Reading Instruction: At Providence Christian Academy our goal is to effectively teach children the processes of reading and writing in order to succeed in the 21st century. We understand the literacy challenges in our rapidly changing society and believe that all children deserve excellent literacy instruction and support. Children who struggle with reading and language come to school with various deficits in literacy: acquiring concepts about print, learning to identify the alphabet, learning phonics skills, recognizing sight words, and spelling both phonetically and using rules of our language. The Selective Studies Academic program provides direct instruction in areas of reading, language and spelling using a pull-out model of remedial programming.
Educators who teach in Selective Studies are trained in the Orton-Gillingham Approach and the Wilson Multi-Sensory methods of reading instruction. The teachers strive to understand each learner’s academic needs and provide direct and explicit remediation in daily, small classes. Based in sound research, the Orton-Gillingham method introduces spelling and reading patterns in isolation as the initial stage of intervention. The sequence is designed for the student to build sounds into symbols, symbols into syllables, and lastly syllables into words. Learning in this method is repeated until the child achieves a level of automaticity in the reading process. Both the Orton-Gillingham and Wilson Decoding programs emphasize that the student acquires thinking skills which require them to review prior knowledge about the structure of language.
The goal of Selective Studies is to provide early intervention in a remedial setting which will equip young children to be successful in the regular classroom. The program model of Selective Studies is a collaborative one in which the teacher, the parent and the school all work together to provide an integrated support system in the early years of a child’s education. Classes offered to first and second graders are limited to four students per class and replace the reading instruction presented by the regular classroom teacher. Phonics and Spelling are taught simultaneously to the children by Selective Studies teachers who hold advanced degrees in Brain-Based learning.
For students in the third through fifth grades, reading instruction draws from a combination of curricula from the regular classroom as well as literacy areas of a student’s weakness. At this level, specific skills of reading fluency and comprehension are scaffolded for struggling readers.
Math Instruction: Selective Studies teachers implement Multi-sensory methods in Math Instruction as well. Using various manipulatives, children in first through fifth grade are provided with the concrete and visual materials in order to learn to think mathematically. Teachers allow students to construct knowledge using a sequential approach to problem solving. For Selective Studies Math students, instruction is interactive and delivered at an appropriate pace, one that permits repetition in order to master concepts at their grade level. The Saxon Math program is one approach that is foundational to Selective Studies Math instruction in the early grades. Various curricular materials supplement students’ learning in our program. Students participate for one or two Selective Studies classes daily and are involved in their grade level classroom for all other curriculum and activities. The Selective Studies teacher and the regular classroom teacher collaborate in their communication with the home regarding grades, homework and tests. The Director of the Selective Studies Academic program observes the student in the classroom as needed, and advises the family on effective management of the child’s learning issues.