Rogers Grade School Intersession At Eastside Elementary Targets Learning Gaps

STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Second-grader Chris Estrada participates in readers’ theater while reading “The Enormous Turnip” on Tuesday.

STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Second-grader Chris Estrada participates in readers’ theater while reading “The Enormous Turnip” on Tuesday.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

ROGERS -- Second-grade readers worked their way through "The Enormous Turnip" Tuesday morning at Eastside Elementary School.

They read about the mouse that pulled on the cat that pulled on the dog that pulled on the granddaughter who pulled on the grandmother who pulled on the grandfather who pulled on the turnip.

At A Glance

Continuous Learning Calendar

Eastside Elementary School runs on a continuous learning calendar giving children breaks throughout the year and a shorter summer. Eastside students will finish school June 17 because of its continuous calendar and inclement weather makeup days. School is scheduled to start on July 31.

Source: Staff Report

"Pop!" chorused the voices, "Out came this enormous turnip."

The class read-aloud was part of a reader's theater exercise, said Amber Shreve, teacher.

"The way to get more fluent is to read out loud," Shreve said.

Eastside is on a continuous learning calendar. This week a selected group of children are attending Kids College lessons during the school's late spring intersession, or break.

Students are in their classrooms during Kids College, some with the teachers they have every day, but the setting is different. The lessons are focused on target areas such as decimals or learning to write a personal narrative. The classes have fewer students.

A group of 15 students instead of 28 makes for more participation by children who are shy, or uncertain of a concept, and thought they could hide behind classmates who always raise their hands, said Melissa Lohmeier, assistant principal.

"In a classroom of 25, (or) 28, it's kind of impossible for everybody to share," she said.

Kids College allows that child to shine and sparks leadership for later, Lohmeier said.

The fall and spring intersessions have been used for nine years at the school, said Robin Wilkerson, principal. Topics vary by year depending on need, Wilkerson said. This week's morning intersession classes give students help before school lets out for the year. Because of the school's continuous learning calendar, students have almost a full quarter left to the school year.

Kids College makes leaders out of the students who aren't leading already, administrators said.

"The big thing that we see is the kids' confidence," Wilkerson said.

Third-graders in Cynthia Archer's class learned math skills, and read about the Olympics on Tuesday morning. Kids College will give them a jump-start on the next unit of third grade, Archer told the class.

"You will be the leaders," Archer said.

"What?" asked a boy at the front of the room, as others talked among themselves appearing excited at the prospect.

Elsewhere, third-graders scooped popcorn and pinto beans, beads and birdseed into bowls to measure volume in Leanne Lynch's class.

They were asked to make a hypothesis on how many scoops of each material will fit into the bowl. Repeatedly measuring the nine or 10 small cups that fill their bowl showed students the size of the bowl never changes and its volume remains the same.

Math strategies ruled the day in several classrooms. Fifth-graders drew fraction problems on big yellow posters, and used division to solve their questions.

Second-graders talked about finding math equations that add up to 10, even in larger numbers. The number 13 could be six and three and four. Using 10s facts makes adding and subtracting faster.

"And you can switch it," said Alex Rodriguez, a second-grader.

Vocabulary words were the best part of class, said Juanita Campos, a third-grader. Her new favorite word is "beam," a flash of light.

"We always try to tailor it to what the kids need," Wilkerson said.

NW News on 05/07/2014