Many national models address early reading, yet none of them quite worked for their school, she says. Lane says educators looked at a lot of model programs, carefully picking and choosing until they had a program tailored to her school. We ve gone to different trainings and workshops to find out any new ideas that are out there. We looked at the models and the reading programs. Then we chose the programs that seemed to best fit what Challis Elementary is all about.
Classrooms have five work stations where tasks are set out for students.
Each station has as many as 100 activities that teach or reinforce each task. While students try these different tasks, this leaves the teacher free to work intensely with small groups. The idea is that the student feels good about himself and has certain freedoms. They have to feel free to try things, and they learn that everyone learns thing in their own time. Raelynn Parks, the principal of Madison Middle School, says a CSRD grant helped the school meld the Workshop Way with more traditional reform pieces.