USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1960 > Part 15
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A new basic reading system established in the special classes, which was originally introduced in the pre-primary and primary divisions and then in the intermediate division, pro- duced most satisfactory results during the school year. The older girls and boys in the secondary division, who had been exposed to the new system in the lower groups, displayed a greater interest in reading and their comprehension of more advanced material was most interesting and satisfactory. The credit for the success of this program belongs to the special class teachers who have worked diligently in the organization and presentation of this reading system.
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A similar interest in a current evaluation of desired achievements in arithmetic and spelling was expressed by the special class teachers early in the school year. As a result of this interest a study committee was organized in May for the purpose of developing new approaches to these tool subjects.
More progressive methods of teaching for all types of re- tarded children should be investigated, particularly for younger children, with special emphasis on play therapy. The question of occupational training and guidance for older girls and boys requires further study. Wherever one turns there are unsolved problems in the education and training of the retarded that require constant evaluation, study, and investigation.
VISION; TESTING PROGRAM
The Massachusetts Vision Test was provided again this year for the schools of Somerville, and a total of 3390 elemen- tary school pupils were tested. Of this total 231 were retested in compliance with the rules and regulations of the Department of Public Health. From the pupils who were retested, a final total of 125 pupils failed the test. Notices were sent home to their parents recommending further treatment and care as pre- scribed by their doctors. Follow-up notices carrying their doctor's recommendations and prognosis were returned to the respective schools by the pupils and the schools proceeded as directed. A comparison of the figures shows that 3.7% of the pupils taking the test failed, which is a little below the State and national figures for the same test.
Major concern this year was given to the first, second, and third grades. All the special classes were included and also those referred, or considered to warrant the test, by the teachers in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. An attempt was made this year to test the kindergarten pupils. This plan had to be abandoned because it was found that the kindergarten children were too immature for the test. This experiment was made at the Durell School in September 1959. It is possible that better results might have been obtained further along in the school year, perhaps about January or February.
Medical science deems it most necessary and important that children's eyes be tested at an early age. They go so far as to say that a preschool child, preferably at the age of three, should have his eyes examined, both inside and out, by a practicing ophthalmologist. This should be done regardless of
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whether or not the parents think anything is wrong with the child's eyes. By providing this type of professional care at this early age a child has his best chance for seeing normally throughout his life. The Massachusetts Vision Test picks up many types of eye trouble, but if surgery is necessary it must be done before the age of six or seven for best results.
Responsibility lies with the parents and the schools to see that children enjoy normal health and proper eye development for a joyful and successful life. Fortunately, the schools are carrying out their part of the responsibility, but many parents fail to understand their part of the burden and the importance of the notices sent home. One year ago 222 pupils failed the vision test, yet only 126 pupils saw an eye specialist. These figures are discouraging, but they should become better when there is more cooperation on the part of the parents.
Again this year there may be some children who failed the vision test and their parents may be unable to meet financial obligations. If this is so, many organizations throughout the city are generous and will provide aid. The school nurses and administrators are aware of this outside assistance, and because of their excellent cooperation the eye health program has again proved successful.
During the 1960-1961 school year the children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades and those referred from the lower grades and children in the special classes will be tested.
HEARING PROGRAM
In September 1959 Lip Reading classes on all levels from kindergarten through the senior high school were organized in eleven central schools. The senior high group met for one regular period a week on Fridays. The junior high school group met once a week for a period of forty-five minutes. The ele- mentary classes had a thirty to forty minute lesson once a week. The kindergarten groups had a fifteen to thirty minute lesson once a week.
The lip reading classes are limited to those children who have had a medical diagnostic examination by an otologist or hospital clinic and who have serious or progressive hearing losses. This criterion for membership in these classes is ideal in that we have in the classes only those children who really need special help.
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The Winthrop Foundation at Massachusetts General Hos- pital, the Children's Medical Center, and private otologists have been most helpful in sending us information about Somer- ville school children who have been examined by them. The schools, in return, have given them information concerning the school progress and social adjustment of these children. With this cooperation of the medical and educational professions, now children with serious hearing losses are able to attend public schools.
There are a few children with borderline hearing losses who are included in the lip reading classes. While medical diagnosis is always kept in mind, and while the numerical average loss on the audiogram may not appear to be very large, the fact remains that some children find slight hearing losses more handicapping than their families and teachers realize. Such borderline cases can and do result in poor scholarship, unde- sirable behavior, or in personality maladjustments. Therefore the School Department reserves the right to decide whether or not these children should have the benefit of special instruc- tion. The child with the borderline loss is a problem for the educator rather than for the doctor.
An ear clinic is sponsored by the Board of Health and is a very important part of our Hearing Conservation program. A qualified otologist examines and diagnoses some of the chil- dren who have failed the Pure Tone Audiometer Test. There are many children in the public and parochial schools in the city who are unable to afford a medical examination. The School Ear Clinic provides this service free of charge to the parent. The otologist examines the children and makes a re- port on every case. This report is entered in the school records and then sent to the parents. The information thus becomes available to the school doctors and nurses for the routine physical examinations and also to the principals and teachers. Having such information on the Health Cards has the advan- tage of providing such information to the school authorities if the child moves to another school within the city or to an- other community. The primary function of the School Ear Clinic is that of examination and diagnosis. Carrying out the recommendations of the otologist is the responsibility of the parents.
All cases of children who have been examined by otologists or hospital clinics are followed up by printed card, home visit, or telephone call. This information is recorded in the files which are kept in the Supervisor's office and is available to
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school nurses, administrators, Remedial Reading department, and the educational testing personnel. Exchange of informa- tion among these related programs has resulted in a better understanding of the child's problem and more successful planning for his educational needs.
A special report card is given to all children above the second grade. The only exception is in the High School where the quarterly mark is entered on the regular school report card. The lip reading report card is given out the week following the regular school report. This card shows a mark for Conduct, Effort, Attendance, Class Work, Written Work, and progress in Lip Reading. The card is most helpful in that it gives the child and the parents a definite report on the child's progress. While many of these children are only mediocre students in the school subjects, they can and do become very adequate lip readers. Thus, the report card has a very good psychological effect in raising the morale of the child and in giving him a feeling of success in some phase of his school work.
SPEECH PROGRAM
Early in the year the first grade children were tested as well as those children who the teachers felt might require speech help. Visits were made to the schools to test the articu- lation of those children who were referred. For this testing pictures of objects containing the consonants and vowels to be used in the initial, medial, and final positions were used. Spon- taneous speech was also appraised as children answered ques- tions about home, school, and friends.
The children were grouped homogeneously according to defect wherever possible. In cases where there was too great an age variation to make this a good plan, the grouping was carried out in accordance with age. The schedule was then set up in such a way as to make possible visits to two or three schools daily, and so that the teacher could see each group for a minimum of thirty minutes at each session.
Late in the school year the kindergarten children were tested. The names of the children who would require speech help in September were recorded, together with their school and defect. Although there were a large number of children with minor speech difficulty, the teachers were pleased to find surprisingly few who displayed serious problems.
The most common speech errors found among school chil- dren are lisping, stuttering, and articulatory disorders. There
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were also a few children who needed help for cleft palate speech and for the damaging effects of Cerebral Palsy.
A tape recorder and a record player proved to be of great help. The tapes provided an opportunity to study the speech patterns of the children at greater length and more carefully without having the children present. The older children were able to hear their speech on two different tapes and to compare their progress from September to June.
An additional teacher was added during the school year, bringing the number of teachers to two full-time and one part- time teacher.
REMEDIAL PROGRAM
Classes were organized again this school year on two levels to provide instruction for both elementary and junior high re- ferrals. The twenty-three elementary schools were divided into five districts and serviced by a remedial reading teacher in each district. With parent approval, pupils were permitted to at- tend remedial reading classes established within their district.
The organization of remedial classes at the elementary level allowed for two eight-week sessions of concentrated in- struction and three three-week sessions of testing and analysis.
Pupils met during these concentrated instructional periods for seventy-five minutes daily in groups of twelve. The small group technique, based on the tested level of the pupils, was the method used for correcting measured reading difficulties. Teachers provided well organized and interesting materials skillfully adjusted to keep pace with the pupils' progress. Teachers and pupils in the remedial program were concerned with learning and mastering phonetic skills, developing com- prehension, and deriving pleasure from reading. In this way the important objective of the teacher to help each pupil start at his own level and grow in the understanding of what he reads was progressively realized.
The three junior high schools were serviced by an itinerant teacher who was in each school for eight periods a week. Classes were comprised of pupils who had received instruction at elementary levels and were in need of continued assistance. These groups were augmented by pupils who were recom- mended by their junior high school teachers as a result of STEP and Stanford Achievement tests. The same procedure for the
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instruction of pupils was followed at this level as at the ele- mentary level.
During the past school year 459 pupils received instruction in the remedial program. They attended approximately 298 class hours, to show an average gain of ten months. Of the total number instructed 84 pupils achieved within six months or better of grade placement while 30 failed to show measured progress. Since more difficult cases of retardation often re- quire a longer period of specialized instruction, some of these children who failed to show progress will improve with con- tinued corrective work. An analysis of test results shows that the remedial reading program proved effective in 92.8% of the cases.
In conjunction with the remedial program the preventive program continued. A study was made of a battery of tests that had been administered to grade one during the 1959-1960 school term. This study showed continued need for preventive work as a means for reducing retardation in the middle and upper grades. For this program the remedial teachers were itinerant within each district and met with small groups of four where possible for daily instruction. For each twenty- minute period spent with these groups emphasis was on con- tinuing reading readiness skills.
In the latter part of May 1960 the analysis of the first grade achievement tests showed that of those 244 pupils who had received additional instruction by the remedial teacher, 98 or 40% reached grade placement of 1.7 or above. One hundred nineteen, or 49%, failed to achieve minimum grade placement, giving evidence of need for further instruction. The remaining 27, or 11%, did not take the achievement test due to absence.
The same basic procedure at the elementary and junior high levels will prevail in the remedial program for the school year 1960-1961 as was followed during the 1959-1960 year. Further consideration was given in the fall to necessary adjust- ments in the preventive program.
AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS
During the school year 1959-1960 a very noticeable in- crease in the use of audio-visual materials took place, particu- larly in the high school. Throughout the years many factors
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have contributed to the growth and development of audio- visual aids in teaching, but few greater than the National Defense Education Act, also known as Public Law 864. Since its passage in 1958, this law has been a great stimulant to educational systems throughout the country in making avail- able needed equipment. School departments, which hitherto found audio-visual supplies very costly, now, with the advent of the National Defense Education Act, can purchase them in greater quantities. To date the Somerville school department has purchased, under this Act, about $9,000 worth of audio- visual equipment and materials for the high school, the cost of which to the city was about one-half that amount. With these new supplies, the audio-visual program in the high school should be greatly enriched for the coming year.
Supplementing the purchases made from the budget, Parent-Teacher associations have purchased such equipment as tape recorders, record players, etc.
ART
The art programs of previous years have served as a foundation in developing a richly varied course in art for the school year ending June, 1960. The present program has ideas based on good contemporary art practices.
The Art Department contributed posters from grades one through twelve to a city-wide contest which helped in the drive for the Somerville Hospital Building Fund.
Elementary school art stresses creativity through experi- mentation in drawing, painting, and using construction paper. Visits to each classroom aimed at developing individual pupil response as well as correlating art with other subjects. Making murals permitted group participation and helped develop social consciousness. Safety, health, and animal posters were exe- cuted to develop an awareness of community responsibility in the pupil artist. Crafts were gradually encouraged, with many teachers making excellent use of so-called scrap materials (cloth, string, yarn, shells, pebbles, etc.) to develop such proj- ects as mosaic, papier maché, relief maps, and puppets.
A new course of study in Art for the elementary schools was prepared and distributed to the teachers during the year.
In general, the elementary schools gave evidence of crea- tivity, originality, and ingenuity.
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The three junior high schools carried on programs in ex- ploration of many phases of art. In addition to regular drawing and painting with water color and tempera, fresh ideas were developed in hooked-rug design, silk-screen, stenciling, block- printing, plaster-sculpturing, clay modeling, ceramics, copper enameling, and interior decorating. They also took part in several worthy community activities such as the International Red Cross Art Exhibition in Boston and overseas, the AAA Safety Poster Contest in Massachusetts, the annual Scholastic Art Show in Boston, the Annual Art Exhibitions at local banks, and the annual art exhibition at each school.
The Senior High School art program serves both the gen- eral student and the pupil desirous of majoring in Art. In the general art courses the pupil studies Art Appreciation, basic drawing, and painting in many media, and general color and design. In the specialized course offering nine periods of art a week, the pupil is thoroughly trained in many phases of art which prepare him to enter art school or college for a profes- sional career.
Excellent skill is also acquired in professional silk-screen work.
The High School Art Department has taken part in many worthy extra-curricular projects such as the Kiwanis Club An- nual Starlet Show posters, Somerville High School Annual Prom decorations, Junior Red Cross gifts and decorations, and art work for the school magazine.
MUSIC
Elementary vocal music was taught using conventional methods. An interesting teaching aid which was used very effectively during the year was the tape recorder. In the classroom the children listened to a song which they sang im- mediately thereafter and were motivated to sing again with more expression and better tone. Community songs for Christ- mas and other holidays were taped as piano accompaniments and used in schools where no piano was available. A set of tapes representing the best work in each grade was completed and is now available for classroom instruction and for demon- stration at Parent-Teacher Association meetings and other occasions.
An afternoon violin program, with free instruction, was started in February and was very successful. Classes were held
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at the Conwell, Cutler, Western Junior High, and Southern Junior High Schools. Membership in the classes totaled sixty- five students at all times. A special program featuring the vio- lins was presented at the Conwell School at the end of the year.
The instrumental music program at the three junior high schools had a large enrollment. Glee clubs were formed during the past year at the Western and Southern Junior High Schools which were very successful.
Many of the junior high school students attended the Youth Concerts. The music played at these programs was played and explained to them in the classrooms before their attendance at Symphony Hall.
High School classes in Music Appreciation and Theory had large attendance. The glee clubs performed at many commu- nity programs, such as the Record-American Christmas pro- grams, Kiwanis, Elks, and Lions, to mention a few.
Three scholarships were awarded at graduation by the Music Club.
HAND WRITING
Instruction in manuscript and cursive writing in the Zaner- Bloser System has been given by the Supervisor of Hand Writing to the new teachers attending the in-service workshop "conducted by the Supervisor of Elementary Education.
A writing readiness program was introduced into the kin- dergarten.
In grades five and six a review of manuscript writing was given because of its utility value. At all grade levels the Su- pervisor recommends reverting to manuscript writing for those pupils with severe difficulties causing illegible cursive writing.
It is recommended that to stimulate the maximum interest in Hand Writing some type of award be given to sixth grade pupils.
THRIFT
Despite the well-known fact that "the world is always in the process of constant change", it must be borne in mind that there are basic characteristics which individuals in the Amer-
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ican form of self-government must have and should develop to the fullest extent in order that the very life of that self- government may be ensured.
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BANKING PROGRAM
The School Savings System in Somerville, by virtue of its set-up, its dual role in furnishing the vehicle for the practice of saving in all the schools and providing the content for the High School course in Banking, is making a definite contribu- tion to the specific training of boys and girls in the funda-
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mentals needed for good citizenship, namely, thrift, self reliance, individual initiative, and a sense of security.
On the one hand, thrift activity in the schools has reflected itself in the total of school savings which, for this school year,. amounted to $79,177.90, representing 57,155 deposits and an increase of 1,304 new accounts. On the other hand, the High School Bank, with a full complement of 136 pupils enrolled in Banking, carried on with its precision training in accuracy and responsibility, while giving unlimited opportunity to its mem- bers to develop initiative and self-reliance by the very nature of the work involved.
It is pleasing to report that field trips were successfully arranged for groups of elementary pupils, who had served as Room Treasurers in their respective schools, to visit our de- pository Bank.
The encouragement given by masters and teachers to the inculcation of the thrift habit is a constructive force in training pupils for successful living.
DRIVER EDUCATION
The National Commission on Safety Education in the United States declared that Driver Education in the secondary schools has been acclaimed as a program which reduces traffic accidents. Several studies have indicated an accident reduc- tion of as much as one-half. Driver Education was introduced in a few schools in the early 1930's. Since that time, in recog- nition of the demonstrated life-saving benefits of Driver Edu- cation, the number of courses has increased rapidly.
It is generally recognized that the accident involvement rate of young people is higher than that of older groups, just as it is recognized that youth who have had Driver Education have a considerably lower automobile accident rate than those who have not received instruction.
During the school year 1959-1960 203 students in the Somerville High School received certificates after successfully passing examinations and received licenses to operate automo- biles, 160 students completed the course in Driver Training which was conducted in conjunction with the Somerville Eve- ning High School program, and an additional 24 students who completed the course at the Somerville Trade High School were awarded certificates and received licenses.
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CHEST X-RAY PROGRAM
In compliance with the law which requires that all school personnel and others employed in various departments who come in contact with pupils in school buildings be x-rayed once in every three years, more than seven hundred persons reported for chest x-rays during a two-day period in April.
With the cooperation of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health a mobile unit and technicians were stationed outside the High School building. Teachers, custodians, cafe- teria employees, and others were scheduled to report for their x-rays at times according to a definite schedule which was is- sued to each school. Our corps of school nurses rendered invaluable service by checking application cards for accuracy and by advising and guiding all who reported.
The State Department of Public Health merited apprecia- tion and gratitude for the remarkably fine cooperation and assistance in the successful completion of this project. The Building and Electrical Departments in the city assisted in very encouraging manner. It was very gratifying to note the splen- did work of everyone who was in any way associated with this worthwhile program.
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