ESSENTIAL ENGLISH

The purpose of this class is to improve each student's reading and writing skills. Each student is given the Informal Reading Inventory in the fall. This instrument is used to guide reading instruction and to help focus on the area of greatest weakness which may be word identification, language comprehension, or print processing beyond word identification.  Students are given daily instruction on the Four Blocks Model, which are: Guided Reading, Self-Selected Reading, Writing, and Working with Words. The four blocks represent the different approaches to teaching students to read, and write, while also acknowledging that students differ in their literacy competence. This course also gives students an opportunity to email a collage pen pal from North Carolina under the supervision of Dr. Dave Koppenhaver, an expert on teaching students with disabilities to read and write. Throughout this course, students also have an opportunity to write on a blog and help create the blog posts. Students as well as parents and staff are encouraged to make comments about the posts.

ESSENTIAL MATH 1

This math course develops a solid foundation in the language and basic concepts of mathematics.  It also emphasizes manipulatives and mental math.  Essential Math 1 focuses on improving mathematical skills in the areas of: basic operations and procedural skills, percents, time, fractions, decimals, patterns and functions, consumer math, measurement (capacity, perimeter, area, volume), statistics and probability, graphs (bar graph, line graph), and geometry.  Problem solving strategies will also be emphasized throughout the course.

STUDY SKILLS

The purpose of this class is to improve achievement for students with disabilities.  Students work on their individualized goals and objectives regarding their IEP.  This course also gives specialized instruction towards IEP goals.  Students also work on self-advocacy skills, and functional skills needed to be successful in the future.  Students receive help, and any questions regarding homework assignments are clarified.