At Heritage Elementary School in Woodburn—where more than 80 percent of the students are Russian or Latino, with limited English proficiency—third-grade teacher Lawrence Conley has helped nearly two-thirds of his students meet or exceed state standards on the Oregon State Assessment Test (OSAT). Part of this success comes from his effective use of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), a method of using English to teach the required curriculum to non- English-speaking students. Mr. Conley has been the third-grade team leader at Heritage for the past three years and was an integral part of the team that wrote and received a $750,000 Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) grant for the school. One of his most powerful instructional strategies is Storyline, a Scottish method for teaching science and social studies that uses storymaking to teach the curriculum as an integrated whole. The high achievement Mr. Conley has fostered at Heritage is one story definitely worth telling.
