Tackling literacy in Richmond schoolsAnd it starts with a recognition of, and efforts directed at, boosting reading ability |
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Oconee Reading Recovery program leads state, nation Not only is the program number one in the state for moving children from reading below grade level to reading on or above grade level, the program also achieved another highwater mark during the 2007-08 school year. During that period, 86 percent of Oconee County children who entered the program and had a full series of lessons achieved grade level status — in comparison to 75 percent for the nation and 74 percent statewide. The goal of Reading Recovery is to dramatically reduce the number
of first-grade students who have extreme difficulty learning to read
and write and to reduce the cost of these learners to educational
systems. Through one-on-one tutoring for the bottom 20 percent of
first-graders, the program is customized to each individual
student’s needs through a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to
20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher.
RE-1 RtI model receives recognition The seminar took place Tuesday and Wednesday at the University of Denver and was sponsored by the Morgridge Family Foundation and DU. Officials from RE-1, Douglas County School District, Denver Public Schools and others were at the first day of the seminar to share and listen to information about Reading Recovery and RtI.
“I found out by mail,” she said, adding that she didn’t mention the award to people at that point. “I was teaching one afternoon, and people were knocking on my door saying, ‘Do you know you’re on a Web site?’ or ‘You were mentioned on the radio.’ It’s cool to win an award, but it’s weird to have everybody come up to you.” Vaynerman was named the 2009 Illinois Reading Educator of the
Year in the reading specialist category by the Illinois Reading
Council. She will be publicly recognized at the Illinois Reading
Conference on March 20 in Springfield.
Learning to implement RtI STERLING — Last fall RE-1 Valley School District had to submit a Response to Intervention (RtI) plan to the state and now teachers are working on implementing that plan. At a special inservice Monday, all teachers took part in RtI training led by Dianne Southerland and Pam East from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Last summer approximately 25 teachers and building administrators
traveled to Arkansas to take part in a Comprehension Intervention
Model Institute led by Dr. Linda Dorn, director of the AU Reading
Recovery/Early Literacy Training Center. Both Southerland and East
are members of Dorn’s team.
Littleham Primary School in line for national award LITTLEHAM Primary School could scoop a national award that recognises its big improvement in reading. The school was nominated for the award in the national Every Child a Reader programme for its Reading Recovery programme and has achieved great success in teaching pupils who initially have difficulty with reading.
A Galesburg School District Teacher had received a statewide award
for her participation in a district program. She was also a reading
teacher who had done well in teaching young school children.
Galesburg Reading Teacher Wins State Award A Galesburg School District teacher is receiving a statewide award, for her involvement in a district program an administrator says he wishes there were more of in the country. District-205 Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Joel Estes says King Elementary Teacher Allyson Vaynerman is the Illinois Reading Educator of the Year in the Reading Specialist category, as awarded by the Illinois Reading Council. Estes tells WGIL he wrote a letter in support of Vaynerman's nomination that said, in his eyes, she is deserving of the award. "(Vaynerman) was with us in the Reading Recovery Program since we started it five years ago," Estes said. "She's really been one of the people that drives the rest of us to do the very best that we can in that program. She's a real advocate for Reading Recovery, and has gotten her specialist degree in reading. She's a very committed educator -- committed to every single child that she works with."
Vaynerman has been a Reading Recovery teacher with the district since 2004. She teaches at King Elementary School and will be publicly recognized at the Illinois Reading Conference on March 20 in Springfield.
Teacher receives literacy training scholarship MIRAMICHI - A teacher in District 16 has been granted a scholarship that will help her gain additional training in assisting students in Grade 1 who are struggling with literacy. Karen McDonald is about to embark on a 10-month graduate study program at the Eastern Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery, in conjunction with Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. The scholarship was awarded through a grant from the
Minnesota-based Deluxe Foundation Corporation.
HWCDSB program focuses on boys Superintendent of Education, Patricia Amos, presented the Reading Recovery (TM) Report. The program, an early intervention strategy designed to help reduce the number of Grade 1 children who are facing challenges in learning how to read, is currently offered by specially-trained teachers at 33 schools within the board, including Guardian Angels in Waterdown. The program was initiated at the start of the 2002/2003 academic
year and provided youth with daily, one-on-one 30-minute lessons,
which are customized to meet the specific needs of the student.
Teacher Attends Reading Recovery & K-6 Literacy Conference PHILIPSBURG - Public Education’s Remedial Coordinator, Ms.
Patricia Maier, just returned from Columbus, Ohio where she attended
the National Reading Recovery and K-6 Literacy Conference. Littleham Primary School wins top reading award LITTLEHAM Primary School has won a national award recognising its
achievements in inspiring its students to read.
Early Intervention Program Helps Struggling Readeres A Georgia State University reading program has been shown to help
struggling readers defy the “fourth-grade slump” – a time in later
elementary school when many students can have difficulty with
reading.
Pupil's reading impresses Minister A South Bristol school that has pioneered a nationally successful reading initiative has been praised by MP and Government Minister Dawn Primarolo. Victoria Park Infant School was one of the first in the city and the country to run Reading Recovery sessions for children at risk of falling behind with literacy… Ms Primarolo, Labour MP for Bristol South and a Health Minister,
said she was impressed that children at Victoria Park were rapidly
improving their reading ages.She said: "Victoria Park's Reading
Recovery programme has turned the school around. It wasn't long ago
that half the pupils left the infant school without being able to
read. Now no one does.”
No chance to fail for student readers DANVILLE -- Local elementary students spend an extra hour a day focused on reading, honing their vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. It's a commitment teachers say the school district made on its
own to ensure no student falls through the cracks to illiteracy.
Award 'the pinnacle' for Hills teacher HILLS — Nancy Porter said she originally got into teaching
because it was an easy way to have a career while being able to be
home weekends and summers for her two daughters. Greater involvement in the field outside of the classroom up to the national level recently led to her winning the Charles F. Martin Award from the Iowa State Education Association on April 2 at the group’s annual delegate assembly in Ames.
The federal stimulus has provided a big gift for Jackson County schools, but no one has taken off the wrapping paper yet. Several school officials say they still are researching how they can spend $3.8 million in Title I-A money for low-income children that is on the way from Washington. Here is one idea: Why not invest in helping Jackson County's youngsters to read? More than a decade ago, this community's educational leaders identified early literacy as a top priority for schools. With good reason: Children who lack reading skills are going to struggle academically, pose a greater dropout risk and take a greater slice of teachers' time than classmates. The most tangible result was the arrival of Reading Recovery in local classrooms. The program pairs teachers one-on-one with first-graders who are their classes' poorest readers. Individually, Reading Recovery has produced countless success stories.
Good reading skills are the building block for nearly all of life’s success. In the Anoka-Hennepin School District, a program called Reading Recovery makes sure the youngest students get those fundamental skills from the start. And Sue Bestul, a Reading Recovery teacher at Washington Elementary School in Anoka, has been awarded for her work with struggling readers. Bestul, who has been teaching in the district for 29 years, has been recognized as an outstanding Reading Recovery teacher by the University of South Dakota’s Reading Recovery Training Center.
Slawson recently was named Paola USD 368’s elementary teacher of the year, putting her in the running for a regional award, and then possibly a state honor. Slawson has big shoes to fill, as fellow Cottonwood teacher Julie Miller was a finalist for Kansas teacher of the year last year, and Cottonwood teacher Erin Capettini was a state finalist the year before. Slawson takes her work with struggling readers seriously, putting into motion tactics she has learned throughout her career, including Reading Recovery training at Emporia State University. She said she has to observe the children closely and take notes during their interaction.
Reading Recovery: Program helps boost one of three 'Rs'
Think-tank's Neet idea: focus on Year 2s not teens
Alumna to Lead National Writing Project in Vermont Italiano holds bachelor's and master's degrees in education from
the University of Vermont. After teaching for 15 years in Vermont
elementary schools, she served for nine years as the Reading
Recovery Teacher Leader for the Northwest/Addison Vermont Reading
Recovery Consortium, and has been working as an independent reading
consultant for the past year. Reading program graduates a testament to educator's legacy The students finished the Reading Recovery program, an early
intervention effort aimed to help children who are having trouble
learning to read and write.
Reading Recovery Training Facility Opens in City Schools The adult Everyday Hero award winner, Becky Williams, has been a Reading Recovery and Title One teacher at Roosevelt Elementary for more than 10 years, and is known by her colleagues as being extremely committed to her “kids,” often taking extra time out of her day to help them learn.
Vancouver Public Schools is finalizing its "Achievement contract"
for next school year and proposes five key actions to improve
literacy. Among those actions is to "Provide early intervention and
pull-out programs for vulnerable learners. The pull-out program that
Vancouver favours is Reading Recovery. This year, 11 schools had
early intervention and an additional six schools will be added next
year."
Across the Wabash Valley Mrs. Kidwell who teaches the Reading Recovery program at Fayette
hosted an afternoon tea for the parents of the eight students in
this year’s Reading Recovery program. The students and their family
guests sipped tea or lemonade and enjoyed cookies while listening to
each child read aloud his/her favorite book from Reading Recovery.
As each student completed their reading they were presented with
gifts and a special book bag for the “Keep Books” they will receive
in the mail throughout the summer. District leader receives award Recipients will be honored at an awards luncheon Friday at the
2009 Teacher Leader Institute and North American Leadership Academy
in Arlington, Va. Well done in Des Moines Danelle Jeffries, Tracie Risbeck, Jill Tyler, Jennifer Wilson and
Brook Schueller, all Des Moines teachers, were among 14 educators
from around Iowa trained in the Reading Recovery program that seeks
to dramatically reduce the number of first-grade students who have
extreme difficulty learning to read and write. The program is a
short-term intervention of one-to-one tutoring for low-achieving
first-graders and is used to supplement regular classroom
instruction.
NH needs debated Board members also heard a presentation on the Reading Recovery
Implementation, a short-term tutoring intervention intended to serve
the lowest-achieving (bottom 20 percent) first-grade students.
According to RCI representative Pam McMahan, the goal of the program
is to promote literacy skill, reduce the number of first-grade
students who are struggling to read and prevent long-term reading
difficulties. “This will change the lives of many children. We know
for a fact the children reading at the lowest level in first-grade
will be the lowest in eighth-grade,” McMahan told Board members. Six
teachers, two for each elementary school, would be trained for the
program, at a cost of $1,800 per teacher. In total, the programs
first year start-up cost would equal $18,645, which Superintendent
Eric Bracy explained would be paid out of Title 1 federal funding.
Reading Recovery students receive books
Brookings' Teachers of the Year chosen Five local teachers were rewarded for their service to Brookings
children and schools at a May 13 recognition ceremony. An instructor
from each building was chosen as Teacher of the Year. Michelle
Weimann, a Reading Recovery teacher was named teacher of the year at
Hillcrest Elementary School. She said, "All my experience has been
with primary grades, and my Reading Recovery training has been the
best education to learn to be a teacher of reading."
New programme shown to 'dramatically' improve children's
literacy
Pupils struggling with reading are
benefiting from a new scheme that sees them improving
their literacy with one-to-one support from
specially-trained teachers.
Under the Reading Recovery programme, not only are children catching-up with their peers after a relatively short amount of time, but they are outperforming the national average for their age group within two years, according to research. Tailored lessons for half-an-hour a day for between 12 and 20 weeks are provided to six-year-olds who have shown literacy problems. Part of the government's Every Child a Reader programme, the initiative has been hailed a great success.
Bemidji School District: Stimulus dollars go to reading, preschool
programs Bemidji School District Curriculum Director Kathy Palm’s vision of starting new programs aimed at reading and preschool can now become a reality. On Monday, July 20, the Bemidji School Board approved $687,191 in stimulus money to go to Title 1 schools in the Bemidji School District. Palm worked with Superintendent Jim Hess to create a list of programs that would meet the early educational needs of the Title 1 schools. One of the programs on the top of the list was the Reading Recovery program.
During the summer vacation, teachers have been sharpening their skills in workshops at Emporia State University’s Jones Institute for Educational Excellence.
A July 14 workshop focused on Reading Recovery, an intensive
one-to-one tutoring program that targets the lowest-achieving
first-graders. In the program, which is used in 58 Kansas school
districts, nearly 90 percent of first-graders who were struggling
with learning to read and write improved to the same level of their
classmates, according to a study by Emporia State’s Reading Recovery
University Training Center.
LR School Board OKs plan to spend stimulus funding The Little Rock School Board voted unanimously Thursday in favor of plans for spending a little more than one-third of the $36 million in federal stimulus money that has been allocated to the state’s largest school district over the next two years. The plans call for the district to spend $7,588,628 for federal Title I programs in schools with high rates of student poverty and $6,042,897 for special-education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The bulk of the Title I money would help pay for “Reading Recovery” programs, after-school tutoring, and math and literacy coaches. Most of the special-education funds would be spent on classroom materials and equipment, professional development and summer reading programs.
Five Madison students have received $1,000 awards from the Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools Reading Recovery Scholarship Fund. They are Ebony Balele, Connor Hutchins and Jacob Musa, all of Memorial High; and Viririana Blanco and Trevor Little, both of West High.
The Reading Recovery program in each elementary school strives to
develop self-sufficient, independent readers by providing at-risk
first graders with one-on-one instruction.
New SAD 40 board meets superintendent, re-elects Davis Micue
UNION (July 6): At a July 2 meeting of the Maine School
Administrative District School Board, members discussed several new
positions being funded through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009. Positions include three floating teachers
who will share instruction with classroom teachers, enabling them to
teach the one-on-one Reading Recovery program. Half-time federal
program director Ann Hassett said some of the new positions would
allow the district to train seven teachers to provide increased
instruction in literacy throughout the district.
School Board Approves a Strained Budget After six months of constant debate and twists and turns of fortune, the Prince George's County school system has set a budget for the next year. In its final meeting of the school year, the Board of Education voted 6 to 2 to approve the $1.7 billion budget proposal late Thursday, averting at the last minute a severe cut in a popular reading program The parents who showed up to defend Reading Recovery made the most passionate speeches, many telling stories of how the program had turned their children's lives around. The program helps students who are having trouble learning to read. Elyce Walker George was on the brink of tears as she talked about her daughter: "She would become very frustrated at reading and would often become angry and just give up before she started Reading Recovery," she said. After the program, "I could see that she was taking a lot more time with her work. . . . She read to the whole family with excitement and expression." In the end, the parents' passion was rewarded with the closest thing to good news that night. After they had finished testifying, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. announced that the threatened Reading Recovery jobs would be reinstated with money made available by the federal stimulus package.
Wayne County names teacher of the year Goldsboro, N.C. — A reading specialist is Wayne County's teacher
of the year, the district announced Thursday. Back to school The bell will ring tomorrow to mark the start of a new school
year for most Fayette County students. The Laurel Highlands School District
Shanna Robinson receives scholarship to aid struggling young readers Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency Reading Recovery Teacher,
Shanna Robinson, is attending the University of Northern Iowa this
fall for a nine-month graduate program focusing on how best to help
first-graders who are struggling with beginning reading. The
graduate study is a training program that will qualify Shanna to be
a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader. As a Teacher Leader, she will
train and coach Reading Recovery teachers in participating
Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency school districts who will
teach first graders having extreme difficulty learning to read and
write.
Obion County School Board approves budget for 2009-10
KLC backs continued reading scheme funds The Kimberley Land Council (KLC) has welcomed the continuation of
funding for a reading program for Aboriginal children.
School district focusing on Reading Recovery program She gave the boy a fourth-grade story and, carefully and
accurately, Kemar softly read the first paragraph. Thompson wiped
tears away and for good reason.
Dr. Cheryl Jennings Recognized by TWU Reading Program Dr. Cheryl Jennings, division director of elementary teaching &
learning, was awarded the 2009 Advocate for Excellence in Literacy
by Texas Woman’s University Reading Recovery program.
Top 12 Pioneers in Education Marie Clay is described as one of the top 12 pioneers in
education.
Education Briefs And once O'Shea completes the dual registration she is working on
this year, she will be the only teacher in District 202, and one of
only three teachers in the state to receive Reading Recovery
certification in both English and Spanish.
Keeping programs common thread for trustees With a projected 2009-10 provincial deficit of $2.8 billion this year expected to impact student programs, and an assurance by the province that school boards will undergo a spending review, there’s no doubt the next 10 months will be a challenge for the Greater Victoria board of education. Trustees Jim Holland and Bev Horsman each said their priority will be maintaining the educational and recreational programs that currently exist within the district. “My belief is that we need to maintain the quality of the public education system, and that means maintaining the programs that are in place,” said Holland. “When it comes down to, ‘Are we willing to put money into enhanced programs? Are we willing to put money into remedial help?’ – that’s where trustees can make a difference.” Horsman said maintaining literacy programs such as Reading
Recovery is essential.
State Approves Districts' Plans For Spending of Stimulus Money The Hamburg and Crossett School Districts' Arkansas Recovery and Reinvestment plans have been submitted and approved by the Arkansas Department of Education. According to the plan approved by the Department of Education,
Crossett will budget $348,470 of the Title VI-B funds for the
purchase of two handicapped busses and for special needs services;
$144,083 is designated to the elementary school to be used to
purchase various technology and sound system equipment and hiring a
reading recovery teacher; and $8,000 is slated for the middle school
to purchase technology equipment.
Summer tutoring program is success SANDWICH - The Sandwich Public Schools summer tutoring program has been called a success. Superintendent of Schools Mary Ellen Johnson said more than 80 students, both special and general education, attended the program at Henry T. Wing School this summer. The students, grades 1-5, attended classes for one hour, three days per week over a six-week period. The program cost the district roughly $12,000 and focused on basic reading and math skills. A team of Reading Recovery teachers, literacy teachers, special
education teachers and math teachers led the classes.
Commissioner shines spotlight opening day at Oakland Beach Some important people were at Oakland Beach Elementary School on
the first day of school in Warwick. Rhode Island’s recently
installed Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Deborah
Gist toured the school, along with Warwick Schools Superintendent
Dr. Peter Horoschak, Mayor Scott Avedisian and other city and school
officials.
Teaching brings 'real joy' to Worthington award-winner
Central Springs educators headed to Washington, DC, to receive award Central Springs Elementary School-Manly Campus has been named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. It is one of only 314 schools to be recognized nationally, and one of only four Iowa elementary schools to be honored. …“This isn’t just about fourth grade proficiency; it’s about all the staff and school board members who have worked to improve our curriculum,” he [Principal Casey Christensen] said. Both Title 1 and Reading Recovery positions have been increased and a new reading series begun, he added. “The lesson here is that when you work hard and do good things, rewards come,” Christensen said. “It shows that despite low-income status, every child can learn.”
SUNBURY - Marcia Slaton, one of 12 finalists for Pennsylvania's
Teacher of the Year Award...is a reading teacher and literacy coach
at the Chief Shikellamy and Grace S. Beck elementary schools in the
Shikellamy School District, where she has spent her entire career.
Schools Receive Stimulus Money
WOODBRIDGE — By the end of the year, every single first-grade
student in a township public school will be reading. That's the goal
both school and township officials expect to achieve through a
multi-pronged effort involving a revamped curriculum and promoting
reading among adults.
Reading Recovery Program Celebrates 15 Years Fort Bend Independent School District’s Reading Recovery Program is celebrating 15 years – and Descubriendo la Lectura is celebrating 10 years – of enhancing literary skills among young people. Since its existence in FBISD, the Reading Recovery / Descubriendo la Lectura program has served more than 8,612 first-grade students who have had difficulty in learning to read and write. Bend Independent School District "Reading Recovery has an impressive success rate, with 90 percent of former first-grade students meeting the standards for the third-grade reading component of the TAKS test in 2009,” said Cathy Duvall, FBISD Reading Recovery teacher leader. “That percentage represents eight percent of the district’s passing rate. The figures alone prove that the program works and is making a significant improvement in student reading skills.”
BENTON -- Brianna Buchanan, a second grader at Kelly Elementary School in Benton, is happy about the newly installed wooden benches that sit in the corner of her school library. The library benches were purchased with memorial funds in memory of Mary Nebel Wooldridge Urhahn, a Reading Recovery teacher who died in May.
Teacher, Principal of the Year announced DECEMBER 2009
Fredericktown reading program honored FREDERICKTOWN — As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the Reading Recovery community in North America has honored the outstanding success of the program in Fredericktown Elementary School. The school’s Reading Recovery program was one of the first of its kind in the nation, as well as in Ohio, and, since the 1986-87 school year, has been helping struggling first-graders improve in fluency, comprehension, alphabetic skills and general reading achievement.
Ridge teacher receives scholarship
Bellingham schools get literacy grant
COUNTY - The South Shore Regional School Board's Reading Recovery
program has been recognized as one of less than three dozen
exemplary sites by the Reading Recovery Council of North America.
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