Teaching Students How to Succeed in School
Ready To Learn is an early childhood classroom program that is based upon an extensive review of research on skills associated with school success. RTL is designed to promote the learning skills and social skills needed for school success. The main skill areas in the RTL program are attending, listening, social skills, and cognitive skills such as understanding story structure and asking effective questions. These skill areas are considered the foundations upon which reading proficiency and school success are based. Five teacher strategies are used to help students develop competence in the skill areas listed above:
- Modeling, coaching, and cueing
- Student story retelling
- Student story telling
- Positive peer reporting
- Encouragement council
The skills and teacher strategies used in RTL reflect the latest recommendations from The National Reading Panel's 2003 publication, “Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its implications for Reading Instruction.
Ready To Learn Research
Three well-designed studies have been conducted to measure the impact of the Ready To Learn program with Pre-K, Kindergarten, and first grade students on their academic achievement and social skills. A fourth study with second graders using a modification of the RTL program has also been completed.
All four studies demonstrated positive and significant gains in academic achievement and social skills for students involved in the RTL program as compared to students not receiving instruction in the RTL model.
Two of the studies have been published in the Journal of Educational Research (JER). One of the studies received the Research Article of the Year award from JER. The other two studies are in progress for publication.
- Brigman, G. & Webb, L. (2003). Ready to learn: Teaching kindergarten students school success skills. Journal of Educational Research.
- Brigman, G., Lane, D., Lane, D., Switzer, D., & Lawrence, R., (1999).Teaching children school success skills. Journal of Educational Research, 92 (6), 323-329.
The RTL program is published by Atlantic Education Consultants, Boca Raton, FL. Phone - 561-451-9719. The cost is $195.00 plus $12.00 for shipping and handling.
The program includes two oversized story books which contain the five stories with Fuzzy and his forest friends, which introduce the skills of attending, listening, asking questions and encouragement to the children. A teacher manual, an audio CD of the stories, and a set of classroom posters to remind the children of the key skills.