Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:30 PM CDT
Math + history crossover = classroom
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Sometimes, it takes a math teacher to teach a history lesson on the Civil War.
Along the same line, a reading teacher might be the person to make sure students fully understand a program in an environmental science class.
That kind of approach to and help with learning are what Tyler Hanner and Ruth Hughes are trying to do at Charleston High School. The start of the school year had Hanner step into the role as the school’s numeracy coach and Hughes becoming its literacy coach, working as specialists to help the school in those two curriculum areas.
Hanner, for example, spent time recently in a history class to make better use of charts to show the change in the slave population in some states during the Civil War.
“You don’t expect a history teacher to go back and remember that,” he said. “I kind of teach the math part of that lesson.”
Hughes, meanwhile, has helped science teachers and others with reading strategies to enhance their lessons, as every subject taught at the school involves reading.
“The kids can dig deeper into their texts,” she said.
The school district has used literacy coaches at the elementary school level for the past few years, but this is the first year for the positions at the high school. In May, the school board approved CHS Principal Diane Hutchins’ request to create the two positions after the school’s previous test scores didn’t meet the Annual Yearly Progress requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
And while the school’s most recent test scores did meet AYP, Hutchins noted that CHS has to meet the requirements two years in a row to be taken off a list of schools slated for improvements. Also, the requirements increase each year, and this year’s math scores wouldn’t meet the mark next year, she said.
“You can’t sit back and rest on your laurels,” Hutchins said. “And our overall goal is to improve student achievement, not just test scores.”
Hanner has been a high school math teacher for four years and Hughes has spent 17 years teaching high school English and foreign language. They both said they were interested in the coaching positions because they can help the students in all their classes and, ultimately, after they graduate.
“Problem solving is something a lot of kids struggle with,” Hanner said. “I can connect with more kids and help them with problem solving.”
Hughes said she attended a conference where the coaching approach was discussed and decided it is what is needed to give the students the skills to continue to progress.
“I just became convinced that it was something we lack,” she said. “Kids don’t stop reading after the third grade.”
Hutchins said having two CHS staff members in the coaching positions means the school’s other teachers can get “on-the-job training by someone they know” and who are available for follow questions.
That’s not something that could happen if the school relied on outside sources for teacher professional development, she said.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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