FCHS English teacher encourages reading
Read 180 is a program designed to help students not only learn how to read, but master the art of reading so they can succeed in other classes.
For schools within the Department of Defense Education Activity, students from grades 9 to 12 who fall below the acceptable reading level standards are required to take Read 180 as an elective.
Fort Campbell High School English Department Chair Tracee Fisher is striving to make Read 180 a required English class, as well.
Right now, Fisher only has 14 students in her one and only Read 180 class.
Upwards of 75 students at FCHS qualify for the program, however.
Fisher, a former Soldier, understands all too well that the overall perception of the Read 180 program by her students isn’t the only hurdle they have to overcome together.
There are realities some FCHS students will face that many students in the civilian world won’t ever realize.
“Teaching at Fort Campbell is a totally different dynamic than in the civilian world,” Fisher stated. “These students deal with major issues like their Dad being deployed and maybe their Mom is working, too. Sometimes they even have to help look after their siblings during deployment time.”
Fisher said she approaches that fact by telling her kids that “life happens.”
She said many of her kids are very upfront and honest with her if they didn’t have time to get a certain project or assigned homework done, and she will give them every opportunity to turn in their work or to make it up.
“I mean, we’re teaching some kids here at FCHS that come in here every day to learn, not knowing if their parent is coming home or not,” she quipped.
Those factors don’t slow down Fisher and her determination to be an example to help her kids give it their all, not only in her class, but in life.
“Why would we want a student to only be just average?” Fisher asked. “We should want them to be the best students that they can be. Just like their Soldier parents: ‘Be all that you can be!’ What better place to start than with reading?”
Fisher said if that slogan fit well enough for Uncle Sam, it can fit for all.
Fisher lamented the use of social promotion with kids in schools today and said we only end up hurting the student in the end by passing them along hoping they will catch on at some point down the line.
She said this philosophy has especially hurt minority students, many who are already disadvantaged due to societal factors when they walk through the doors.
“If you can’t read and comprehend what is placed before you in life, it sets you up for failure,” she added.
Fisher said she wants to be confident in a generation that will be able to run the country when she is retired.
“I don’t want to go to the bank 15 years from now and deposit money into my account and hand my deposit slip to someone who can’t read,” she said. “That’s unacceptable.”
The fast, video game-laden life that students live today doesn’t move Fisher to speed up the learning pace in her Read 180 class, either.
“We are here to learn it the right way,” she said. “That is by design.”
Fisher said the most rewarding part of the Read 180 class is to see a student who was discouraged about being in such a class at the beginning of the year grab a hold of the tools and equipment she has given them and have them go from an “I can’t” to an “I can” attitude.
“We don’t use the words ‘I can’t’ in this class,” she added. “It may take us a little time to get there, but we will say ‘I can’ while we’re getting there.”
Fisher says to see a student gain a passion for reading is the ultimate reward as a teacher.
“It’s like winning the lottery,” she said. “To see them finally ‘get it’ is what this is all about.”
Editor’s note: This is the final article in a series on the Read 180 class at Fort Campbell High School.