Helping students improve
Southview principal discusses learning support programs
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MARSHALL -- Working together to help children learn has become an important task for teachers and staff at Southview Elementary, said Southview Principal Peter Thor.
At this week's Marshall School Board meeting, Thor gave school board members an update on some of the learning support programs being used at Southview, as well as other areas of focus for teachers and staff.
Southview has students in grades second through fourth.
Thor said one of the areas of focus for Southview staff includes using systems like BARR (building assets, reducing risks) to help students improve. Reading and math instruction are also areas of focus.
Thor said Southview has been a BARR model school for the past few years.
"It's been really meaningful, in that it's helped us to really refine what we do," he said.
In learning to use the BARR model at the school, teachers and school staff were communicating better and working more efficiently together.
As part of BARR, teams of two or three teachers will work together in small block meetings, Thor said.
"They talk about every kid that they see between the teams. Whether they're struggling or not, we talk about positives first. We talk about who they connect with within our school, and then we come up with a goal for that kid for the year," Thor said. "We go back and we look at those on a pretty regular basis."
"After going through a small block, if they need some additional supports, we bring in a bigger team," Thor said.
That bigger team can include teachers from a student's past grade levels, as well as English Learning or other support teachers, to give extra perspective on how to help the student.
Thor said Southview staff also hold larger weekly meetings, that can include staff like the district's Student Resource Officer, the school nurse, and the special education assessment team, to help keep students who need extra support on their radar.
Thor also gave an update on reading and math instruction at Southview. He said Southview students were making good progress in terms of state assessment testing.
"This week were able to look at some MCA preliminary data, and it really reinforces what we're doing," he said.
Students' skills were improving over time.
"Our (grade) cohorts are growing by close to 10% from one year to the next," Thor said.
Other assessment tests at Southview are used to help determine if students need extra intervention with reading, Thor said. He said students that fell below grade level in reading have been able to get spots in Title I reading support programs.
One new reading support program Thor highlighted was the Reading Ready program, in partnership with Southwest Minnesota State University. A total of 16 SMSU education students in their junior and senior year will be coming in to do a one-on-one reading program with students, under the direction of classroom teachers.
"These kids would not fit into our Title programming, just because we didn't have the space," Thor said of the students who will be doing the Reading Ready program. "We're going to track those students, and see how much growth they can make with this program."
Thor said Southview is in the process of getting ready to teach new math standards next year.
"We've been talking for the last two or three years about what steps we need to do," he said. "This new set of standards is very much built on problem-solving skills, and not as much on just memorization of basic facts."
This week, teachers will be going through training with the Minnesota Department of Education, which will also help educators create a K-12 plan, Thor said.