Reading a priority at S-E this year

SHERBURNE – Students in Sherburne-Earlville will head back to school today and an array of changes will wait for them when they walk through the doors.

In the elementary building, Assistant Principal Antoinette Halliday said changes have been made to the schedule that allow for additional physical education and reading time periods.

The previous schedule allowed 30 minutes of physical education everyday for kindergarten students and 40 minutes twice a week for students in grades one through five. The new schedule will allow kindergarten through third grade students 30 minutes of PE a day. Fourth and fifth graders will have 40 minutes of PE, three times a week.

“We wanted to increase physical education at all grade levels,” Halliday said. “We also tried to maximize the effects of our reading program with bigger chunks of time for ELA (English Language Arts).” The assistant principal explained the schedule was changed to allow up to 90 minutes of continuous reading time.

There will also be a new reading program for children in second through fifth grade. The program, called Literacy by Design, integrates appropriate language arts and writing components, and allows for leveled readers.

Reading will also be a focus point at the middle school this year. “Our focus is on trying to improve student achievement in math and ELA on the state tests,” said Middle School Principal Nenette Greeno. At the middle school level, teachers are incorporating a new grading rubric, the six plus one writing traits. The grading rubric lays out a common language for what teachers are looking for in terms of written work. Students are given a guideline for written assignments that will be used in all subjects and courses. “We’re using that as a mechanism to improve literacy,” Greeno said.