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Success Stories |
Learning experience: Chauncey Rose eight-grader Corey Sweatt (right) reads a book on volcanoes while wearing a headset in school's Read Right program. |
"Entrepreneur helping
students By SUE
LOUGHLIN In a small, second-story room located near the gym, Chauncey Rose Middle School eighth-grader Charlie Whitney wore headphones and listened closely to a tape of a book about earthquakes. Focusing on one paragraph at a time, he'd listen to the tape and then silently read the paragraph to himself. At some point, he read the paragraph aloud to teacher Michelle Sullivan, but he had not yet achieved "excellent reading" that is smooth and fluent and sounds like normal speech. "I keep saying metal instead of melted," Whitney said to Sullivan, who told him to go through another cycle of listening to the tape and silent reading so he could "smooth it out." The book Whitney read was at the 8/9 grade level. Five months ago, he was reading at the 4/5 grade level, representing an improvement of four grade levels. Whitney is just one of many success stories in the Chauncey Rose Read Right program, which is funded through a $150,000 donation from the Rudy Stakeman family. HOW IT WORKS Its non-traditional methodology calls for students to remodel the network of nerves in the brain that guides the reading process, said Sullivan, Chauncey Rose Read Right coordinator. The program consists of three components: "excellent reading," which involves listening to tapes and silent reading until a student can read the passages aloud fluently; coached reading, in which the tutor actively works with the student, who reads new material for the first time; and independent reading. During coached reading, the tutor doesn't constantly correct the student or have them sound out words. Using prompting, "we have them figure out what is wrong. If it is a syntactic error, we say it sounds funny. If it's a semantic error, we say it doesn't make sense," Sullivan said. The program is used in other school systems and has also been used at major companies to help improve reading levels of adult workers. Stakeman, a founder and former president of Specialty Blanks in Terre Haute, used the program there and knew of its success. Sullivan and tutor Judy Pound work with small groups of students in grades 6, 7 and 8 for 40 minutes each day, and they are astounded at the results. All students who entered the program read below grade level, and some were several grade levels below where they should have been. SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT
SHOWN All students have improved at least one grade level with the majority improving two grade levels. Several students, including Whitney, have improved four grade levels. The success has carried over into their regular classwork, and many students' grades are improving in other subjects. For many of them, "their whole attitude toward school has changed because they are finding success. And by finding success, they are becoming risk-takers," Sullivan said. "I have never experienced any program that has been so successful so fast." Now, school officials want to expand the program. The school district, working in cooperation with Stakeman, plans to apply for $756,000 in Lilly Endowment funds through the Wabash Valley Community Foundation to expand the program to all six middle schools for two years. BENEFITS JUST KEEP COMING The Read Right students are its biggest supporters, and some have pledged to conduct bake sales, car washes and other fund-raisers if necessary to keep the program going. Whitney said he didn't read very well before Read Right and he didn't like to read aloud in class. Now, instead of having to repeat sentences, "I get it right the first time," he said. His grades have improved in other classes and his whole attitude has changed. He reads "a whole bunch," and not just because he has to. His favorite books are the Goosebumps series. Another student in the program, eighth-grader Jackie Byrer, says Read Right has helped her read better and improved her reading comprehension. It's had a trickle-down effect and her grades are improving in other classes. While she had been doing poorly in social studies, she's now getting a B. The program is also cost-efficient Sullivan said. For each 16 to 17 hours of tutoring, students on average improve their reading skills by one grade level. U.S. Department of Education guidelines suggest that successful tutoring programs for adults should result in one grade level improvement for every 100 hours of tutoring and for students in K-5 there should be one grade level improvement for every 180 hours of tutoring. Stakernan said he provided the generous gift "because I felt it was the right thing to do." The sale of Specialty Blanks provided Stakeman with some extra funding to pilot Read Right at Chauncey Rose. He saw the success employees had with Read Right at Specialty Blanks, but he also realized that problems must be solved before students enter the work force. Today's middle school students are "people I may hire in the future," said Stakeman, who owns Wheel Tough Co. and Tuff Stuff Investments. If those youths can improve their reading skills now, "it will make the entire community a better place. Those kids will have an opportunity for a better education. "They will have a better opportunity to earn more money, pay more taxes and help relieve my tax burden," Stakeman said. Pound attributes part of the program's success to the fact that it is a partnership between the students and Read Right staff. "We work together," she said. And the changes she's seen in students bring tears to her eyes. When the program started, some of the students "came in this room and sat slumped over, with their hair over their eyes ... a lot of these kids thought they were dumb." Now, they proudly go back to their classrooms and read as well, if not better, than many of the so-called 'smart kids.' "I can't tell you how exciting that is," Pound said. Copyright 1999
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