Pomperaug Regional
School District 15
286 Whittemore Road,
P.O. Box 395
Middlebury, CT 06762-0395
203-758-8258

UNIQUE PROGRAM TEACHES READING COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION

Interdistrict Reading Program Helps Teachers, Students from 3 Towns

August 14, 2003, Middlebury/Southbury—Teachers from three school systems are participating in a unique program aimed at developing teaching skills for teachers and improving reading comprehension for students. The interdistrict Summer Reading Program is a project sponsored by a grant issued by the State Department of Education.

Forty 3^rd and 4^th grade students from the Pomperaug Regional School District #15, Watertown, and Waterbury were selected by their schools to participate in the two-week program held at Middlebury Elementary School in Middlebury. One goal of this program is to develop the students’ reading comprehension skills while sharing experiences and developing friendships with children from diverse backgrounds. Secondly, the project helps teachers develop effective reading comprehension instruction strategies.

“During the school year, teachers are typically confined to their classrooms without significant interaction with their peers. This interdistrict project offers teachers and reading consultants the opportunity to improve their skills through professional development and peer review,” said Dr. Lois Lanning, assistant superintendent for Region 15 school system. “I am so proud of all the participating teachers and am excited that they can use their knowledge back at their schools in Watertown, Waterbury and Region 15 in September.”

While the project offers daily small group instruction to those students identified as needing extra help with reading, the course offers 25 hours of professional development for staff. “By the end of the course, the students will improve their reading comprehension, the teachers and reading consultants will advance their teaching skills, and the families will learn helpful literacy techniques,” said Dr. Lanning.

Each day, xx elementary school teachers and reading consultants participate in an hour-long training to develop strategies for teaching reading comprehension. From 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, the students and teachers work on a variety of literacy development projects, including small classroom instruction, art, and discussion. One teacher teaches reading skills while the other teacher observes his or her style in preparation for the subsequent feedback session.

“After the guided reading lesson and the students are at another activity elsewhere, the two teachers collaborate about how the lesson met the children’s needs and the observer gives constructive criticism of that teacher’s teaching style,” said Rena Shove, reading consultant at Middlebury Elementary School. “When the children return to the room, the teachers switch roles with each other for another lesson.”

 The teachers will invite the students’ parents to an open house on the last day of the program to share the reading strategies the children have been learning and to offer ideas to further enhance and support literacy at home.

This is the first year the Interdistrict Summer Reading Program has been offered and will operate again next summer with a different group of teachers and students.