Reading Challenge--Step "Outside the Box" and Make a Difference with Me in K-12 Education

"The Economy in 2009"‐‐at a time when students are graduating from high school reading at a third or fourth grade level, when employees need symbols on keys to enter sales at fast‐food restaurants, when beginning employees and students entering community colleges cannot read the textbooks, manuals, or follow written instructions well enough to be successful at their jobs, teachers are laid off in droves.

Many teachers who are not yet tenured and who chose to come to teaching as a second (or later career) to make a difference for students often command higher salaries due to education and, in districts already operating "in the red" are let go by some school districts and not hired by other school districts.

Beyond that challenge, many interventions designed to help struggling readers improve reading skills are not proving successful enough to produce a quality change in students' abilities to read. Research indicates that many students who have problems reading often engage in off‐task behavior and bring others off‐task with them so not to have to compete in academics. Schools invest money in "positive behavior intervention and support" (variations of discipline and rewards) rather than in helping students build solid social‐emotional skills appropriate to their grade levels and use "off the shelf" interventions to build reading scores (not necessarily skills or habits). (See http://joelmonty.wikispaces.com/research
for several research articles which support these claims.)

For the last six years I have been one of those multiple‐career teachers, working with English language learners (ELLs) in K‐12 school districts in Kane County Illinois. I have gone back to school to meet state requirements for teaching and completed a post‐doctoral Master of Arts in Teaching in May, 2008, then
took 15 graduate hours during the summer of 2008 to obtain state approval as a bilingual (Spanish) teacher and as a Teacher of English as a Second Language. I earned my doctorate degree in 1992 in adult education and human resources development. Before stepping into the K‐12 classroom, I had been a teacher of adults since 1968 (starting as a volunteer with the American Red Cross). I had designed innovative programs provided to employees of businesses and corporations in North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. I had also been an organizational change consultant for organizations around the world for more than 40 years.

Most recently I have been focusing on the ongoing problem of below‐grade –level reading among middle school students and beyond. While prevalent among ELLs and students whose families are in the lower economic categories (receiving free or reduced lunches), it is more widespread than that. My research and practice have led me to explore a technology‐enhanced approach which had established a good track record in the 1990s and has even greater application today, leveraging the new technology. I am referring to the use of audiobooks and eAudiobooks (which can be downloaded to iPods and MP3 players) to encourage reading and improved academic performance. (See http://joelmonty.wikispaces.com/research for an article and a presentation on this subject.)


Today, at the beginning of the 2009‐2010 school year, I am looking for school districts who would like to partner with me to introduce this approach with small groups of students, teachers, and librarians at the middle school level and above.

This is a time to step “outside the box” and to find a way to support something new that has the potential to make a real difference for K‐12 students and employers and future families in this country.

If you are ready "step outside of the box" to work with me to meet this challenge, please let me know. The website linked to the title of this blog entry takes you to the project page for DrM‐Resources and this is the “Providing Access to eAudiobooks and Audiobooks to Improve Reading and Academic Performance” project.