Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 22, 1990 TAG: 9007200407
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
It also means the entire class reading the same work from classical or recent award-winning children's literature. It means the entire class - including the teacher - taking time out during the day to read silently. And it means teachers, parents and other students reading to students.
These changes occurred when the school started a new reading program last year: Active Readers Reading at Indian Valley Elementary - or ARRIVE.
The program has arrived to the point where principal Bonnie Smith and teachers Ellen Maxwell and Laura McLean are making a presentation Tuesday at the Governor's Conference on Education in Richmond.
"The idea started in early 1989," said Smith. "A teacher [Chapter I reading teacher Caroyln Wojtera] and I went to Charleston, S.C. for a reading conference.
"We had been wanting to do something different for a long time, at least I had. They were talking about this approach [at the conference]. We approached the staff. And then decided to go with children's literature books."
Once the school decided to begin the program, books were needed for the pupils to read. Using regular and supplemental funding from the School Board, a $500 grant from the Virginia State Reading Association, and parental donations as part of the "Adopt a Book" program, the school put together its literature collection.
Then, the faculty prepared lesson plans from scratch via research, school-wide brainstorming sessions, communication with other teachers, and other methods.
Many of the reading lessons were tied into writing activities, helping students to simultaneously improve their skills in these two basic areas. Some lesson plans were innovative; one incorporated a social studies unit with the "Little House" series, while another included science lessons during a unit from the "Frog and Toad" series for primary students.
And some of the activities planned around the books were very unusual. One day late in the school year, McLean's first-grade class came to school as if they were ready to go to sleep as part of a unit based on "Irma Sleeps Here."
"The students got very excited," said McLean, who has taught at Indian Valley for seven years. "The students came in dressed in their night clothes. They brought pillows, blankets and sleeping bags. We read with flashlight - I read, they read. It was really exciting to have the sleep-over."
And since the activities have been enjoyable, ARRIVE has shown students that reading is something more than a group of students does from the same book at an assigned time every school day.
"I always knew it should be like this," said Marshall, a third-grade teacher. "I just didn't know how to go about doing it.
"If one of my teachers had done this when I was in school, I would have read more for pleasure."
by CNB