Home-based reading program to be launched

By Kelly Custer

Pioneer Staff Writer

      Elementary students from Cass Lake-Bena and Red Lake School Districts and two schools on the White Earth Reservation will soon launch a home-based reading program serving American Indian students.

      The program is funded by a $497,750 grant, administered by the Minnesota Department of Education, to provide families with access to a paraprofessional and reading and learning materials in the home.

      The take-home literacy boxes will include a laptop computer with reading software and print materials.

      More than half of the grant funds, expiring in June, will go towards staff development training for teachers.

      Bemidji State University and Minnesota State University-Moorhead will provide graduate-level reading specialist coursework for a total of 15 teachers through the grant.

      The coursework meets the state requirements for reading specialists, explained Martin Tadlock, BSU dean of professional, graduate studies and grant writer.

      The teacher participants can enroll in courses at either university for their reading specialist certificate. BSU’s courses will be totally online, Tadlock said.

      The reading program itself will work with identified students, grades 3-5, who have problems with reading.

      A minimum of five students per grade level will take part in the program. For instance, a minimum of 15 students from Cass Lake-Bena schools will be participating.

      Students from Red Lake, Ponemah and Cass Lake-Bena Elementaries will be included, as well as fifth-grade students from Cass Lake-Bena Middle School.

      Students from the Pine Point School in Ponsford and the Circle of Life School in White Earth, both included in the White Earth Reservation, will take part in the program.

      The literacy boxes, which are now being completed, will be sent home with the students.

      BSU liaison, literacy consultant and retired teacher Diane Wahl is helping coordinate the effort.

      Wahl has been searching for culturally-sensitive reading material that allows Native American children to “see themselves” positively in literature. The emphasis is to include community values and traditions in helping the students improve in reading.

      Each district will have a part-time paraprofessional who will work after school to make home visits and “engage the whole family,” Wahl said.

      The program should officially kick off next month. Schools are currently acquiring materials.

Tadlock said that that grant was purposefully written to have “absolute flexibility,” for schools to determine what materials to include.

      Wahl hopes to finalize the materials this week.

      District test scores of students involved in the home-based reading program will be compared before and after involvement in the program, as one way to measure its success.

      Maggie Carlson of BSU and Steve Street of Minnesota State University Moorhead will be assessing the program’s effectiveness.

      There will be flexibility in adapting the program to varying schools. “We aren’t prescribing the program; it’s up to the school to make the program fit their kids’ needs,” Wahl said.

      Cass Lake-Bena Elementary has already purchased hard rolling cases and laptops. “We are hoping that the computer will be an exciting opportunity for families,” said Pamela Olson, principal of Cass Lake-Bena Elementary.

      The Cass-Lake Bena Title I and Literacy specialists have made recommendations on reading materials to purchase for the program. “They are making every effort to have representative sampling from a variety of reading levels,” Olson said.

      She added that they hope to rotate students to serve as many children as possible.

      Olson said that the program will give them an opportunity to teach specific skills at school and look for creative way to incorporate those skills at home.