THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604230152
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
MOST SCHOOL YEARS, if half the kindergartners in Vicki Hoffman's class can read by June, she is satisfied.
But this year, after five months of incorporating newly developed computer software into lessons aimed at teaching young children to read, Hoffman's expectations have soared. A Norview Elementary schoolteacher, Hoffman now believes that with the help of ``Breakthrough: Foundations in Reading,'' most students will be able to read long before they enter first grade.
She already is seeing the evidence. Built into the program is an up-to-date progress report on each student, available to the teacher with a few easy strokes on the keyboard, whenever she wants it.
``All of these children are making progress this year,'' Hoffman said of her class of 23. ``Granted, many of them might have been this far along anyway. But for the other half, they're making word associations they never would have made before.''
Even though there's still two months left in the school year, 75 percent of Hoffman's students already are reading - well above the number of those who would have been reading at this point in most years.
``And the other 25 percent believe they can read,'' she said. ``I think this program is the best thing to come to the kindergarten program in a long time.''
The $203,000 project was initiated last November as part of a pilot program for kindergartners in three ``at-risk'' schools - Norview, Roberts Park and Chesterfield Academy. Each of the nine kindergarten classes received the software, three new personal computers, printers, work stations, microphones, earphones, companion books and other supplementary materials.
Teachers were given several training sessions to help them incorporate the program into their curriculum.
The three schools were selected for the program because, ``These are children in which we felt we could see some real changes,'' explained Jean Scott, supervisor of Norfolk's kindergarten program. ``Most of them are considered at-risk kids.''
``Breakthrough'' was developed by Carolyn Brown, an educational researcher at the University of Iowa, and her husband, Jerry Zimmermann, a specialist in speech pathology and audiology. The two are adjunct professors at Iowa.
Brown developed the software, not as a product for marketing, but as a clinical research tool to help her figure out how children read.
``She created computer modules that would put the control in their hands and, lo and behold, they taught her what they needed to know to learn how to read,'' Zimmermann explained.
Teachers whose ``problem students'' were involved in the research project began to sit up and take notice at their students' rapid progress after working with Brown. They urged her to adapt the software for use in the classroom.
She agreed. By 1993, Zimmermann and Brown had established ``Breakthrough'' and began offering the software and training programs to school systems around the country.
Norfolk is the only system in Virginia now using the technology, said Zimmermann, who serves as the president of ``Breakthrough.'' Negotiations are, however, under way with several other Virginia educators. Educators in Dallas, San Antonio, Washington, Chicago, St. Paul and dozens of other school systems across the country already are using the program.
Norfolk became interested two years ago after Zimmermann made a presentation to teachers and school officials.
``They became very excited,'' he said. ``They immediately saw the applications in what they were already doing. The momentum for using `Breakthrough' definitely came from the teachers.''
Zimmermann explains that the program is nothing radical or new.
``What we've done is not magic,'' he said. ``This is tried-and-true pedagogy. We're just giving teachers a tool. What this does is what every teacher knows has to be done with a child but doesn't have the time to do.''
And that is to read to them.
``It's like having another instructor in the classroom to help,'' noted Mary Sternberg, another kindergarten teacher involved in the project.
Educators have known for a while that one of the key indicators for a child learning to read is the number of ``lap reading'' hours they receive. By the time they enter kindergarten, many children have had only a few hundred hours - versus the thousands that they need - of someone reading to them. As a result, these kids experience a more difficult time figuring out the fundamentals of reading - like the fact that words have meaning or that they should follow them from left to right. Once in a classroom with 20 other students, these children often feel lost and lag behind.
Part of ``Breakthrough'' is simply having ``someone'' read to them. Through microphones, the children can listen to stories being read to them and follow along with the words. However, other lessons they can select from a computerized menu involve more active learning. They can match letters, manipulate colors and shapes, write words and play rhyming games.
In Sternberg's class, students take 15-minute turns throughout the day, tackling units at the computer. Because they control the pace, ``They're always challenged,'' she noted.
``The most wonderful thing about it is it has really boosted their self-esteem,'' she said. ``At 5 years old, they tell you they can read, and they want to read to you all the time.''
During several training sessions with Zimmermann and Brown, the nine teachers in the program have learned how to incorporate the computer program into daily lesson planning.
``The motivating tool is the computer to get these kids into books and reading,'' Sternberg explained. ``They're writing in journals and doing poetry. We never did this kind of thing before. It's almost like they're already in first grade.''
With the help of Zimmermann and Brown, the teachers and school administrators also have held several parent seminars to talk about reading in the home and to make suggestions for students' progress.
``We want to make some changes that will have tremendous benefits not only today but for the these kids' futures,'' Zimmermann said.
Even though the first year of the program has not been completed, school officials already are deeming it a success. Scott said it's only a matter of time before ``Breakthrough'' is incorporated into more classrooms. The timetable for that, however, has yet to be decided.
``We would like to eventually get it into all the schools,'' Scott said. ``But we'll have to wait and see about funding.''
The teachers who already have ``Breakthrough'' now say they can't imagine life without it.
``It's an absolutely wonderful program that turns these at-risk kids on to the printed word,'' Hoffman said. ``It makes learning to read so much fun.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Chavas Jowers, front, and Robert Harrell work on the computer as
part of the ``Breakthrough'' program.
by CNB