feeling overwhelmed - need a few guidelines...

Ugh! I’d ditch the Soar to Success as soon as possible, probably. The kids probably need to be taught how to decode.

We have a occupational skills curriculum for that population that is not headed for the traditional college prep curriculum. I don’t have any of that stuff here at home, but some of our texts came from Globe-Fearon. They had low reading level texts for both traditional and occupational subjects. Good luck!

Janis

Well, I’d start with the school office and find out where the furniture storage is; then get 18 to 20 desks (better to be oversupplied if more people show at the door.) Get the largest surface desks or even better individual tables you can find, so kids can spread things out. Do this first so you don’t get the dregs later. Yes, desks; it is a classroom and you will need work area. If you have space and can get one or two larger tables for art and science projects, grab them too. Also grab all the shelving and other storage you can get your hands on.

Then back to the office and get into the old book storage. Find reading series if they have any, any math series that seem to actually teach something, good books for general reading. Also math manipulatives that are gathering dust. Workbooks that go with series are precious; save as originals and photocopy. Also any fairly easy-to-read science and history books if there are any.

Then down to your local elementary school, into the old book closet, and do the same.

Depending on your mandate, you may want to gflom onto art materials as well. This is where lots of storage comes in handy.

Then to the second-hand bookstores in the area and collect anything you can find that is actually basic reading level, *not* just the theory that if you yell louder with bigger letters the kids can read.

Then find some posters that are just nice to look at, not busy-busy supposedly educational visual noise.

And Staples or Office Depot for the largest maps they have, plastic laminated (if you can’t buy them that way, get the laminating done) — you can draw on them with wipe-off markers and it is a real help. Both national and world maps. And try to find an affordable globe, nice and big.

At this point you have something that looks like a classroom and has lots of valuable and interesting things to do.

Now go to the catalogue and order a *good* phonics series for every kid in the class — at the reported levels, and not successful in the previous program, you can be sure they need it. Personally I swear by Check and Double Check from Scholar’s Choice.

In late August, move in some potted plants and maybe a goldfish or a birdcage (I had fish, a lizard, and finches in a Grade 1-2). These are both science projects and a real help for atmosphere.

From there on in, just keep working on it.

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BTW, ave, where in Ontario are you? If you’re anywhere in the Kingston-Cornwall area, I’ll give you some of my cards to hand out.

Victoria - you need to write a book - you are just full of wisdom…..unfortunately I’m in the Grand Bend / Forest area (west of London)….several hours from Kingston, unfortunately, as I’d be thrilled to offer your assistance….it is obvious from your posts that you “know your stuff”. I will be taking your advice & grabbing any large desks, tables & shelving that I can get my hands on….I’ll also check out the Scholar’s Choice books you mentioned…in the meantime, my mum works at the local library & will be keeping any discarded books / magazines, etc to supplement (start) my classroom library…I feel fairly confident with my math teaching skills & will be hunting up some manipulatives (I’m the queen of snap cubes) as well….any thoughts on a novel that would suit that age range (considering the abilitly level is gr 1 - 4) ???? Even if it’s just something I’m reading to them at this point….any guidelines to an effective spelling program (I’ve read the controversy on sight words so I guess a word wall is out???)….writing program???

a big vote for maps — they’re visual and big and you can do a *lot* of concrete, simple activities with them. Put ‘em in groups and give them a big ol’ map with questions like “what are 10 rivers in…?” and “What are 5 cities that begin with…” and other good treasure hunt activities. (I get maps from the state highway rest areas that they give out to travelers, or from the Dept of Motor Vehicles).
16 … that’s a lot :-(
(I agree, dump the Soar unless it’s structuerd enough to get you through days when they need structure and you don’t have a plan… it may give that feeling of success but it doesn’t last so you need to do more)

I’ve started AVKO adult with my young adult students who are in Grade 2-4 range of spelling; it is *definitely* working!
I have already spent some time on short and long vowels with them, because you need to understand the difference to understand the double-the-consonant rule (hop-hopping, versus hope-hoping). This is needed in the first couple of lessons in the AVKO adult, don’t know about the child version. I did C&DC Phonics for some time first.
All you need is the AVKO manual, parts 1 and 2, cheap; you have no need of special answer sheet form, lined paper works fine. With that age you can use either the child or adult; you’re sort of on the borderline there.

Novels: well, when I first read the Boxcar Children I didn’t much care for it, for a couple of different reasons. Then my daughter’s boyfriend who was ESL at age 7-8 gave me a very positive review of it. Now I’ve used it with several ESL students, including a couple older; have just started it with one age 19 (yes, 19) as his first book in English, and he is liking it. My age 11 *gifted* ESL kid liked Book 1 so much that we read through books 2 through 8 and I left 9 with him for the summer for fun. A lot depends on the presentation, if you tell the student that this is a book written to help students learn, a first real novel, being honest and not sugar-coating it, they will usually give it a try. They like the fact that it is a mystery and there is a real plot, unpredictable. They also like the paperback presentation, not babyish. Also be careful to say it’s an old story because the money values and the horse and cart are a bit odd. Be sure to start with #1 because it is the simplest in vocabulary and also sets the stage for the others. At Grade 2-4 reading level they should be able to read it themselves with support, a good motivator.

For reading to them, well, choose a book that you like yourself, a story that’s fairly easy to follow, not too complex, but you don’t have to be insulting with baby books either. You might do what I did in primary, start out easy with short stories that can be read in one session and work into reading a real book a chapter a day once they get used to the idea.

By the way, all the advice above came from my experience setting up a Grade 1-2 and a couple of art classrooms; I just looked back at what I did and what worked.

London, eh? My brother is near St. Mary’s and my nephew in Stratford. If I get down that way sometime this year I’ll say hi.

I would look into the Life Skills Curriculum. Do you have the students IEPs? I taught a middle school life skills class for 7 years and I used the Edmark functional words reading program. We took lots of community field trips and also did cooking and lots of money and measurement skills. I had picture schedules for every student. One thing you will need is lots of structure and lots of routines. My kids liked knowing exactly what was going to happen next and being able to see what they had finished. I used play money for rewards and every day they cashed in their money for larger coins and/or bills. This way they practiced money skills everyday in a real world way. We had a store on Friday run by different students each week. They sold juice boxes, popcorn, pencils, paper, erasers and other trinkets. I got a grant to purchase most of the stuff and sometimes parents donated things. We even had layaway and buying on credit. My biggest piece of advice is to make sure that anything youteach is something necessary for your students success in the future. You will have to spend a lot of time on every skill so they need to be important skills.
Nan

Amen to structure and routines :)

Especially w/ the “low average” kiddos, routines and structures are awesome. For one thing, there is a structure of some kind behind all the stuff we do; if you make that structure the same one, then it’s one less thing to figure out with every activity.

One of my most successful strategies is to introduce a structure with a completely easy task — say, an assignment with vocabulary words, starting with words they already know very well. (“What are four examples of kinds of cars?”) Once they have the structure, I can make the words harder (“What are four examples of mammals?”). I don’t have to wonder whether they’ll get stuck on “examples.”

And yes, ending each day with read-aloud is also a great motivator for getting things done.