Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011 Page: 18
79 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Vocabulary development is essen-
tial to thinking and shared under-
standings (Payne, 2009). Improv-
ing academic vocabulary can in-
crease achievement substantially
through planned "systematic in-
struction in important academic
terms" (Marzano, 2005, p. 3). To
remedy the disparity in language
deficits found in the minority and
low income students served at
Brawner Intermediate, students are
given an opportunity to learn a
new academic word each week
through what Brawner Intermedi-
ate calls the "Academic Word of
the Week" (AWW). Each Monday
morning, faculty members and
students lead the campus in sing-
ing the A.W.W. theme song and
then introduce the new word for
the week. Throughout the week,
the word is reviewed in the morn-
ing meeting and in the classrooms
by using a campus-wide graphic
organizer and additional vocabu-
lary activities. The campus-wide
graphic organizer is based off of
Frayer's Model to optimize student
understanding of the vocabulary
term.
Both the school-wide morning
meeting and academic word of the
week target the need to increase
Brawner student's opportunity to
learn. In prior years, the students
were simply sitting and waiting for
the bell to start the day. Faculty
and staff saw the opportunity to
get in some extra teaching and
learning time as students came in
the building each morning. A side
benefit to increased opportunity to
learn is decreased discipline issues
during morning meeting and in-
creased attendance throughout the
week.
As part of the initiative towards
increasing time on task, Brawnerstaff collaboratively identified stu-
dent lack of organization as one
reason for a waste of useable time
(time on task). Therefore, with the
support of campus leadership,
funds were dedicated to purchas-
ing an organizational binder for
each student in the school. The
binders hold information including
the student behavior card, school/
class calendars, teacher plan/lunch
times, the A.W.W. graphic organ-
izer sheet, important websites for
contact, and student websites that
can be accessed by the student at
home. The binder holds all home-
work/class work needed to be
completed or to be sent home. The
left pocket is specified as "LEFT
at home" and the right is "RIGHT
back to school" in order to clarify
the binder's organization for par-
ents and students. One of the add-
ed benefits from the binder is posi-
tive parent feedback received indi-
cating improved communication
between school and home.
Payne (2005) explains that build-
ing students' relationships is
achieved through support systems,
through caring about students, by
promoting student achievement, by
being role models, and by insisting
upon successful behaviors for
school. Support systems are simply
networks of relationships. In order
to create and build relationships
with students, Brawner Intermedi-
ate also provides enrichment time
each Friday for one hour. During
this time, gifted and talented stu-
dents are pulled together to work
on independent projects to be com-
pleted each semester. All the other
students are dispersed into groups
that change and rotate each six
weeks. There are six areas stu-
dents can attend throughout the
year: math, technology, reading,
science, language, and writing.In order to create
and build relationships
with students, Brawner
Intermediate also pro-
vides enrichment time
each Friday for one hour.18
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Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011, periodical, 2011; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201694/m1/22/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.