Intensive Service Learning Experience ISLE Senior Projects Focus on Community Service
community partners and mentors be? How would a student qualify? Answers to these questions were hammered out last summer, mentors were contacted and the basic plan was adopted. Expectations were clarified so that students choosing this path knew they would be asked to be creative, adaptive and independent. Benefiting the community needed to be integral to the project. The program was announced and welcomed by faculty in the fall. Two projects were successfully implemented in the 2010-11 school year. The Augustine Literacy Skills project continued a partnership with Forest View School by tutoring struggling readers, but in a more intense way: every day for two weeks. Katherine Koller, Tanner Caplan and Taylor Williams chose this ISLE option. In addition to tutoring, they administered and evaluated post-testing for phonemic awareness, word attack, spelling and sight word recognition. The gains measured were remarkable, as much as three grade levels for each of the students in at least one area tested. The twoweek senior project time schedule allowed the DA students to solidify learning in hopes of giving these first graders a head start on second grade. “At the beginning of the year, none of the three Forest View children served by ISLE tutors could read; none heard English spoken outside the classroom; all were anxious and unsure of themselves,” said Literacy Skills
Senior projects, a part of Durham Academy for more than 30 years, take place over two weeks in late May.
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Durham Academy Record | Summer 2011 | www.da.org
Debbie McCarthy
K
atherine Koller held up a card with the letter ‘A’ on it at Forest View Elementary School and asked first grader Donaldo, “What letter is this?” No response, then some guesses, then fidgeting and failure to engage. Struggling to understand the spoken words in English was hard enough for Donaldo, but the questions were undecipherable to him. The first grader was so frustrated he became sullen and almost surly. Katherine began to patiently employ lessons she had learned in her Literacy Skills class to help Donaldo master the alphabet and the sounds the letters made. Nine months later, the first grader is reading stories and smiling all the time. The Literacy Skills class is a senior elective at Durham Academy that Katherine would ordinarily complete in early May and finish her work with Donaldo. Thanks to a new program through DA senior projects, Katherine could continue her work at Forest View. Last summer several faculty members met to find a way to expand on the skills, knowledge and experience that seniors gain during their years in Upper School by developing senior projects that focused intensely on community service. Senior projects, a part of Durham Academy for more than 30 years, take place over two weeks in late May. Howard Lineberger, Debbie McCarthy, Lee Hark, Becky Georgi and Anne McNamara put their heads together to pilot the Intensive Service Learning Experience (ISLE) program. The Augustine Literacy Skills class and the Environmental Science teachers (Debbie McCarthy and Howard Lineberger) were especially interested in this new approach. A range of questions was considered: What would be required for such a project? How would it differ from the more traditional senior project? Who would the
Kathy McPherson
By Anne McNamara, Community Service Director, Upper School
teacher Debbie McCarthy. “Today all three students grin from ear-to-ear throughout their lessons with Tanner, Katherine and Taylor. And all three are reading books on grade level… with a kind of unabashed delight that is irresistible in these now happy, self-assured first graders. When the post-test scores were computed, it was hard to tell who was more excited, the children or their DA tutors. I am incredibly proud of these conscientious and compassionate seniors. Their inauguration of the ISLE program is the icing on the cake of a remarkable tutoring year.” Forest View first grade team leader Susan Heath put it this way, “It has been amazing to see the growth in these children’s reading skills and especially in their confidence. They are different children. The light bulb has been turned on. I wish we had at least five