What Impact Does School Environment Have on Student Achievement?

A professional learning community is more than simply a collection of teachers working in the same building. A learning community comes together around people from every part of the school working collaboratively at all levels. That collaborative work is founded in what we call reflective dialogue, meaning staff conversations about issues and problems related to students, learning, and teaching.

 

Professional learning communities are characterized by:

 

-    a principal who shares leadership, power, and authority and participates collegially by encouraging staff involvement in decision making;

-    a shared vision developed from staff's unswerving commitment to students' learning and consistently articulated and referenced for the staff's work;

-    opportunities for teacher-to-teacher visitation and observation accompanied by feedback and assistance as needed;

-    sharing of personal practice;

-    sharing of success stories and celebration of achievements.

 

 

What Are the Benefits of a Professional Learning Community for Teachers?

 

Teachers who view their schools as professional learning communities report fewer feelings of isolation, are more likely to see themselves as "professionally renewed," and view their work as more satisfying. In addition:

 

-    teachers are more committed to the goals and mission of the school, and they work with more vigor to strengthen the mission.

-    sharing good teaching practices helps create greater knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learners.

 

From the perspective of staff morale, teachers report feeling energized when they have increased opportunities for professional conversations with other teachers. The existence of a professional learning community encourages risk taking and innovation by teachers, one reason improvement efforts seem to be more productive in schools of this type.

 

What Are the Benefits for Students?

 

The characteristics of a professional learning community translate into concrete benefits for students, including academic gains in mathematics, science, history, and reading. These gains tend to be greater in schools structured as professional learning communities than they are in traditional schools, and the schools tend to demonstrate smaller achievement gaps between students from different backgrounds. These schools also are reported to have lower dropout rates, fewer missed classes, and lower rates of absenteeism.

 

How Can Principals Create Professional Learning Communities?

 

Leadership is essential for professional learning communities to be effective. Principals need to provide opportunities for teachers to meet and share effective practices, develop interdependent teaching roles, and grow personally and professionally. Often, this means dramatically restructuring school schedules and providing opportunities within the school day for teachers to work, plan, and learn together around instructional issues. A new study found effective schools routinely provided time for collaboration, and principals supported risk-taking and experimentation by the teachers. As collaboration developed, so did collegiality.

 

Principals must also take the lead in initiating teacher-to-teacher conversations that are significantly different than those many teachers currently experience. All people in the organization must have a clear sense of the mission they are to accomplish, and they must work together as a team toward their goals. They must identify weaknesses, but also support each other as they implement new strategies to address areas of concern. And they must work together to bridge the gaps caused by grade and subject matter specialization.

 

How Can Professional Learning Communities Be Sustained?

 

School leaders should not wait until a learning community is established before thinking about how to sustain it. A question that should be asked from the very beginning is: What elements must be firmly in place to motivate and encourage teachers to continually engage in learning activities? Some ideas are:

 

-    Celebrations. Honor positive actions and progress made toward community goals.

-    Training. Provide teachers with instruction in group process skills, conflict management, and content-specific areas such as literacy instruction.

-    Ongoing data collection and analysis. Develop procedures for regular monitoring of student performance data; collect data throughout the year, not just at its end. Provide opportunities for teachers to collaborate around data analysis.

-    Teacher study groups and peer coaching. Provide structure for regular teacher interaction.

 

What Impact Does School Environment Have on Student Achievement?

 

Research shows that student achievement is supported by schools that provide a safe and caring environment. For many students, particularly those at risk of school failure, the caring relationship often must precede their engagement with subject matter. When schools create an atmosphere in which there are lines of open communication and interpersonal connection between students and school staff, students are more willing to share concerns with school staff. But if students don't feel a bond with their school community, it can affect their feelings of safety at school, their emotional growth, social development, and their motivation to learn.

 

What Is the Connection Between Caring and High Achievement?

Students also felt that it was important to them that their teachers pushed them to succeed. The literature repeatedly mentions the value of making sure that every student feels known and valued by at least one adult in the school.

 

What are Some Strategies that Can be Used to Build Connections?

 

Bonding and having a strong connection with others in the school community plays a major role in creating safe schools. One strategy is for teachers to find ways to form long-term student-teacher relationships. Another strategy would be for schools to link caring teachers, other school staff, and/or community volunteers with students needing support through mentoring programs. As an alternative to a formal one-on-one mentoring program, schools can create mentor-rich environments in which students have the opportunity to form relationships with teachers, coaches, supervisors, youth workers, counselors, social workers, and other adults who have the time and inclination to establish close ties with young people. Connections can also be built through morning meetings. For example, we can incorporate the following during each meeting:

 

-    Greetings. The class uses a variety of greeting activities throughout the school year, such as saying hello in different languages.

-    Sharing. The student sharing information makes a brief statement to introduce his/her news, then ends by asking if there are any questions or comments.

-    Group Activity. This fast-paced activity involves all members, and it may be directly linked to relevant academic skills, focused on general skills, such as observing or remembering, or designed simply for fun.

-    News and Announcements. The group focuses on an announcement that the teacher posted on the board earlier, which includes a welcome message, the activity the class will be doing for the day, and a question or challenge. The group reads the announcement together, discusses the content, and does some related, short activities. This segment provides a transition into the rest of the school day.

 

What Is the Importance of Class Size and School Size?

 

Students in smaller schools and classes tend to have more of a sense of belonging and attachment. Smaller class size offers more opportunities for each student to excel, and can be extremely beneficial to at-risk students. In addition, class and school size have a significant impact on education leaders. efforts to personalize the school environment.

 

Many schools have found ways to create small school units; however some plans for smaller school units may not yield the benefits of small schools unless they have autonomous leadership, fiscal independence, and a feeling of separate identity. Larger schools can successfully be turned into separate, smaller schools, creating a more supportive learning environment.

 

Class size reduction (CSR) has been a complex and often contentious issue for the last quarter century. While there is an intuitive sense that reducing class size can have a positive effect on student achievement, it is an expensive approach. Thus, educators have looked to research to provide them with solid answers on two key and very basic questions: Does class size reduction really make a difference? What do experiences with class size reduction tell us about both the benefits and the costs?

 

What are the Potential Benefits to Class Size Reduction?

 

Research and lessons from practice indicate that CSR has potential benefits, including achievement gains, for some students, especially poor and minority students or students in the early grades. Other potential benefits include the possibilities for increased individualized attention for students by teachers improved identification of special needs, allowing for earlier intervention and less remediation.

 

Expanded flexibility by teachers to use different instructional approaches and assignments is also a potential benefit, as is more in-depth coverage of content. Some teachers practicing in smaller have reported fewer distractions for students, more time for students to speak while the others listen, reduced level of noise in a class and reduced discipline problems. Research suggests that CSR allows teachers to better track how each student is doing and makes it easier for students to develop positive relations with classmates and the teacher. While federal dollars are no longer allocated specifically for class size reduction, several states have recently created or expanded CSR programs.

 

What are Some Alternatives to CSR?

 

Among the alternatives to wholesale class size reduction targeting class size reduction to schools and students most in need, e.g., high-minority and high-poverty schools, redeploying school staff for part or all of the school day so that class sizes are especially small for classes such as early reading instruction, and eliminating the use of teacher aides and putting dollars into hiring more teachers. Another alternative would be providing teachers professional development aligned with district initiatives in order to further develop teacher knowledge, skill, and effectiveness.

 

What Role Does a Student's Relationship with His or Her Peers Play?

 

Strong bonds with students are a necessary component in developing a caring school. Teachers should make sure that no student is left to feel isolated from fellow students. However, educators should not set out to dissolve any in crowds, because peer groups can lead to ways in which students learn to establish an autonomous sense of identity. Rather, school personnel should look out for instances in which some students are isolated from every existing peer group. Educators should also watch for any signs of tension between different peer groups, or if there is a group that may seem threatening to adults or other students within the school.

 

Jeff C. Palmer is a teacher, success coach, trainer, Certified Master of Web Copywriting and founder of https://Ebookschoice.com. Jeff is a prolific writer, Senior Research Associate and Infopreneur having written many eBooks, articles and special reports.

 

Source: https://ebookschoice.com/what-impact-does-school-environment-have-on-student-achievement/

Reading And Writing Are Important For A Successful Literacy Program

Traditionally, special education teachers have focused on remediation of specific skills deficits that are isolated from connected texts and presented in the form of phonics worksheets and sight-word practice. Looking back at my own years of working with students with special needs, I found myself guilty of using repetition of isolated reading skills. Small-group instruction focused on worksheets as the main reading method. My graduate courses in educational theory led me to current research in reading instruction, including the constructivist theory of learning, wholepart-whole methods, and authentic literature. The online conversations validated for me the value of trade books when used with special education students. Many participants felt it was difficult to do activities in reading other than a worksheet when each child was working on individual objectives.

 

Unfortunately, in my own classroom, I began to have concerns for my students’ progress. In questioning them, I was dismayed to learn that little or no reading took place outside the classroom or school. My students were not able to generalize, or transfer, skills they had acquired from the special education room to the general education classroom. I decided to observe my students; before long, it was evident the students became comfortable with the format of the worksheet rather than develop, competency of the skill. Hence, if I used another format, scores began to drop until the students familiarized themselves with the new worksheet format. Research suggested that when teachers overemphasize skills without providing meaningful activities, students find little value in reading and writing. My concerns for effective reading instruction for students with special needs was what prompted me to return to college to pursue my master’s degree. My studies aided me in being able to learn how to effectively design research; more important, they gave me the confidence to realize that research begins in my own classroom. Through research, I became aware of terms such as constructivism, whole language, holistic learning, and literature-based instruction. Many articles contained views from educators like myself, with varying ideas and experiences with the concepts I was studying. Realizing that many teachers wrote about personal discoveries made while in their own classrooms encouraged me to grow and change professionally. Professional growth came through adopting methods that have not only proven to be effective within my own classroom but also addressed my concerns of motivation and generalization.

 

Many of my students have talked about one or both parents’ being in prison, of not getting enough to eat at night, of parents fighting late into the night making it difficult to sleep, or having siblings taken from the home and placed with other relatives. The schools within the district are divided according to grade levels. My building houses approximately 395 students. Currently, there are 24 general education teachers and 4 special education teachers with approximately 18 students per classroom. For the purpose of this article, students discussed were taken from general education classrooms and placed in a learning-lab setting to receive reading instruction. In the learning lab, one special education teacher and one instructional assistant are available to my students.

 

Students with reading problems need opportunities to practice reading material on their level with not too much difficulty in word recognition. Reading can be frustrating for students who struggle with decoding. When reading is difficult, children’s attitudes about reading become poor, and they avoid reading activities. I further noted that when children do not read books, they are unable to develop fluency and gain additional knowledge to help with further reading experiences. My purpose for change was to motivate students in the area of reading. Past research has linked the frequency of reading with reading achievement and positive reading attitudes. I became aware of the importance of ownership and authentic reading and writing activities. Ownership, as I understood it, means that students would have freedom of choice in reading texts and activities.

 

Through conferencing with each student, I learned that students frequently chose books that were at their frustration level rather than their instructional level. Once I discovered this, I encouraged students to choose a book and conference with me about the book’s level. Together we began to choose textbooks that were at the instructional level for the students.

 

Imagine giving students the gift to see that they can read when they have the opportunity to read appropriate and motivating books! It was exciting to see my students become interested in reading. Research confirmed that providing children with choices of books, allowing them time to read, and providing opportunities to discuss books with others creates an environment that encourages children to want to read. Students were encouraged to discuss books as a group or with me individually.

 

Addressing reading skills was easier than I had originally expected. To further allow the students ownership and choices, I created folders with a variety of activities that addressed different skills. By allowing students to choose books and activities, I felt they were being given an individualized reading program that met their individual needs.

 

I asked all students to complete “main idea” posters for each chapter. We retold stories by making group books, we located story elements from our stories and newspaper articles, and we did a great deal of writing. These activities helped students maintain previously learned skills. The reading program became one that included many elements of reading and allowed the children to make sense of what they were reading, rather than struggle with pieces of reading with no meaning. I taught the children skills for decoding using a “whole-part-whole” approach. Whole-part-whole instruction embeds word-identification instruction in the context of real reading and writing. Whole instruction introduces children to good literature that allows them to read, comprehend, and respond to the text. Next, teachers select words from the given text and use them for direct skills instruction, which is the “part” to this approach. Finally, the teacher gives additional reading and writing activities to allow students to apply these skills, which brings the student back to the “whole.” This approach was successful with my students. The choices of activities are endless.

 

The use of real text and an array of activities appeared to have a positive effect on my students and their level of motivation toward reading. When students sense the power of literacy in their lives, they develop ownership of literacy and make it a part of their everyday lives at home and at school. Choices imply that students are empowered in the classroom interactions and decisions.

 

Integrating writing became an important change within my classroom. I wanted students to see the importance of writing. Students did a great deal of writing without realizing it while they did their reading activities. They enjoyed the activity itself enough that they did not realize that writing was a natural part of reading. These activities, found in the activity folder, allowed students the opportunity to express themselves and focus on meaning making, rather than being given a worksheet that required them to choose the correct answer by circling it. Students were writing their own books with accounts about their lives. Once students finished writing about a time in their lives, I asked them to edit their work and do rewrites. When students were finished with rewrites, they went to the computer to type their stories, print them, and illustrate them. Once the story was complete, the page was laminated. At the end of the year, the students bound the stories into their own books, authored by them. Response to this was positive; students were excited about the final copy.

 

Students can use journaling to understand characters, predict plot lines, discuss characters’ actions, question their own reactions to the story, and relate the book to experiences in their own lives. My students used all these techniques with positive responses. Students kept “literature dialogue” journals with another special education class and enjoyed the anonymity that came with this form of writing. While journaling with the other class, students opened up and related their own lives to that of the story character. Students also responded well in personal journals. Predicting allowed the student to relate prior knowledge to the reading task at hand. Students then formed ideas or predictions about the text to be read.

 

Overall, the changes I have made in my reading program have had a positive effect on my students. I have observed an increase in their motivation to read. My own observations were important to my decision to continue with this approach to reading; more important, however, I wanted to know what my students were thinking. Children’s written responses to text are valuable for discussion sessions, which reveal their understanding of the text.

 

Feedback from classroom teachers stated that these same students were volunteering to read orally in class and becoming active participants in social studies and science projects done in groups. The students used learned skills and generalized them to other areas and, best of all, viewed themselves as readers in any context.

 

Reading and writing are important for a successful literacy program, especially for students of diverse backgrounds. Many of our students face difficult home lives; and, as teachers, we can help some of these students understand the challenges in their lives through the literacy program. The use of authentic reading and writing tasks has had a positive effect on my students. My own journey through the reading wars was one of trial and error. I have learned that, ultimately, my comfort level with reading instruction had to come from my students and me.  

 

Jeff C. Palmer is a teacher, success coach, trainer, Certified Master of Web Copywriting and founder of https://Ebookschoice.com. Jeff is a prolific writer, Senior Research Associate and Infopreneur having written many eBooks, articles and special reports.

 

Source: https://ebookschoice.com/reading-and-writing-are-important-for-a-successful-literacy-program/