May 2003
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt.1301

The elementary students in the Ulster BOCES Special Education program have been very busy dropping things lately—to read! The students are participating in the international reading program, DEAR (Drop Everything And Read), and are loving every minute of it.

In the various Ulster BOCES Special Education classrooms at Duzine, Lenape, and Highland Elementary Schools, DEAR time is held for approximately 15 minutes each day when the students “drop everything and read.”

“The purpose is to motivate the students and help them learn to love reading and to develop the habit of reading so they develop skills outside the classroom. Therefore, during DEAR time, they choose something they want to read,” explains Barbara Zolnowski, Ulster BOCES supervisor for Special Education. “During DEAR time, the members of our staff act as role models and they sit down with the students and either read a story to them or read their own books while the students read silently. Our message to the students is that we also enjoy reading!”

As part of DEAR time, the Ulster BOCES Special Education students in Catherine Randel’s class at Lenape Elementary School have become reading partners with New Paltz students from Liz Burdick’s fourth grade class. In addition to breaking off into reading groups together, there is also a good integration of reading and writing when the students pair up at computers to develop slide presentations featuring photographs and captions of their different DEAR times and other joint projects.

“DEAR time also teaches great socialization skills to my students. They learn to listen to their reading buddies, and then it’s their turn to read a story to them,” claims Randel. “The DEAR program gives them a great sense of self-esteem. And it’s fun!”

Adds Burdick, “As a result of partnering up with the Ulster BOCES students for DEAR, they now say ‘hello’ to each other in the hallways and in the cafeteria. This is also teaching skills to my students, such as how to deal with individuals who are different from them.”

Next door, in Nancy Perrin’s classroom, the Ulster BOCES Special Education students eagerly gather around her for a good tale, before settling down comfortably at their own desks to silently read to themselves.

Over in the Highland Elementary School, the Ulster BOCES students in Christine Ashdown’s class are just as enthusiastic about the program as in the other schools. As soon as it is DEAR time, they “drop” whatever they are doing and join Ashdown in the reading corner for a good book before choosing one of their own to read independently at their desks.

At Duzine Elementary, the Ulster BOCES Special Education students also have reading buddies from Duzine’s second grade classes who volunteer on a daily basis to come into Ruth Backenroth’s classroom to read stories to her students, some of whom are physically challenged, medically frail, and in wheelchairs.

“The philosophy behind DEAR is to incorporate reading into the students’ everyday lives,” states Zolnowski. “Reading is not just an academic skill, it is a life skill.”