DCD STAFF
*Julie Mahoney *Natalie Cossetta-Recker
Courses
Offered
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.
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