济南托马斯外籍人员子女学校校长Mr.Craig： To Read！

　　

　　国内近200所国际、双语、民办学校以及公立学校国际部都在使用睿乐生的测评、分级阅读和社科学习等系统，通过教育科技资源把老师们链接在一起的社群也变得越来越大。睿乐生正在积极构建一个国际化的分享社群，并且逐步推动国内外英语教育和阅读教学的思维碰撞。

　　我们欢迎各位校长、老师、产品使用者以睿乐生为平台，在这里分享自己的真知灼见或实践经验。今天，睿乐生转载一篇来自济南托马斯外籍人员子女学校校长Mr.Craig Viscardi撰写的文章，他分享了自己作为校长如何看待儿童成长道路上的重重挑战，以及如何激励他们迎接挑战，培养阅读习惯的思考！

　　

　　Craig Viscardi

　　在世界各地国际学校有超过30年经验的教育领导者；他拥有丰富的数据驱动学习的方法和以研究为基础的教学实践经验。

　　>>>>文章全文

　　As our children grow up, go through their schooling years, and even into adulthood, they will face many challenges along the way. While that is an obvious observation, I want emphasize the “how”.How children face challenges and difficulties in their lives matters a great deal and is what is often overlooked in our schools.Whether it is a physical challenge, like climbing a mountain or running a 10K, or an academic challenge, like earning an A or passing a spelling test, children (as well as adults) will have to muster up their courage, face the challenge head on by setting a goal and making a conscious decision to work towards achieving that goal.

　　

　　Challenges 韩国剧 are great ways to build perseverance and resiliency, and even learn from failure because we might not always meet the challenge set before us. We struggle and falter along the way and sometimes fail to meet our goals. The thing about failure though is that it teaches kids to “come back”, to try again and again until they meet their goal and beat that challenge.

　　The other thing about challenges is that they can bring out the best in us.Children learn to “rise to the challenge”- and give their “best effort” and by doing so, see challenges as an opportunity to achieve success. It’s a wonderful feeling when you achieve a goal, something that was difficult for you and something inside of you said, “keep going, don’t stop--you can do it!”

　　

　　Early in the 2nd Semester of 2021, I found a challenge that I would put out to my students and teachers. I challenged them to do one thing:To Read!As the school’s principal it is my job to find ways to not only encourage, but challenge our students and teachers, to help guide and develop our school culture.Developing better reading skills is a great way to do just that!

　　I started off by setting the bar high, but not un-reachable—From our Oxford Reading Tree, 8 books per month (about 2 per week). Now, to be honest, this was a challenge than not all children were going to be able to meet. Each class has a diverse set of language learners—from early readers to near native and well-above grade-level. Nevertheless, many will struggle, some will fail, but the line was drawn and the challenge was laid before them. The only question was, what would they do? Would they be inspired and motivated or would they push back and disengage?

　　I am pleased to announce that JTIS teachers and students rose to the challenge! Reading classes suddenly became alive and focused on reading engagement. Actively reading, looking up vocabulary words, making predictions and drawing conclusions! It was an amazing turn of events!

　　As a result, with just two months in to the challenge, our students had read over 540 books and by the end of the school year they had read over 1,000 of the ORT leveled reading series!Putting that in perspective- that’s over a 1,000 books read by only 48 youngsters.

　　

　　读书大挑战中的JTIS学生

　　They’ve done a wonderful job so far and I want to thank our teachers and parents for their support and encouragement throughout this challenge!

　　>>>>2022 Update

　　In the fall of 2021, our school purchased theRenaissance STAR 360 packagethat included online access to both reading and math assessments,Accelerated Reader and the myON virtual library.

　　During the first few months we conducted initial assessments and the subsequent reports gave teachers detailed summaries of how our students were doing in terms of early literacy, reading comprehension, and language development skills. Armed with this data, teachers develop comprehensive lessons that target specific deficiencies to provide the support and structure needed for early readers and second language learners.We included myON and AR as entry engagement and activate interest in reading.After 6 months and several testing sessions (about 1 each quarter), it was time to re-start the Challenge! With just one month into the 2022 Principal’s Reading Challenge, our students have been super excited and have been actively engaged in reading from the Oxford Reading Tree Series.After the fist month, we had 16 students who have read over 10 books at their reading level and another 20 students reading between 6 to 8 books per month!As their principal, I’m super proud of them for their engagement and I look forward to using all of our digital libraries and STAR Assessment tools along with hard print resources to encourage and motivate children to develop literacy and reading proficiency!

　　

　　I am excited and honored to continue to support the growth and development of Jinan Thomas International School. With a mission that is focused on developing the skills and aptitudes indicative of real 21st Century teaching and learning, we can ensure that our students have greater access and opportunity to become the thoughtful, creative, critical thinkers and problem solvers of tomorrow!——Craig Viscardi, JTIS Principal

　　（图文来源于作者提供及JTIS官网）

　　睿乐生希望通过纯英文的热点文章以及每月一期的对谈为中、英文母语教师提供阅读教学的灵感与整体解决方案！下周二（4月12日），我们的老朋友——睿乐生伦敦办公室的课程和教育专家Margaret将携手一位新朋友——深圳荟同学校英语学科负责人Marc Boshoff进行纯英文对谈，为老师们提供一些阅读教学的思路和思想碰撞！