At Woodland school

Third-grade students Juanita Wyms, Eugene Jones and John Latimore like their new daily reading and writing lessons at Woodland Elementary School.

Their teacher,  Juliana Luckett, is confident the new Readers and Writers Workshops will help her third graders learn more.

Daily reading and writing exercises are part of the new plan Woodland and other schools in the Jennings School District are using to help learning. The district needs to improve the students' Missouri Achievement Placement (MAP) scores. 

The new plans helped Woodland students make better showing in the 2000 MAP scores. 

At a news conference last month, state officials praised the Jennings district for its improved scores in the 2000 MAP tests, compared to 1999. 

But, Woodland Principal Pat Harris says more improvement is needed. Jennings schools only have "provisional accreditation." That means state officials want more improvement in learning. The district will be re-checked a year from now.

Ms. Luckett's students are more interested about their learning now. And Juanita, Eugene and John like the special attention to reading and writing. 

The daily reading lesson include reading aloud in a group. There's also time for individual silent reading. Then, there are discussions about what they've read. Books in the class are sorted by color--red for easy, yellow for harder and green for hardest. 

Luckett said, "Early in the semester, we are trying to improve their 'reading stamina.'" By that, she means to increase the length of time they can concentrate on reading. 

Eight-year-old Juanita said, "I pick the yellow books because I like hard books." 

But, she admits she has trouble with group discussions. "I'm pretty shy so it's hard when I have to share with the class. But, I'm not shy when I'm discussing one on one," she said. 

She also reads at home. She's reading the fourth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." She said, "I'm only on the second chapter because I just got it."

Eight-year-old Eugene said he likes the discussion periods after the reading. But, he also likes the individual reading sessions. 

He also reads a lot at home. "I read every night. I'm got a book chest and my Mom buys me new books," he said. 

Ten-year-old John said he likes the writing workshops. Students each have a personal writing notebook. "I wrote about our family trip to Indiana. We got to play basketball and pool. And, when it was hot, we got to use squirt guns outside," he said. 

Ms. Luckett's classroom is one of six technology classrooms in the school. Those have computers for each kid right in their regular classroom. 

Woodland school also has a computer lab where Gary Koeller is the teacher. He is a former policeman who has been a teacher for five years. 

He said, "Every fourth day, each of the 675 kids in the school come through here." Kids work on general typing and computer skills. But, he also gives writing assignments.

He said, "I incorporate 'concept skills' into the writing assignments." That's where a student doesn't just write about facts. They write about what the facts mean. 

This idea of "concept skills" is very important in learning. It's also very important if the schools are to improve their MAP scores. The MAP tests don't ask about facts; they expect students to tell what the facts mean. 

Woodland third graders improved their 2000 MAP scores in all four categories: communication arts, math, science and social studies. 

Ms. Luckett feels her current third grade class can do better. For one thing, she said she is better prepared this year. 

"Last school year was our first to teach these new learning strategies. We were a little bumpy at first but we got results," she said. Over the summer, she took a trip to learn more about how to teach these new lessons. 

"We've straightened out the bumps," she said.