Student: Wendy Bryant Motley
Test scores revealed the need to strengthen English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency among the school’s African-American students.
What is the project’s goal?
A Book Club was launched with two goals in mind: (1) increase students’ test scores and, (2) on a deeper level, spark a love of reading in all students.
What is the innovation?
The Book Club, collaboratively created with the 4th grade teachers, focuses on books by African-American authors with African-American characters. This is in sharp contrast to the “White-centric” literature often taught in schools, Ms. Motley notes. All 4th grade students are included in the Book Club, which is broken down into 17 sub-groups by reading level. African-American students in particular love reading about characters with whom they can identify. The Book Club is student-led, with students rotating through responsibilities such as making sure that the group stays on task and that everyone has a chance to speak.
What has been the impact?
In contrast to pre-book club implementation data, in which most of the African-American students reported that they did not like to read at all, those students are reporting in post-implementation data that they like to read “sometimes” or “all the time.” Post-intervention ELA scores are still to come, but the enthusiasm of participating students shows that the Book Club has made a difference.
