"There is no easy solution but, here is the plan.... The first thing that needs to be established is SCHOOL WIDE literacy plan. Since this curriculum from Benchmark Advance is new, there were no expectations set at the beginning of the year except to teach the program. However, now that teachers have been teaching this program for a few months, there needs to be an official commitment to literacy. According to Cassidy and Kiely (2008) this means, "the development of shared goals and vision of the staff around literacy and the communication of those goals in a systematic way. The process of developing a literacy plan allows, and indeed requires, staff to play an active role in planning for improvement" (p. 4). Once this plan is created, the real work can begin! There will be a literacy committee that keeps the school accountable to our goals stated in this plan. Whether that is setting up a calendar of literacy development, creating assessments, or finding professional development on Benchmark Advance, it is the committee's job to help teachers become equipped with tools and resources within this curriculum. After progress has begun with the teachers, this knowledge can be used to solve the other part of the literacy challenge; family involvement. "As with other families, maintaining open lines of communication with military families will help teachers better understand their special circumstances" (Allen and Staley, 2007, p. 2). Communication is key and because of the lifestyle of the military, teachers must be unique in how they communicate with families. When the communication system has been figured out, literacy involvement/development can take place beyond school walls. Nevertheless, teachers must remember that, "Slight adaptations to curriculum and classroom structure can help a child continue to make academic progress" (p. 3). Those slight adaptations might look like some of the ideas pinned on my Pinterest board in a previous blog post. Use supplemental resources or various apps to provide to students what Benchmark Advance lacks. But, don't keep these resources a secret! Share them with the families! Host a Benchmark Advance Family Literacy Night! Allow families to learn alongside you, most families want to help their child succeed, they just don't always know where to start. Plan activities that make it fun for the whole family. However, to accommodate the military families, invite other caregivers of the child to join if their parent is deployed. Or live stream an informational session on this literacy program in case families are unable to get to school. Be creative, find ways to involve families as much as possible. Last but not least, reassess the needs and expectations of the community concerning this literacy program after a couple of family literacy nights. What is working? What's not working? Collect data from teacher questionnaires, student surveys, or family focus groups. All in all, support works both ways. Families need just as much support as teachers do when it comes to student success. Working together to understand a new literacy program is a good start!
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A significant challenge for my school is providing support and resources for our military families in regards to literacy. Furthermore, this challenge has become more difficult due to the new literacy curriculum being implemented district-wide throughout Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). It has been difficult to provide support because Benchmark Advance is a new literacy program for APS. Teachers and support staff across the district received no training before this curriculum was implemented....Which is why I pose the following question, "How can teachers provide relevant literacy resources, from Benchmark Advance, to their families if those resources have not been provided to them first?" To make matters more complicated, due to student population at our school being 80% military, it is thought that the movement from all over may cause gaps in the area of vocabulary and development in literacy. "With the rise in military deployments, many teachers are educating emotionally distracted children and feel ill equipped to support the special needs of this growing population....Many teachers are unfamiliar with the unique lifestyle and challenges faced by families during military deployment" (Allen & Staley, 2007, p. 2). As a result, social and emotional development can also be hindered. In order to break down these barriers, teachers at our school must find a way to bridge the gap between teacher and family literacy involvement.
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