School News: Emphasis on creative helps Eastwood students get excited about reading

Eastwood School is excited about the new school year. Our school consists of nine sections of third grade classrooms with a total of 201 students. We also have two sections of kindergarten consisting of 50 students total.

Our teaching staff is made up of nine third grade regular education teachers, two kindergarten teachers, two Title 1 teachers, and two special education teachers.

Our school building was built in 1922, so it is challenging to find the room needed to properly educate our students. But we all work together to do our best.

Reading is a priority at Eastwood Elementary. We have some excellent readers, but we also have students who need improvement in the area of reading.

One strategy in place to help inspire and make reading fun is the fractured fairy tale unit. Students are given classic fairy tales and then lead to re-create the tales by adding, changing and twisting the stories into their own unique versions. This enables the students to use their imaginations while learning basic communication arts skills.

Another way our teachers are helping students improve as readers is by doing Readers' Theater in their classrooms. Readers' Theater is like putting on a play without costumes, props or memorizing lines. Students choose parts, practice their lines and then perform for their classmates. Readers' Theaters helps students to work on their reading fluency and expression in their reading. Our students enjoy performing for others.

Third grade teachers emphasize cooperative learning. This is where students take an active role in the learning process and work collaboratively towards the objective. Research shows that students learn more effectively with better knowledge retention when using cooperative learning.

The daily literary workstations are on example of how teachers use cooperative learning in the classroom. The class is divided up into different work areas. While one small group is working on vocabulary, another small group may be working on literary journals. In this way, the entire class is engaged in active learning activities or other communication arts skills.

Eastwood not only emphasizes reading at school, but also encourages reading at home. Every student is expected to read 20 minutes each night. They document their reading by keeping a log, which includes the title and minutes read.

The students are commended for their reading at the conclusion of the year through various awards such as Reading Circle certificates.

The staff at Eastwood Elementary is dedicated to a quality education for every student. We are a strong and caring team, and we are off to a great start for the upcoming school year.