Building Vocabularies and Background Knowledge to Drive Dramatic Improvement
Printer-friendly versionStudents at George Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Ala., live in isolated, intergenerational poverty. They arrive at school with limited vocabularies and background knowledge. Only a few years ago, the school was one of the lowest performing in the city. Today, students at George Hall are among the top achievers in the state. Hear how the faculty and staff transformed the school—not by dreary teaching-to-the-test but by introducing greater structure into instruction. They included dozens of carefully constructed adventures (otherwise known as field trips) and tied them directly to the curriculum. These helped students develop complex vocabularies and the ability to think critically about what they were learning. George Hall is an inspiring story of school transformation, containing lessons for educators everywhere.
Terri Tomlinson, principal;
Elizabeth Reints, achievement specialist;
Melissa Mitchell, writing coach; and
Swanee Terry, third-grade teacher, George Hall Elementary School, Mobile Ala.
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