Learning How To Learn
School Navigation New Core Element of Citizen Schools Programming

Since Citizen Schools' inception, students have participated in apprenticeships with caring adult volunteers to learn hard skills and future career options.   This year, Citizen Schools added a new program element called school navigation to provide direct instruction around study skills, note-taking, and organization.   Students saw the benefit of studying to be better students.   "Kids realized, 'Yes, I have the power to change my grade!'" says Brandi Pretlow, a Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools who helped implement the curriculum at the Edison Middle School in Boston, Massachusetts.

To learn how you can join the field of out-of-school learning as an educator with Citizen Schools, click here.

Pretlow worked with teachers and administrators to make math facts, reading comprehension and basic study skills compelling for students. The secret, they found, was one-on-one attention. In conferences with Citizen Schools staff about their report cards, students honestly assessed their strengths and weaknesses. Then, children and adults could create personalized plans together to help each of them improve in school.   In-school and out-of-school learning began to overlap, as the after-school staff used their communications with daytime teachers to build on the academic challenges of each day.

At the McKinley Middle School in Redwood City, California, campus director Jane Choi immediately saw the importance of the new curriculum.  "We didn't see it as segregated from what Citizen Schools was already doing.  We wanted our kids to do better in school.  We communicated with teachers about what they wanted to see, and changed our focus from tools to content in the context of what was happening in their classrooms."  

Running a national program on middle school campuses yields tremendous educational benefits -- but it poses logistical challenges as well.   McKinley's program, for instance, doesn't start until 3:30. Jane had to find time to add the new program element to the already packed day. Her solution simply reinterpreted the phrase "out-of-school time." School navigation took place before school, at 8:00 in the morning, twice a week.   Students without other morning obligations were required to attend.   Jane and her persuasive team of educators told students, "We care about your success, and we need you to be here."   The work paid off.  

Students and families responded well to the big time commitment.   "Kids brought their tests to me when they got A's," Jane says.   Citizen Schools will continue to teach school navigation at all program sites in 2006-2007.   Now, more than ever, Citizen Schools takes the opportunity of out-of-school time and uses it to drive student achievement higher and higher.

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CITIZEN SCHOOLS
308 CONGRESS STREET
BOSTON, MA 02210
TEL 617.695.2300      FAX 617.695.2367
[ www.citizenschools.org ]