Teachers hope SRA spells success for Northfield students
Nov, 03-2009 1:32 pm
By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
NORTHFIELD – The new literacy program at the Northfield Community Elementary School is generating excitement among teachers.
With the Scientific Research Association reading program, commonly called SRA, it is all hands on deck every morning as kindergarten and first-grade teachers spend an hour with their students, preparing them to be avid readers and lifelong learners, according to Elementary School Principal Joseph Campisi.
On Monday, Oct. 26 the Northfield Board of Education honored the teachers who helped establish the program over the summer and get it up and ready for the first day of school.
“Our teachers were 100 percent committed to bringing this program to our school and to our students,” Campisi said.
“We had 21 educators working very hard over the summer, holding meetings and getting SRA into our classrooms and to our children. They were all on board with developing a great program for our school.”
He said that each morning teachers, aides, basic skills instructors and the ESL teacher work with students in the classroom. They break into groups of four or five students, with each group working on a particular skill area, whether it be strengths or skills that need reinforcement.
In first grade there are about 125 students, divided into groups that concentrate on where the student is now, what their strengths are, and what they need to achieve.
Campisi explained that students go to “centers” that allow one group to do one type of lesson or activity while another group works on something else. In each center the student produces something that allows the teacher to assess individual performance on a weekly basis.
A student might stay in the same group or be moved to another depending upon performance. Campisi said that creates a dynamic learning environment, and by having the lessons at and not beyond their level, no student is left out.
“Right now we are working with our kindergarten students and getting them ready to read. And our first-grade students, we are working to have them reading on or above grade level,” he said.
Northfield teachers observed the SRA program at the Seaview School in Linwood, saw the success it brought to students there, and decided unanimously to try the tool with young students in Northfield.
Seventeen kindergarten and first-grade teachers worked with Campisi and Superintendent Janice Fipp to create the NCS program. The teachers who contributed to the SRA kindergarten program are Andrea Vicente, Gary Battistini, Kelli Kern, Laura Brady, Bonnie Nagle, Kevin Jarrett, Dawn Frese, Krystle Serago, Monica Keenan and Lynne Martino. The teachers who contributed to the first-grade program are Shana Edelman, Antoinette Hedrich, Laura Levy, Sindy Baker, Jill Thomas, Mary Lou Best,
Coreen Macaluso, Dawn Frese, Krystle Serago, Monica Keenan, Bettyann Miller and
Lynne Martino
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