BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN - Curriculum changes at Allentown High School have kicked off the new school year to a fantastic start, according to the school's principal.

Principal Dr. Christopher Nagy, who earned his doctorate last February, said that this year, the school plans to focus on three separate initiatives.

Allentown High School (AHS) intends to incorporate more reading and writing across all disciplines, he said.

"By doing that, we are seeing an increase in test scores and in HSPA [High School Proficiency Assessment] and SAT scores," Nagy said.

The school also wants to focus on character education and general student assessment, according to Nagy.

With regard to the last initiative, Nagy said, "How do we know students are learning what we want them to learn and gauging the skills that they need for basic life applications and interests?"

Nagy said that the social studies, math and English departments are all doing different things to support the initiatives of the school as a whole.

Social studies initiatives

Teacher Warren Gessmann, who has chaired the social studies department since 1981 and has taught in the school for 33 years, said students are regularly reading and writing in their social studies courses.

"Not that it didn't happen in previous years," he said. "There's just more of a focus on it this year."

Gessmann said that although each student is required to pass a standard social studies test, more AHS students are also taking Advanced Placement (AP) Social Studies tests.

Gessmann said he is working with the English department to help broaden students' expository writing experiences. He said he is also working with the math department to expose more students to graphs and charts through social studies.

"This kind of initiative is going on all over," Gessmann said.

Gessmann said he believes the initiative to implement more reading, writing and math in all school subjects is occurring across the nation because of the higher testing standards in America as a result of initiatives such as Elementary and Secondary Education and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) acts.

Referring to the impact these acts have had in his classrooms, Gessmann said, "Test-driven instruction is OK.

"[But] it takes some creativity and individual initiative out of teaching," he added, "when you are instructing to someone else's standards."

Overall, Gessmann said, AHS has increased its number of AP classes. Four years ago, the school began offering an AP History class. Two years ago, it started offering AP Macroeconomics, and last year it added AP European History, he said.

Gessmann considers AHS "in the middle of the pack" when it comes to how many AP courses high schools offer nowadays.

"If we continue to add [courses] every year," he said, "we will be at the forefront in a couple of years, and that is my goal."

This year, social studies students will participate in activities such as the Model Congress, during which they will assume the role of a senator, write bills and debate them. Seniors will learn about the legal process in a mock Supreme Court situation as they explore current judicial issues, Gessmann said.

Gessmann said his department's focus is to educate every student in terms of how the government is set up and how it operates.

English initiatives

Nagy said the English department recently added two new teachers, Margo Stuart and Stefanie Negro. He said they have joined their department's ongoing effort in which English teachers with different sets of skills share a repertoire of activities, projects and strategies that work well with students.

"What they are doing is partnering with one another across various courses in the department to share skills and activities that work well," Nagy said. "Not only as individuals do they grow professionally, but so do the students to whom they are entrusted."

Nagy referred to the department as the "English Think Tank."

An added benefit of the sharing of knowledge, Nagy said, is that the English teachers have grown very close. They even go out socially as a department, he said.

"It's pretty neat," he said. "You just don't usually hear of that."

As a result of the closeness, Nagy said student test scores have increased.

Stuart, who teaches three classes in the English department, said the 10 members of the department "work together as a cohesive unit."

"We share everything and collectively teach," she said. "The bottom line of our closeness is that the children really win."

Stuart said that if she's having a problem in a class, chances are that another member of her department has already encountered that same problem and can therefore assist her in handling it.

Stuart said that in most schools, teachers hold their curriculums close to their vests and don't let others in on what they're doing or trying to do.

"[But] not here," she said. "We have an 'all-for-one-and-one-for-all' mentality."

The English department operates under the direction of its chairwoman, Ellen Jacko.

Jacko said one of the reasons all the members of her department mesh so well is that "almost all of us did long-term subbing or student teaching [at the school] before we started working here.

"We knew we were a family before we made the commitment," she said.

Regarding Jacko, Stuart said, "I'll attest to it - she is a very strong leader."

New courses in the English department include AP Language and Composition, which is taught by Cheryl Chambliss, and Expository Writing, taught by Joann Snook and Mary Johnson, who also instructs a new literature course.

Another new part of the curriculum is silent sustained reading (SSR), when students are required to read for 15-20 minutes during class. At the end of an eight-week period, they are required to present a project on what they have read. Projects can include an essay, a poem or an interactive or artistic presentation related to the reading material.

"The project can be anything that draws on a student's talents," Stuart said.

The silent reading aims to build students' vocabulary and further involve them in reading on a regular basis, according to Stuart.

Johnson said that the English department is relying more on the use of technology than ever before. She said mobile computer labs are brought into the classroom so students can research authors and the history of literature on the Internet. Students also use the labs to make PowerPoint presentations about what they are learning in class.

"All of the information they get from the computers is filtered through me," Johnson said. "It is a different way of teaching and giving out information than just having a teacher standing in front of the classroom."

Stuart said the English department also uses SMART Boards, which are large interactive screens that teach lessons through the use of the Internet and various software programs.

"There is a push to use more technology in classrooms because a lot of kids are visual learners," Stuart said.

The English department has also established a writing clinic that is staffed throughout the school day with English teachers who assist students with any kind of writing assignment for any subject. Students can also bring college essays and other such tasks to the clinic for review, according to Stuart.

Mathematics initiatives

The mathematics department will introduce a new Web site, which math teacher Paul SooHoo designed, and two new software programs this October that encourage students' progress in math at home. The Web site will provide access to questions regularly seen on SAT and HSPA tests, according to Nagy.

"We are quite excited," Nagy said. "Students can take different practice questions and work with them. Parents can encourage their children to log onto the Web site to practice, which gets parents more involved in the education process of their children."

Teacher Lynn Folino, chairwoman of the mathematics department, said "We will have links for students to access for SAT prep, HSPA prep, homework help and more."

Folino said her department consists of 10 teachers.

"We teach courses from Foundations of Algebra all the way up to AP Calculus," Folino said.

She said the students in the department had awesome AP Calculus scores this past year; 10 scores of five and four scores of four, with five being the highest.

According to Folino, the Math SAT score average is up to 525 from 515 the previous year.

"We infuse SAT and HSPA prep materials in appropriate areas," she said adding that her department uses puzzles, warm ups, extra credit, timed writing and open-ended assessments.

Folino said all courses are aligned with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. This year, the department will introduce an AP Statistics course, she said.

According to Folino, the math department was one of the first in the school to implement summer work in order "to help keep students' math skills fresh over the summer."

"Our department strives to vary our instructional strategies to keep students on task and interested," she said.

The department infuses technology including graphing calculators, Sketchpad and both Algebra in Motion and Calculus in Motion whenever possible, she said.

Folino said teachers also present real-life applications for math through its résumé contest for career awareness, the Starbucks and HIV/AIDS project to model exponential and logistic growth, linear programming and many hands-on activities, especially in geometry, she said.

According to Folino, the school holds Math Lab every Tuesday and Thursday for students who need extra help in the subject. She said most teachers are available on a daily basis after school.

The school also offers Math League Competition for students in Algebra 2 and up, she said.

With regard to his staff, Nagy said, "I am very pleased with the hard work of these individuals and their respective departments."

He added, "Their hard work is already paying dividends based on recent results of our collective AP scores, SATs and HSPAs."