Table of Contents:

• College Readiness
• Summerbridge
• Tutorial
• Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)
• Assembly
• Intersession

College Readiness

9th and 10th Grade

All 9th grade students take a class called "College Readiness". See the curriculum section of this site for detailed information. Students and families are additionally introduced to the college acceptance process and college life through student and parent assemblies, day trips to near-by universities, and other outreach.

11th Grade

Junior College Trip:
The College Guidance Counselor is responsible for planning a spring trip to take all juniors on a multi-day (usually four) college trip for both motivational and informational purposes. We go by chartered bus, stay in hotels or hostels, eat on campus if possible each day, take campus and dorm tours, have presentations by outreach personnel (specifically EOP), and have first generation student speaker panels (with our own alums if available). We try to visit a representative cross section of campus environments—large, smaller, rural, suburban, urban, near and a day’s drive away. We try to go where our average student will be accepted, where there is substantial residential housing and vibrant on-campus life, plus proactive and welcoming outreach and retention staff for first generation college students.

In addition, we fill each evening with activities. We usually do some team building the first night, go bowling the second, and spend our last night together with an extended ceremonial time of reflection and commitment to the class, school, and their future. Parts of the last evening are staff lead and parts are peer lead.

Costs of the trip are borne by both the student and school. Each student is currently asked to pay $75 plus have about $5 for one fast food meal each day. The school pays for the rest. Costs are now about $300 per student total.

ACT Prep and Testing:
All Juniors receive six weeks of test prep help prior to ACT Testing. Additionally, all juniors register for testing through their SSR classes . The students take the test once for free; the college guidance counselor either files a fee waiver for those who qualify for free or reduced lunch, or the school pays the fees for non-qualifying students. All subsequent testing is at the students’ expense except in the rare circumstance where the school asks a student to take an SAT II test and the student does not qualify for a fee waiver.

Junior Families Bilingual College Fair:
A spring parent meeting is dedicated to bringing in target colleges’ representatives to briefly speak about their respective college (done bilingually in a large group meeting) and then to adjourn to a traditional on-campus college fair.

Summer Internships and Other Opportunities:
We try to get students into environments with a college-going culture or where a degree is needed. Internships and experiences on campuses or with other college-bound or college students provide these opportunities. Many organizations are willing to subsidize or underwrite these opportunities for first generation under-represented students.

12th Grade

College Admissions process:
The College Guidance Counselor closely advises, counsels, and monitors the college application process for each senior. Each senior applies to at least one California State University so that there is the most economic option available. Most students apply to several CSU’s. In addition, those that qualify to are also encouraged to apply to the University of California. Each year, a few will apply to the most selective private colleges. Less selective private colleges do not meet full financial need, so we do not encourage the students to apply.

The specific process that the student goes through, with internally set task deadlines, is:

• Meet one on one with the college guidance counselor to discuss appropriate college choices, taking into consideration GPA, ACT test scores, and desires (distance from home, size, etc.).
• Sign up for and take any further testing needed
• Prepare their resumes sheets that gathers necessary personal information for the application
• Apply on line to the CSU’s
• Apply to EOP
• Apply for financial aid (FAFSA)
• Decide where to enroll and complete enrollment and housing deposits.
• Sign up and take university placement tests
• Sign up for and attend orientations or Summer Bridge to register for classes

Enhancements provided to students for admissions and guidance:

• Dedicated Senior College Lab with fulltime college guidance staff, 10 computers, table study space, and a lounge space with couches and guidance and college readiness and “survival” books, up to date bulletin boards with scholarships, open houses, college rep visits, etc. posted.
• Senior +3.0 students trip
• Because the junior trip is geared to our target student, in the fall of their senior year, we also take the 3.0 students on a multi-day trip to the more selective CSU’s like Cal Poly or San Diego State, and to several University of California campuses. The structure and financing is similar to the junior trip’s. However, while we may partially scholarship a few students for the junior trip, we feel the senior trip is optional.
• Host targeted college rep visits
• FAFSA Workshop for senior families.
• Each January we have an evening and Saturday morning with lots of available bilingual help to assist each family one-on-one fill-in their FAFSA online.
• File GPA Verifications for all seniors.
• Scholarship Notebook
• We keep a scholarship binder up to date, particularly with local scholarships. They are organized by due date. We provide scholarship essay assistance.
• Organize family campus visits if requested.
• Hold family meetings with individual parents and students to address questions, motivations, fear, and issues (housing, understanding financial aid offers, loans, etc.)
• Bring in alumni students and parents to speak with seniors and their families
• Develop and maintain relationships with admissions personnel at targeted colleges and advocate for non-admitted, high-risk students as appropriate
  

Summerbridge

Culture Before Curriculum
Summerbridge is a five-week student acculturation program that is mandatory for all incoming freshmen. Though the program includes academic classes, the main objective is to help students adapt to DCP’s college preparatory culture, which is quite different from what they are used to in middle school.

Summerbridge is a space for:

• coaching students on proper college-prep behavior
• creating activities that help students and staff get to know each other
• teaching students about DCP’s discipline and classroom policies
• beginning to develop study skills
• immersing students in our “culture of achievement”

This is the new 9th graders’ first – and best – chance to learn about the community they are about to enter. Guiding students toward the culture and mission of DCP, and establishing and enforcing behavioral norms, is much more important in Summerbridge than getting students to fully understand the academic material. In general, students who attend Summerbridge have fewer discipline problems during the school year than students who are not able to attend Summerbridge (if they are enrolled late, for example). During the regular school year, we believe that curriculum and culture work together; during Summerbridge, we lean more toward “culture before curriculum”.

History
The first Summerbridge was held in the summer of 1999 as a pilot program, two years before DCP opened its doors. It was hosted on the campus of San Jose State University, since there was no site for DCP at that time. Summerbridge was established as an intensive academic program to focus on preparing students for the 9th grade. As we learned more about our students’ needs, and what would allow them to be most successful in high school, Summerbridge evolved into the culture-intensive program described above. Currently, the DCP Activities Director is the director of the program, and works to ensure that building a positive culture remains the priority each summer.

Summerbridge has also become an important paid internship opportunity for DCP alumni and graduating seniors. Former students make great Summerbridge teachers, as they know the DCP program very well, and the new students can relate to them easily. These alumni teachers work in collaboration with DCP teachers, but they are responsible for running their own classrooms. In addition, several unpaid internships for office and program assistants are available to juniors and seniors that complete the application and interview process.

In the past, any freshman that needed to repeat the year would only go to summer school. Currently, if we feel that the student’s lack of academic success is fundamentally due to a lack of cultural buy-in, we may send them to Summerbridge instead (so far, this has only happened with students who came in to 9th grade late and missed out on Summerbridge). This allows the students to bond with their new classmates, and gives them a better chance at doing well the following year.

Program Design
Summerbridge is five weeks long, with each week assigned a different theme related to our core school value of orgullo (pride). The themes for the summer are:

• Week 1: Orgullo en mi lobopack (Pride in my lobopack)
• Week 2: Orgullo en si mismo y mi comunidad (Pride in myself and my community)
• Week 3: Orgullo en nuestra cultura (Pride in our culture)
• Week 4: Orgullo en mi educacion (Pride in my education)
• Week 5: Orgullo en mi exhibicion (Pride in my exhibition project)

Because such a large percentage of our student population is of Latino heritage, and most speak at least some amount of Spanish, we have opted to mix key words in Spanish into the DCP lexicon.

Prior to the program, students are divided into ten “lobo packs” (the lobo, or wolf, is our school mascot). One staff member and one current DCP student lead each lobo pack of about 14 students. The purpose of the lobo packs is to help students build community in small groups first. Each pack is given a team flag with a mathematical symbol (Delta, Square Root, etc.) which becomes their team identity and symbol of pride for the program. For every assembly, one student is chosen to be the flag bearer for the pack, waving the flag with pride.

Lobo packs meet for the last 80 minutes each day, Monday through Thursday, working on activities or projects related to the theme of the week. For example, in week 1 (pride in my lobo pack), students play get-to-know-you games, create their life stories to share, come up with a pack chant, and compete against other lobo packs in games. The rest of the day is filled with academic classes – math, design challenge, and sustained silent reading. Additionally, students have a daily tutorial period during which they do homework and learn study skills.

Students meet all day in their lobo packs on “Orgullo Friday”, for a variety of fun activities and field trips.

1. Orgulllo en mi lobopack: Trip to Alum Rock park, the state’s oldest county park. In their packs, students hike together for about two miles into the park, arriving at a picnic area. Once there, packs compete in a series of fun team building competitions.
2. Orgullo en si mismo y mi comunidad: Students participate in a timed scavenger hunt around downtown San Jose. It is designed to introduce students to parts of the community that they may otherwise not know, and to inspire pride in their home town.
3. Orgullo en nuestra cultura: This takes place at the Summerbridge site. Students participate in activities to share their cultural heritage with their pack-mates.
4. Orgullo en mi educacion: Students take a trip to CSU Monterey Bay where they are given a tour by DCP alumni who attend CSUMB. The tour is followed by a question and answer period with the alumni, as well as lunch on the quad.
5. Orgullo en mi exhibicion: The program ends each with an academic exhibition. Students’ families, DCP staff, and other community members are invited to attend, and students present what they have worked on all summer.

As the summer progresses, the focus of the program activities transitions from the individual, to the lobo pack, to the community. A lot of work is needed to successfully merge the packs and create the larger community. The final exhibition is the culmination of that effort, as the students work together to complete their projects, dress up, and present to their families. At the end of the exhibition, there is an awards assembly where the students are “presented” to the rest of the community as the new DCP freshman class. In an address by the principal, the new freshmen are told that they will need to rely on each other, on their parents, and on the DCP staff to survive and thrive during the next few years of their high school education.

The program is hosted at San Jose State University, which has graciously donated space every summer. This used to be done for logistical reasons, but we have continued the tradition, as it is a great way to begin the academic cycle for our students. We tell the students that they are beginning their high school career at a four-year university, and that they will not be finished with DCP until they return to and graduate from a four-year university.

Logistics

Space requirements for DCP Summerbridge:

• 8 classrooms, from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm (6 used as classrooms, 1 as an office, and 1 as a private meeting room for discipline and parent meetings).
• 1 large assembly space that can hold 150 students and 20 staff/volunteers.
• 4 additional classrooms to be reserved for the activity time period.

Staff:

• 6 teachers
• 1 program director (this role is filled by DCP’s Activities Director)
• 1 office manager
• 1 campus supervisor
• 4 interns with college experience (preferably DCP alumni)
• 1-2 interns that have just graduated from DCP
• 8-12 current DCP student volunteers that help with lobo pack activities.

Classes:

Skills in all three academic classes are remedial, focusing primarily on 3rd – 6th grade standards. While this does allow for some growth in skills, the main benefit is that there is plenty of time to focus on classroom culture and student behaviors. When students enter DCP as freshmen, they will take additional remediation classes in math and English if needed, where the focus on academics is much stronger.

Math:
Students primarily work on using a variety of composition and decomposition strategies to help learn and recall basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Students also spend time learning how to add and subtract integers. Additionally, they learn what the expectations will be in their 9th grade math classes.

Design Challenge:
This is a class in which students learn to construct objects that meet a set of criteria through a series of challenges. Students are taught a three-part design challenge process that is scaffolded over the course of the summer : investigate, create, reflect. One of the main goals of the class is for students to learn to work productively in groups, regardless of who is placed in their group. For all group activities, students are assigned clear roles, such as Materials Manager, Timekeeper, Facilitator, etc. Each time a group meets, the roles are rotated, so that every student gains practice in all of the different roles.

SSR:
Summerbridge Sustained Silent Reading is held 40 minutes a day, three days a week. All teachers are assigned to an SSR classroom and read along with the students. Instead of allowing students to read any book they want (as it is during the year at DCP), students are put in groups of four and assigned one of several books to read. These “book circles” allow students to discuss what they are reading with their classmates, which improves both their comprehension and their level of engagement. Excitement is also built up around the books; ideally, students who do not get to read a certain book will enter 9th grade with a list of titles they want to read.

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Tutorial

Rationale

Before attending DCP, our students typically have not been held accountable for completing their homework on a regular basis. In general, students come to DCP with neither the understanding of the importance of homework, nor the knowledge of how best to get homework done. Tutorial has been a part of DCP’s program since the first year, in response to these issues. Tutorial provides students with a quiet space to complete homework, seek tutoring when needed, develop study skills and work ethic, collaborate with other students, and develop a relationship with a teacher advisor.

Tutorial Structure

All freshman and sophomore students are required to participate in tutorial throughout the year. Juniors are required to participate for the first six-week grading period, and then have the opportunity to opt out of tutorial if they have missed no homework assignments (in any class) or have maintained a 3.0 GPA during that time. If, during the following grading period, juniors no longer meet those requirements, then they are required to be in tutorial again during the next grading period. Seniors are not required to participate in tutorial, as we believe it is important for them to learn to manage their free time effectively as they transition to the freedom of college.

Tutorials are divided by grade level, and each tutorial advisor is assigned to the grade level that he or she predominantly teaches. The logistics of the tutorial time varies by grade level; this is determined at the start of the year by the entire tutorial advisory team, along with the administration.

Currently, freshman and sophomore tutorials are divided into three parts: organization time, silent time, and student collaboration time. During the first six weeks, the schedule of time allotted to each part is the same for all tutorials (5 minutes of organization, 30 minutes of silent work time, 30 minutes of collaboration) and then is adjusted as the year progresses and students’ needs change.

Junior tutorial is less structured with most or all of the time dedicated to student collaboration. A lot of work is needed to teach students what effective collaboration looks like.

Role of the Tutorial Advisor

Tutorial advisors have three roles to play: advisor, tutor, and supervisor. Teachers assigned to tutorial are expected to establish and maintain a positive and effective work environment within the tutorial classroom, which involves a large amount of student coaching and, when absolutely necessary, disciplinary action. Teachers must also answer academic questions and clarify directions, as well as work with students to develop study skills, collaboration skills, and academic work ethic. Finally, teachers in this role act as student advisors. They are responsible for monitoring student progress in all classes by checking individual homework checkers and homework logs daily and conferencing with students when their consistency with homework or grades begins to falter. Because tutorial is so demanding, it is considered to be an actual section in teaching assignments. DCP teachers have either 5 classes and no tutorial, or 4 classes and tutorial.

Additional Tutoring

Many teachers not assigned to a tutorial still participate by offering content-specific review sessions or workshops during this time. For example, this year an Algebra 2 workshop is held during every Tuesday and Thursday tutorial, and all students in those classes are invited to participate. Other teachers act as individual tutors, pulling students from their tutorial classrooms to work on specific assignments or skills. Volunteer tutors from the outside community have also been utilized to work one-on-one with students requiring extra help. Many of these outside tutors come from local universities through established programs.

The Development of Tutorial at DCP

The tutorial format has gone through many changes over the years and continues to develop today to best meet the needs of our target student. Tutorial was originally a two-hour class and all DCP staff members (teaching, non-teaching, and administrative) participated as advisors. Each tutorial was run by two or more staff members who alternated days. During its early stages, it was found that there was little alignment between tutorial classrooms in terms of format, teacher and student expectations, and staff and student satisfaction.

The current tutorial structure reflects the efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, of the last six years. The length has been reduced to just over one hour to prevent student and teacher burnout and to encourage more efficient work time. Tutorial advisors are now matched to a tutorial class based on the grade level of students they primarily teach. These teachers are therefore more familiar with the curriculum for their grade level. They are also able to build on the relationships with students that have already been established in the academic classes. Each tutorial is now assigned to a single advisor in order to better maintain consistency of environment, expectations, and student-teacher relationships. Regular meetings for all tutorial advisors are held to encourage communication among teachers and between teachers and administrators, to maintain consistency among all tutorial classrooms, and to discuss and implement changes to the tutorial format when necessary.

The area of tutorial most in need of further development is student collaboration time. Advisors are currently experimenting with grade-level specific collaboration strategies and coaching, but the ideas and expectations for student collaboration have not yet been formalized or aligned among the tutorials. Because the first year as a tutorial advisor has historically been very difficult for teachers, another area currently in development is peer/ administrative coaching for teachers new to the role.

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Sustained Silent Reading

Purpose and Philosophy

DCP has a Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) because several studies have shown that a half an hour of reading every day will improve students’ reading comprehension and language and literacy development. Through SSR, we are working to create a community of readers at DCP, where students and staff not only enjoy reading but also engage in discussions about what they are reading. Students are required to read in all of their classes at DCP, but SSR is a time for students to read what they are interested in (in fact, they may not read anything that is assigned for a class), and by extension, figure out what those interests are and who they are as readers.

History

SSR has always been a part of the school day at DCP and has evolved from being part of a regular class period to a separate half-hour period every day before or after lunch. DCP has always recognized the value of SSR and is continually working to improve its effectiveness.

Logistics

SSR occurs every day for a half an hour. Students are assigned to an SSR teacher and classroom during one of the lunch periods, A or B. Studies have shown that SSR is not as effective when students feel too much pressure to be accountable for what they have read, so students do not receive a grade for SSR. However, we have built in some accountability by having students keep track of their reading progress and present what they are reading publicly. Students are expected to read for the entire half hour and log their progress on their SSR bookmark. Then, when students are finished with a book, they are expected to give a book talk. This serves as a check for reading comprehension and a way for students to share what they’ve read with the class. Students and teachers regularly do book talks at our weekly assembly, too. Books that have been the subject of a book talk become extremely popular in every SSR room. SSR teachers also track how many books have been read by the entire class on a large wall chart. Teachers set goals with their students and decide on rewards when the goals have been met.

Students can request books they would like to see on the carts and new books are ordered regularly. Students are encouraged to check out a book if they want to read it outside of school. Having a large variety of attractive and interesting books has proven to be essential to a successful SSR program. Students who are not used to reading can often be very resistant, finding fault in every book they see. One aspect of the SSR teacher’s job is to continually coach students on how to browse books and give them a fair try. This requires a good variety of books, as well as research into the types of books that the students actually want to read (see below).

Two teachers are assigned to be “SSR Coordinators”; instead of having their own SSR class, they use that time to manage the program. This includes cataloging and ordering new books, covering for teachers who are absent or want to observe another teacher’s SSR, collecting data on the effects of SSR, and continuing to develop the program.

Important notes

1. During SSR time, the teacher must read along with the students, rather than grade, plan, or do other work. In our SSR classes, we have found that this eliminates the vast majority of discipline problems and refusals to read. Eventually, teachers come to cherish their SSR time, because it is a chance for them to take a break from work, and spend time reading. Many teachers report that SSR is the only chance they get to pleasure read!
2. Students will ask if they can read newspapers and magazines. There are differing views on this issue, and you will need to decide what is appropriate for your site. Newspapers help students engage in current events, yet they can be noisy and distracting. Also, some students will only read the classifieds and sports scores, which does not improve their literacy skills. Magazines tend to be very interesting for students, but are often filled with an abundance of pictures and a very small amount of quality text. It may be appropriate to allow “text-rich” magazines like Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, etc.
3. Students should not be allowed to use SSR time for anything but reading a text that they have chosen, that is at their reading level. Students should not do homework, including reading that has been assigned for class. Students who are still at the “refusing to read” stage must at least have their head up with a book open in front of them. It will take some students many days, weeks, or even months to begin reading. There are very few students who won’t eventually start to read, given that the above conditions are enforced.
4. Establishing a good culture in an SSR class takes time. Research shows that it often takes two months or more for students to really buy in to the idea of SSR. It is important to keep this in mind, and not to get frustrated when the students don’t all immediately start reading. Given time to browse books, lots of encouragement, a quiet space, and proper modeling from the teacher, students will come to accept and even enjoy SSR.
   

Testimonials

In an online SSR survey given in October 2006, students were asked, “In general, how do you feel about reading? Explain why you feel this way.”

Here are some of their responses:

• I like reading when I feel or have something that I really am interested in. I feel this way because this is how my brain functions!
• Okay because I like books that get me really into the story and I hope I stay up with my reading. I feel this way because I never used to read now it’s almost an every day thing with me.
• Personally I believe reading is very important in life. Reading helps me increase my vocabulary and it also helps my spelling. Reading is everywhere and it’s best to start practicing early than not knowing how to correctly read a phrase.
• I, myself don't like to read that often, but I know it is necessary to read in order to get better in my English language.
• Well, to me reading is sometimes boring. But when I have a good book in hand, then it’s not bad.
• I think it's a good way to expand your knowledge. I feel this way because I have become a better reader since last year thanks to SSR.
• I felt good, because I think it's helping me in my education and it's also a good opportunity to improve my reading.
• Reading gives us a better understanding about things in our world today.
• I feel that reading is sometimes kind of boring, but can also be very fun and interesting. Reading is very important to me. It distracts me from many problems I might have.
• I feel really good about reading because I know it helps me understand more about reading and it helps a lot in my English language because Spanish is my first language.
• I think reading is good, it helps people become better in other subjects. I personally read every single day and not just in SSR. I read at home for at least 3 to 4 hours. I think the people who say they don’t like to read just don’t know what to read they just haven't found a certain genre yet.
• How I feel about reading in school is that it gets you more interested in reading books that your classmates read and that makes you feel that it’s important to read books that you’re interested in.

Students were also asked “Why do you think we have SSR? What would you like to see changed or improved about SSR?”

• I think we have SSR because it helps us relax a little between all of our classes. I would like to see a lot more people reading in SSR.
• In my opinion, we have SSR because it’s a time where we can read what we like and by reading what we like will improve our reading in general. SSR is fun sometimes but sometimes you might get lazy and decide not to read sometimes.
• Because it helps you improve your reading in all the classes. I think every thing in SSR is ok because you have time to relax and read what you think is cool and then talk about your book and why you think it’s cool or not.
• DCP has SSR because reading can improve speaking, reading, spelling and grammar. Reading is important because it is a good exercise for the brain.
• I think we have SSR because it helps us with reading in our other classes. I would like to see more new books in the carts so that we have a wider variety of books to choose from.
• I think that we have SSR because the school is only trying to help us be better readers and writers and by reading everyday we will be successful in college.
• I think we have SSR so that more students read on their own. A lot of people don't like to read because they say it's boring to them, so SSR is a way to make these people realize that reading can be fun if you know what to read.

Next Steps

Right now we are working on how to provide students with books they want to read in a sustainable and timely manner. We are lucky enough to have a donor who provides us with our “wish list” books, but having a central SSR lending library would be ideal.

We are also working to make SSR and SSR achievements more public and an integral part of everyday life at DCP to strengthen our community of readers. This in turn will encourage all students in all SSRs to read every day, something that does not happen right now.

Many students start by identifying a specific book, author, or genre that they like and will read. We are trying to establish a set of steps that will help students move from an initial limited scope to a much broader scope of books by the time they graduate.

Top 20 Books That DCP Students Like to Read

Obviously, it is important to have a wide selection of books that students want to read. However, it can be easy to overlook just how critical this is. Students who are not accustomed to reading are very hesitant to pick up a new book unless the subject is immediately appealing. Additionally, students will usually judge a book by its cover – they tend to avoid completely books with antiquated cover art. Our students are most willing to try books that have realistic looking pictures of young people. We have also determined that, based on the cover art, students tend to immediately judge a text to be either a “boy” book or a “girl” book. The girls have been much more willing to read both kinds of books; boys, on the other hand, will very rarely read a “girl” book. Finding books that boys will actually read can be a great struggle; determining their tastes with sample books is recommended before ordering large numbers of books. Here is a list of the top twenty most frequently requested books by DCP students:

1. Annie’s Baby by Beatrice Sparks
2. It Happened to Nancy by Beatrice Sparks
3. Almost Lost by Beatrice Sparks
4. The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez
5. Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez
6. A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
7. A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer
8. The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer
9. Eastside Dreams by Art Rodriguez
10. Those Oldies but Goodies by Art Rodriguez
11. Forgotten Memories by Art Rodriguez
12. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
13. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
14. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
15. Estrella’s Quinceanera by Malin Alegria
16. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
17. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
18. Burro Genius by Victor Villasenor
19. House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
20. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

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Assembly

Overview

Since Downtown College Prep opened its doors with 100 freshmen students in the Fall of 2000, the school has built on its core values of Desire (ganas), Community (comunidad) and Pride (Orgullo). Developing a strong comunidad is the primary goal of our weekly assemblies, where the aim is to unite the entire school with a celebration of our culture, community and academic promise. DCP has undergone many bell schedule changes since it opened, but has never left out a weekly assembly.

History

Though having a weekly assembly has been a constant part of our program, the logistics, content, and quality have evolved over the years. In its early form, assembly mainly included a series of announcements and staff recognitions of student accomplishments. Today, it still includes these components to an extent, but is now a forum for more polished student, staff, and community performances, as well as addresses by members of the student body. Assemblies have been as short as 25 minutes and as long as an hour. For the last three years, assembly has been 40 minutes long. This has proven to be an optimal amount of time.

Inspired by the United Farm Workers Union tradition, Alicia Gallegos (a college readiness teacher at the time) introduced “the DCP clap” as a way to start and end each school assembly as a community. To this day, all assemblies (and now, staff meetings) begin and end with a slow clap done in unison by everyone in the room that builds up speed into a thunderous roar of applause. The clap is always led by a rotation of a single person or a small group of people. Everyone should have the opportunity to lead the DCP clap at some point in the school year.

Purpose

Weekly assemblies are held at DCP in order to bring the entire school community together. Maintaining consistent contact and communication with each other is a critical component of any successful community; however, even in a small school, this can prove difficult without a regular time dedicated to that purpose. Weekly assemblies may resemble a 450-person version of a Sunday family dinner or a weekly family meeting. They are a great place for guest speakers, artistic and cultural performances, student and staff performances, student recognition, performance art, interactive/performance-based announcements, and needed discussions and reminders about culture and discipline.

Student recognition has always been, and continues to be, one of the most important parts of assembly. At DCP, we honor not just academic success, but the steps that students take toward that success. Therefore, student recognition might take the form of calling up to the stage and rewarding all students who didn’t miss a single homework in a grading period, even if they still have a low GPA. Or, a teacher may give a short talk about how a student made a huge turnaround, and brought an F up to a C. The goal is to both honor the student, and to provide a model of expected behaviors to the rest of the school – most often highlighting the idea of making positive choices by explicitly linking the positive results to the student’s actions.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, community crises will occur. Having a weekly assembly is an ideal time for staff members to address the entire student body. Administration, teachers, and non-teaching staff have all stood in front of assembly to speak to students openly about major issues, explain why decisions were made, and help clear the air and prevent damaging rumors from spreading. Often, assembly ends with a “principal’s address” that deals with any current issues or problems first, and finishes with an exhortation to do something positive.

Logistics

Before the school year starts:

1. List all of the assembly dates.
2. Cross-reference these dates with the activities and academic calendars.
3. Schedule time in assemblies after major events (such as important athletic dates, field trips, and exhibitions) for sharing.
4. Establish staff expectations for use of assembly time. Also, determine how frequently the principal would like to address the school.
5. Assemblies are a place for important announcements, student recognition and polished student, staff and community performances.
6. The goal should be to have the first four assemblies completely programmed before the start of the school year along with a basic outline for the entire year.
   
7. Set time during staff development to speak to staff about the purpose of assembly (especially for new staff) and the logistics for reserving time. This is the information given to our staff at the beginning of each year:

• Time
• Be at assembly by 8:45am.
• As a staff we must set an example that is not okay to be late to school. Staff should not arrive late to assembly.
• Once you have arrived
• Welcome students and greet them with a firm handshake.
• Help all students find a seat, making sure they are sitting as close to the front as possible.
• Aisle seats should always be left open, so ask students on the edges to slide down, filling all vacant seats in the middle of rows.
• Reserving assembly time
• Send an email to the activities director at least one week prior to the assembly for which you are requesting time.
• In the email, briefly describe:
• What you need time for
• Approximate length of the performance
• Any special equipment needs
• There is an opportunity to ask for time as late as the day of the assembly. This time is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of the Activities Director.
• What is appropriate for assembly
• Guest speakers (If you know anyone that may be an awesome guest speaker or groups that do performances, please think of DCP assembly and see if they would be interested, or forward the Activities Director the information.)
• Polished student/staff/community performances
• Performance art
• Student recognition
• Interactive/performance based announcements
• Culture/discipline discussions
• What is not appropriate for assembly
• “5-second announcements” about activities or individual classes. The activities director will work with club advisors and field trip coordinators to get the word out to students. We also have a weekly homeroom announcement sheet for this type of information.
• Unprepared student work. Assembly is only 40 minutes long and cannot sustain having students go up and not perform, or be coaxed to perform, for 10 minutes. Students should agree to perform before being added to agenda, and they should practice performances ahead of time.
  

Selecting a space, and setting the time and day:

1. Assemblies should be in a space that encourages public performance, has good lighting, sound, a can comfortably hold the entire staff and student body of DCP.
2. Assemblies are held on Wednesday mornings at the beginning of the school day and the time varies based on the need and the presentation but usually last around 40-45 minutes.