A neighborhood school that's big on reading

Teaching Pre K-8, Feb 2000 by Elliot, Ian

Recipient of the International Reading Association's 1997 Exemplary Reading Program at state and national levels

As far as academic credentials are concerned, school and principal are obviously doing something right.

A school without buses. National awards notwithstanding, Delmar-Harvard is still very much a "neighborhood school." For one thing, all of its students walk to school - there are no school buses.

For another, people in the Loop (as the neighborhood is called) think of D-H as their school; every year, local restaurants get together and provide lunch for the school staff

And for still another, the public library is next door, the post office is a block away, the fire station, police department and city hall are right behind the school - and everyone is on a first-name basis with everyone else. If that's not "neighborhood," what is?

People in the Loop take this good neighbor policy seriously, and Dr. G-R is no exception. She calls parents regularly and makes frequent home visits to families that may need help of some kind. With the assistance of such organizations as the Kauffman Foundation and the Daughters of Charity Health Foundation, Dr. G-R and others have identified various "stakeholders" in the community who can provide that help.

Thanks to the support of the Kauffman Foundation, the school was able to get a staff together, pay the staff and give parents incentives to come and discuss their concerns.

Like Pat, Dr. G-R has given students and parents her home phone number, with instructions to call if help was needed. (The last four digits of her number are 7323 - and that spells READ. She didn't ask for it. It just happened.) Extra-special attention. Delmar-Harvard is a school with just about everything (or so it often seems) - from tutoring programs to foreign language instruction, from a fall-day kindergarten program to before- and after-school child care. Everything gets special attention. Everything except reading, that is. With people like Pat Tessler and Dr. GCR on the premises, reading gets extra-special attention.

A former reading specialist, now in her seventh year as principal, Dr. G-R works hard to make literacy everyone's number one priority. As a result: 1) all students are expected to read 50 books a year; 2) there's reading and journal writing every day in every classroom; 3) the school library has been expanded and refurbished; and 4) authors and illustrators of children's books are constantly being invited to visit the school.

When you're boosting literacy, little gestures can mean a lot. "We have almost 300 students," Dr. G-R told us. "It's a nice size because you get to know every child by name. At the end of the year, we're able to hand-pick books for children and put notes encouraging reading inside the books."

Not-so-little gestures can mean a lot, too. For example, Dr. G-R goes to a discount store and purchases notebooks so that every student, K-5, has a journal for language arts and science. Grades 3-5 also have a third journal for art. Writing, by the way, has assumed an even greater importance at D-H since the school began using Terra Nova testing, which requires students to write all their responses, even in math.