Boardman program gives kids a leg up during the summer

The program is for kids having a hard time with reading or math.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- Thanks in large part to a summer intervention program, Thomas Donadee's days of experiencing difficulty with math quickly became numbered.
Now, the youngster looks forward to going on the computer to embrace and accept numerical challenges.
& quot;I was having trouble with math in second grade and this place really helped me, & quot; said Thomas, referring to the 7-year-old Summer Adventures in Learning program at Robinwood Lane Elementary School.
Thomas, who will attend third grade at Robinwood Lane in September, added that he no longer has problems & quot;adding and subtracting big numbers. & quot;
Skylar Bryant, a second-grader at Robinwood, said she has enjoyed learning about fractions as well as working with blocks to form various patterns to enhance comprehension. Both have become easier as a result of being in the reading and math intervention program, she added.
Skylar and Thomas are among 73 first- and second-graders from Robinwood Lane, West Boulevard, Market Street and Stadium Drive elementary schools who are part of the three-week SAIL program. SAIL was set up to provide intensive instruction and added learning opportunities for pupils to ensure they meet state and federal No Child Left Behind content standards in reading, writing and math.
The program allows the kids to use computers to increase their reading and math abilities. It also relies heavily on one-on-one tutoring as well as five instructional interventions to help them develop better phonological awareness, vocabulary and comprehension skills.
Pupils spend three hours a day for five days per week in the program and rotate to any of six stations, spending a half-hour at each. All six, under the umbrellas of math and reading interventions, offer strategies to teach and reinforce creative expression, decoding, computer skills and several other concepts.
Success, not failure
Jennie Ross, SAIL's coordinator and a reading specialist at Stadium Drive Elementary, explained that teachers use certain criteria to identify pupils they feel are at risk for falling behind in reading and math, and that pupils can be registered for one or both subjects. Parents' permission is required before children are enrolled in SAIL, which features free tutoring, Ross noted.
It was common to see up to 60 percent of first-grade pupils regress in reading by the time they entered second grade, she noted. SAIL has helped to substantially reduce that figure, Ross said.
Ross added that the program allows pupils to receive plenty of individual attention, in part because there are fewer kids in each group than in a typical classroom. The attention and other aspects also are geared toward working to improve pupils' self-concept, she noted.
& quot;We're setting them up for success, not failure, & quot; Ross said.
& quot;We are getting kids when they're young to read more so they do better in the long run, & quot; added Wendy Carothers, the district's coordinator of special programs. & quot;It's a change in philosophy in Boardman schools. & quot;
Many kids in the SAIL program are able to suddenly grasp various concepts that were elusive, Carothers continued, which empowers the youngsters and gives them added incentives to learn and master more math and reading challenges.
The intervention program relies on input, support and assistance from parents, volunteers, the community and teachers like Amy Glaser and Dean Wilson.
Glaser, a math teacher at Boardman Glenwood Middle School, said that, in addition to teaching story problems to the youngsters, she works with pupils in grades five through eight who were unable to pass state standardized tests. Thanks largely to her school's intervention strategies, there's been a 31 percent increase in test scores among seventh-graders from March 2005 to March 2006; a 28 percent increase was seen among eighth-graders over the same period, she noted.
& quot;I use music as a teaching tool to motivate and remediate kids in math and reading, & quot; said Wilson, who teaches music at Robinwood Lane and Market Street schools.
Wilson added that he sings and gets the pupils to sing songs about turning off the TV and reading; vowels; consonants; and going to the library. Using musical instruments and ad libbing lyrics to children's and other songs is an effective way to get these and other patterns ingrained in the youngsters, he said.
& quot;[SAIL] feels like summer camp, not summer school, & quot; Wilson added.
After the program ends, kids are provided reading, writing and math activities to do at home. They are given points for successfully and independently reading selected books, Ross said.