Tech Center pursues CTE literacy initiative
WATERVILLE – Mid-Maine Technical Center has joined an ambitious
statewide literacy initiative to improve reading and writing skills among Career
and Technical Education (CTE) students by emphasizing literacy skills throughout
their programs' curriculum and school culture.
The Maine Department of Education CTE Literacy Initiative got underway earlier
this year and will continue through at least 2007. For MMTC, the goal of the
effort is two-fold, according to Director Mark Powers.
“First and foremost, it’s going to better prepare our students to successfully
complete the National Certification Tests that each program administers every
year, and secondly all of the careers that we’re offering demand a high level
of literacy,” Powers said.
Maine CTE schools were invited to participate in the new initiative to identify,
support and disseminate information about promising programs and approaches
that improve literacy, rigor and relevance in CTE courses.
At MMTC, key points of the initiative at the classroom level include the following:
*There will be a renewed focus on students’ daily journals. The purpose of the
journals will get students to reflect on what was learned that day in ways that
require making connections, analyzing the days events, or similar efforts.
*There will be a focus on technical terminology in each program area. Each program
will identify approximately 200 key terms and will actively work with 7-10 of
those terms using vocabulary development strategies at least once a week.
*Each program area will provide a minimum of 30 opportunities each year for
students to read technical articles and actively use the literacy support strategies
introduced during professional development sessions. Assistance finding articles
and/or co-teaching will be provided by staff members trained for that role.
*There will be an addition to the Career Portfolio. Each quarter, students will
be asked to reflect upon a problem they encountered with their lab assignments
and describe how they addressed the problem. These explanations can be accompanied
by pictures with captions, done as a PowerPoint presentation, or a technical
writing assignment. Students will also be required to make presentations to
the class.
In order to support these measures, staff development has been heavily emphasized.
All MMTC staff, including administrators, participated in at least one workshop
focused on literacy support strategies between January and April 2006. Four
literacy mentors were selected from among the staff to attend four full-day
workshops in the spring of 2006. These mentors were then responsible for trying
out strategies in their classrooms and developing content-specific applications
of the strategies to support student learning in their technical program areas.
They are also sharing their knowledge with other schools across the state, as
members of a 14-person CTE literacy mentoring team. More literacy training is
being provided for these mentors in the fall of 2006.
The CTE literacy mentors are Reggie Grenier (computer technology), Becky Johnston
(automotive technology), Mark Rancourt (precision machining), and Bill Robertson
(culinary arts).
There is no question that many technical education students can benefit from
improvements to their skills and attitude when it comes to literacy, according
to these mentors.
“The students often come in and they’ll tell you they’re here to learn how to
run a machine, not to learn how to read,” Rancourt said. “So what you do is
you have to put meaning and justification to it and show them that part of their
job is doing research, reading technical manuals, writing reports – so these
are skills worth learning.”
Johnston said, "Every teacher at the technical center is implementing the
new literacy initiative in their own way, but an example of how things have
changed in her own class would be how she recently handled a lesson on basic
engine construction. Rather than jumping straight into the technical aspects,
she first put questions on the board asking students why they were learning
this subject matter, how much they already knew about it, and what they hoped
to get out of the unit overall."
“Before we even started they had to think about more than yes or no answers
and do a little reflecting through the chapter,” Johnston said. “In my case
I think it actually helps save a bit of time, because by giving them a chance
to get their thoughts down, I find they’re more engaged and they have a clearly
marked road to get where they’re going.”
In addition to other literacy training, all MMTC teachers have participated
in one or more half-day workshops focused on literacy strategies including vocabulary
development, note taking, reading comprehension, writing, and motivating students
to read their textbooks.
Staff development continued over the summer when 16 MMTC staff members attended
a three day CTE Literacy Insitute that provided intensive training with literacy
strategies.
Strategies are now being shared during faculty meetings and staff members are
being kept abreast of any new strategies or initiatives. The focus on literacy
initiatives will also be reinforced during teacher in-service days and teachers
will be given the opportunity during the year to visit other technical centers
that are using literacy strategies successfully.
By enlisting the aid of the school systems that send students to the technical
center, MMTC is also testing all its students’ literacy skills and then tracking
their improvement as the initiative continues. Student achievement data from
the 2005-2006 school year is being analyzed to develop new literacy initiatives.
Finally, questions on National Certification Tests are being analyzed with an
eye toward developing strategies that will give students the literacy skills
they need to interpret and answer complex questions successfully.
At this point, plans are to continue with current efforts and keep on emphasizing
the importance of the CTE literacy initiative to teachers, students, and sending
districts. Additional professional development opportunities will be offered
for staff, and a professional library for teachers is being developed.