Literacy Program Descriptions

The goal for the evening is for parents to understand how teachers approach literacy instruction in K-3.  In addition, parents will be advised on how to support their child's literacy development at home.  Parents should be prepared to participate, as they will actively experience activities that children perform in their classrooms everyday.

 

The National Spelling Bee qualifying meet will be held in January of 2010.   Spelling bee programs will be conducted in grades 5-8 at the classroom, grade, or/or school level. The spelling champions will be sent to the next level of competition as designated by the local spelling bee sponsors. The champion of each local spelling bee sponsor's program qualifies for participation in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.

 

WordMasters is a national contest for students in grades 3-8 which encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning. At each grade level the contest consists of three 20-minute analogy-solving meets which are held December 2009 and February and April 2010. Two weeks before each meet, students are given a list of 25 challenging vocabulary words. The words on each list make frequent appearances in the analogies in the upcoming meet. Excellence in the meet will require both a mastery of the meanings of the new words and thoughtful reasoning about the relationships between these words expressed in the contest's analogies.

 

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students will be paired with primary students to deliver the program, Operation Bookworm. With training and coaching, the older students will use picture books to plan comprehension lessons that target younger students‚ individual needs and instill a love for reading. In addition, the older students will model what good fluency sounds like! The program will run for six weeks and each pair will meet together once a week for approximately 20 minutes.

 

The Young Authors program is designed to integrate the writing process as a „real-life‰ experience that culminates in the publication of a book. Students will learn how to develop ideas into topics, structure story ideas, write outlines, and edit their work. Book publications will be shared with primary classes and will be on display in the library.