SAYS In-Class Weekly Residency Program
“SAYS is a life-changing program” -District Administrator, Sacramento City Unified School District
SAYS utilizes evidence-based best practices to narrow the achievement gap and improve schools through our year-long residency.
During the school year, a trained SAYS Teaching Artist/Poet-Mentor Educator (PME) works inside a classroom once per week to deliver innovative, student-centered lessons that parallel the teacher's learning objectives. Each week the PME's curriculum is adapted to scaffold appropriate standard-based, culturally relevant activities. At the culmination of the program, the PME and their students will create a spoken word anthology of their work alongside Animoto videos of their best pieces. Furthermore, for the residency, key SAYS staff provide on-going professional development to the classroom teacher and pre- and post-tests to the students. These workshops are interactive and are based upon best practices in literary arts, hip-hop, and spoken word performance poetry.
Services include (and are not limited to):
Consultation on SAYS curriculum and culturally relevant instruction
Designing and producing school-wide assemblies and spoken word poetry events on/off campus
Delivering instruction and support through the SAYS classroom residency program
Providing after-school writing support to students
Instructional Methodologies and Coaching – aligning curriculum to meet the goals of the Common Core State Standards
For more information download SAYS Fact Sheet and SAYS Impact Report .
SAYS Pedagogy
Learning how to authentically reach students is a precursor to successful teaching.
Knowing who students are and where they come from allows educators to create meaningful and thought-provoking curricula.
Reading, writing, and speaking are the foundations of academic achievement, critical thinking, and social justice within and beyond the walls of school.
Meeting the Need
Many urban school districts are in crisis, and despite various reform efforts, the failure rate of students, disproportionately low-income students of color, continues to rise. The lack of strong literacy skills is an indicator that the education system continues to leave millions of children behind. Researchers and practitioners agree that children, en masse, need better reading and writing skills as well as opportunities to use literacy practices in school and community contexts. Yet, there is less agreement about how to do it. As a solution, the SAYS pedagogy engages participants in critical literacy: reading the world, the word, and one’s self in a new way. Building upon best practices, SAYS continues to find that when academic knowledge and skills are situated within the frame of reference of students, learning becomes more personally meaningful, students have greater interest and engage in school-based practices more readily, and achievement levels increase.