Kelly
7 April 2008
The
Miracle of Literacy for a Nation
His name is John. He’s a seventh
grade student, and he’s forever changed my views on education. We come from
opposite sides of 610, but we might as well inhabit opposite ends of the Earth.
Yet John’s smiling face erases all my nervousness as I help him with his new
list of vocabulary words. John is a student at
The nickname for John’s
neighborhood is Dead End, a place where the calloused hands of poverty envelop their
territory with a ruthless grip. The weeds and beer cans in the parking lot of a
fast food restaurant, the old trash that lies beneath the broken street lights,
and the letters that hang precariously on the neon lights of decrepit grocery
stores make me wonder if I’ve crossed
What is literacy? According to
the National Institute for Literacy, literacy is the ability to
“read and gain information from specialized text, for example the science
section in the local newspaper” (NIFL). Only one in seventeen 17 year olds
meets this criteria (NIFL) and only one in three adults has the ability to
extract meaning from a simple sentence such as the one you’re reading right now
(Literacy Advance of Houston). But what
is the importance of literacy in daily life beyond facts and statistics?
Literacy is the ability to read the newspaper, fill out an application for a
job, understand a contract, or even decipher meaning from food labels at the
local grocery store. Illiteracy is the designer of poverty, the catalyst that
begins the domino effect from unemployment, to poverty, to welfare in
The area surrounding
Until three years ago,
I asked Mrs. Reed-Byrd this
same question after her English class of seventh grade students heads to lunch.
She proudly points to a certificate above her desk labeled ENVoY Coach. In an
interview a few weeks ago with a leader of the ENVoY program, Ms. Mary Yenik,
Ms. Yenik provides a brief history of ENVoY, a learning environment program.
Developed by communication genius Michael Grinder after research in more than
6000 classrooms, ENVoY is a system of classroom management that helps teachers
create a positive classroom environment through influence instead of power. Through
simple, non-verbal communication techniques such as pausing or whispering at
times when the noise of a class reaches an inappropriate level, teachers are
able to keep the attention of their students in a positive way rather than
employing strategies of fear to keep order. Among these non-verbal techniques,
ENVoY particularly focuses on strategies concerning voice patterns and the idea
of “going visual” in which teachers provide visual instructions on a board or
poster that can be referenced at anytime by the teacher or the students. “Going
visual” helps students remember their tasks, increases the learning of the day’s
lesson, and helps eliminate confusion. When teachers practice ENVoY’s strategies
daily, they create an atmosphere conducive to learning while simultaneously
holding students responsible for their own actions and behavior.
When asked about the challenges in teaching her students how to
successfully prepare for the reading section of the TAKS exam, Mrs. Reed-Byrd
didn’t know where to start. “The hardest part is instilling concentration. Our
students can score at their grade level or better in math, but with reading
it’s a struggle for students just to score at their grade level. When they have
to read long passages their attention drifts. ” She also mentions that she
can’t make any assumptions of what the children know. For her students to fully
understand the process to answering reading comprehension questions, she must
take her class through step-by-step strategies, leaving little time for
exploration of her subject. But she especially emphasizes the importance of
concentration throughout the two days I spent in her classroom. “That’s why
ENVoY is so important; it really helps me keep the kids’ attention.”
Knowledge Arts Foundation
works to teach ENVoY strategies to teachers in order to create a supportive
environment for all schools with a focus at this time on schools of poverty.
The program’s successful effects are incontrovertible; in every school ENVoY enters,
the test scores increase. Part of the program entails selecting teachers who
demonstrate leadership skills to become ENVoY coaches. These selected teachers
then return to their schools with new skills and act as resources for their
colleagues as well as new teachers. ENVoY not only helps teachers become better
teachers, but it contributes to a greater sense of community within the
schools. However, the impact of ENVoY really hit home after I interviewed a
student on his favorite part of reading class. Terron started out the year as a
shy seventh grader, but his grades are soaring and he now participates actively
in class. “When I make a mistake, no one gets mad at me. The posters on the
wall help me remember how to fix my mistakes, and Mrs. Reed-Byrd helps me make
it better for next time.” I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect example of
power through influence.
Adding to the effectiveness of
ENVoY in the classrooms, the staff of
When I stepped into Mr.
Sorrells’ cluttered office, I felt an aura of booming enthusiasm and dedication
to educating children. After teaching for more than twenty five years in
schools of all socio-economic backgrounds, Mr. Sorrells doesn’t have enough
wall space to cover pictures of former students, family, and his own artwork
for which he’s nationally recognized. In the corner there’s a big box of
trophies which he awards to the teacher of the week, and another box of smaller
trophies which he awards to any faculty member who just did something nice. As
I interviewed him about the three years he’s spent at
And
hire great teachers, he certainly has. The members of Mr. Sorrells’ team work
hard not only to educate in their specific subjects, but to encourage and
inspire beyond the classroom. Mr. Whittington, an ENVoY coach and assistant
math teacher who specializes in children with special needs paused and beamed
from ear to ear when I asked him about the best part of his job. “I don’t just
get to teach math, but I get to teach about life, about English, and I get to
mold a child. There’s so many diamonds who don’t realize they’re diamonds. They
just need some polishing.” Mrs. Mask, the school counselor, cheerleader coach,
and test coordinator, (many faculty members have several different jobs at
Thomas) helps students in any area ranging from personal issues to finding a
way to supply a student with a new set of glasses. Ms. Williams, a math
teacher, band director, and soccer coach has her students free write a
paragraph about any topic before she begins her math lesson. “I think it’s
important that students know how to write a paragraph. It gives them a chance
to express things they might not mention otherwise, and I get a chance to learn
more about them.”
I had no clue how much energy
and sheer dedication it takes to teach a class before my two days in Mrs.
Reed-Byrd’s classroom at Albert Thomas. Initially determined not to become a
teacher, Mrs. Reed-Byrd began her teaching career only three years ago after
she married and had two children. She felt a calling to teach. Mrs. Reed-Byrd
teaches three class periods that last for an hour and a half, each with about
thirty students. Mrs. Montgomery, a teacher who specializes in children with
special needs helps provide extra attention for the students who need it, but
Mrs. Reed-Byrd admits that she often feels drained by the end of the day.
However, she is one among many teachers at Albert Thomas who strongly believes
the satisfaction she feels when her students succeed is worth every ounce of
her effort. She tolerates no slandering in her classroom, and she praises
often. She’s a firm believer in ENVoY, and she truly thinks it’s made her a
better teacher. Most importantly, Mrs. Reed-Byrd believes in her students. I
asked Mrs. Reed-Byrd if she could remember a student who particularly stood out
to her, and her eyes widened as she slowly nodded. “There was one student I had
that I’ll never forget. He had been held back in the seventh grade for several
years, and he was a classroom bully. One day, I took him outside and said, ‘Do
you really think I don’t care about you, because I do care about your life.
Just like you’re a leader in your gang, you can be a leader of a company, a
CEO, or anything you want to be. Anything.
And I think that’s the first time he really had someone to believe in him.”
This student passed the seventh grade that year, went on to high-school, and
still goes back to
Before my two days in Mrs.
Reed-Byrd’s classroom, the only time I ever heard about a School like Albert
Thomas was if it was in the local news for some kind of crime that occurred in
the neighborhood. I didn’t realize the amazing feats that occur every day in
this environment. From the simple task of celebrating when a student answers a
reading comprehension question correctly, to believing in a child for maybe the
first time in his or her life, I can’t begin to describe all the big and small
accomplishments that occur. In a school like Albert Thomas, literacy takes on
the faces of real people and real children. It is no longer just a statistic.
Now, instead of seeing black and white numbers, I see brightly painted walls, I
hear Mrs. Reed-Byrd calling on a student, and I feel the feeling of success of
a student named John who understands his new vocabulary words. The voice of Mr.
Sorrells rings clearly in my ear, and I see a program called ENVoY marching
through those cold, hard numbers, ready to battle the challenge of illiteracy.
I now know that we as individuals and we as a nation can take the grimness off
those statistics. Now I know that a program called ENVoY and other initiatives
dealing with literacy do it every day.
Works Cited
"About Literacy
Advance of
"Reading
Facts." 19 Sept. 2007. National Institute for Literacy. 8 Apr. 2008
<http://www.nifl.gov>.
"
kelly@knowledgearts.net