A year-and-a-half ago, I listened to Dr. Barresi's first State School Board meeting. She obviously came into the meeting determined to antagonize members of the Board, and she did. This is the first commentary I wrote about education 'reform' in our state. The images here are still the dominate ones, even though the entire Board has now been replaced by appointees by the Governor. All the posturing and manufactured outrage after that meeting in 2011 set the tone for the bullying behavior of our OSDE and our Superintendent of Public Schools who's trying to privatize the schools. I offer it as the first look at what we've been suffering ever since.

The cartoon and editorial in the Sunday Oklahoman depicts the Oklahoma School Board as a bunch of misbehaving youngsters and Superintendent Barresi as the harried teacher trying to keep order. The details sympathized with Dr. Barresi's attempts to keep her unruly class in order.

I listened to the meeting online, and I have another perspective.

Much has been made of Senator Rozell’s inappropriate remark. 

But, as any teacher or parent will tell you, the person who swings the roundhouse, as he did here,  is not the one who started the altercation, just the one who got caught. So, who was throwing sand and poking sticks? Who started the fight?

Listen to the meeting and you’ll see Superintendent Barresi was not an innocent victim of the mean old Board.

Some of the sand thrown by Superintendent Barresi:

·         Not replying to Board member Gilpin’s requests for information about the proposed members of the Superintendent’s staff, people who worked on Superintendent Barresi’s campaign but have no education training or experience.
·         Appointing people to senior positions in the SDE who have neither training nor experience in education. Superintendent Barresi’s answer was they ‘had worked with educators.’
·         Allowing her campaign aides to work in senior positions at the SDE before the Board approved their hiring
·         Paying these campaign aides with funds from a private Foundation
·         Appointing a woman to the position of Legislative Liaison who will be absent from the job during the most important weeks of the Session
·         Introducing her ‘staff’ and sharing the happy news about new babies before any staff was approved.
·         Increasing the salaries for her campaign aides from the previous staff positions from $75,000 to $96,000.

So, imagine yourself on the playground with another child who threw sand in your face, who poked you with a stick, but only when no one was watching. Then imagine you’re the one who got blamed for the entire altercation. Did you do the wrong thing? Absolutely. Should you say ‘sorry’? Absolutely. 

But what about the sand-thrower? Should she say ‘sorry’ too? Absolutely.  

Happens every day on playgrounds.  Teachers know to look for the child with sandy fingers , dropping a sharp stick.

Bullying in the Schools...Bullying OF the Schools

We hear so much about bullying in schools, and we're admonished to identify it, call it out, and stop it. In my classroom I try...in the halls I try. I will confront teens who are much taller than I and tell them their behavior is bullying. I explain to my girls that eye-rolling is a form of bullying. I work to make my classroom a bully-free zone. But, what can I do when the biggest bully in my professional life is the elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction? What can I do when I'm the victim, along with other educators, of a woman who believes she has a mandate to intimidate, threaten and abuse public school educators?

Any history of Dr. Janet Barresi's treatment will accidentally leave some episodes out, so I'm going to rely only on my hazy memory. Like many victims of bullying, incidents seem to blend together into a toxic environment where I'm simply waiting for the next metaphorical blow. Wayne Green's reporting for the Tulsa World will fill in the gaps.

It started at Dr. Barresi's first State School Board meeting where she came in ready to pick a fight. That's what bullies do, isn't it? She engineered the situation so members of the Board confronted her refusal to provide the Board with information about her appointees. I listened to the entire meeting -- the yelling, the snide comments on both sides. It was hard to believe that professionals would carry on this way. When Dr. Barresi didn't get what she wanted with the Board, she managed to manipulate the situation to make herself look like a victim (bullies are good at being able to appear the victim when confronted), and got herself a hand-picked Board, one that was to rubber-stamp any of her decisions. She got her appointees, even though they didn't meet the qualifications of the office. But she got what she wanted.

Since then, she's strong-armed the Legislature and the Governor's office to carry out her vision of reform. We now have a law that will flunk third-graders who don't pass the reading proficiency test, despite research that shows this is not in the child's interest. We have a law that has tried to erode due-process for teachers. We have a new teacher evaluation system that is partially based on student test scores. We passed a law that will assign each school in the state a letter grade, A-F. She got everything she wanted. Bullies are good at doing that.

They're also skilled at ignoring their victims' attempts at assertiveness. I attended and spoke at the Public Comments meeting, for the A-F grading, along with district superintendents, principals, central office leaders, legislators, PTA officers. We were there at the meeting. The only member of the OSDE staff attending was the lawyer to pushed 'play' on the tape recorder. Bullies marginalize their victims with their disdain.

Our state waiver from the requirements of NCLB includes a provision that if any of these laws is repealed, our entire waiver is null and void. So, we're trapped, as victims often are, under the weight of her vision.

Bullying other adults, professionals with whom you're supposed to collaborate is inexcusable, but our OSDE completely crossed the line when it chose to bully the very people we're all charged to protect: the students of our state.This summer for the first time graduating seniors were required to pass four End-of-Instruction exams in order to earn their high school diploma. Under pressure from the Legislature, the OSDE set up a process for students and their parents to challenge this process and appeal to the State School Board. We were horrified to learn that in order to do so, students and their parents were required to waive their rights to privacy under the federal FERPA law.  Every one of these students was already traumatized by the state's requirement they not only pass all their high school classes, but they also pass four of seven EOIs. Every one of these students was a story, a special circumstance, a tale of honest endeavors and broken dreams. Every student hoped to have a hearing in front of the State Board to plead his or her case. The price of that hearing? Loss of all privacy. All privacy. I wonder if the OSDE hoped students and their families would be intimidated into silence by being forced to waive their rights. They may have trusted the OSDE to handle their information with respect and sensitivity. Boy, they put their trust in the wrong bunch.

Ostensibly, signing the waiver was to allow the Board to examine school records and make their ruling. Instead of limiting the records to only the Board, the OSDE published private information on its website: name, address, even special education labels! Every year teachers are required to complete training on the privacy act so we never violate a student's rights. Our OSDE had no qualms at publicly embarrassing these students and their families.

But bullies don't worry about niceties. They barrel over people; they do not respect the weak, the hesitant. Instead they gravitate to them and seem to enjoy the power they have over others' lives. After a public outcry complaining of the students' treatment, the OSDE took down the names and identifying information, but only after the Board insisted. OSDE still asserts they did nothing wrong...typical bully behavior.

Bullies' victims become anxious, depressed, and educators in Oklahoma are feeling this. When the victims are our own students and we are powerless to protect them, we feel even more beaten down.  We keep wondering what's next? When's the next attack going to happen? Who will the next victim be?

We didn't have long to wait. The unveiling of the A-F school grades was to be a triumph for the OSDE. They'd railroaded objections, they'd ignored research, requests to slow down the process. They are charting a course unlike other states' grading systems, and they're determined to power through without input. They'd decided what would happen, and they made it clear they would have their way. Then district superintendents banded together. They spoke out. They held a news conference. They stood up to the bully. And, they got called names by the bully and her buddies. The Governor and the Superintendent sounded like mean girls as they called these dedicated professional educators names. The tone of their remarks was snotty at best.

So, Dr. Barresi's hand-picked, rubber-stamp Board stood up to her and voted unanimously to postpone the grand unveiling of the scores, going against the OSDE's wishes. In the kind of flash of anger we expect from bullies, the Superintendent lashed out at one of the Board members after the meeting, shaking her finger in the member's face and acting rudely. Bullies do not like to be confronted and they seldom respond with maturity. In fact, after weeks of threatening districts to silence about the grades, and after the Board voted to postpone the release of the scores, the OSDE contacted all the districts and told them they COULD release the scores, in direct conflict with the Board's vote. Bullies don't like being thwarted.

Two more years. That's how long we have to survive this bully. Two more years. But there's hope. The district superintendents, nearly 300 of them, stood up to her. Her own Board voted against her wishes.

There is hope our days of being victims may be over...Then maybe we can begin to heal.

Letter to OK House Education Committee Responding to Interim Study of National Board

I just sent this note to all the House members of the Education Committee. They are studying the feasibility of the National Board support program and stipend program in Oklahoma. Of course the meeting is during the school day, so I can't attend. 

I have found this year highly frustrating, since more students means less time to write and to communicate to my Legislators. I'm sure they're not heart-broken, but in my effort to grade and keep up with my students, the writing has had to stop. Unintended consequence of education reform, I guess....

Good evening. Thank you for letting me talk to you about National Board. I will not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow...it's our last day of classes before Fall Break, and I really need to be with my students.

I have not been able to share my concerns with you this year, since I have more students -- 155 per day, and more students means more grading, more contacts, more emails. II know timely feedback to students is one of the most important ways to impact student learning, and that means I work hard to get papers back the day after they're turned in.  That means no time for writing, for communicating with you, even for family...it's been a tough beginning of the year. I'm hoping to get the balance back soon. I don't want you to think my silence is disinterest or apathy. It's bone-numbing fatigue of 3+ hours of grading a night.

I know you're studying the feasibility of our ELO-NBPTS program in Oklahoma, and you're wanting evidence of the effectiveness of NBCTs in the classroom. Boy, do I have opinions. I was in the third class of NBC candidates, and have recently renewed my certification, even though I am retiring this year. There was no way I intended to retire as a former NBCT! This certification is the most important professional learning of my long career. Not only because of what I've learned, but also because of the many ways I can affect student learning, document that learning, and expect even more from my students.

My NBC has allowed me to work with education professionals from SNU, from OU, where I've taught undergraduate and graduate classes as an adjunct. I've participated in a national committee through National Writing Project and have been asked to present at National Council of Teachers of English. I am visible as an NBCT, in the classroom. My NBC is my ticket to state and national leadership. This all comes back to student impact, because my leadership helps me learn new ways to reach out to my students.

Since my NBC, I have crafted an English elective, Reading for Pleasure, with student impact in mind. I invented the class to prove students can change their attitude about reading and their practices. Students leave my class more confident in their reading, and much more likely to enjoy it. They face college or the workplace much more able to communicate. 

Students see the direct connection between my class and their performance on standardized tests -- their EOIs, their AP tests, and the ACT. I have evidence of improved scores, more confidence when taking the tests if you'd like to read my research.

This year, in four weeks, my students have read 390 books. They have reflected on their attitudes about reading, they have set personal goals for their class. They have recorded their reflections about books. They have had conversations with other students, and they have produced multi-media presentations.

Students have, for the past two semesters, read nearly half-a-million pages each semester. They report they read faster and comprehend better. They see the cross-over to other high school classes, and improvement in their writing skills in all classes.

None of this would have happened without my NBC. I would never have seen my students as co-researchers in my class, I wouldn't have understood the incredible power of self assessment and self reflection, a backbone of NBC.

I would love to have you come and visit my class and see my students in action. My empowerment through my NBC has helped empower my students. They are amazing. In case you think every student in my class came to me loving reading, let me set the record straight. This class is for everyone...9-12. I have advanced, AP students sitting next to IEP students, sitting next to remedial readers, next to ELL students. Some students DO love to read, but many haven't finished reading a book for years. Students have often remarked that our class is one of the most democratic classes, and everyone here treats each other with respect and support.

This program reinvigorated my career. I have always scanned my faculty at Norman North and targeted the bright new teachers I want to go through the NBC process...I only lack two departments before I'll have an NBCT in every department at Norman North (can you tell I take this program personally!). Think of that. An NBCT in every department in a school of  2400 students. Look at our test scores. Look at our report card. We are highly effective. Part of that success is the high number of NBCT on staff, make no mistake.

I understand the concern about sustainability of the program. But, it seems to me for every new NBCT, even at the height of the program, at least one NBCT retired, as I will, or left the profession, or left the state. I would imagine the program was close to reaching that balance of one-in-one-out. When that happens, there won't be any additional expense for stipends.

Other suggestions: fund stipends for the 10 years of the original certification...then fund 10 years for a new NBCT. This would also sustain the program.

Continue the amazing ELO program with support and training. But expect new NBCTs to pay back the scholarship with their first stipend check. That will zero-out the scholarship costs.

Tie stipends to some kind of candidate support and/or district leadership. Documentation should not be difficult. Expect more from our NBCTs outside the classroom.

But, DO NOT expect NBCTs to 'create' higher test scores. Most of us do not teach in a tested area, and that was NEVER the intent of NBC -- or teaching, for that matter. Student impact, not student test scores, is our focus. 

WHEN student test scores do increase, it's a great side effect of effective teaching and reflective learning. It's not the direct result. We see 'student impact' in a much wider, systemic way. We're educating the whole child, and often the whole family. We're educating for much more than a narrow test score, one day in April. That should be the reason you want to invest in this program.

Most of us can go on forever about how our teaching has changed. We see the classroom differently. We can quickly diagnose confusion in learning and distracting behavior. We are able to effect changes and are willing to keep trying until we've changed behavior or gotten through to a student. We understand and use feedback to reteach and redirect. We step up and mentor other teachers, we share our expertise. We lead from the classroom. We change lives every day. You want us in the classroom, and for this work, the stipends are a deserving way to acknowledge our contributions.

Thank you for YOUR contributions to our state, and to our state's children. We truly are partners, working together. I hope I can be helpful. I would love to visit further...thank you for your time tonight...now, I'm going back to my grading! :)

Self-inflicted Wound...Teachers, We Have Hurt Ourselves

Teachers have unwittingly contributed to the recent attacks on our profession by not becoming political, not being active and involved. These attacks and the damages they’ve done to public education are, therefore, self-inflicted wounds. The question is, will we staunch the bleeding or sit helplessly by and allow the damage to continue?

By nature, we teachers are  apolitical. Since we work with all children every day we try to balance and respect the views of our students, their parents and our administration. That balancing act demands that we not take sides in the classroom, be open and accepting of all, as we teach our students to analyze ideas, and points of view through close reflection.

We are engulfed by the demands of our jobs – with planning, delivering instruction, revising, teaching, assessing, planning, instructing, revising…Our teaching life is more than a full-time job, and often we’re so weary we hesitate to take on ‘one more thing.’

After 39 years in the classroom, voting in every election, being the best citizen-teacher I could be, I decided teachers cannot afford to sit quietly on the sidelines, voting, but not speaking up. Or worse, not voting, or worst, not even registering to vote.

Today, teachers’ very apolitical stance, our acquiescent silence, is being used against us, and more critically, against the students we teach.  Policymakers count on most of us staying quiet.

One statistic I’ve heard suggests only 30% of the teachers in Oklahoma even vote. Another, quoted in the offices of the OSDE, crowed over as excuses to marginalize teachers: ONLY 18% of educators voted state-wide when DDS Barresi was first elected.

We have ceded our rights and our voice by not voting, or by voting without thoroughly checking out the platforms of candidates. We have allowed politicians to ignore us...to stop listening to us. We have contrubuted to our own miseries...

Some of us, like some voters in general, vote straight party tickets without investigating the messages of candidates who become our elected leaders. Some of us vote for one knee-jerk issue that in no way actually impacts what really happens in our classrooms, issues that are used to manipulate and inflame.

So, if only 18% to 30% of teachers vote, we have given up our right to affect educational policy, and to share our expertise.

If only 18% to 30% of teachers vote, policymakers assume we’ll sit quietly as they attack our retirement programs, our professional organizations, and our commitment to our own personal and professional growth.

If only 18% to 30% of us vote, lawmakers assume we’ll accept laws that mandate more testing, more testing misused to promote students, to evaluate teachers and to grade schools. Lawmakers, many of whom have never taught a day in public schools now decide they know what and how we should teach, and they assume we will quietly continue working under a heavier and heavier burden of mandates.

We are teachers, and unfortunately, we have taught the wrong lesson: we're not interested in being involved, so we don't matter. 

It’s an ugly truth, but teachers must accept partial responsibility for the current anti-teacher, anti-education climate in our state, because we have been apolitical. We don’t vote, we vote without studying the issues.

We have elected, or allowed to be elected, lawmakers whose stated plan is to cripple public schools, to send public tax money to private schools, to encourage charters to squeeze public schools, to invite for-profit online schools to cannibalize our schools. We have allowed policymakers to label us as whiners when we point out the promises that have been broken. We sat still as teacher evaluations are now based on student test scores, when high stakes tests cripple the climate in our classrooms.

We are complicit. We have chosen not to vote, to not even register to vote. We have chosen to vote without investigating candidates’ motives.

Our current anti-teacher, anti-public education climate is, in part, a self-inflicted wound. Not only is the profession, and indeed, all of public education, bleeding, we stood still as it happened. We helped; we allowed others to damage our profession and the public education system we’ve devoted our lives to.  We did not protect ourselves and our students and our profession from attack.

Now, what’s our plan to heal the damage?

Matt Esker and I founded a FB page, Oklahoma Education Voters, where we identified common issues, we created a questionnaire for candidates, and we are compiling and sharing their reponses. Nearly 900 Oklahoma Education Voters are educating themselves on the issues that matter, and are being proactive

Mine is to continue contacting my legislators, to tell my story, to volunteer my expertise. I will educate myself about the legislation coming forward. I’ll confront my legislators about any involvement with ALEC, which writes much of the current legislation being passed around the country. I’ll get involved with candidates’ campaigns, volunteering time and donating money if I can.  I will ask questions. I’ll find other professionals who feel as passionately as I do, and I’ll work with them, together, for all students. I will be loud.

Teachers, what’s your plan?

My Internal Conflict: R4P Boosts Test Scores

School has started again, and I've met my students. I love having new students who don't know me or a thing about the class. They come in, look at the book shelves literally groaning with books, and wonder what they've gotten themselves into. I love having students who've taken the class before 'come home' for another semester of reading. They help me create a supportive climate for reading and writing and thinking from the first day. This semester, two boys have returned for their fourth semester! We laugh and say they're majoring in R4P.

I always talk about all the reasons to take my class and I watch heads nod in agreement. Some kids are avid readers like me and love the idea of getting credit for what they'd do anyway. Some students used to love reading and are willing to try again. Some are preparing themselves for the added demands of college reading. Some are forced to take the class, our only option for students who really need a remedial class...special education students (this semester I have between 6 and 10 special needs students in each section) whose teachers schedule them into the class; remedial readers who need more practice but there's no remedial classes offered; English-language learners who need to interact with print; foreign exchange students who want to learn more about American books and work on their English. I also know I'll have kids who don't like to read whose parents have seen the class in the course catalog and think it'll be 'good' for their children. Then there's the random student who, for no reason, finds himself in my class.

It's a real mixed bag. 155+ students, probably that many motivations for being in class.

A few years after I created the class, I learned some kids took it for a reason I SHOULD have guessed and didn't. They needed to improve their ACT scores for college. Instinctively they knew a class where they'd read and write every day would be helpful. They couldn't articulate why, but they knew it would help.

I'll admit, there's that part of me as an educator who hates the fact I'm using test scores as a way to sell my class. I know standardized tests have their place, but they also have limitations. And the fact that so many tests, ACT included, are high stakes -- deciding students' futures -- makes me cringe.

Then I step back and remind myself I'm NOT contributing to the huge testing industry. I'm not selling ACT prep books or courses or modules. I'm not hawking my wares to desperate students and their parents. I'm making a space in their day to read books they choose, and I'm giving them an authentic audience for their thoughts about books. I'm giving them books. I'm getting to know them well enough so I can match their interests and abilities to books. I'm sharing books and asking them to share.

The work we do in F4P contributes to their development as people, not test takers. If they improve their test scores, that's a lovely side benefit, but not the reason.

I told my new students my story yesterday. I told them IF they do intend to raise their ACT scores, I think I know how it'll happen. We acknowledge the fact that the reading and social studies and science sections of the test have long passages to read. Sometimes students can't focus on these passages, sometimes their attention spans are too short, their confidence levels are low. Sometimes they can't read fast enough to finish the selections. All these difficulties have nothing to do with their reading comprehension. And all these behaviors are ones students will work on through the course of our semester together. We sit for increasingly-longer amounts of time and read. Students who can't sit still at the beginning of the semester learn to be quiet and focused for longer and longer amounts of time. They discover their reading zone because they are truly motivated to read the books they've chosen. There is an inherent interest in their books and a real reason to read. I use the word 'stamina' to describe this ability...they're building reading stamina just as a long-distance runner would build her stamina.

The other reason I believe my class contributes to higher test scores is reading speed. Daily practice helps students read faster. Most of my students want to read faster when they set semester goals...they believe they read too slowly. That would be huge handicap on timed tests like the ACT. Students often speak of their anxiety trying to finish before time is called. Reading more quickly will hep all students when faced with those long passages.

So, I have tried to come to peace with telling students my class can help their test-taking abilities. I justify my stance by telling myself and them that I'm NOT changing my curriculum to practice for tests, not cutting something from my class to practice and prep. I'm giving time and space and books to readers.I'm providing authentic practice for tests and for life.

Tests are an ugly reality in my students' lives. They'll decide if my students are accepted into college, how much scholarship money they'll earn...I didn't make this world. No one consulted me. IF they had, I'd've told them what I think of their tests. BUT no one asked.

Here's what my students told me about how my class helped them in the nasty world of standardized testing.

• After taking this class, my ACT reading score went up 5 points!
• After my last semester in R4P, my ACT score when up 4 point in reading and 2 points overall from 24 to 26. My mom wants me to keep taking the class because as far as she’s concerned, if it raises my ACT score, it’s making me money.
• Helped me on my ACT after learning the patience required to sit still and read. My English and reading scores improved
• My ACT reading went up 4 points
• R4P has helped me to be able to focus for long periods of time and stay attentive. It has helped tremendously with the ACT
• R4P has increased my ability to read faster and my comprehension when I do, helping me on my AP test and even when I forgot to do my Astronomy homework and needed to highlight fast.
• Reading used to mean squat to me. Now I absolutely LOVE to read! Since starting this class, I’ve increased my ACT reading score, which got me an academic scholarship, and I can actually pay attention in English class when we read
• The class really helped me with AP English readings…and to read faster for the ACT and AP tests
• The last time I took the ACT I got 31 on English and 33 on Reading!
• The most compelling reason to take this class, I think would be that it improves your English and reading, not only for school, but also for the ACT more importantly
• There is so much to read on the AP Stats and AP English test that it is sometimes hard to finish in the allotted amount of time. Because of R4P. I was able to finish reading all the passages and answering all the questions way before time was up and was actually able to go through and check my answers.

We Read for Pleasure, but We Accidentally Learn

From the first day of my Reading for Pleasure class (initially called 'Appreciating Literature' since I was afraid to call the class what it really is), I have been blessed with administrators who understood what I was doing, or at least trusted me to understand what I was doing. No one has ever suggested I do pre-and post-tests, proving students are better readers at the end of the semester. No one has insisted that I show 'results', demand that all students read the same number of books, or the same number of pages. At the beginning, I just wanted to show that a class where students were giving the freedom to choose which books to read would impact their attitudes about reading and their own perception of themselves as readers.

I've given reading tests for 30 years, and I know most students don't understand the results. What, exactly, does the number 8.6 tell us about their reading? They DO understand if they read more slowly than the other students in class, or if they realize in discussions their understanding of the book is incomplete. They know if they can read all the words in the assigned texts -- and if they can't, they go into panic mode, spending their energies on trying to hide their inadequacies from their classmates and their teachers. They know reading can trip them up all through their day. These are the students I hoped will come away with a new perception of their strengths and their developing capabilities.

I didn't intend for my class to impact students' work outside my walls, but from listening, asking the right questions, and trusting my students to ask questions they want to answer, I've learned much. The benefits of my 'little' elective are far-reaching inside Norman North High School and beyond, in colleges and universities. I help students become 'life long readers' and 'life long learners.' I always wondered what those terms meant -- I now see the transformation begin.

On their final last semester, students wrote a question that addressed impact on other classes. "How has R4P helped you in your other classes? Explain." It wasn't one of the required questions, but many students did choose to speak to the changes they've seen in their work at school because of our class.

The biggest impact students notice is their ability to focus, sit still and pay attention for longer and longer, their willingness to be quiet and be with a book. We don't begin our semester reading for 45 minutes a day. I know many of my students cannot sit that long and focus. This is one of the many ways my students vary wildly in their abilities. Some are used to sitting for hours and reading. Others literally can't focus for five minutes. I talk to them about building their stamina slowly. We break up the class period with other activities, but we read every day. I've had extreme cases where students, usually because of learning difficulties and attention deficits, feel trapped by the quiet in our room. Most of them trust me and work with me. I learned a wonderful strategy to use with such kids and am eager to try. I watched a teacher literally time a student reading for two minutes, giving him a break, and then asking for another two minutes. It was done respectfully and the young man was eager to extend his attention. It doesn't take long for those kids to surface in the classroom, and now I have a new idea to help them extend their stamina.

Most of the students don't use the word 'stamina' but that's what we're building...like a runner, like a swimmer. We need to practice extending the time we can read and focus. Nearly every student who enrolls in the class with a stamina challenge has found the discipline to be quiet and to attend to his or her book for longer and longer amounts of time.

Students also point to increased vocabularies...one father just told me that his nieces and nephews noticed how many more 'big words' his son used in conversations now...a year of R4P exposes students to millions of words, many of them new and many of them big!

As a Teacher Consultant for Oklahoma Writing Project, I understand the connection between reading and writing is important and one I stress. We read and we write. They write to me; I provide an authentic audience who responds. Often I'll have students who already know they want to write as professionals. They know, before I ever tell them that reading makes us better writers. I've had students keep journals of the strong writing they encounter in class. But most students are surprised to discover extensive reading strengthens their writing. It doesn't take them long to make that observation and to attribute it to the reading they do in this class.

I didn't set out to change the culture of our school, but the 300 students who take my class each year go out into their other classes armed with new skills, new strengths, and most of all, new confidences. Can't get any better than that.

But it doesn't end at North. Many students have told me they're taking my class to help prepare them for the rigors of college reading and writing. They know they'll have to be self-directed in reading their assignments, and they'll need that stamina we build. Students return from college to tell me the practice in our class did just that -- helped them sustain their independent work through college.

Through social media, I stay in contact with hundreds of my former students. Yesterday, I had a long exchange with a former student about Hunger Games -- book vs. novel. It's not unusual for former students to ask for book recommendations, or recommend books to me. They send me pictures of their children reading. What we started together in R4P extends into their adult lives.

I've had students who've been inspired to continue their passions for reading and writing, and they've chosen majors in Classics, Literature, Creative Writing, and that makes me proud. I've had other students who tell me as parents they read every day to their children. In some ways, that makes me prouder...we are changing our school and the world with this class.

As usual, I am excited to share my brilliant students' reflections.

• In English class we read the ‘classic’ novels and every time a book comes around no one in the class likes it and that discourages the students from reading because they think all books are going to be that boring and uninteresting if they are regular readers. But in this class we get to choose what books to read and we can find that there are books that we actually like instead of classics…in response to “We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading” ~B.F. Skinner (and yet the student said Angela’s Ashes was the most inspiring.).
• APUSH AP US History)  requires a great deal of discipline in order to read 30 pages of a long, dull, and ultimately torturous text book. R4P helped me improve my reading time, so I could actually read my text in the time I was given.
• By taking this class I am now confident in reading in front of others and so proud of reading so many books.
• I think every student should take this class before they go off to college. I know that I am now more prepared than ever to start college because I can tackle those long hours of just reading
• I’m convinced that reading thoughtfully and consistently in R4P has improved my writing and my overall creativity
• I’m more able to concentrate in other books
• I’ve learned to look out for symbols and figure out their meaning. This has helped with poetry and especially in my AP English class.
• In English we have to read aloud a lot and when I spend 30-50 minutes in 1^st hour listening to characters in my head it can seriously help.
• In other classes I can now read through long tedious passages. I get to relax and enjoy myself when I read.
• Our generation never reads anymore and [the administration] wants to keep us reading
• R4P develops reading/writing skills along with creativity. It also allows students to express themselves through reading
• R4P has definitely helped me in my early enrollment English classes, just improving my reading and English skills. R4P has shown me that I can really enjoy reading if I have the right book.
• R4P has helped in other classes by expanding my vocabulary. I actually enjoy reading now.
• R4P has helped me expand my vocabulary when I’m writing papers for my college composition class
• R4P has helped me in History because I used to not be able to just sit down and read from cover to cover. Now I can calm down and read for longer periods of time. It has helped in English because we have to do the logs, so now I think more about what the characters are thinking and how their actions are going to affect the future of the story
• R4P has helped me in my AP European Hisory class because I have been able to read documents faster. R4P has shown me that I am a very good reader. I find that reading is very relaxing and it helps to just sit down and read instead of doing something that stresses me out.
• R4P has helped me in other classes because I do some sort of reading in every class…I’m able to focus better now. I can pay attention to something that I’m reading for a longer period of time now.
• R4P has helped me in other classes because now I can come up with a fairly good response over any reading material. It has also shown me that I read A LOT, which is something I’m very proud of. I get extreme entertainment out of reading
• R4P has helped me in other classes by making me focus and take the time to understand what I am reading or learning about
• R4P has helped me in other classes by teaching me to try new things even if I don’t like the topic
• R4P has helped me pay closer attention to directions especially in English. There is always room to improve as a reader and I can make time to read.
• R4P has helped me stay focused better in my English class and also outside of school when I’m reading things like instructions and what not
• R4P has increased my reading ability so much that it has impacted my grades. This class has given me the ability to read for a long period of time and comprehend what I’m reading. I now get a great joy from curling up with a good book in the evenings
• R4P has made me feel smarter in all my classes. It gave me new habits. It made my life feel different like I’m in my books doing crazy adventurous and fun things.
• R4P helped in my AP English class because I was able to read the passages on the test faster
• S R4P helped me bear English…I feel like I’m fairly cultured in literature, and that just wouldn’t be true without this class. I feel like I’ve reaped academic rewards from reading and I know it had a large role in how I think and act as a person.
• R4P honestly helps me to not get bored in my other classes. I’ll finish my work and know that I have something fun to do afterwards
• R4P isn’t a core class but it truly has helped in every single one of my core classes.
• Reading makes people smarter->smarter means  more  AP tests, AP classes and higher ACT, SAT, and AP scores-> higher scores reflect well on our school -> good reflection on the school means better reflection on us all and more school funding
• Reading my chemistry book became easier and faster as the year sent on and that’s the best that I could’ve asked for
• Spending an entire semester reading will drastically improve your reading speed, and writing the Logs reflecting on what you’ve read increases your writing ability and reading comprehension at the same time. Not to mention your critical thinking skills!
• The administration…would probably have a riot the size of the state if they did away with R4P
• This class has been one of the biggest impacts on my life in the four years I have been at NNHS

Reading Growth Through My Students' Eyes

As I continue to reflect on my students' final exams, and learn from them, I come to the question that I wasn't sure about when the kids wrote it: What does reading mean and has that changed? If I can predict what they'll say, I worry about the value of the question, and I knew the definition would be positive, and for some students, that would show a change...But as I read, and as I thought back on the changes in their attitudes in just 18 weeks, I'm glad the question is there. This question wasn't for me -- it was for them. They wanted to think about and talk about what reading means to them now.

I've said before, my class is not made up of omnivorous readers, although I do have some avid book-enhalers. My class is a true mixed bag, and I think that's part of the strength. Kids have remarked about how many different students take my class...trouble-makers, perfect students, ELL students, good kids who never give teachers trouble. They're all here. Kids who haven't read a book ever, haven't read since elementary. Kids who have fake-read their way through high school, buying Cliffs Notes and calling it good. They're all here.

One boy wrote me a note about his plans for class: he was going to find a friend to join him in making merry -- disrupting class, talking, kicking back and visiting. He was shocked and dismayed to discover, as he sat pretending to read, that everyone else was engaged in his or her book. He couldn't catch eyes with anyone. He told me he reluctantly started to read his own book and never looked back.

Another girl explained she loved my class because of the democratic nature of it. Other electives self-select students so kids don't get a chance to be with different kinds of students. Here, I've had a tough guy who, when he slapped The Contender closed for the last time, announced with pride that was the first book he'd ever read. It's not too often that he's in a class with National Merit Scholars, cheers and poms, foreign exchange students, college-bound students...all together, all supportive, but all independently pursuing goals, independently reading and writing.The common task of reading gives us all a sense of community and we all respect the differences in our identities at North.

Students are able to take the class more than one time, and some kids try to minor in R4P.  We pitched this change because in a second or third semester, students will be reading new books, facing new comprehension challenges. Since the curriculum is set by students' choices of books and my responding to them, taking the class over is highly beneficial. It is to the climate of my class, too. The returning students know the drill...they act as role models, almost co-teachers in many ways. Their leadership helps us coalesce as a class much faster..

Students do define reading very differently at the beginning of the semester and the end. Words I've heard at the beginning of the semester are: boring, a chore, required, something they're forced to do, hard...I could go on, but the picture is clear These are NOT the eager children they were in their first grade classes, knowing their job was to learn to read. Some have become distracted by other activities, but some have become so beaten down...they've lost hope that there's a book out there for them.

Many kids come to my class assuming it's going to be one more way for the school to prove to them they're not strong, not good enough.They're afraid I'm going to show their weaknesses to the world.  I try to encourage with words, but it's got to be the books that change their minds, about their own strengths and attitudes, and about books. Every book they read, they're stronger readers and more confident readers.

So, as their attitudes, experiences, abilities are so different, their definitions of reading are as well. But a semester of positive, successful encounters with books does make its mark. They have grown as readers, and they can articulate that fact. They're eager to talk about their growth. We can see it in their answer to the question:  What does reading mean to you? How has that changed this semester?

• Reading actually means a lot to me now. I read when I’m stressed and I need to cool down. I read for entertainment, I read for information. I read to enrich my vocabulary. The list just keeps going
• Reading has always been a core, but now it’s a hobby that I love I will now be a reader for life!
• Reading is a glimpse into the collective human consciousness
• Reading is a way for me to learn about people and subject I am interested in, as well as to be entertained every once in a while
• Reading is a way to go on an adventure.
• Reading is an escape for me. I love watching what an author can pull together to make a story.
• Reading makes me feel like I’m in a whole new other world, looking at something from a different perspective.
• Reading means a lot to me because it helps us escape the problems we’re dealing with and find pleasure.
• Reading means exploring the unknown to me.
• Reading means I can step out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary. Explore what would happen if, for instance, a clown jumped from the ferris wheel over a shark-infested ocean and become friends with the sharks, learned their habits and mated with one!
• Reading means learning about others without even talking to them because you can relate to them; it means I can go to Africa while in the bath tub. It means I can hear how someone else dealt with what I’m going through. Reading means I can share knowledge with others and I love that.
• Reading means learning to me. Reading used to be boring but now I have found good books. I can do whatever I set my mind to
• Reading means more to me now than it did before I had this class.
• Reading means the key to knowledge for me because you learn so much from one book
• Reading means to be in a huge fictional world
• Reading means to me that I’ve accomplished something. I read better and understand things in class
• Reading to me is a new-found glory.
• Reading to me is a way to inhabit worlds and fantasies where anything is possible. Where magic is rea and the good guy always wins.
• Reading to me is educational, inspiring, distracting, comforting, fun and entertaining. Not only do I read faster, but I understand more. I get more emotionally attached
• Reading to me is like meditation. All of your worries in life are swept away by a new world. I get a sort of meditating sensation out of reading
• Reading used to be something that was forced upon me at times and something that was dreaded. Now reading is something that is fun and that I do as my choice instead of ‘having’ to read
• Reading used to just be something for me to do. Now, it has grown to be an escape, a way to cope, a way to find answers to life’s questions or whatever I need ti to be
• To me reading is a gateway to another world
• To me reading means escaping this world to enter a new one. At the beginning of the semester, all reading meant to me was opening a book and reading the words.