Abraham Lincoln High School
CAPI Coordinator: Esther Chan
Teachers:
School Year: 2001–2002
Coordinator Report
Demographics
- Number of students served: 85
- Grade level: 9th through 12th
- Number of teachers participating: 3
- Subjects taught:
- World History — Bette Asen-Loo — Grades 10 and 11
- Psychology — Constance Flannery — Grade 12
- Health Science — Reid Russel — Grade 9
- Number of ESL students served: approximately 20
Faculty to Faculty
We began the program at Abraham Lincoln High School using several different tools for needs assessment. These included:
- Documentation
- School's curriculum guide
- Copies of lesson plans
- Copies of activities and assignments
- Copies of student sample writing
- Interviews and dialogs with teachers before and after observations
- Observations of teachers
- Observations of students
- Informal interviews and dialogs with students
- DWS (Diagnostic Writing Service) diagnostic test, given to students in the three classes at the beginning of Fall semester and at the end of Spring semester
Observations
I was really impressed with how Bette and Connie made an effort to incorporate the teaching of specific study skills, ranging from note-taking to pre-reading to critical thinking to test preparation into their daily lessons. With each assignment, the teachers asked students to focus not only on the content of the text but on clearly communicating the ideas in the text or class discussion in the form of a summary or short presentation.
Connie's class of seniors included some very strong readers and writers, but a few of them lacked confidence and motivation. It was nice to see how a little extra attention from Connie and me (through individual conferencing) helped pull the failing grades of a couple of students up to As and Bs. I appreciated how Connie would involve me in her lessons and allow me to share what I thought about certain issues or ideas and about how university expectations differ from high school ones.
I noticed a change in the attitude of Bette’s students at the end of the second semester. During the first two months (September and October) of the project, Bette’s students sat in class with a more passive attitude, waiting for Bette to tell them specifically what they needed to write down in their notebooks and openly admitting to not reading the text because it was too difficult.
By February, her students were more concerned about what they could do to study for the weekly tests and how they could earn extra credit points. I am sure that this maturity is the result of the expectations that Bette clearly set for her students and the time she took in each class to explain those expectations. I admire how Bette “stuck to her guns” and did not lower her expectations even to those who went to her pleading or with excuses that would melt any teacher’s heart. I also appreciated the fact that Bette constantly reminded them of how the CAPI project is there to help the students succeed, not only as high school students, but as future college students as well.
Because Reid’s Health Science class is a semester-long class, as opposed to the usual year-long class, I was not able to stay with the same group of students throughout the year, but the fact that I was able to work with Reid on his assignments a second time allowed us time to refine and fine-tune certain aspects of some units. I believe this experience was valuable for both Reid and myself mainly because it helped Reid see the importance of scaffolding assignments, and it gave me a better understanding of the challenges that a high school instructor must deal with to provide each of his students individual feedback on their drafts during the writing process in a timely manner.
Assessment
See Faculty to Faculty (above).
Learning Assistance
Both the teachers and the students would have benefited from having trained tutors on campus. This would have helped the teachers provide individualized attention to all those who needed it, and given students an additional “informed” and knowledgeable source to go to for help.
I gave workshops on pre-reading strategies, establishing thesis statements, paragraph development and using proofreading techniques in all three classes. Students were assigned specific homework that the teacher and I had agreed on before I taught, and the products of the students’ work were very positive.
I also worked with individual students in Reid’s class, helping them with their writing drafts, and a few low-achieving students in Connie’s class, helping them with specific study skills and test preparation.
Curriculum and Instructors
Teachers' Expectations of their Students
Throughout the program, each of the students worked on providing reading and writing assignments that had clear instructions and set requirements that help their students to define the scope of each writing task. The teachers also made an effort to use class time to discuss the expectations and requirements of assignments given and provided adequate scaffolding for each writing assignment.
Curriculum Development
Throughout the semester, the teachers and I worked closely on brainstorming ideas for classroom activities, planning, organizing and developing written assignments for thematic units and discussing teaching techniques. All three teachers wanted to focus on pre-reading strategies and study skills, thesis development and paragraph development, and we worked together to create and develop materials to achieve that focus.
The feedback that I received was unanimously positive. More importantly, I observed each teacher bring materials and information provided at the workshops (both the in-house workshops I gave and the Saturday Workshops) back to his/her classroom. Each teacher made an effort to apply specific techniques and strategies to her teaching.
Evaluation
Indicators of Success
The teachers: The teachers became increasingly willing to reflect on their own practices and improve upon what they presently do by experimenting with new classroom activities, techniques and strategies.
The students: The students in the three classes became more aware of the importance or critical reading and developing their ideas with specific details and explanations.
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