Schools
Learning Lab puts best teaching methods on display
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| SNP photo by Dan
Trittschuh Mark Glasbrenner (center), executive director of the new Learning Lab at Sutter Park Elementary School in Worthington, talks with maintenance personnel Will Smith and Sandra Olney in the lab during an open house at the school earlier this month. |
* The new lab at Sutter Park lets teachers and others observe students working through reading struggles.
By PAMELA WILLIS
Worthington City Schools' new Learning Lab provides a
"behind-the-glass" experience for teachers learning how to
help struggling readers.
Reading Recovery teacher Kellie Ehler said the new Learning Lab built at Sutter Park Elementary School is a valuable professional development tool for teachers.
"If I have an at-risk child, I can take her behind the glass for a reading lesson, and teachers can learn how to help their own struggling readers by observing the lesson," Ehler said.
The district held an open house Dec. 1 to introduce teachers and administrators to the Learning Lab.
The lab consists of a small room with a large window that looks like a mirror from inside the room, but teachers sitting in the three rows of chairs outside the room can watch a teacher working with a student through the window and observe and learn Reading Recovery techniques.
"I ask the child if she would like to go to another school to help teachers learn," Ehler said. "The teachers learn new techniques by watching the lesson and become more equipped to work with the hardest-to-teach child."
Reading Recovery is an intervention process in which teachers work one-on-one with struggling first-graders.
"We put together customized lessons for the child," she said. "It is not a scripted program for reading. Teachers use their knowledge base and take what they know the child can do successfully and build on what the child knows by first doing familiar reading, then introducing a new book. You point out what the child did really well, then find a page that was tricky for them. The goal is to find out how a child learns best and to build on that."
The major goal of Reading Recovery is to get the child back into the classroom, Ehler said.
"With some basic reading programs, children can get into the program and never get out of it," she said. "Two weeks ago, I had a child come in and she made it out of the program in 10 weeks.
"We want children to survive and thrive in the classroom and feel good about what they are doing," she said.
Ehler said the learning lab with its one-way mirror can be used to train teachers to do reading assessment.
"The lab could also help a group of new teachers learn how to conduct a reading group," she said. "Teachers can watch teachers or parents can watch teachers working with their child. You could use it with any type of teaching method."
Reading Recovery was developed in Auckland, New Zealand, when a teacher began to study how children learn best, Ehler said.
"The statistics of Reading Recovery kids is quite impressive," she said. "They are not only passing reading tests, but they are in the advanced and accelerated range."
Ehler said the lab also could be used to train teachers outside the district.
"The Reading Recovery Council of North America is on East Wilson Bridge Road, so the support we have is just incredible," she said.
Upper Arlington teacher Cheri Slinger runs the Upper Arlington and Southwestern Reading Recovery site and has conducted training sessions at Sutter Park, Ehler said. Slinger also is on the Board of Directors of the Reading Recovery Council.
Ehler said working in the Reading Recovery program is rewarding for teachers and students.
"This is the best learning I've ever done," she said. "I've never felt more equipped to help a child. When reading problems arise, I know how to help the child. Reading Recovery gave that to me."
Reading Recovery teacher Kellie Ehler said the new Learning Lab built at Sutter Park Elementary School is a valuable professional development tool for teachers.
"If I have an at-risk child, I can take her behind the glass for a reading lesson, and teachers can learn how to help their own struggling readers by observing the lesson," Ehler said.
The district held an open house Dec. 1 to introduce teachers and administrators to the Learning Lab.
The lab consists of a small room with a large window that looks like a mirror from inside the room, but teachers sitting in the three rows of chairs outside the room can watch a teacher working with a student through the window and observe and learn Reading Recovery techniques.
"I ask the child if she would like to go to another school to help teachers learn," Ehler said. "The teachers learn new techniques by watching the lesson and become more equipped to work with the hardest-to-teach child."
Reading Recovery is an intervention process in which teachers work one-on-one with struggling first-graders.
"We put together customized lessons for the child," she said. "It is not a scripted program for reading. Teachers use their knowledge base and take what they know the child can do successfully and build on what the child knows by first doing familiar reading, then introducing a new book. You point out what the child did really well, then find a page that was tricky for them. The goal is to find out how a child learns best and to build on that."
The major goal of Reading Recovery is to get the child back into the classroom, Ehler said.
"With some basic reading programs, children can get into the program and never get out of it," she said. "Two weeks ago, I had a child come in and she made it out of the program in 10 weeks.
"We want children to survive and thrive in the classroom and feel good about what they are doing," she said.
Ehler said the learning lab with its one-way mirror can be used to train teachers to do reading assessment.
"The lab could also help a group of new teachers learn how to conduct a reading group," she said. "Teachers can watch teachers or parents can watch teachers working with their child. You could use it with any type of teaching method."
Reading Recovery was developed in Auckland, New Zealand, when a teacher began to study how children learn best, Ehler said.
"The statistics of Reading Recovery kids is quite impressive," she said. "They are not only passing reading tests, but they are in the advanced and accelerated range."
Ehler said the lab also could be used to train teachers outside the district.
"The Reading Recovery Council of North America is on East Wilson Bridge Road, so the support we have is just incredible," she said.
Upper Arlington teacher Cheri Slinger runs the Upper Arlington and Southwestern Reading Recovery site and has conducted training sessions at Sutter Park, Ehler said. Slinger also is on the Board of Directors of the Reading Recovery Council.
Ehler said working in the Reading Recovery program is rewarding for teachers and students.
"This is the best learning I've ever done," she said. "I've never felt more equipped to help a child. When reading problems arise, I know how to help the child. Reading Recovery gave that to me."
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