Introduction
I walked out of the local coffee shop and onto Grove Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut. Standing near his dark blue worn pick up truck was an older gentleman wearing an Old Dominion University T-shirt. Being from Virginia, I asked the man if he was from Virginia or went to Old Dominion. He replied, “No,” but he proceeded to tell me that his granddaughter went there and that his wife grew up in Virginia. He asked me where I was from, and I told him Richmond.
“Where was your wife from?” I inquired.
“Farmville. Have you heard of it?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, the wheels spinning in my head.
“They closed the schools on her,” he stated.
The encounter on the corner of Grove Street would not be of interest except that the closing of schools in Farmville is part of my curriculum unit.
I teach fourth grade at Mary Munford Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia. The students in my class are about 75% white, 20% black, and 5% Hispanic or Asian. My students tend to come from middle class families that live in the West End of the city. While the West End is considered to be the wealthier area of the city, my school also has a policy of Open Enrollment, and students from the North Side, South Side, and East End also attend our school. My school has a large special needs population and a tremendous amount of parental involvement. The parents and teachers have high expectations for the students. There is a wide range in abilities, especially in reading. The struggling readers may come in on a second grade level (K in Fountas and Pinnell) and the higher readers are at or above an eighth grade level (V in Fountas and Pinnell). The students typically have a lot of general knowledge, but I have some every year that struggle to count by tens past 190, by hundreds past 1,900, and some who cannot locate the Pacific Ocean on a map. In order to meet the needs of all of my students, while challenging the high achievers, I must provide many layers of scaffolding and enrichment in order to differentiate.
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