <v Joe Perlstein>Keep pressing, keep pushing, cause it will be all worth it <v Joe Perlstein>in the end. [music plays] [class singing] <v Speaker>Teach Me is supported in part by Lloyd A.

<v Speaker>Fry Foundation. <v Speaker>Additional funding for WTTW's ongoing programs on Chicago's school reform <v Speaker>is provided by The Joyce Foundation. <v Speaker>Teach Me and other programs in the WTTW Journal series are supported in part <v Speaker>by the Doctor Scholl Foundation. <v Speaker>Teach Me is part of WTTW's ongoing coverage of school reform <v Speaker>in Chicago.