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Preparing students for the transition from Grade 8 to Gradeis one that educators need to focus in on and take extremely seriously.As I teach a Gradecourse, I have often found that students are not only misplaced in the stream they have chosen for the course, but are lacking the basic literacy skills that will carry them in all subjects.I am part of a York Catholic School Board committee called "Project Lighthouse".This committee has been specifically designed including teachers at the Intermediate and Senior levels to discuss the very issue of transition.This was spearheaded by teachers at the Secondary level who were finding that students were beginning Secondary School lacking some of the basic literacy skills needed.
The research questions I tackled wereWhat specific skills do students need to be successful in Secondary School?How will a student's level of literacy skills help or hinder in courses that are in other subject areas other than English?
To collect the data for the research questions I have proposed, I enlisted the help of the other Senior level teachers involved in "Project Lighthouse", who are from different schools in the School Board.I asked the two teachers to ask one of their Grade Nine classes (two were academic level, and two were applied level) to complete a grammar worksheet with questions taken from Grammar Works , as well as read and answer the question to the article, "Einstein's BrainBuilt for Brilliance".Although a small and short task I felt that it had a good mechanic component with grammar, as well as a good processing component to the one question which followed the article.I chose a literacy based research because I feel that if students have trouble with literacy skills, they will not be successful in any area of curriculum that requires reading and writing.
The grammar worksheet the Grade Nine classes completed was a basic grammar review of elements that includednouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and end punctuation.These are all aspects of literacy that as an educator I would expect have been covered repeatedly during the elementary years.This basic inventory required students to explain as well as identify the terms listed above.The other two teachers and myself assigned the task and gave the students an entire class (80 minutes to complete it).We each reminded the students to read over the instructions, but did not read it with them.They were told that this was a task that they were going to complete individually, and there was not talking.Tests were collected and not looked at until the two teachers and I met at the next "Project Lighthouse" meeting.
On a different day, the students were given another component to this mini research.All four classes were now given a short non-fiction article entitled "Einstein's BrainBuilt for Brilliance".The instructions we gave were to read the article to and answer the one question provided.The question was "Explain why it is important to study a brain like Einstein's".The skill that this was meant to show was not only a comprehension of the ideas and information of the article, but making connections between personal knowledge and experience. The students were given the entire work period to complete the task.The assignment was collected at the end of the period and not reviewed until the following "Project Lighthouse" meeting.
At the "Project Lighthouse" meeting, the other two teachers and I stayed behind to process the data we collected from our respective classes.We tackled the grammar worksheet first.We were able mark that rather quickly, as we gave each answer one mark for a total of 5 marks.For that task, in which 4 students participated, we summarized the data as follows
a) 74% of students could explain and identify a noun
b) 6% of students could explain and identify a verb
c) 56% of students could explain and identify an adjective
d) 57% of students could explain and identify an adverb
e) 6% of students could use end punctuation properly
The next task, which was not as simple, was to read and assess the answer to the
"Einstein article.We decided that this would be assessed according to levels 1-4 instead of through a number mark.We had an answer key to help guide us, and we were also took grammar (paragraph, punctuation, spelling etc.) into consideration for the level assigned.We marked these together and consulted each other on some of the more difficult assignments to asses.For this task, in which 1 students participated, we summarized the data as follows
a) 1% of students scored at Level 1
b) % of students scored at Level
c) 0% of students scored at Level
d) 1% of students scored at Level 4
These data allowed us to draw a few conclusions.In particular that students entering
Gradeneed stronger literacy skills in order to be successful in Secondary school and beyond.It should be noted at this time that the article used was one that was classified at a Grade 7 level, and the grammar worksheet was a basic review.
We also realized that the other major area of concern was the way that students had difficulty processing what they wanted to say in their writing.There were many problems with the flow of ideas and paragraphing.In fact, many students merely reiterated the information that was in the article instead of using it and applying it to their own opinion.I felt that this level of skill (or lack there of) would affect students in all subject areas.In terms of a History course, we are always asking students to delve further into a situation or event, look at the opinions of various people about the same event, and draw their own conclusions.
I took this data and spoke to many other teachers to confirm my thoughts.After much discussion, I have merged all the information I have learned into some suggestions to help Grade 8 students make a smooth transition into Grade Nine in terms of literary skills.The preparation needs to commence far before Grade 8.
Firstly, there must be a stronger emphasis on literacy skills at the Elementary level.This should take form in a 'back to basics' programs where students are continually reminded about parts of speech and proper writing through the writing process. Secondly each Grade at the elementary level should have a specific skill that it will emphasize throughout the year.For example, Grade 1 reading, sentence and sentence structure, Gradereading, sentence and sentence structure review, and proper paragraphs etc.)As the students get into the older grades they can focus on more on types of writing, such as retelling, expository writing supported opinion responses etc.) because by that time, the basics should be covered It should be noted that at each grade should also advance in reading as well.This will help students learn to read, relate to what they have read and process the information in a lucid, and cohesive response.As well, students need to be appropriately placed in a stream (Academic or Applied) to ensure success.There have been too many incidences of students being misplaced.
Finally, I feel that it is important that all teachers take responsibility for teaching literacy skills, not just the teachers of the English Department.If a student makes grammatical mistakes in an essay, or response, a History, Geography or Business Studies teacher should help the student correct their work.This will force the students to pay attention to their work no matter what subject area they are completing a task for.
To conclude, and take this back to the original research questions about the skills that students need to make a smooth transition into Grade , I feel that in terms of academics, the students need the proper literacy skills.At the secondary school level, we expect that students have at least the basic knowledge of literacy and are demanding with our level of expectation.If elementary and Secondary teachers work together, we can ensure that all students will make a smooth and successful transition to Gradeand beyond.
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