Christa McAuliffe Alternative Middle School has offered successful programs for expelled middle school students for over a decade.  We have been recognized as an exemplary alternative program and have helped many others establish programs for their districts.  When teachers Leah Davis and Diane White agreed to attend the two-day training for Reading Is FAME last summer, we had little idea how the program would work with our current practices.  The Boys Town connection seemed like a logical match due to the similarities in our students.  Our students share similar profiles of combined negative behavior and multiple academic deficits.  They are also very defensive about admitting their needs, and we were anxious to learn about a program that had succeeded with other students like ours.

Last fall Leah and Diane shared what they had learned with the rest of the staff, and we began working to add the Reading Is FAME program.  The Diagnostic Assessment of Reading (DAR) was used to place students in the program and quickly became a valued tool.  While we have known for some time that many of our students need extra help in academics, we have found that the DAR provides a far more accurate and detailed analysis of specific skills than we have had access to in the past.  Many of our students give little effort on large-group tests such as the ISTEP+.  This makes it difficult or impossible to tell if their previous scores are accurate.  The one-on-one nature of the DAR gives us confidence in our understanding of students’ strengths and weaknesses.

Teacher David Bosard gives the DAR to students as they work through the first phase of our program.  He shares the information with the rest of the staff as they prepare to work with the students.  We quickly confirmed that a number of students who appear to be defiantly refusing to do schoolwork in regular classes are actually unable to do the work.  Equipped with more accurate information, we now confronted the responsibility to adapt our instruction.  Diane and Leah lead the actual reading groups.  Everyone on the staff works to design activities in all subjects that match the students’ abilities.  Further, these lessons must be presented in ways the students will find worthwhile and meaningful as well as possible.

Our first year in Reading Is FAME has been challenging.  In learning more about student skills and deficits, we also discovered much about ourselves.  Understanding our students better has prompted us to reexamine our teaching materials and methods as well.  Systems that have worked well for many students in the past have been reexamined for ways to make our instruction more successful for all students.  We are convinced that while the students become better readers, we are also becoming better teachers.