It’s hard to believe how fast the school year can go. For teachers, summer is a time for recharging for the upcoming school year, but it is also a time for reflection on the school year that just ended. Teachers reflect on what worked, what didn’t, where there is room for improvement, and how we will increase student achievement for all of our students. How these questions are answered looks very different for each teacher.
Here in Cook County we have four different educational entities: Birch Grove Community School, Cook County Schools, Great Expectations, and Oshki Ogimaag Community School. Every teacher teaches differently and reflects on their work differently. Every school is unique in its approach to education. Common goals for each of these schools includes providing a high quality education and increasing student achievement for all students in Cook County.
Here in Cook County, we have decided to take things a step further in improving the education for our students. We have all committed to improving reading for our students. Every educational entity in the county will be sending all their elementary, special education, and middle school reading staff to the Orton-Gillingham Multi-Sensory approach to reading instruction prior to the start of the 2016-2017 school year.
The purpose of this initiative is for all teachers in the county to approach teaching reading in the same fashion and speak the same reading language. This does not mean that every teacher will teach out of the same book or curriculum in every building. We want our approach and the language we use to teach reading in the classroom to be similar at all of our schools, so as students transition from one school to another, they hear that common reading language. Student data indicates that as students transition to new schools, there tends to be a decrease in student achievement. We want to make these transitions easier for students. We believe that speaking a common reading language will help make this transition more successful for all of our students.
The Orton- Gillingham Multi- Sensory approach to teaching reading has been proven to improve reading scores and student achievement for school districts across the county, including neighboring Lake Superior School District. We have received a grant of $20,000 from the Northland Foundation and are seeking other local grants to help fund this initiative. This training is scheduled for August 22-25.
Special thanks go out to all of the teachers in the county who have committed to take time out of their summer vacation to be a part of this training. The schools in Cook County are committed to working together to improve the education for ALL of our students.
Each month a representative of our local schools will offer thoughts in Education Today. This month’s contributor is Adam Nelson, principal at Cook County Schools – ISD 166.
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