What is growth?

I read an interesting article yesterday: An Ala. High School Makes Literacy a Schoolwide Job (Gewertz, 2009). I came across it in my databases searches using only "picture books" as key terms, and although the article only makes passing references to these kinds of books, I'm glad the article popped up.

About a decade ago, administrators at Buckhorn High School started freaking out because a third of their incoming freshmen were reading at or below seventh grade level. Ack! So they decided to make literacy a function of the entire school, not just the responsibility of English teachers. They couldn't find a lot of research or application materials to help them in their implementation, so they, well, they rode by the seat of their pants.

Gewertz writes, "The staff cobbled together an approach that incorporates methods and materials used with younger children, such as art projects and wordless picture books, in high-school-level instruction." She adds, "The idea is to engaging activities and easy-to-access materials as door-openers to more complex subject matter."

The result is a school that looks a lot more like an elementary campus than a high school one, the principal admits. Isn't that interesting? The activities described in the article do have a hands-on feel ... but why is that more indicative of an elementary school than a high school one?

I was also surprised by the activities teachers and students engage in that the author describes as literacy driven. Here's a partial list:

- drawing
- creating foldables
- using computer presentation software
- using guided note taking
- watching television programs that relate to content
- observing art and discussing its cultural relevance
- participating in talk-alouds (my API calls these think-alouds)
- learning to use context clues
- reading shorter articles to understand complex content
- creating graphic organizers

Some of these, clearly, are literacy-driven. But others I would simply describe as engaging. Or better yet ... relevant.

So what's the bottom line? For me, and the author of this article, the bottom line is ... did it work? We are teaching and learning in a "measured results" world. And I think that's just fine. It's entirely appropriate to stop what we're doing once in a while and ask ourselves, "Is this working?" The maxim holds whether we're trying to lose five pounds, get a frangipani to bloom, or improve our students' reading skills.

Back to Buckhorn ... the school performs better than their district and state counterparts on standardized exams, but only by a sliver. I think the better sign that what they're doing is working is this: although still a quarter of their incoming students are reading below grade level, 98% percent of their kids pass the graduation exam by twelfth grade.

Not exactly awesome. I'm sure everyone would like to see that happen by tenth grade, and I'm equally sure their graduation exam isn't a very tough test. But bringing all of their kids up to on-grade reading level by graduation? Sounds pretty darn good to me.

Bring on the picture books.