From left, Peyton Moffit, 5, Emma Johnson, 5, Jayde Hoisington, 5, Jackson Shearer, 5, and Lincoln McCarty, 5, work on building a wall for Humpty Dumpty to sit on during a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project at Ellis Elementary School. — Courtesy photo
BELDING — Ellis Elementary School Principal Tiffany Jackson got what she called “a little brag time” at Monday evening’s Belding Area Schools Board of Education meeting.
Jackson detailed points of pride for the elementary school, including focuses on curriculum, collaboration and culture in the building.
According to Jackson, there are great things happening in terms of curriculum. Students throughout the building are focusing on mathematics and English and language arts.
“(Students spend) about 90 minutes each day (on formative assessments in mathematics),” she said.
Jackson said for first- and second-grade students there are multi-tiered systems of support in place to give individualized attention to those who need it.
The focus on English and language arts at Ellis and throughout the Belding school district in general means a heavy emphasis on early literacy. To boost early literacy rates for students, the school acquired Raz-Kids, a resource which provides a library of differentiated books at 29 different levels of difficulty for students to practice reading.
Braylyn Kyes, 6, Cameron Witzel-Chinevere, 5, and Landen Kyes, 5, build car tracks in the gymnasium at Ellis Elementary School’s Math and Science Night.
The resources are in the form of ebooks for students to get easy access via their classroom iPads.
A further advancement in the field of literacy for Ellis students is the expanding access to Accelerated Reader (AR). According to Jackson, by next January all first- and second-grade students will have access to AR, software designed to track a student’s reading progress.
In order to help students achieve their reading goals, Ellis Elementary has two interventionists on staff, one full-time and one part-time, who work toward improving early literacy. Between the two of them, each interventionist sees about 45 students a day.
“Our interventionists …(are working) to really reteach the skills that (students) learning in the classroom, especially focused around guided reading groups,” she said.
Guided reading groups give teachers the opportunity to gauge where students are in their literacy level, integrating reading processes and look for trends throughout the classroom.
Jackson told the board and audience members about a recent science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project conducted in kindergarten classrooms at Ellis. The project called for students to come up with a way to keep Humpty Dumpty upright on a wall of sugar cubes.
“They had a plan, they had to work as a group, it was a team project,” she said. “They had a blast. Their conversations were very engaging.”
The instructional consultation team, a group of staff members, social workers and others who come together to service 28 students who are in the bottom 30 percent academically.
Some students in the group are there to build on math skills, some on English skills and others because of behavioral issues. Jackson referred to this as an alignment of resources along with visits from an employee from the Ionia County Department of Human Services who monitors students with active cases.
“The breakdown of where the (student) is struggling as a learner is repeated over time with lots of different people until we’re aligned with those resources so that it’s not a new skill being taught to those individuals all the time so it’s not information overload,” Jackson said.
In other matters …
At Monday’s Belding Area Schools Board of Education meeting:
Community members, Joana Johnson, Carmin Barker and Melanie Fish delivered their recommendation to the board about how to proceed with the Redskins mascot issue based on October’s community meetings related to the issue.
Johnson, Barker and Fish recommended that the district does away with the Redskins mascot but keep the black and orange school colors and the Old English B. They also recommended that the district chooses a different mascot unrelated to Native Americans.
“Change is hard but is made easier with a community of support and different perspectives,” Fish said.
Belding High School Principal Michael Ostrander said he met with 60 students from different grade levels last week to hear what they have to say about the mascot issue. According to him, roughly 60 percent of the students in that group wanted to see the mascot changed but more than 90 percent of the students in the group acknowledged the racist connotations of the word and more than 80 percent said the mascot shouldn’t be used.
Ostrander also said high school students and even middle school students should have a say in what the new mascot will be as it is part of their identity in the school district.
The board has yet to deliver its recommendation regarding the Redskins mascot issue and is slated to do so at the regular December meeting.