During daily 90-minute reading periods, students are regrouped by reading level across age lines. This eliminates the need for reading groups within the class. Tutors are used as reading teachers during reading time to reduce the size of reading classes. The reading program in kindergarten and the first grade uses phonetically regular storybooks supported by instruction that focuses on phonemic awareness, auditory discrimination, and sound blending. This program emphasizes cooperative learning activities built around partner reading, story summarization, writing, and direct instruction in reading comprehension skills.
Priority is given to first grade students.
Eight-Week Assessments Students in grades one through six are assessed every 8 weeks to determine whether they are making adequate progress in reading. This information is used to assign students to tutoring, to suggest alternative teaching strategies in the regular reading classroom, and to make changes in reading group placement, family support interventions, or other means to meet student needs. MathWings MathWings is a constructivist approach to mathematics for grades one through five. Cooperative learning is used at all levels to provide opportunities for students to develop their understanding of concepts by explaining them to each other in heterogeneous problem-solving groups and to enable feedback among students in teams. At the intermediate grade levels, Power Math allows students to work at their own pace on individualized units to reinforce learning in specific areas or to accelerate students into new areas.