This year, I came into contact with a public school with a lot of ambition. Since they opened (roughly 20 years ago), the principal and the teachers have been working tirelessly to create a learning environment that instilled curiosity, built character, and made learning an experience to cherish. Indeed, if there really was a school that could do all that on a consistent basis, I wanted to learn more.

So, what else could I do but study this school? I mean, honestly, I couldn’t help myself!

And it was quite the experience. I found myself questioning public education as a whole. What did this place do that worked well for them? What do other schools do? Are the things they do at this school something that any public school can adopt?

And here’s what I found. 3 big things.

1. Exchange Basal Readers Out for Real Books

“I absolutely love the reading textbook the district bought for our school! It teaches exactly what my students need, and there is nothing else that teaches reading better!”

—said no teacher ever (or at least, that I’ve met).

Basal readers are the reading textbooks you usually see in the elementary school classroom, filled with lots of short stories. Basal readers were created for these reasons:

1. The stories and other content in basal readers are written to teach a very specific grammar or vocabulary principle.
2. Lesson Plans are written for the teacher, making planning simpler.
3. If multiple teachers use the same basal reader, they can collaborate more efficiently, since each teacher is using the same source of information for their lessons.

And that’s why we still use them.

But here’s what I think about basal readers:

1. There is no way that a set curriculum could match the needs of all of the students in a class.
2. Having lesson plans written for the teacher kind of sounds like they’re trying to take the “profession” out of “professional teacher.” After all, when you become a certified teacher, that means that you’ve become a professional. You are set apart from the rest of society in that you have been given the knowledge you need to educate students. But giving teachers a set script to follow, and then forcing them to follow it (just because the district wasted money on a faulty curriculum), both demeans the fact that teachers ARE professionals and assumes that students really are just meant to be pushed through the education system as if it were a factory. Teachers should be given the respect and trust that comes with the “profession” of teaching, and buying basal textbooks is a fine way of NOT treating teachers as professionals.
3. In my experience, and those I have conversed with (both students and teachers), the real way to learn grammar and vocabulary is by coming across it in things that you like to read. When students have a text that is truly meaningful to them, they care more about learning the proper grammar and vocabulary associated with it. Can a student really care about a passage in a basal reader? Yes. But that isn’t always likely to be the case.

So, what do you do if you decide to ditch the basal readers?

What you do is let students pick whatever book they want to read, and let them read it. Give them a little guidance, prodding them into more and more challenging books, but do it at a pace that is right for each student. Give them genre requirements, but be broad about what you will let them read to fulfill those requirements, allowing them to pick for themselves.

Will you have students pick books that you wouldn’t have thought of? Most certainly. Will some books be ones you probably wouldn’t have recommended? Of course. But will it get them reading, and reading a lot? Absolutely.

They will come to love reading because it will become theirs. I highly recommend every one of you check out more on the idea by reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. It’s about a librarian turned teacher who put these ideas into practice and how you can do the same. Great read on an idea that is definitely gaining more and more traction in the teaching world. Here’s her website for you to check out more.

If you’re still not convinced that real books should replace the formulated basal readers, I suggest you do a little bit more research on your own, and decide for yourself.

2. Read Aloud to Students Every Day

What are our students? Babies?

No, but we should still read out loud to them. Jim Trelease, in The Read-Aloud Handbook claims that it’s beneficial to be read aloud to even as adults, so why do we stop at such a young age?

Perhaps it’s because we believe that once students can read themselves, we should just let them do their own thing. But think about it: when children learn to read, their ability to understand what they hear is leagues above their ability to understand what they read. So, to keep expanding their listening comprehension (which will boost their reading comprehension later), we should keep reading aloud to them.

Another important fact about reading aloud to consider: students who were read to had increased attention spans. That alone makes me want to buy a whole bunch of children’s stories to read to my daughter and son (which I did, and continue to do).

Based on what I’ve learned from being in the public education system, which hasn’t been long excluding the 13 years I spent in it as an actual student (but that doesn’t count, right), there seems to be a cry coming from the teachers. That cry is saying, “Our students can’t focus anymore.” It talks about the fact that it seems that students’ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

So, if there was any way to flip that on its head and say, “We can turn this around!” wouldn’t you want to be a part of that? Just saying.

3. Include So-called “Extracurricular” Activities as Part of the Main Curriculum

Going alongside that we want to enhance our students’ abilities and help them focus better during class, we need to make room in our school days for the “extras” that really aren’t extra, but are necessary. These include, but are certainly not limited to:

• art
• physical education
• music
• recess

The best schools understand that the small time sacrifice they make for these activities returns ten-fold. This is because academic success isn’t the only principle that actually matters in education.

What?

You heard me. Academic success isn’t the only reason that education is there.

No, education has a greater role to play. In fact, I think that we all know it, but some refuse to admit it. We all know that we lean on the education system a little more than we let on, to teach our students how to build the future.

This means that we also need students who will be inventive and creative. Innovation that isn’t taught, but must be experienced, is only allowed through mediums such as free time (recess), art, and music. And what’s the point of having those talents, if we’re not able to keep our next generation healthy, with physical education and recess?

The Main Ideas

Here’s the recap. If schools would make these three changes, it would be a great step in the right direction:

1. Exchange Basal Readers out for Real Books
2. Read Aloud to Students Every Day
3. Include “Extracurricular” Activities as Part of the Main Curriculum

That being said, there are a lot of smaller things that have really stuck out to me about the school I visited and studied:

1. Not everything the students turned in got graded, especially practices. This reinforced the idea that mistakes are fine in a learning setting (which is absolutely true). Making mistakes is a fundamental part of learning, and should be treated as such.
2. Students experienced lots of projects and hands-on learning. This not only helped them stay motivated for school (which is a BIG plus), but it helped them stay on task. They learned without even thinking about it, because learning becomes natural when it’s applied to something real.
3. Teachers in the same grade were constantly collaborating together. This is very important, because no teacher should ever feel like an island.

I feel like my studies of this school are far from finished, because it seems like a school that will always be seeking to improve. But for now, that’s all I’ve gleaned for you.

Comment Below!

• What would YOU change about the public education system if you were given the ability to do so?
• Are there any points that you agree with from this article? Disagree? Let me know, and include your reasons why!
• Are there any books on education that you recommend?

As always, thanks for reading! See ya next post!

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