Creating, executing, and assessing a staff development program on developmental reading instruction strategies in the social studies content area in an urban junior-senior high school

This study documented the process of creating, executing, and assessing, a cost-effective, school based, researcher conducted staff development program which included one African American seventh grade social studies faculty member, one European American tenth grade faculty member, and one European American Chapter I reading teacher, at Roosevelt Junior Senior High School, Roosevelt, New York, during the 1989-1990 school year. The objective was to obtain more information about increasing school effectiveness in low income school districts. Staff development efforts were aimed at broadening faculty members\u27 preparedness in developing reading instruction strategies used in the content area of social studies, which conform more concisely with urban African American students\u27 range of reading levels in three homogeneously grouped classes. The goals of (a) improving students\u27 academic performance, (b) attending to individual needs, and (c) providing the tools needed to control learning, are addressed. Five collaboratively designed staff development workshops on developmental reading instruction strategies in the social studies content area enabled members of the faculty to: (a) reevaluate perceptions of teaching reading in the social studies classroom, (b) develop the techniques needed to enable students to independently evaluate the many types of printed material, and, (c) professionally incorporate a concern for teaching the what of content, and how the student may obtain the content. Informal and formal discussions, realization of self-concepts, interests, attitudes, completion of evaluations, diagnosis and prescription, conferencing, and observations, led the researcher to the determination that members of the faculty: (a) developed a unified strategy for teaching students how to read their social studies texts with fluency and efficiency, (b) collaboratively planned lessons stressing reading skills without loss of social studies content, (c) realized that content was naturally acquired as a result of improved reading skills, (d) regarded the process of reading as a necessary component in the curriculum, a skill that opens the door to higher level thinking, and, (e) viewed reading not as an isolated skill but rather as a means of enhancing and enriching the social studies curriculum. The students in this study: (a) demonstrated improved reading skills, for example, increased levels of comprehension, (b) learned how their textbook was organized and how to make the best use of all its parts, (c) increased their vocabulary, (d) obtained a better idea of their own interests in social studies, and, (e) acquired techniques to improve study skills which included taking notes and studying for and taking tests. Indications of increased school effectiveness imply that staff development is practical in low income school districts where there is evidence of a corroborative Board of Education, administrative team, faculty, and curriculum and instructional designers