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NORTH HIGH SCHOOL North St. Paul, Minnesota

POLAR ACADEMY Literacy Intervention

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PURPOSE ThepurposeoftheNorthHigh’sPolarAcademyistomeettheliteracyneedsofstudents.

GOALS ThegoalofthePolarAcademyistoimprovestudent’sreadingskillsandkeepallstudentsontargettograduateontime.

FIVE FEATURES TherearefivefeaturesofPolarAcademythatarevitaltothesuccessoftheprogram.Theseinclude:teaming,smallclasssizes,integratedstrategiesandcurriculum,assessment,andtutoring.TeamingTheimportanceofhavingateamofteacherswiththesamestudentsandtohavedailymeetingsiscriticaltothesuccessofPolarAcademy.Themeetingtimeallowstheteamtodiscussindividualstudentissuesandtocollaborateonthebeststrategiestomeetastudent’sneeds.Asecondaspectoftheteammeetingisthetimeforstaffdevelopment.Inordertointegratetheliteracystrategiesacrossallcontentareas,timeisneededtoteachandpracticethosestrategies.Finally,itisagreatbuilderofmorale.Teachingstudentswithliteracyissues—andthebehaviorsthatsometimescomewiththoseissues—canbeachallengingtask.Theteamtimecreatesanenvironmentthatissupportiveandletsteachersknowthattheyarenotisolatedintheirdifficulttask.SmallClassSizesInPolarAcademy,wehaveclasssizesthatarecappedat15.Thisallowsforatotalof459thgradestudentsintheprogram.SmallclasssizesinPolarAcademyallowsformoreindividualizedinstructionthatleadstomoreeffectiveinstruction.Wealsobelievethatsmallerclassesallowformorecompletecurriculumcoverageandgreaterstudentinvolvementandaccountabilityinclassroomactivities.InPolarAcademy,ourteachersreallygettoknowtheirstudentsonanacademicandpersonallevel.Academically,teachershaveabetterunderstandingofstudent’sskillsandtheirspecificskilldeficitswhichleadtotargetedinstruction.SmallerclassesgivePolarAcademyteacherstheabilitytoconnectwitheachstudentonadailybasisanddevelopstrongrelationshipswhichleadstostudentsuccess.

IntegratedStrategiesandCurriculumThegoalofthecurriculuminPolarAcademyistopreparestudentstobeabletocriticallyreadtexts,processtheinformation,anddiscussinformationinaSocraticseminar.Thejourneytoreachthispointislongandfilledwithsignificantscaffoldingofbasicskillsinordertoreachtheselevels.

Forexample,therearespecificstrategiesthatareusedinPolarAcademy.CornellNotesareusedinallclasses;however,beforebeingtaughttheCornellNotesprocess,studentsmustbeabletoaskdeep-thinkingquestionsandwritesummaries.BothofthesefeaturesofCornellNotesrequiredetailedscaffoldingofbasicskills.ThesearethestepsthatareimportantpartsofPolarAcademy.AssessmentStudentassessmentinPolarAcademyfocusesonthefiveareasofreading(phonemicawareness,phonics,fluency,vocabulary,andcomprehension).

Teaming

Small Class Size

Integrated Strategies & Curriculum

Assessment

Tutoring

FIVE FEATURES OF POLAR ACADEMY

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TheTier1assessmentsaregiventoeachstudent.Theseassessmentsareusedtoscreenwhichstudentsmightneedtutoring.TheTier2assessmentsaregiventostudentstodetermineiftheywillneedindividualtutoringandwillhelpdetermineinwhatareasofreadingastudentmayhaveadeficit.Tier1Assessments1. FastBridgeaReading2. WordsTheirWaySpellingAnalysisandthe

DevelopmentalSpellingAnalysis(Flynn,1994)

3. QualitativeReadingInventory(LeslieandCaldwell,1990

Tier2Assessments1. QuickPhonicsScreener(Hasbrouck,2006)2. FlynnAdaptationofTestofAuditory

Analysis(AAT-R)3. PeabodyPictureVocabularyTest(PPVT-4)4. TestofWrittenLanguage

TutoringIfitisdeterminedthatastudentisinneedofremediation,studentsareassignedatutoringtimebyeitherremovingthemfromanelectivecourseorfindingtimeinthePolarAcademyschedule.Thenadailycurriculumisconstructedthatspecificallytargetstheneedsofthestudent.Thedailycurriculumwillfocusoneachofthefiveareasofreadinginwhichthestudenthasadeficit.Forexample,studentAmayneedremediationinfluencyonly,butstudentBmayneedhelpinvocabularyandcomprehension.Thefollowinggraphicisabreakdownofthefiveareas(phonemicawarenessandphonicscombined)andthesystemsorstrategiesthatwillbeusedinthetutoringsessions.

STUDENT SELECTION AND SCREENING Duringeachstudent’s8thgradeschoolyear,multipledatapointsareanalyzedtodetermineifastudentisacandidateforPolarAcademy.WelookatMCAreadingscores,grades,FastBridgeaReadingScores,andtheACTExploreTest.

Studentswhoscorebelowthe30thpercentileinanytestareautomaticallyflagged.Wethenmeetwith8thgradeteacherstodetermineifthestudent’sskilllevelwarrantsplacementinPolarAcademy.

Phonics and Phonemic Awareness

WordsTheirWay

PullDownSounds

SlashandDash

Fluency

RepeatOralAssistedReading

(ROAR)

IndependentReading

Comprehension

MarkingtheText

WritingintheMargins

CornellNotes

Vocabulary

VocabularyWorkshop

VocabularyforSuccess

TUTORING CURRICULUM BREAKDOWN

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StudentSampleScheduleThissamplescheduleisbasedonasix-periodday.NorthHighrequiresthreetrimestersofScience,Math,andEnglishinthe9thgrade.SocialStudiesisofferedfortwotrimestersandHealthandPhysicalEducationisrequiredonetrimester.MathcoursesarenotpartofthePolarAcademyteam.StudentsareplacedintoMathandelectivesduringteacher’steamtime.Thisallowsstudentstotakeelectives,PE,andMathcourseswithnon-PolarAcademystudents.ThisallowsstudentstointeractandfeelpartofNorthHighSchoolandnotisolatedinaspecialprogram.

StudentSchedule

Hour Trimester#1

Trimester#2

Trimester#3

1 English9A English9B English9C

2 Science9A Science9B Science9C

3 Elective1 PE Elective2

4 Health SS9A SS9B

5 Math Math Math

6 IntensifiedEnglish9A

IntensifiedEnglish9B

IntensifiedEnglish9C

STAFFING AND SCHEDULING ForPolarAcademy,wehaveusedthefollowingstaffmembers:1.0 FTEEnglishTeacher1.0 FTEReadingTeacher.83 FTEScienceTeacher.13 FTEHealthTeacher.83 SocialStudiesTeacher.2 ReadingSpecialist1.0 ReadingSpecialist0.2 EducationAssistant5.19TotalFTE

ScienceTeacherSchedule

Hour Trimester#1 Trimester#2 Trimester#3

1 Science9A Science9B Science9C

2 Science9A Science9B Science9C

3 Bio.10A Bio.10B Bio.10C

4 Prep/TeamTime

Prep/TeamTime

Prep/TeamTime

5 Science9A Science9B Science9C

6 Elective* Elective* Elective*

*ThisisacoursethatisoutsideofPolarAcademy.

COURSE OFFERINGS Currently,PolarAcademyencompassesgrades9-11.Thenumberofstudentsingrades10and11declineasstudentsmeetingcriteria(ontrackforgraduationandreadingatgradelevel)aregraduatedfromtheprogram.In10thgrade,studentsarebrokenintotwogroups.Thefirstgroupiscomprisedofstudentsthatarereadytobemainstreamed,butmayneedsomesupport.Thesecondgroupcontinueswiththreeyear-longcourses.In11thgrade,studentshavethreecoursesinPolarAcademy.

PolarAcademyCourseOfferings Trimesters

9th

English9 3IntensifiedEnglish9 3HumanGeography 2PhysicalScience 1EarthScience 2Health 1

10th Group1:ReadingStrategies 3

Group2:English10 3WorldHistory 3Biology 3

11th AmericanLiterature 2

WritingStudio 1U.S.History 3