Learning Support Services

Preschool – Grade 12A snapshot of ELA services funded

by Special Education, Title 1,

STBIP (ELL) and LAP

Love Your People

• First, I’d like to introduce to you the thing that moves us as a department.

• How we keep focused on the right things for the right reasons.

• How our kids are the most important part of our thinking. Every child, every moment, every day. We take this seriously. And Love Our People on the way…

Developmental Preschool (Special Education Section 619)

• Immerse children in language and print rich environment (reading stories, looking at books, using books and pictures to inform, name recognition and printing, Zoophonics)

•  Build and expand on what children say (developing vocabulary, asking for wants and needs, social interactions, assertiveness training, awareness of feelings)

•  Provide culturally and linguistically diverse models of communication including voice, touch, gesture, facial expression

•  Provide special or assistive devices (ipad) to increase children’s level of participation in literacy activities (writing name)

Elementary Literacy

Haller Literacy (LAP)• The LAP Literacy support at Helen Haller works with

children in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades. The reading team at Haller is led by Betsy Smith, who teaches alongside four reading paraeducators and the ELL paraeducator, Sonja Younger. They are called the Rolling Readers because they "roll" their crates from class to class throughout the day, working in small groups in and out of the classrooms. At Haller, Betsy Smith also takes time to provide ongoing training to the reading and ELL paraeducators. She meets with teachers throughout the year to evaluate the progress of the students and to plan together strategies to provide additional help for struggling readers. Betsy and some of her reading team also run a twice weekly after school program, the Star Reader Club, for second graders.

• Helen Haller has a historic volunteer reading program. There are approximately thirty-five trained community members who work one-on-one with students in grades one through five. Betsy offered three training sessions this past year.

Example of hands-on learning to support high frequency word acquisition, phonics principles and engagement.

Greywolf Literacy (LAP)• Krista Chatters leads the literacy team at Greywolf with four

literacy paraeducators who receive ongoing weekly Reading Para Training. In addition to serving K-3 Literacy, Greywolf is also able to add service to 4th and 5th grade struggling readers through the Read Right program. Greywolf introduced two new interventions this year and provided SWAT team approach to Kindergarten reading support which resulted in significant improvement in Kindergarten reading data.

• Krista also led grade level teams K-2 in writing Student Growth Goals in reading which resulted in further reading success. A KEEP BOOK Albert Haller Grant for $3000.00 helped Greywolf begin a take home book initiative to help build home libraries for students.

• Greywolf increased their Reading Tutors through 3 trainings offered this year resulting in 31 new Reading Tutors.

Example of cut-up sentence work to support phrasing and concepts of print. Highlight tape is used for hands-on learning with phonics principles and fluency work.

English Language Learners

The ELL student population throughout the district benefit from not only their individual ELL instruction which focuses on vocabulary, pronunciation, word and letter recognition, but also from LAP and Title 1 Literacy interventions. The ELL Specialist coordinates with the Reading Specialists at both elementary schools and participates in their training. This ensures a continuity of literacy instruction among all intervention staff and all struggling readers.

Supporting the reading and writing connection. This work is from an ELL learner . Illustrations are used to support vocabulary acquisition and meaning

OPA Literacy (LAP)• This year Learning Assistance Program services have been

extended to support literacy instruction to our students in grades 1-4 attending Olympic Peninsula Academy.

More Elementary Literacy

Secondary English Languate Arts

•Read Right instruction grade 8•ELL support grades 6-12•Resource support grades 6-12

Read Right (Title I)• Read Right immerses struggling readers in reading

activities plus the right kind of coaching and guidance to help individuals figure out all of the complex aspects of the reading process. When struggling readers implicitly begin to focus on the construction of meaning each and every time they read rather than focus on single words in isolation, they begin to "remodel" how they read for the specific purpose of comprehension. This is an important key to the success of Read Right methodology.

• Eloise Ware is our certificated, highly trained Read Right tutor –teacher at 8th grade, SMS. She has been recertified 5 times over the years and has received high praise from the Read Right consultants, especially for her delivery of the critical thinking portion of the program.

Read Right Word Picture

• SMS ELA teachers also realize the benefits of Read Right: “I have  a student currently in Read Right whose attitude towards reading and school have changed miraculously. Before Read Right, this student was one of my most disruptive characters. Well—that was last semester. This semester, he enrolled in Read Right, and has become a different student. The one-on-one attention helped this student learn to believe in himself and his ability. He started to turn in work. He was one of the few students to earn an A on my most recent assessment on our class novel…..his behavior has improved as well. Thank you for allowing us to have this service, which makes such a difference in the lives of students. I wish more students could have access to Eloise and Read Right.”

12th Grade Graduation Support Through SDI Language Arts Class

• Case Manager = Graduation Coach • Graduation Coach: meeting individual student needs in both

credit & assessment requirements -Steve Brown’s Language Arts course – similar to the Collection of Evidence course

• students are completing assessment modules along the way in preparation for DAPE (Developmentally Appropriate Proficiency Exam), SBAC

•  • In a nutshell, credit & assessment requirements should

mirror the daily learning experiences students are having. The course is designed in a way that creates this for our students receiving services in Special Education.  

Some Numbers

Highly qualified teachers: 6Highly qualified paraeducators: 12Number of preschool students: 33Number of students K-5: 345Number of ELL students: 40Number of students served in grade 8: 30Number of students served in 12th grade SDI LA: 15