This elementary school is achieving high reading scores a million words at a time
This elementary school is achieving high reading scores a million words at a time
Walking into Windsor Park Elementary in Corpus Christi, Texas, itâs hard to miss the mass of bright, colorful paper balloons taped on the wall, displaying photos of dozens of children who have read at least 1 million words this school year.
âItâs something that the students are very, very proud of,â librarian Annelise Rodriguez, who created and manages the Millionaires Club, told . âWeâve had kids come in when they take tours and say, âIâm going to be up there some day.â Some kids get it in 45 books, and for others, itâs taken 360 books.â
The project was created three years ago to motivate and recognize young avid readers in the of roughly 600 students. Just a few weeks ago, a grandmother who didnât speak English bowed her head to thank Rodriguez after her grandchildâs photo finally made the display.
Last year, Windsor Park students read 400 million words as part of the Millionaires Club. They are on track to beat that record, with over 315 million words read by the end of February. Itâs one of the ways the school has attained its high reading proficiency rates, an achievement that earned its ranking on The 74âs list. The highlighted schools have third-grade literacy scores that are much higher than might be expected, based on the schoolsâ poverty rates.
With its 29% poverty level, nearly two-thirds of Windsor Park third graders were projected to be proficient in reading in 2024, but its actual score was 96%. That rate jumped to 99% last year. Nearly 50% of students are Hispanic, 29% are white, and 15% are Asian.
Windsor Park is a magnet school for gifted and talented children. Texas schools to screen their students, and all children in the Corpus Christi Independent School District who score in the top 3% receive an invitation to transfer to Windsor Park, said Principal Kimberly Bissell. Transportation is provided.
The consists of multiple tests that grade studentsâ achievement in reading and math, as well as problem-solving and critical thinking abilities. Students can transfer in any grade to Corpus Christiâs gifted and talented schools.
Windsor Park is also the districtâs only elementary school. The worldwide educational allows teachers to write their own curriculum and offer rigorous instruction along with inquiry-based learning.
âWe have kids who are in first grade reading at a middle school or high school level,â Bissell said. âThose things have always been true, but the initiative behind their personal achievement has certainly ramped up in the last few years with our new approaches.â
The Millionaires Club, which is expanding to other schools in the 33,000-student district, is one of them. The number of words children read is tracked through Accelerated Reader, an online program that records finished books and comprehension.
Windsor Park also recently launched a called âthinking classrooms.â Originally created for math education, it students working in small groups, solving problems while standing up at whiteboards and building on pieces of knowledge as they go. But Bissell said Windsor Park implemented this approach across all its classes.
It especially improved studentsâ writing skills because the children use the whiteboards to organize text and story structure, she said.
In Hanna Patton-Elliottâs third grade classroom on a recent morning, students became âdoctors,â pulling on blue medical gloves before separating into groups of two or three. Each group had to assess a passage of text on a whiteboard â the âpatientâ â by finding the main idea. The children then diagnosed their âpatientsâ by writing a conclusion for what the passage was about.
Patton-Elliott said that at the end of the class, students rotate and evaluate one anotherâs work as âattending doctorsâ â the staff who oversee the work of a medical team.
âIâm going to give them an opportunity to write the conclusions for other peopleâs work, but then also go back and look at it as the first attending doctor,â she said. âSo weâve got lots of things going on. Weâve got some reading skills, weâve got the main idea, weâve got organization, but then also weâve got some creative writing, too. The metaphor seems to be working for breaking this down and organizing it.â
The activity is part of the curricular materials written by Windsor Park teachers under the International Baccalaureate program. Teachers create their grade-level curriculum together to ensure that the same lessons â such as finding the main idea of a story â are taught in each classroom, even if the activities may be different. Because Windsor Park classes are interdisciplinary, teachers try to connect the same ideas in all academic subjects, so what the children learn in reading, for example, is referenced in math class.
Much of Windsor Parkâs instruction uses standards from the Texas Education Agency, but infuses them with student-led learning and group collaboration. The curriculum also allows children to make decisions and manage their own instruction, such as choosing the grading rubrics for an activity.
âWe find not just for gifted learners, but as a best practice, this idea of choice and student agency really builds writing, as well as reading and everything that English Language arts envelopes,â Bissell said. âWhen you offer choice with expectations, they do a lot better.â
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