Manteo Elementary School
Maximizing Learning at Manteo Elementary in the Spotlight at 2009 NERESA Conference
Manteo Elementary School Assistant Principal Lisa Colvin and second grade teacher Lisa Earley were two of 13 Dare County educators to present at the Northeast Regional Educational Services Alliance (NERESA) Best Practices conference in Washington, NC on February 16.
Colvin and Earley shared with teachers representing NERESA's 19 school districts on how to use data from mandatory and ongoing assessments to make instruction applicable to students at varying levels of mastery with authentic work stations and word walls - making each moment of the literacy block meaningful for very student.
"What is really cool about this is that since our K-2 teachers have implemented this strategy at the beginning of the year, they are happy that the children are surprising them with how much they can really do," said Colvin. "The students are enjoying themselves while they are learning and practicing literacy skills at their individual levels."
Colvin introduced teachers to Debbie Diller’s book, Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work at the beginning of the school year. Teachers immediately recognized the value of this low cost strategy and the potential impact on their classrooms and student learning.
At MES, parent volunteers created the stations to each grades’ specifications.
The work station concept differs from traditional learning centers. With work stations, teachers model the skills first and then place the material in the work station; work stations are used for purposeful independent learning; and work stations are differentiated to challenge and support students at their individual ability levels. The work station approach is also valuable in that it productively engages students so the classroom teacher can simultaneously work with a guided reading group.
"Our teachers have put an enormous amount of time and effort into this," noted Colvin. "Principal Mary Anne Wetzel provided supplies, substitutes, planning time, and volunteers to help. Director of Elementary Instruction Judi Hornbeck assisted with finding a grant to provide the money for the professional development books and substitutes for this initiative, we really could not have done this without her."
This strategy is so successful in helping students master material that Colvin and Earley were selected to present at the NERESA conference. The annual NERESA conference is typically held on President's Day, a student holiday, and a perfect day for regional staff development.
Dare County Schools hosted the NERESA conference in 2006; with key note speaker, Dr. Willard Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education and a welcome from NC Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. June St. Clair Atkinson, the event was attended by more than 900 people.
At the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, Manteo Elementary School kindergarten teachers took their "play centers" and converted them to literacy work stations by adding literacy elements - note the letters and objects to match in the sand. MES Assistant Principal Lisa Colvin and second grade teacher Lisa Earley shared how MES implemented the successful literacy work station concept at the NERESA Best Practices Conference in Washington, NC on February 16.
To implement the work station approach to literacy at Manteo Elementary School, kindergarten teachers converted their "play centers" to literacy work stations by adding literacy elements such as the words, menus, recipes and shopping lists here in a classroom housekeeping/kitchen center.
MES first graders Leanna Buchanan and Jake Brown work on a task of their choosing in Anne Creef classroom's word study literacy work station.
In Manteo Elementary School first grade teacher Anne Creef's classroom library work station, students Cassi Creef, Gavin Clark and Dalton Creef select books and determine how to read their choice. Reading with a partner, alone, or by listening are some of the options available to the first graders in their literacy block.