This year Resurrection Catholic School was awarded a 2-year grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support efforts to increase students' academic performance and achievement. In addition to developing academic programs, this grant allowed us to purchase the Wilson Program and hire a Reading Coordinator.
The Wilson Fundations reading materials are instrumental in teaching our youngest students the sound each letter makes, the way to combine sounds to say CVC words, and to spell these same words. Students are being taught a systematic way to form letters using Wilson, and our older elementary students are using the system to combine sounds to form more sophisticated words.
"All of this is translating to more and more students being able to decode words in a consistent manner at greater numbers," said Michelle Beaven, Resource Teacher at Resurrection. "Our DIBELS data is showing us that 2nd and 3rd-grade students double the number of words they are able to read at each point of progress monitoring."
This measurable growth is very exciting, especially since students are only halfway into the 2020-2021 school year.
Also undoubtedly contributing to this growth is Resurrection's support staff, which now includes Maria Modzewlewski. Modzewlewski is the Reading Coordinator at Resurrection, a position made possible by the Kauffman grant. A veteran teacher, Modzewlewski joins Resurrection with over 20 years of teaching experience and 15 years of experience as a reading specialist.
Modzewlewski works with small groups to provide reading intervention, collaborates with teachers and support staff, helps administer assessments, and engages in data analysis to drive instructional decisions.
"It's been a real blessing to have [Maria] in the school and we've already seen so much growth. This has been a great opportunity for our school to push the bar higher and seek more growth from our students," said Lynda Higgins, Principal at Resurrection.
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