Programs and Services
Library Media Center
The Stewart Heights media center has ten student computers and a Promethean board. Our library collection includes over 13,000 items for teacher and student use. In order to promote reading, the media specialist administers the ReadnQuiz program in which students take computerized tests on books which they have read. Students are encouraged to take these tests and complete other reading activities on tablets that are issued by the media specialist.
Library Hours: 7:00 - 3:15 PM
Media Specialist: Brittney Thompson
Media Assistant: Tiffany Wiggins
Mission Statement: It is the mission of the Stewart Heights Elementary School's Library Media Center to assist members of the learning community in becoming effective users of information and to foster the move of reading.
Goal: To provide a school library program that is fully integrated into the curriculum and that has a positive impact on student achievement.
Save the Children
Save the Children, US Programs (USP) has two overarching goals that go hand in hand to support children’s academic success. We want to ensure that children in rural communities where we work are socially, emotionally, and cognitively ready to enter Kindergarten and achieve proficiency in math and reading by the end of third grade. To achieve these goals, we have services and programs in place to support children across the early childhood continuum from birth through the elementary years.
Save the Children prioritizes our programmatic work in rural communities across America. Our mission is to support the most marginalized and underserved population of children. Therefore, our partner schools typically serve high populations of at-risk children, as indicated by various factors such as a high percentage of children receiving free or reduced lunch. We seek partners that exhibit a high level of commitment and engagement from school staff and administration, as well as those partners that are committed to strong program enrollment and continued progress towards achieving programmatic goals. School-age programs were developed with a specific audience of children in mind and have been proven to be the most effective for children that need additional supplemental literacy and math support and are no more than 2 or 3 years below grade level in their reading and math skills. Our school-age programs are supplemental in nature and help to meet the needs of children at risk of falling through the cracks.
Our program components are designed to accelerate children’s learning. The phrase accelerated learning is used intentionally. It is important to understand the difference between the terms remediation and acceleration. In the past, remediation was the term applied to the approach used with children who were struggling with reading. The idea was to slow down the process to give them more time and opportunity to learn the skills they were lacking. It often involved starting with the most basic skills and working through layers of skill progression. Unfortunately, this model often led to failure because slowing down the process never allowed the children to reach grade level status; they generally fell further and further behind as the years went by.
Acceleration, on the other hand, approaches the challenge from the opposite perspective. In this model, the idea is to identify specific areas that the child needs help with, often at the broader strategy level versus the specific skill level. After assessing current strengths and weaknesses, instruction does not start at the beginning; instead, support begins where the breakdown of understanding first occurs. When applied to large groups of academically struggling children, another facet of the acceleration model is to identify which broad instructional practices provide the most benefit to the greatest number of children.
SCHOOL-AGE PROGRAM SETTINGS
School-age programs are implemented in four different settings:
· Before School
· In-School
· Afterschool
· Summer
The majority of our school partners implement both in school and afterschool programs; however, your school may not offer programs during each of these settings.
PROGRAM COMPONENTS
Whether programs are implemented before, during, or after school, or even in the summer, many of the same components can be found throughout. Below is a brief description of what occurs during program components.
LITERACY
EMERGENT READER LITERACY BLOCK (Grades K & 1)
Phonemic Awareness & Phonics
The skill-building activity time begins with a 5-minute Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Activity. During this time, an appropriate activity should be selected for children on the phonemic awareness skillset they need support in. This time is designed to help strengthen essential phonemic awareness and phonics skills to develop skills essential to successful readers.
Reading Together Activities
Reading together is based on the concept of lap reading, the activity that occurs between a parent and a child in the home setting where the child sits on the parent’s lap and they share a book together. The model currently used in schools was developed in 1979 by Don Holdaway, an early childhood educator from Australia. In this activity, a group of young children sit on the floor in front of the adult who is using enlarged text so that all of the children can easily see the print. The adult reads aloud the first time as the children look at the print. Following that, over the course of several days, the adult and the children chorally read and reread the same text aloud together. Each day, after this repeated choral reading, the adult may use the text to help the children learn emergent reading skills and teach vocabulary through engaging activities with the letters and words.
Emergent Reader Modules
Activities in the emergent reader modules provide active learning opportunities for mastering the basic skills that serve as a foundation for beginning reading success and address the following emergent literacy skills: letters and sounds and high frequency words.
Extended Read-Alouds
The extended read-aloud is an addition to our Emergent Reader Literacy Block. A read-aloud occurs for about 15 minutes during this 30-minute period, followed by a 5-minute quick vocabulary activity and 5 to 10 minutes of a choice of either an extension activity, songs or brain breaks follow it.
DEVELOPING READER LITERACY BLOCK COMPONENTS (Grades 2+)
RAvFL (Read-Aloud, Vocabulary and Fluency-Building Activities)
Read-Alouds
The reasons for reading to children are many: to increase their background knowledge about important concepts, to familiarize them with many different types of books, to increase their vocabulary and to model fluent reading and a love for books.
Vocabulary Enrichment
It is essential to help children develop strong vocabulary skills. One of the greatest predictors of school success or failure when a child enters kindergarten is the extent of his vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary improves reading comprehension, writing, word recognition and general intelligence
Fluency-Building
Reading fluency is the ability to read aloud accurately, effortlessly and expressively. Reading fluently helps children with correct pronunciation, intonation and phrasing. It also increases reading comprehension and confidence. Repeated readings are a way to help children recognize high-frequency words more easily and increase their fluency. Having children practice reading by rereading short passages aloud is one of the best ways to promote fluency.
GIRP (Guided Independent Reading Practice)
Regular opportunities to read independently provide children with increased motivation for reading, background knowledge about important concepts, vocabulary growth and the ability to read fluently. During this time tutors work with children to help them select a “just right” book for them, the children read independently, and then discuss the book with the tutor before taking a quiz. Accelerated Reader® (AR), a reading management software program by Renaissance, is used to monitor this guided reading practice.
MATH
The mathematics block incorporates three activities: math talks, hands- on activities and basic fact fluency games. These engaging, interactive discussions and activities develop and reinforce children’s mathematical understanding by promoting reasoning and
providing concrete experiences to support their understanding of abstract mathematics concepts.
Math Talks
Children in our programs are encouraged to engage in mathematical discussions. These structured discussions focus on critical thinking and constructing arguments that explain, justify, and defend their reasoning. This practice helps children become proficient with a range of mathematical concepts and strategies.
Hands-on Learning Activities
Hands-on learning opportunities provide children in our programs physical and visual tools to help them develop a conceptual understanding of mathematics. These engaging, interactive activities develop and reinforce children’s mathematical understanding by providing concrete experiences to support their understanding of abstract mathematics concepts. Many of these activities include a variety of mathematics games. These games provide opportunities for children to develop fluency with mathematics computation and apply mathematics skills.
Basic Fact Fluency Activities
In our programs, children are engaged in activities to foster their fluency with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. The fact fluency component includes engaging activities and games, with an emphasis on effective strategies, which will promote quick recall of basic facts. In grades K-2, the focus will be on addition and subtraction; and in grades 3-6, the focus will be on multiplication and division.
HEALTHY CHOICES
Healthy Choices is facilitated by the Healthy Choices Coordinator during afterschool and summer programs. Research shows that students who are healthy and physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, improved cognition, and better classroom behavior.
Healthy Choices has three subcomponents: healthy snack/meals, physical activity, and nutrition education. Each day in the program, children receive a healthy snack or meal provided through USDA. Children also participate in 30 minutes of Healthy Choices, which includes moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and nutrition education lessons. Children play a variety of fun and engaging, age-appropriate activities that are inclusive of all children and nutrition education lessons help to build children’s knowledge and awareness of the importance of healthy eating. Additionally, health and literacy have been intentionally integrated within the program through nutrition vocabulary and health-related read-alouds.
It is also important to note that the Healthy Choices component was designed to ensure the afterschool program aligns with the National Afterschool Association’s Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) standards.
FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
Families play a key role as integral partners in supporting children’s educational success, therefore all programs implemented by Save the Children integrate family engagement practices. The most effective family engagement is intentionally planned and integrated within the program and across the school. High quality family engagement practices focus on relationship building, active engagement in children’s learning, effective communication, and building families’ knowledge, skills, and confidence to support learning at home. Community collaboration is another important element in linking families to community resources and services, as well as engaging community partners to support children’s learning and success.