"South Middle School shares the responsibility of motivating and educating all students to live successfully." This mission statement, developed by the staff of South Middle School in Liberal, Kansas, is the motivation used to continually promote and monitor achievement in our highly multicultural and transient student population. When researching strategies to use with our NCA goal of reading comprehension, we knew the strategies had to be flexible, student and teacher friendly, and worthwhile. We soon discovered "Somebody Wanted But So" statements and "Context Clues" (both researched by Dr. Kylene Beers of the University of Houston) and knew immediately they would fit the distinct needs of South Middle School.

Somebody Wanted But So (SWBS) statements are an easily adaptable summarization tool for fiction and non-fiction reading across the curriculum. Students identify character, motivation, conflict and resolution in one easy step, and are able to quickly summarize large reading selections in a few sentences.

Context Clues are often taught to students at the elementary level, but are difficult to master. The acquisition of vocabulary knowledge is mandatory for a learner to achieve success. Teachers assist students' independent learning styles by showing them how to obtain the meanings of unknown words through recognizing and applying context clues. Through practice, students of South Middle School are able to increase their reading ability by confronting a difficult word head on instead of skipping it.

The most important aspect of the success achieved by South Middle School is the dedication of the staff to the NCA process. Every staff member is responsible for some part of the process and its implementation schoolwide. This provides every staff member with buy-in and a sense of responsibility to themselves and the students.

During our session on Monday, March 29 at 8:30 a.m. at the NCA/CASI annual conference in Chicago, participants will experience the successful reading and problem-solving methods that South Middle School teachers have effectively implemented. Learn how easy strategies for expository and narrative comprehension, problem-solving skills, and staff development can be implemented into any school setting.

e-NEWS: December 2003 Issue