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Heath, portraying Lt. George A. Chandler of the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment, talks to eighth-grade students as part
Historian and re-enactor Chuck Heath describes life during the Civil War |
By RUTH FINCH
The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more you learn, the more places you'll go.
--Dr. Seuss
Historian and Civil War re-enactor Charles Heath recited those words to A.G. Wright Middle School's eighth-graders yesterday--Dr. Seuss' birthday--in celebration of Read Across America Day.
All over the region, students celebrated. High-schoolers came by the busload to read at elementary schools. School board members and other dignitaries came. Some schools even had evening programs for parents and children to read together.
Rodney Thompson Middle was also celebrating yesterday for another reason--the school earned the International Reading Association's Exemplary Reading Program award for Virginia.
And now, school officials are trying to do for math what they've done for reading.
Every school has its own reading specialist who gives struggling students extra attention, trains teachers to help students read better, administers diagnostic reading tests and analyzes standardized test results. Reading specialists also help identify reluctant readers and motivate advanced readers, and consult with teachers looking to incorporate reading into their lesson plans, sometimes even co-teaching classes.
Some schools have a counterpart who does the same for math, but eventually, every school will have one, said Vickie Inge, Stafford schools' supervisor of mathematics and science.
A No Child Left Behind grant allowed some elementary schools to get math specialists, and the state pays for a similar position, called an algebra readiness coach, to work part time in each middle school. The coaches work with students who failed the state's fifth-grade math Standards of Learning test.
The Stafford School Board's proposed budget sets aside $179,000 to make each of those part-time positions full time next school year. That will allow the coaches to consult with teachers interested in better ways to teach math as well as working with struggling students.
Three Stafford elementary schools, as well as one in Spotsylvania, are also part of a National Science Foundation study that pays for math specialists. In 2007-2008, the study will be expanded to include an additional three elementary schools, Inge said.
And the specialists don't deal with just instruction, but also with motivation.
"Right now, we have a critical shortage of students coming out of high school and going into math and science," Inge said. "Children have to leave elementary school with a love and enjoyment of mathematics. It has to make sense to them. If they leave without that it's almost impossible to get them."
Motivating students is also a big component of Read Across America Day, said Barbara Heath, A.G. Wright's reading specialist.
"For the most part, middle school kids can read fairly well," she said. "What they don't do is think about what they are reading and they don't understand. So they don't have a desire to read."
Rodney Thompson Middle's award-winning reading program addresses some of those issues by teaching students how to take notes, follow a story, and organize the information they read. Students at Rodney Thompson and some other middle schools also get 45 minutes a day dedicated to nothing but practicing reading.
"What we are really trying to do is get our kids independent, to give our kids the tools they need to read for enjoyment and for information," said Rodney Thompson reading specialist Stephanie Pettengill.
There are other programs to motivate students to read such as Accelerated Reader and the Virginia Readers Choice Program, which is sort of like a statewide book club.
And yesterday, for Read Across America, Barbara Heath roped her husband into the job.
Charles Heath volunteered to impersonate George Chandler, a carpenter's apprentice who joined the Army in 1862.
Chandler was appointed a second lieutenant--the head enlisted man in the Union's 5th Maine Infantry Regiment. And why did his superior give Chandler such a high rank?
"He knew I could read and write and keep track of numbers very well," Charles Heath said.
To reach RUTH FINCH:
Email: rfinch@freelancestar.com
