TILLAMOOK – Teachers became the students last week, as they sat in the back of a classroom watching children in a summer science camp work in groups to pick a vocabulary word of the day.

The teachers were seeing Project GLAD strategies in action after learning about them in a workshop.

Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) is a method of teaching designed to promote English language learning.

As the teachers sat in the back of the classroom observing, the children, students who will be entering the fourth grade in the fall, worked in groups to find a word that would stump the rest of their classmates.

After each group selected a word, the rest of the class tried to define it.

“Passing on germs?” student Forrest Lowery offered for the word germinate. 

When no one was able to correctly identify the meaning of germinate (to sprout or develop), the word was added to the list of “stumper” words.

Once they had a list, the students voted, choosing photosynthesis as the word for the day.

The GLAD training was possible thanks to money from the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF).

In 2008, OCF created the Regional Action Initiative and divided the state into eight regions. The OCF board voted to give $1 million to each region, said Melissa Durham, the statewide Regional Action Initiative coordinator.

Oregon’s north and south coasts split the $1 million, Durham said, with the OCF’s North Coast Leadership Council using their portion of the money to focus on literacy.

The north coast section includes Tillamook, Lincoln, Clatsop and Columbia counties.

Those on the leadership council are all volunteers, Durham said. From OCF’s perspective, she said, “We are really impressed with the level of engagement and commitment on the local level.”

Tillamook School District Superintendent Randy Schild was the first to suggest Project GLAD, Durham said. After researching the program, the council decided to invest $230,000 in training.

A total of 44 teachers from Tillamook, Clatsop and Columbia counties were sponsored for the training, said Molly Roman, a Regional Action Initiative training coordinator. There were 15 teachers from Tillamook School District and one each from the Nestucca Valley and Neah-Kah-Nie school districts.

The training began with a two-day workshop in Seaside July 14-15.

The next week, about half of the teachers were in Clatskanie to see GLAD in action. Last week, the other half of the teachers were in Tillamook observing the program.

During the morning, the teachers watched as a GLAD trainer worked with the students using the strategies the teachers had learned in their two-day workshop.

Another GLAD trainer worked as a coach with the teachers.

The students were invited before the school year ended to participate in a summer science camp about the temperate forest ecosystem, Durham said. There were 18 children in Tillamook participating. The Grub Club provided lunches for the students.

In the afternoon, when the students were gone, the teachers had a chance to work on their own units and strategies.

A benefit of the GLAD training is that it will help reduce the achievement gap, Durham said.

“This is like GLAD on speed,” said Roxanne Stuart, a GLAD trainer, because one day is roughly equivalent to one week of real class time.

The three key components of GLAD are to encourage the students to show respect, to make good choices and to solve problems, Stuart said.

The group work also encourages teamwork among the students, she said. It helps them learn from and support each other.

Tillamook superintendent Schild said several of the staff at East Elementary School had received GLAD training a couple of years ago. Since then, he said, the school has seen a marked improvement in the students’ test scores. “We liken that success to GLAD,” he said. “It’s just good teaching strategies.”

The GLAD model gives teachers an opportunity to see it in action, he said. “It is a very, very effective way to learn.”

He also praised the teachers who elected to sign up for the training and who gave up part of their summer to do so. “It really takes dedicated teachers,” he said. “We’re very fortunate we have a good group of people.”

“What it does is to put a lot of helpful strategies in one place,” said Liberty Elementary School Principal Jennifer Guarcello.

She and six teachers from Liberty were taking part in observing the strategies at work.

Guarcello said it was helpful because the teachers got a chance to work together.

“The really exciting piece is they really get something they can use right away,” she added.