This is a tale of two buddies, their successes as individuals in the New Salem Educational Initiative, and the way in which their friendship has accelerated their joint academic progress.
First, there is Manuel. Manuel first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 3 student during the 2009-2010 academic year. At the time, he was functioning only at the Grade 2 level in math and just the Grade 1 level in reading. His mother (Helena) and sister (Francesca) were very worried that Manuel had gotten off to the wrong start at school and that in the future academic failure would prevent him from breaking the pattern of familial poverty that described their own lives as struggling immigrants from Mexico.
I began to lay out a carefully sequenced program of skill acquisition for Manuel. Week followed week in that first academic year of enrollment as Manuel made a remarkable ascent to grade level in math and near grade level in reading. He began to take pride in his performance in school, bringing his papers and report cards so that I could see the steady progress that he was making in that context. This mirrored the progress that Manuel was making in his weekly two-hour sessions in conversations that the two of us had going to and from each session.
In these conversations, Manuel showed an enhanced interest in vocabulary, asking the meaning of words that he read on street and interstate (I-94 and I-35) signs. As we drove along, read the signs, and defined words, I would take the opportunity to introduce words that rhymed with the ones that we were seeing, or logically fit into sentences with these words. Thus was the learning that had taken place in the classroom joined with that which occurred in transport to improve the verbal skills of a young boy who at the beginning of the school year had borne the label of an English Language Learner (ELL).
By the end of academic year 2009-2010, Manuel had recovered one full grade level in math and nearly two full grade levels in reading. Manuel continued his upward trajectory during his second academic year (2010-2011) of enrollment in the New Salem Educational Initiative. During this academic year, Manuel rose to the top of his Grade 4 class at school.
And then there is Marco. Marco also first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 3 student during that same academic year of 2009-2010, and upon enrollment he, too, was functioning below grade level in both reading and math. And, like Manuel, Marco was classified as an ELL student because of the immigrant status of his family, the members and close friends of which speak only Spanish in Marco’s home.
Marco’s mother, Juanita, speaks limited English. She works on the janitorial staff of a corporate entity in downtown Minneapolis. She has a strong desire to see Marco gain the education that she was never able to secure for herself, either in her native Mexico or in the United States. Juanita was immediately grateful for the opportunity that Marco had to participate in the New Salem Educational Initiative, and she has throughout Marco’s now two-year participation in the Initiative been a strong source of parental support who listens carefully to the report that I give to her after every weekly session.
And Marco himself from the very beginning has been one of the very most enthusiastic students in the New Salem Educational Initiative. When I come out of my late afternoon session every Friday, I inevitably have a message on my cell phone from Marco seeking assurance that the usual Friday session will be held--- as it always is.
Marco has responded to the logically sequenced program of math and reading skill acquisition with a studiousness to match his enthusiasm. Before the end of that first academic year (2009-2010) of participation, Marco quickly rose to full grade level performance in both math and reading. By December of his Grade 4 year (academic year 2010-2011), his second year of participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, Marco mastered the full array of math and reading skills pertinent to Grade 4. He then proceeded to acquire skills typical for students in Grade 5, passing practice Grade 5 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) in both math and reading, indicating that he will be operating one full grade level above that of actual school enrollment as he enters Grade 5 for the 2011-2012 academic year.
The progress that Manuel and Marco have made as students in the New Salem Educational Initiative has gained acceleration in the fortunate melding of their personalities. Manuel began his sessions with me in a rare single-student session (students generally attend in groups of three to five; although a great deal of instruction is rendered in one-on-one fashion, with students seated individually at their tables, demand is so great that sessions with a total of just one or two students are rare). About two weeks after Manuel started his sessions, Marco enrolled. I immediately noted that Marco was in the same grade as Manuel and that he had the same immigrant roots to Mexico. This made him a candidate for the still unusually lightly attended Friday night session at which time I was providing instruction for Manuel. When I noticed that he had a similarly beaming smile and an apparent enthusiasm for the prospect of attending my sessions, I decided that this was a particularly promising match.
And, indeed, Manuel and Marco immediately became best buddies. On the way to our weekly session, they would trade Pokemon cards and jabber away about what they had learned at school, what was happening in their neighborhoods, and what they had heard from their villages back in Mexico. They spoke mostly in English, but especially when they found out that I understood a great deal of their forays into Spanish, they would switch to that language when topics arose for which the vernacular of their country of origin seemed most appropriate. In our two-hour weekly academic sessions, they loved working together, so in this case I adjusted my typical one-on-one style, and we did a great deal of our math and reading together. I also kept this as the rare two-person group. They had a lot of fun with my approach to learning the multiplication tables, and they especially loved reading together. In this, there was a kind of friendly competition to be the first to answer questions that I posed to assess comprehension.
And the same sort of competition abided to tell the best story that popped into their lively brains as relevant to the subject matter that we were reading:
“Ooo, ooo, yea, I once saw a snake that was six feet long, too. It was in my back yard at the house in Pueblo--- my village in Mexico.,” Marco exclaimed, for example, during our reading of a story about a boy who just gotten away before a cobra struck.
“Ooo, me, too,” Manuel replied, “There was a snake in my back yard last week.”
“What kind of snake?” Marco asked.
“Uhhh… a garden snake,” Manuel admitted a little sheepishly.
But everyone laughed, and we had a great time, and the natural animation that these boys brought to our sessions in their sheer delight of being together amplified not only the fun but, more vital to our purposes, the learning. During such sessions, the enhanced focus Manuel and Marco gave to the material as they engaged in such lively responses, enhanced their reading comprehension and accelerated their vocabulary acquisition.
This is why I am always trying to place students in the same session who are well-matched as to personality and other, sometimes rather intangible, factors that I assess in making my decisions. When group camaraderie does not exist so naturally, I put great energy into creating it, whether in my silly malapropisms with younger students, or the age-appropriate banter that I endeavor to establish with my middle school and high school students. I act always on the conviction that all things consistent with learning that make the environment more hospitable to the student contribute to maximal educational progress for that student.
The tale of the two buddies continued over the summer, as I met with them from time to time on a more flexible schedule, finding them always excited when I would call an impromptu session. In the meantime, back in late May, at the New Salem Educational Initiative Annual Banquet, I honored the two buddies with an award that they so richly deserved: Most Enthusiastic.
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