Elementary Literacy Progress at SAS
Elementary Literacy Progress at SAS By Mr. Mark Boyer, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
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or the past three years, Dr. Bonnie Campbell Hill has been a significant source of support for ongoing progress in elementary literacy at Singapore American School. Dr. Bonnie Campbell Hill is an internationally known educational consultant specializing in the area of literacy instruction and assessment. In addition to Dr. Hill’s support for exemplary reading and writing instruction in schools throughout the world, she is the author of six widely published books on literacy. In the 2004-2005 school year, Dr. Hill provided an “awareness workshop” on comprehensive and reliable approaches to literacy for teachers at SAS. In the 2005-2006 school year, Dr. Hill and others provided workshop support on how to implement the various instructional and assessment approaches, and teachers began to “practice” with these approaches. In the 2006-2007 school year, teachers have been phasing in the various approaches into their regular classroom practice with their students. Both the Primary and Intermediate Divisions have established plans to continue development within literacy over the next two years. The result for teachers is that they have more developmentally appropriate tools to use in understanding the “continuum” of abilities and needs of their students. The result for students is that their needs can be more specifically and precisely addressed. The result for parents is that fuller and clearer information is becoming available for understanding progress. It is the elementary teachers at SAS who have taken on this challenge across classrooms, grade levels, and divisions, and they have been extraordinary in their efforts to create exciting and meaningful learning environments for their students. In the letter of commendation (below) from Dr. Bonnie Campbell Hill to the staff and parents at Singapore American School, Dr. Hill shares that: “This is exciting work and SAS is becoming an exemplary school in terms of literacy instruction and assessment in the international community.” Letter of Commendation from Dr. Bonnie Campbell Hill March 12, 2007 Dear Singapore American School Teachers and Parents, It was a privilege to visit SAS three years in a row and I wanted to write a brief letter to comment upon the changes that I noticed as an outside consultant. First of all, I have seen remarkable growth in the professional knowledge and implementation of best practices in literacy instruction and assessment in K-5 classrooms at Singapore American School. My schedule was packed in the two days I was at the school on March 1 and 2, but I took some time to walk through the school and I was delighted by the rich literacy environment I saw in classrooms. There are wonderful leveled bookrooms and beautiful, organized classroom libraries that will enable teachers to match students to “just right” books in order to meet the needs of students as readers. Of course, with 5,000 new books published in the United States each year, those bookrooms and classroom libraries will need to be constantly updated! In addition, I saw teachers implementing the newest and best assessment practices, such as continuums and the Developmental Reading Assessment which helps teachers to know their students as readers and provides data for grade levels and school analysis and discussion. There were also class-generated charts in classrooms which clearly showed the mini-lessons and discussions that had occurred with students around reading and writing based on best practices and which also reflected the work done by recent consultants, such as Laura Benson, and discussions around professional books which teachers have read together. This is exciting work and SAS is becoming an exemplary school in terms of literacy instruction and assessment in the international community. There are still areas for growth, but the steps the school has made in the past three years are truly remarkable. This has been in part due to the commitment by Mark Boyer and the elementary principals, David Hoss and Marian DeGroot, who provided the vision, organization, resources and leadership to move this very large elementary faculty forward together. However, the credit should mostly go to the remarkable teachers at SAS who have stretched themselves professionally to embrace new ideas, to read professionally, attend conferences, and to work together in order to become better teachers. The Literacy Leaders have done a wonderful job this year at providing leadership on top of teaching full time. When I met with each grade level team, they overwhelmingly said that the changes, although challenging, were valuable and worthwhile. I hope that all of you who are not in the classroom will take a minute this week to thank a classroom teacher for the time beyond the contracted hours they have put into their teaching this year as they have poured their energy and heart into their work. And I hope those of you who are teachers will slip into one of your colleague’s rooms, admire their classroom and the wonderful work they are doing, and let them know how much you appreciate all they do for children. I look forward to coming back again in a year or two in order to support and celebrate your next steps along the literacy journey. Sincerely, Bonnie Campbell Hill
SAS NewsFlash – April 2007