Literacy Lookout

Amplify CKLA has been adopted for K-2. With two primary components, skills and knowledge, this curriculum offers a unique core curriculum grounded in the Science of Reading. The knowledge strand combines rich, diverse content knowledge in history, science, literature, and the arts while the skills strand focuses heavily on research-based explicit foundational skills which are needed to aid in decoding and reading.

Amplify ELA is a blended English language arts curriculum designed specifically to support students in grades 6–8. This curriculum helps prepare them for high school and beyond. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves. Our middle school is piloting Amplify ELA this year and is already seeing great gains in our students!

Orton-Gillingham (OG) is a powerful approach to teaching reading and spelling that uses instruction that is multi-sensory, sequential, phonics-based, and explicit. This helps make reading and spelling easy for all children, even though it is often viewed as an instructional method for children with dyslexia and learning challenges. With having 15 staff members who are certified OG instructors within the district, we are able to offer multiple opportunities for Tier 2 OG interventions during W.I.N. time to students with specific deficits in foundational skills.

We are so excited to have Library back in the Elementary school as a specials rotation! Mrs. Kim Gault, our librarian, has spent many hours categorizing and inventorying our current book selection, as well as adding new books to our collection! She is even incorporating what students are learning in their classrooms into library time. It's great to see our students having so much fun in our school's library and for books to be checked out again as we continue to promote a love for reading!

New this year is W.I.N. time for all kindergarten through fifth grade students. “What I Need” time, is a structured half hour block in which each and every student is working on building their literacy skills in areas such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and enrichment. In the middle and high school, some of our students are receiving similar support from an intervention tutor or their classroom teacher. The goal of this instructional time is to help our students close gaps and grow in their learning based on their fall, winter, and spring assessments. Thank you to our staff for being willing to try this "all hands on deck" approach this year. We know it takes a village, and you can't do it alone!

Mapleton Middle School was awarded a grant by the Ashland County Community Foundation to pilot a One School, One Book (OSOB) program. The goal of the program is to captivate staff, students, and families with an opportunity to read, discuss and engage around the same text to build background knowledge, promote character, and the importance of literacy. Each student and staff member received a copy of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Students and staff read the book together in core classes while engaging in activities and discussions. We will wrap up OSOB with a school-wide culminating activity by watching the film on Netflix and having popcorn!

mCLASS, powered by DIBELS 8th Edition, is an approved Dyslexia Screener that offers teacher-administered literacy assessments and interventions for grades K-6. DIBELS 8th Edition is our new universal screener that measures the development of reading skills of all students in grades K-8. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. We are utilizing all mCLASS and DIBELS has to offer, and are excited to see how this information will help our teachers guide their instruction so students can grow!

Join us this Spring for our Book Club! We will be reading The Writing Revolution by Hochman & Wexler. While most state standards require teachers at almost all grade levels to ensure that students not only learn to write traditional narratives, but also informational and argumentative pieces. The standards, however, don’t explain how to reach those goals. Teachers and students need a roadmap, and that’s just what The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides.

Even though implementation has been pushed back to the 2023-2024 regarding mandatory Dyslexia screening for all K-3 students, we have continued our research to ensure that Mapleton will be on the right track next year for complete implementation. As this is required by Ohio law, Ohio's Dyslexia Guidebook, which contains best practices and methods for universal screening, intervention and remediation for children with dyslexia or children displaying dyslexic characteristics and tendencies, has been a resource for clarification and comprehension. As there is still so much to learn and figure out, Mapleton will be using this guidebook as well as ODE's Dyslexia Supports site and the book Conquering Dyslexia to access critical information for successful implementation of Ohio's dyslexia support laws next school year.

When: Saturday, Oct. 15

5:00-6:00

Where: HS Parking Lot

(If you are interested in participating, contact Mapleton Cross Country Coach, Joe Ortiz, to reserve your spot!)

When: Tuesday, Nov. 1

4:30-6:30

Where: Elementary School

Flyer & RSVP

(If you are interested in helping out, contact a member of the Literacy Team!)

When: Oct. 31-Nov. 3

8:00-2:30 Monday-Wednesday

8:00-6:30 Thursday

Who: Elementary AND Middle School students

Where: Elementary library

(If you would be willing to volunteer to work the book fair, or know someone who may be interested, contact a member of the Literacy team!)

When: Nov. 3 & Feb. 2

We will be setting up FREE Book Tables at the Elementary, Middle school, and High School for both parent teacher conference days this year. If you have any books that you would like to donate, please give them to a member of the Literacy Team!

When: Saturday, Dec. 3

A literacy focused PTO sponsored event for all Mapleton families!

More information to come!

When: Jan. 31-Feb. 5, 2023

Read and raise money for our Elementary school library!

More information to come!