Turning a New Page |
Intervention Products and Services |
This & That
January 2009
...The literacy program at Westmorland is in partnership with New Brunswick’s District 2 school board. The offenders in the program read books at various reading levels and record them onto cassettes and CDs. The tapes and books are then shipped off to the schools where children listen to the recordings and follow along with the corresponding book. The offenders also sew denim bags that are designed to fit onto the backs of school chairs, to hold the books and recordings.
The program currently has 600 titles and through its partnership with District 2, it has helped tens of thousands of children improve their reading skills. It has also helped many offenders at Westmorland improve their literacy skills and help build their confidence and self esteem.
The team who started Turning A New Page, Instructor Rosemary Pineau and her brother Rick McAtee (who is a reading consultant and promotes the program throughout the United States and Canada) described the process that brought the program together.
“Rosemary and I were both teachers and we developed a theory that fluency and comprehension improves through repetition,” explained Rick. “We approached a book publisher, Scholastic Books, and explained how reading a book or story over and over again, getting comfortable with the words and the phrasing, improves literacy. They agreed to provide us with about five years worth of books
in exchange for our research data.” Thus, Turning A New Page was born.
“The offenders just love it because it gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment,” said Rosemary. “Sixty-five percent of first time offenders are functioning below a grade eight level, and they are four times more likely to have a reading disability and three times more likely to be illiterate. By reading children’s books, and taking part in this program, they are better able to participate in correctional programs and thus become law-abiding citizens. Education is the key to preventing the inmate from
re-offending.”
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One of the program’s tutors, Kevin, described why he volunteers to help other offenders with their literacy training.“I am fortunate to have aneducation and it’s a great feeling of satisfaction to help others. In the future, I hope to be a teacher and this has helped me realize that goal.” |
| Student Chris reads from a children’s book |
Five students took turns at the microphone, reading from books about the alphabet and many of them read from books written and illustrated by offenders themselves.
The festivities ended with Senator Trenholm Counsell reading from one of her favourite books, ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’. She was presented with a gift basket from the students and teachers and
thanked for her years of support of the Turning A New Page program. “We know she is now retired as a senator,” said Rosemary Pineau, “but we sincerely hope she’ll never retire from us.”
Katahdin Press
Article published Wednesday,December 11, 2007
Author Rick McAtee leads writing
workshop at Granite Street School
Millinocket's native son confirms that writing can be fun
by R. David White
...Thursday's workshop, which was held in the gymnasium in order to accommodate approximately 80 students and their teachers, was
tailored to dovetail with the standards of the writing model the students have been learning at Granite Street. After dividing the students
into manageable sized groups of 10 or 12, McAtee assessed what they had already learned by having each student jot down three responses
to the question,· "Why do we write?" The students then shared and, discussed their responses with their peers and each group decided on
the best three. McAtee then called on each table to read aloud one of their ideas about why people write. Three of the memorable replies to his inquiry were:
To comunicate with others.
To share what we know.
Because it will help us become better readers.
Next the students were asked to recall other information they have been learning this year by coming up with nine responses to
the question,"What do we need to know to write?" As students responded correctly, if not exactly, McAtee or an assisting teacher would
activate the PowerPoint display to affirm they had gotten it correct. The youngsters did surprisingly well and McAtee was obvously pleased;
the teachers proud. Only one of the nine gave them much difficulty (How to use pronouns and adjectives) so McAtee made a game out of
it by pantomiming hints to lead the students to the correct answer. He eventually called on a couple of teachers to try out their pantomime
skills, much to the delight of the students. If anyone thought they knew the answer, they were asked to raise their hand and shout out, "I know!"
As Mr. McAtee and Miss wheaton pointed to themselves and others, using hands and arms to compare students' heights and so forth,
the gymnasium was soon filled with sounds like one beehive after another being prodded with a stick, as the crescendos from the tables
rose with several shouts of "I know! I know! I know!"
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When McAtee listened to their responses (which were not what he was looking for) he would shake his head "no", and that table
became suddenly silent while the clamor instantly grew louder and louder from the adjacent tables. Naturally, the longer the game continued,
the noisier the youngsters became. They were clearly enjoying the learning experience. After informing the students what he had been
looking for by way of a response, McAtee switched gears and read aloud to the students his first book, Alphabetland The Beginning,
which teaches the difference between consonants and vowels.
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Next, the students were assigned to write a fictional story that would explain something to another reader (as his Alphabetland did) but
before they were to begin, McAtee had another fun activity lined up which would teach them the next step in the writing process- the
students played a game they clearly enjoyed. Similar to Sony Pictures' Wheel of Fortune but with a Power Point hangman game added
for excitement, the students were asked to figure out the message using only consonants. After several minutes, with the man nearly
hanged, a student decoded the message, which clearly stated the next step of the writing workshop: First we will need a topic and our topic
will be holidays.
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The students could choose whatever holiday they wanted and then made a web that was supposed to include at least 20 words associated
with their topic. While they were brainstorming a list of possible holidays to write about, it was interesting to see that several of the
learners easily came up with over 14, including a few enjoyed by ethnic groups from diverse parts of the world. It shows that Katahdin
area students are being immersed in a healthy measure of multiculturalism.
Apparently it was not lost on the children how fortunate they were to have Rick McAtee as a guest. A fourth grader named Adam was
delightfully excited when he said later, "I shook hands with a real live author!"
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Asked later for his opinion of how his workshop went, Mr. McAtee, who put on the seminar free of charge (as "a gift to the community"), was quick to say, "Very good!" He emphasized how well behaved and responsive the 4th and 5th graders were at Granite Street School.
"Whatever they're doing there, they're doing it right," he restated, adding, "The kids were wonderful."
Article posted Thursday, May 10, 2007
By Amanda Ehler
...Yes, as dangerous as all this sounds, it was approved by the school district through a program called ‘Turning a New Page’, a program partnered by Corrections Canada, Scholastic Books, and School District 2 in New Brunswick.
But it started as something a little different.
Rosemary is the head teacher at the Westmorland Institute in southeast New Brunswick, and along with her brother, Rick, a reading consultant, she wanted to prove or disprove a hypothesis they’d developed. They wondered if a person improved their fluency through repetition of
reading simple books, did that person also improve their comprehension, without conscious effort on the part of the teacher or the student?
But along the way to discovering this (what could easily be a dry subject), they discovered something exciting.
They’d hoped to ultimately help the inmates with their literacy, but suddenly Scholastic Books was interested, too.
With Scholastic Books providing resources, the materials needed to complete the tests on the inmates and hundreds of books, in exchange
for a copy of the final data, and with the inmates all ready, Rosemary and Rick began.
Some inmates just read simple books, all that they could comprehend unfortunately, over and over until they mastered them.
All very innovative, but how on earth would Rosemary motivate a grown man to read a child’s picture book? They certainly wouldn’t be interested in the dry statistics she and Scholastic Books were keen for. Then it came to her.
The answer was to have them record the books on tape for local school children. And that was all the motivation the inmates needed.
Some recorded simple stories like Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore, while those inmates who were at a higher reading level took on the task of recording such books as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Outsiders and Harry Potter.
Some of the men incarcerated, motivated by their reading, went on to write stories. ‘A Fishing Trip With my Dad’, ‘A Kindergarten Visit to a Lighthouse’ and ‘Great Eagle’s Adventure’ are among the shorter stories written. Some are illustrated by the author even, while some asked
the crew at ‘Turning a New Page’ to provide the graphics. Some inmates have written full-length novels. “The books are well put together
and very colourful,” Pineau reports. “A lot of thought goes into matching text to graphics, because some of it is done using a computer
program called ‘IntelliTools’. And the books go to Arizona for publishing.
“They just love it,” Pineau adds, “It gives them a sense of pride, all the while improving their literacy skills. Sixty-five percent of first time offenders are functioning below a grade eight level, and they are four times more likely to have a reading disability and three times more likely
to be illiterate. By reading children’s books, and taking part in this program, they are better able to participate in correctional programs and
thus become law-abiding citizens. Education is the key to preventing the inmate from re-offending.”
It does something else, too. Increasing the inmate’s ability to read and comprehend gives them a whole new outlook. One man said, “It’s a world of information at our fingertips. I have an uncle who couldn’t read, so I gave him simple books, like the ones read here, and now he’s reading the newspaper.”
The schoolchildren benefit, too. One girl, with a processing problem, can’t understand the written word, but can understand a complex book
like To Kill A Mockingbird if it’s an audio book. Pineau got one of the inmates to record it, and now the girl has a complete and thorough understanding of the book. “That’s why we do this,” Pineau finally admits.
Yes, what started as a theory posed by one teacher has vaulted into something fundamentally simple in its format – a test to help improve the inmates’ fluency. And so many are benefiting from it now.
‘Turning a New Page’ is an apt name for the program, already in its 7th year. The title has multiple meanings, too, but one of the best
meanings is quite aptly explained by one inmate, a lifer, who said, “I’m incarcerated, but learning to read has made me free.”
Sackville Tribune-Post
Article published Wednesday, September 20, 2006
By Katie Tower, Staff Reporter
...About 40 inmate-written books have already been approved for use by school District 2.
“The inmates are writing things about ‘a fishing trip with my dad,’ ‘a kindergarten visit to a lighthouse,’ ‘great eagles’ adventure,’ choices,
making decisions, things like that…”said Pineau, head teacher and director of instruction for the literacy program, Turning a New Page, at Westmorland Institution.
The stories written by the inmates vary in length, with some produced into a full-length book while the shorter tales are merged with others to create a small collection of stories.
“The books are well put together and very colourful,” said Pineau, who explained that the books are sent to Arizona for publishing.
She said a lot of thought goes into matching up the pictures to the text. The inmates use graphics and illustrations for their books from a computer software program called IntelliTools.
“Some guys write the story and do the illustration themselves. Other guys will just write the stories and turn it over to one of the ‘Turning a New Page’ guys who does the illustrations.”
Pineau believes this new initiative gives the inmates something to be proud of.
“They just love it…it gives them a really big sense of pride and accomplishment.”
The inmates’ achievements were celebrated during a reception on Friday, Sept. 8 (International Literacy Day) for the Turning a New Page program.
Literacy has always been an important part of the rehabilitation process at Westmorland, and has become even more prominent since the Turning A New Page program was instituted in 2000.
“That’s what we originally started it for, to improve the literacy skills of the inmates,” said Pineau. “The fact that it’s helping the children and the teachers, that’s a bonus.”
Turning A New Page, a partnership between Correctional Services Canada, Scholastic Books and School District 2, allows inmates at the minimum-security Westmorland Institution to improve their reading skills, which facilitates their participation in correctional programming and, ultimately, assists them to become law-abiding citizens.
Once they’ve mastered reading a book, inmates record the story on audio tape. These cassettes, along with copies of the book, are then distributed to elementary schools in southeastern New Brunswick where teachers are using both to help children learn how to read.
“We’ve had guys taping Scholastic books on cassette tapes for the last six years and we’ve been sending them out to the schools…” said Pineau, adding that Westmorland now has 480 titles available. “The teachers, one of the things they say they like about it, is that they have access to all these books they wouldn’t normally have access to.”
Article published Tuesday, December 6, 2005
A book look at "Alphabetland The Beginning" by Rick McAtee
By Catherine Lehman
.....These are delightful stories with a purpose, developed by long-time educator and Millinocket native Rick McAtee. The series began as stories McAtee told his students to help tham understand the rules of language. Alphabetland The Beginning is a story to help young readers learn the difference between consonants and vowels.
In the story the letters decide to build a town where all the letters can live. All the letters work together to build roads, parks, schools and other places to make a good home for the alphabet. Trouble starts when the letters decide the town needs laws. Some of the letters want to be different and resist the laws. It takes a wise letter Z to find a solution so the letters can live in harmony.
McAtee is the director of Turning a New Page in Tucson. He has a Master of Science degree in reading and since 1996 has worked as a reading and staff developer in the United States and Canada.
The current focus of Turning a New Leaf [sic] is a literacy program that helps struggling readers: both adult and child. McAtee has spent two decades teaching and learning about reading annd writing. He has taught kindergarten through eight grade. His success with at-risk learners using a school-to-work model that he developed was featured on local media, a national magazine and a video modeling successful
school -to-work programs. McAtee is the president of the Marana Foundation for Educational Excellence. He received their Hero's award
in 2002.
The book is charmingly illustrated by Tucson artist Barbara Hammons.
"Alphabetland The Beginning" can be purchased locally..... at The Book Stop in East Millinocket, or at www.turninganewpage.com,
Turning a New Page [sic] , P.O. Box 91603, Tucson, AZ 85752-1603, Phone 520-572-0879.
Come On In!
Article published Winter 2004 - 2005
By Kate Merlin
....The program was the brain child of Rosemary Pineau, a teacher at the Westmorland Minimum Security Institution. Literacy is a huge
problem in Canada's prison population. Sixty-five percent of first time offenders are functioning below the grade eight level when they are
first incarcerated. They are four times more likely to have a reading disability and three times more likely to be illiterate than the general population. but studies have shown that the inmates who take part in prison based educational programs are more likely to lead productive lives and less likely to re-offend when they get out.
Pineau was looking for a way to motivate her literacy students to practice their reading skills. Picture books often fell within their reading
level, " But how do you motivate grown men to read picture books?" she wondered. the answer was to have them read the books on tape
for local school children.
Scholastic has donated all the books used in the program. When the first donation arrived in July 2001, Pineau told the participants that they had to be able to read their book perfectly to at least three people before they could visit the recording booth. Some of the inmates thought
that she meant these people all had to be staff members and the bewildered staff was suddenly besieged by members of the literacy class wanting to read them a story. It soon became a common sight for Michael Corbett, the warden of the institution to pop his head out of his
office and call for his story.
"Inmates are people too," reminded Pineau, and suggested that they read to the other inmates who shared their houses. however, staff members were very supportive of the program and enjoyed listening to the stories. Corbett has no idea how many times he sat in the
parking lot listening to Gregory read Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore. gregory couldn't read at all when he first came to the Institution, and he probably practiced the book about 80 times before he recorded it. "He loved that story", recalls Pineau. " He didn't want to record it,
because then he would be finished with it and have to pass it in"
Other inmates were eager to help with a project "for the kids" and better readers quickly got involved acting as literacy coaches and
recording the longer books. Another designed a bell that would make consistent sound when the teachers complained that the tone that
cued the children to turn the page was sometimes too soft and other times too loud. Michael, another inmate, took over the administration
of the program, helping the readers to choose books to record, supervising the recordings, and checking in and out the books on
turnaround days.
When he was paroled, Pineau had to find someone else to take charge of the program. Troy had been working on the farm, but he was
"scared to death of cows" and expressed an interest. Pineau wasn't sure about him at first. " I need someone who's totally accountable,"
she told him just before she went on vacation in July. "When I got back there were 23 recorded books spread out on the desk waiting for
me," says Pineau and Troy took over the position.
"There is no other job gives more reward," says Troy. "Everything we do herd is going out to help the kids. It has an enormous impact on
the outside because there may be kids out there that have books read to them." He knows firsthand the value of the program because his
son attends a district 2 school and often asks " When I go to school will there be a book from you?"
Troy has since recorded around 50 books. The Nelson Mandela Story struck a chord with him and he just shakes his head at the fact that Mandela spent 20 years in prison for something he didn't do. When Pineau issued a challenge to the entire institution to see if they could
read one million words in the month leading up to International Literacy Day, Troy spent hours keeping track of everyone's word count. The inmates promoted the program heavily and as the program drew to a close, he was often besieged by readers eager to report their
progress. "I'd be in the gym working out with a 300 pound weight and someone would be running up and telling me they'd read fifty four
books," he says.
Sheldon, another volunteer reader for the program, laughs because he's the one that read the highest number of books for the challenge-
fifty - four to be precise. "What kid wouldn't want a story read to them?" he asks as he recalls how he used to eagerly look forward to his teacher reading them Charlotte's Web while he was in school. He feels that the Turning A New Page program has given him confidence
and he's really looking forward to reading to his girlfriend's daughters when he is released.
Pete, another volunteer reader, read the most words for the challenge. "I wouldn't know what it would be like not to be able to read, but if I
can help someone read better or comprehend, I can give them a world of information at their fingertips." he says. One of his uncles couldn't read very well until Pete started leaving very simple picture books lying around the house for him. "Now he can read the newspaper,"
he says proudly.
Pete, Sheldon, and Troy will all be released by Christmas and they have no intentions of returning to the Institution. As they start their new
lives, reading to their own families, it will be up to les to keep the program running smoothly. He arrived in the middle of the literacy
challenge and thought it looked like something he might want to get involved with. He enjoyed recording They Led the Way, a book about American women who stood up for things such as civil and black rights for the children and thinks he's up to the challenge of keeping those pages turning.
Sackville Tribune-Post
Article published Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Inmates Surpass Million-word Challenge
By Katie Tower, Staff Reporter, Sackville Tribune-Post Photo: Katie Tower
..."I asked for only a million words because I thought it would be three or four guys," she said. She
was surprised when more and more inmates kept signing up to participate. "I issued this challenge
and the guys just sort of went with it."
Since International Literacy Day comes every year, Pineau said the teachers at the institution try to continually come up with new ideas that will motivate the inmates.
"We're always trying to come up with something different."
The inmates hit 14 million words the morning of the reception, which pleased Westmorland Institution's Warden Mike Corbett.
"You should all feel good about this achievement today," he told the inmates prior to handing out awards for their efforts. Corbett noted that there's no greater gift than the gift of literacy. He related a story about an inmate that was on temporary leave about two years ago and returned to the institution excited because, for the first time, he was able to read a bedtime story to his little girl.
"What a wonderful thing to happen in a place where we need nice things to happen," he said. Literacy has always been an important part of the rehabilitation process at Westmorland, and has become even more prominent in the last five years since the Turning A New Page program was instituted. Turning A New Page, a partnership between Correctional Services Canada, Scholastic Books and School District 2, allows inmates at the minimum-security institution to improve their reading skills, thus facilitating their participation in correctional programming and, ultimately, assisting them to become law-abiding citizens.
Once they've mastered reading a book, inmates record the story on audio tape. Cassettes, along with copies of the book, are then distributed
to elementary schools in southeastern New Brunswick where teachers are using both to help children learn how to read.
Corbett praised the initiative, which has enabled hundreds of children who have difficulty reading on their own to enjoy books on audio tape.
"There's nothing more worthwhile than to contribute to the life of a child," he said.
Karen Forsyth, a representative from Scholastic Books, and Nina Gamble, a representative from Excalibur Learning Resource Centre, were also on hand for the ceremony last Wednesday.
Gamble presented an award to Pineau for her "exceptional ability to motivate others." Pineau explained that she was simply trying to get the inmates to do their best.
"I was taught from a very early age that you can do anything that you want to do," she said. "It just takes effort. So if you read 12 words or you read one million words, I applaud you for taking part in this activity."
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