Teach the skills children need to become independent learners and thinkers—that has been Kathy Johnson’s motto for thirty years. It’s a tough goal, because she and her colleagues at Liberty Elementary, a Title I school just outside Fort Worth, Texas, face classes filled with students who are at-risk, children who are ELLs, and children who have special needs and IEPs. Many of these students start the school year with only one-third of the vocabulary of typical kindergartners. If they are to survive poverty and excel, they need to become independent readers.
Mrs. Johnson’s role in the team is to teach these kindergartners language arts through science. She does so, she explains, because sciences offer “something kids can visualize and anchor on to.” For instance, children might read the fictional story, “The Three Bears,” and compare and contrast fictional and real bears: they are mammals; there are different kinds; they live in different places and need different habitats. Using the Learning Resources Three Bear Family® Counters, children can act out the story in a variety of ways. Using Reading Rods® Phonemic Awareness Kit , children can spell BEAR, or other vocabulary words, on their desks while journaling about bears.
Mrs. Johnson and the rest of the team also have a peer learning “push-in / pull-out” program that matches older children who need more help with younger students. The older students practice fundamentals while they gain confidence and empowerment from mentoring the younger children; the younger children achieve greater success with the support of their older buddies. At Liberty Elementary, children regularly change rooms to get the specialized attention they need, whether that attention comes from a teacher, a student partner or a group of students. Mrs. Johnson is now taking these methods on the road. She and her daughter Kary, also an educator who has developed workshops using the Response to Intervention model, offer teachers and administrators ideas to be more successful in meeting the needs of at-risk students.
Even after thirty years in kindergarten, Mrs. Johnson hits the ground running. Her teaching doesn't stop at the door of Liberty Elementary—it flows out across the White Settlement Independent School District and into conferences across the country.
Click here to see Kathy’s speaking schedule at upcoming education conferences.
