1. Strategies for Reaching
Students At-Risk
“Know that for kids and teachers alike, growth comes
through risk taking and mistake making.”
- Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde, Best Practice

2. Agenda
► Identifying At Risk
► Learning Strategies
► 21st Century Learners

3. Who is At-Risk?
Pupil Selection Criteria: Two or more of the following criteria:
 < 2 MEAP or MME  Victim of Child Abuse or Neglect
ELA Test
 Pregnant teenager or teenage parent
 < 2 MEAP or MME
Mathematics Test  Atypical behavior or Attendance patterns
 < 2 MEAP or MME
Science Test
 Eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
 Below grade level in English Language and
communication skills or mathematics
 Family history of school failure,
incarceration, or substance abuse

4. Cowboy Philosophy
“Many people set out to break the spirit of a horse. The last
thing I want to do is break down the spirit of any horse: I’m out to
build it up so that I can utilize it. I want to relate to the horse on his
own level and on his time schedule. If you want a horse to have a
good attitude, you can’t force things on him. You have to give him
time to decipher what it is you want him to do.
Usually the problem is the way the horse was taught in the
beginning. Somebody tried to force a lesson on him, or he was
punished harshly for not doing right. If he doesn’t do the right thing,
he knows you’re going to jerk harder or spur harder or get a bigger
mouth bit. So now he’s nervous, scared, and defensive. He is just
flat-out turned off to learning.
Horses naturally understand a pecking order. Your horse can
accept the fact that you are the leader of the herd and he is the
follower. That doesn’t mean that a horse won’t test you from time to
time. He’s going to test you. But you can establish that you are the
leader, number one in the pecking order, without causing your horse
pain or fear. The way you do that is to control your horse’s mind
instead of his body.”
- Craig Cameron, “the cowboy professor”

5. Read and Respond
3 Keys to Motivate Students
1. Stress effort – Often students look only at the red marks, what
they have done wrong, or the final grade. It is important that
educators emphasize the learning and the effort that take place and
encourage continued attempts.
2. Convey enthusiasm – When students are successful, when they
have given their best effort, or when they are attempting
something for the first time, educators need to express their
enthusiasm to reinforce struggling students. Do this genuinely.
3. Engender hope – Above all, teachers need to create a climate of
hope in the classroom that all students can learn. With hope,
students will not easily give up and will be motivated to learn.
How true are these for our own motivation?
Copyright 2007 Success4Teachers.com

6. Sustained Silent Reading
"Research has shown that reading ability is positively correlated with
the extent to which students read recreationally.”
- National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 1997
“Young people who read for pleasure are able to make connections
with the world around them and eventually grow to understand
themselves on levels they never thought possible.”
- Rafe Esquith, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire

7. Sustained Silent Reading Response
S
Each day that we read in class, you are to respond to what you’ve read. Your
responses should be 3-5 thoughtful sentences per day. Your first sentence should
summarize what you’ve read, but the rest should address your opinions about the
characters, the events, and/or the writing style in the novel.
S
Title________________________ Author_____________
Chapter _________ Page #’s________ Rating 1 2 3 4 5
Reading Response:
R
Question, Clarify, Summarize, Predict, Evaluate, or Connect:
R New/Interesting Vocabulary Words:
Chapter _________ Page #’s________ Rating 1 2 3 4 5
e Reading Response:
s Question, Clarify, Summarize, Predict, Evaluate, or Connect:
p New/Interesting Vocabulary Words:
o Chapter _________
Reading Response:
Page #’s________ Rating 1 2 3 4 5
n
s Question, Clarify, Summarize, Predict, Evaluate, or Connect:
e New/Interesting Vocabulary Words:

8. Talk to the Text

9. Name ____________________________ Date _________ Hour _______
T Directions: Read and analyze the following poem with a partner, paying
special attention to each line or stanza and make notes to clarify the
a message.
l The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
k Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
to Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
the And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh! I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
T
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
e Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
x And that has made all the difference.
t Re-read the poem with your notes and state the theme below:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

10. Essay of the Week

11. E
s Directions: Please read the following statement based on this weeks theme
and write a short thoughtful essay (at least 1 page in length) on the back.
s
Remember: The essay is due next Monday. You will be graded on proper
grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and organization so please use your
resources and graphic organizer to ensure a thoughtful essay.
a The Power to Change Lives
y
This week we’ve studied how the power of words, either written or spoken,
can be used to change the ways in which people view themselves and others.
In the case of Edwards, he was one person alone who tried to change the
lives of others. In the case of the witch-hunters, they used words through
accusations to destroy lives. How can people use their power to make a
difference in their lives and the lives of others?
of Please thoughtfully discuss your point of view about this topic.
Evidence 1 Evidence 2
the
Thesis Statement
W
e Evidence 3
e
k In your essay, take a position on the statement. Use specific reasons and
examples to support your position.

12. E Power of Changing Lives
x
Words can make a difference in someone’s life, either for the better or
worse. When people use their power of written or spoken words it can either
hurt or make their lives better. People can put other people down with their
e words and they could think less of themselves or it could be the opposite and
make someone feel a lot better about their self. Edwards, the witch-hunters
m and telling someone that you are proud of them are all examples of how this
can happen.
p Edwards used his words to try and change the way people thought
about god. He told them there was nothing they could do to save themselves
l from hell. His words changed the way people thought and it also changed
the way they acted because they thought that god would forgive you after
a you did something bad, but Edwards said there was nothing you could go.
So people started to both not care and basically act out or they would try and
r be as good as possible that way they wouldn’t go to hell.
The witch-hunters used their words to change people’s lives because
y the tests that they would use were so simple and it would be anyone that
everyone feared they would be accused of being a witch. Once you were
accused of being a witch there was nothing you could do you were going to
die no matter what. Either by proving you weren’t a witch or just confessing
E because the pain of proving it was too much and then they would kill you
because you said you were a witch. The words that the witch-hunters used
x where so conniving that the people who were accused of being the witch
would get stuck and just give in. When they gave in it changed their life
a
because they would then get killed.
Giving someone a hug and saying how much you are proud of them
m
makes them feel better. It can change the way they think about themselves
and their confidence can go up from something that simple. Telling people
kind stuff can make them feel better and sometimes people don’t know how
p to show that you made them feel better so they just keep it in.
You can change someone’s life for the good or bad by what you say to
l them or to other people who then told them what you said. Everything you
say has a way of changing someone else’s life.
e

13. But I don’t teach English…
“We are teaching kids how to analyze information, relate it
to other information they know, put it together, take it
apart, and give it back in a form that we request. It
doesn’t matter what the class is; we all teach the same
things. We just use different terms. English teachers use
commas and adjectives; biology teachers use
chromosomes and chlorophyll; math teachers use
imaginary numbers and triangles. We are also teaching an
optional agenda: we’re teaching our kids to believe in
themselves.”
-LouAnne Johnson, Teaching Outside the Box

14. Unveiling the Mystery of Learning Protocol
1. SEE IT.
3. DO IT.
5. TEACH IT.

15. A Vision of K-12 Students Today

16. Digital Storytelling

17. Synthesizing Chaucer

18. A Different Take on Shakespeare

19. Riders on the Storm
The Doors - 1971
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born Riders on the storm
Into this world we're thrown Riders on the storm
Like a dog without a bone Into this house we're born
An actor out alone Into this world we're thrown
Riders on the storm
There's a killer on the road Like a dog without a bone
His brain is squirmin' like a toad An actor out alone
Take a long holiday Riders on the storm
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride Riders on the storm
Sweet memory will die Riders on the storm
Killer on the road, yeah Riders on the storm
Girl ya gotta love your man Riders on the storm
Girl ya gotta love your man Riders on the storm
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah

20. Better Not Look Down
-B. B. King
I've been around and I've seen some things You better not look down, if you want to keep on flying
People moving faster than the speed of sound Put the hammer down, keep it full speed ahead
Faster than the speeding bullet Better not look back, or you might just wind up crying
People living like Superman You can keep it moving, if you don't look down
All day and all night
And I won't say if it's wrong or if it's right I was walking down the street at sunrise one morning,
I'm pretty fast myself in London, England
But I do have some advice to pass along And there was a very large Rolls Royce limousine,
Right here in the words of this song pulling slowly along the street
And in that Rolls Royce was the queen of England,
You better not look down, if you want to keep on flying looking tired
Put the hammer down, keep it full speed ahead Just go back from a party, and the queen leaned out and,
You better not look back, or you might just wind up crying she said: "Aren't you B.B. King?“
You can keep it moving, if you don't look down She said: "Oh B.B., sometimes it's so hard to pull things together.
Could you tell me what you think I ought to do?“
An old girl friend of mine showed up the other day And I said:
That girl have lived in love and for love,
and over love, and under love all her life You better not look down, if you want to keep on flying
If the arrows from cupid's bow that had Put the hammer down, keep it full speed ahead
passed through her heart had been sticking Better not look back, or you might just wind up crying
Out of her body she would have looked like a porcupine, You can keep it moving, if you don't look down
And she asked me,
"B.B. do you think I've lived my life all wrong?“ You better not look down, if you want to keep on flying
And I said: "The only advice I have to pass Put the hammer down, keep it full speed ahead
along is concealed in the chorus of this song", girl Better not look back, or you might just wind up crying
You can keep it moving, if you don't look down
High Standards. High Results. No Excuses.