BASIC SKILLS
MATH
Students in grades 1 through 5 receive extra support in math. Teachers trained in Cognitively Guided Instruction are using a format that includes math games, problem solving, sharing strategies, and small group instruction.
What we do about arithmetic
- Develop a sense of number
- Emphasize mental computation and algorithmic thinking
- Find out how children use number concepts to make sense of situations
- Work toward fluency with numbers
- Build on math knowledge each student already has
- Develop arithmetic concepts in a meaningful context while children are doing mathematics
- Develop an understanding of how our number system works
- Share strategies and learn from each other
- Foster productive classroom discourse about mathematical issues
- Provide meaningful contexts for drill with number relationships
- Provide a safe environment for risk taking so everyone feels success
Our math groups meets during the school day with our basic skills math teacher. Students are referred by their classroom teachers and standardized test scores.
We have an activity oriented curriculum that draws and builds on the child's store of mathematics understanding. Our main goals are to develop more confident math students that enjoy math.
READING
Students in grades 1 - 5 receive extra support in reading, in addition to their regular classroom reading program. The focus of this intervention is to help students go beyond just reading words to constructing meaning in their reading, by using reciprocal teaching strategies. These strategies are: predict, question, clarify and summarize.
Through an interactive dialogue that takes place between the students and teacher, both before and after a chunk of text has been read, students learn what these strategies are and how they are used in reading. Each day everyone in the group demonstrates how they used one or more of these strategies in their reading. Daily use of these strategies and sharing with the group about how they did helps students to think about and monitor their reading. The program includes 18 different books for each grade level, sequenced at varying levels of difficulty, in both fiction and nonfiction. Various graphic organizers and a student guide are also used in the lesson.