In an effort to highlight some of the many positive things occurring in Massac Unit 1 schools, we’ve started this monthly spotlight blog. This blog will be used to spotlight specific strategies and improvements in our various schools.
From Left: Jennifer Larrison, Jane Sheehan, Jamie Schabbing, Ron
Taylor, Nelda Smothers, Joyce Taylor. Not
pictured: Marla Helton
Our first spotlight topic is from Franklin
Elementary School.
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At Franklin Elementary, a group of retired teachers,
paraprofessionals, and board members have been volunteering to assist students
with reading for more than ten years now.
The volunteer effort started when one teacher, Mrs. Sumner, asked
mothers and grandmothers of her students to come in and help listen to students
read aloud. The group of volunteers grew
from that point, and many of the volunteers return year after year even though
their children or grandchildren have since moved on to junior high, high
school, or beyond. This volunteer reading
team targets first and second grade students.
These students are divided up into tiers based on their current reading
ability. The volunteers work under the
direction of the classroom teachers to improve different student tier
groups’ reading fluency and comprehension. They do this by listening to the students
read aloud, asking comprehension questions, and practicing vocabulary as well
as implementing many other reading strategies.
According to Mrs. Sumner, the volunteers always become excited when they
see the vast improvements in the students that they work with, and this
excitement is what brings them back year after year.
Beginning this year, Mrs. Neely has expanded part of this reading
strategy to include student volunteers from the sixth grade. These student volunteers also work with
student groups called
“Buddy Groups.”
These sixth-grade students also practice many of the same reading techniques
with the first and second grade students.
The classroom teachers are analyzing data from the district’s Aimsweb
software to track student progress on reading fluency and the Star Reading
software to track student progress in reading comprehension.
Reading proficiency at the early grade levels is crucial to
academic success. Research even suggests
that, “About 16 percent of children who are not reading proficiently by the end
of third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times
greater than that for proficient readers.”
Hernandez, Donald J. (2011, April).
Double
Jeopardy How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School
Graduation. Retrieved from
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED518818.
We are very thankful for all of our
current volunteers. We also hope to
expand this program into our other elementary schools. Anyone interested in making a difference for
Massac students by volunteering in our schools should contact Lisa Monkman at
the Unit Office (524-9376) ext. 101.
This is such as nice article. Keep up the good work, FES! It's awesome to see what you are doing for your kiddos!
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