Urban Students

I have always admired those who have to take the path less traveled. Creating channels supporting underperforming students literacy achievements reflects the work of the In2Books program from the District of Columbia’s Public School District. The In2Books program otherwise referred to as the 12B program displays a concentrated study of literacy programming in urban educational settings focusing on grades 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

The study focused on teachers implementing a pen pal exchange between students and their appointed professionals. The goal was to connect both parties through their letter exchanges while engaging students in literacy-rich activities, whereas, practicing listening and speaking skills, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing based activities through a continuous cycle. Teachers closely monitored the growth of the relationships between the students and pen pal professionals while assigning culminating activities based off of a writing workshop approach that reinforces specific research-based ways on writing letters.

The study compared veteran educators who implemented the 12B project to non-veteran 12B educators. The research measured achievement using the Stanford Achievement Test 9th edition (SAT-9), a nationally normed reading assessment, that analyzes both explicit and implicit questioning in addition to multiple reading comprehension subtests. The study showed 2nd year Veteran teachers students achieved higher scores in grade 2, 3 a 4 than non-12B teachers’ students (Teale and Gambrell 2007, p.731). In addition, students of first-year teachers who implemented the 12B program scored higher in grades 3 and 4, however, scores were equivalent in grades 2 whether or not the 12B program was implemented (Teale and Gambrell 2007, p.731).

The concept of creating pen pal relationships modeling off of the 12B program is a meaningful way of creating relationships while focusing on writing skills. Utilizing this framework as a way of teaching writing allows student exploration while building activities off of what they are already accomplishing!