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White Salmon Schools
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I would like to sincerely thank the voters of the White Salmon Valley School District for approving the school district's recent maintenance and operations levy. Combining the votes from the two counties (Klickitat and Skamania), the final percentage of yes votes was 62.64%. Thank you very much for your support! In this month's article I would like to highlight the second belief in our district's Vision/Belief Statement that is, Reading is the foundation of education . Reading truly is the foundation of all learning. If a student does not learn to read in early elementary school it becomes extremely difficult to succeed in all subjects for the remainder of his/her educational career. If a student cannot read, the student will struggle with learning. Learning to read is critical to success. At Whitson Elementary School, reading is what school is all about, learning to read and developing a love of reading. The focus of Whitson's inservice training this year has again been on reading, using assessment data and interventions, or strategies, to assist students who need assistance, as well as helping students to grow in their reading abilities at all levels. At the beginning of the school year Whitson staff committed to a 90-minute uninterrupted block of reading time. They have focused their energy to work additional time with their struggling students as well as foster growth within their developing readers. Reading truly is what Whitson Elementary School is all about! At Henkle Middle School, every teacher and paraeducator shares the belief that reading is the foundation of education. They all know that students cannot demonstrate their competence in science, mathematics, social studies, or writing without being able to read effectively. A math whiz cannot pass the WASL if s/he cannot comprehend the directions. Henkle, having all embraced collaboration as a Professional Learning Community, has zeroed in on reading instruction. In each of the past three years that their school has utilized the School Improvement Planning (SIP) process, reading has been one or two of the school's identified priorities-and they limit themselves to no more than three priorities! They identify students reading below grade level and provide focused instruction. They know that students reading below grade level may have any of several challenges, and that it's not the same challenge for every student. Hence, they test: is the student's need decoding? Fluency? Comprehension skills? Vocabulary? Then staff focuses their intervention strategies toward what they learned in those assessments. Reading is a huge focus at Henkle Middle School! Columbia High School staff all believes that reading is the foundation for all knowledge . Over the course of the last few years, CHS has been teaching a course titled, "Reading in the Content Area" (RCA) to a select group of 9 th and 10 th grade students. Most of these students have some weaknesses in their reading ability and are taught a variety of strategies which they can apply to informational texts. Not only do these courses assist students as they prepare for future course work, but it helps them prepare for the WASL test. As CHS prepares to move to the new trimester schedule, this one semester course will be merged into a new 9 th and 10 th grade language and literature course which will have a WASL focus and be taught the entire school year. Students will read a variety of types of literature, including fiction, drama, and poetry, and will develop skills necessary to interpret what they read. A plan is also being developed to increase the integration of reading and writing into all Career and Technical (CTE) classes. CTE has been working hard over the past few years in emphasizing how CTE classes can add value to WASL preparation and in helping students successfully pass the required WASL tests. Our CTE teachers have participated in a variety of workshops, inservices, and seminars relating to integrating reading strategies into their curriculum. The foundation of developing quality CTE skills is based on the ability of a student to read and comprehend the technical material presented across all CTE courses. Reading is the primary focus of our supplemental federal and state programs such as Title I and the Learning Assistance Program. In addition, our Bilingual/ESL program focuses on language development so that students have the vocabulary to read with meaning. Their energy, time and budgets reflect reading as a priority as we fund staffing, materials and professional development to accelerate reading achievement for struggling readers. Through a combination of funding sources we are fortunate to have skilled reading and bilingual/ESL teachers and trained paraeducators in all buildings. Even though we target struggling readers in each building and provide programs, our goal through district training is that all teachers are reading teachers that teach reading and use content reading strategies across the curriculum. In the White Salmon Valley School District , reading is the foundation of education! -March, 2006 |
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White
Salmon Valley SchoolDistrict 405-17
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Recent Levy Passage 
