Aliyya Swaby Photo
Ron Coleman will now see Roberto Clemente students six days a week instead of five, since he signed up to teach at a Saturday reading and math academy launching this week and aimed at boosting test scores.
Coleman (pictured) joined about 60 other teachers and paraprofessionals at Clemente Wednesday evening for technology training sessions and a chance to work out last-minute kinks before students roll up to their schools at 8 a.m. this Saturday.
Part of Mayor Toni Harp’s 10-point plan to improve academic success, the Saturday “technology and gaming academies” will receive kids at four K‑8 schools — Troup, Clemente, Wexler-Grant and Fair Haven — to reinforce math and literacy skills using new technology. Those schools were chosen because they had posted some of the lowest scores in town on standardized tests. Harp has vowed to make New Haven “the city that reads.”
Between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., students will get breakfast and play character-building games. Between 9:05 and 11:05 a.m., they will practice literacy and math skills, with the help of technology such as laptops and tablets. During the last hour of the academy, they get lunch and play more games for social-emotional learning.
A seventh-grade math teacher, Coleman said he is looking forward to getting to work with current, past and potential Clemente students in smaller groups. “It would be a shame not to be here when the kids are excited” about the academy, he said.
He has not worked with Lexia, the online literacy program that students will use to independently develop their reading skills. But others who teach at his grade level work with it daily; he said he is not worried about getting the hang of it.
Curriculum leader Yesenia Velez (pictured left) said organizers want to “give students an opportunity individually express why they want to come to school on a Saturday” and which skills they want to focus on improving or advancing. Technology, such as the Lexia program, helps students monitor their own growth and ask for support from teachers and staff.
“They can target skills they need to get them to the next level” using Lexia to help focus and build strategy, she said.
A student who can explain what he or she is struggling with is already more advanced than one who cannot, said Lynn Brantley (pictured above right), who is also coordinating the literacy curriculum for the academy.
At the end of the math and reading block each Saturday, students can choose to participate in one of five “special interest groups,” some coordinated by school staff. Ashley Ferrandiz (pictured right), K‑8 instructional math coach, said they are encouraging teachers to choose science, technology, engineering and math-related activities, so students have a variety of options.
Seeing their teachers outside of school in a more relaxed setting will let students “relax and realize everyone’s human,” Ferrandiz said.
How are they making sure students don’t get tired adding an extra day to their week?
Organizers incorporated high-energy games into the day to keep kids engaged and to promote social-emotional growth, teaching skills such as resilience and empathy. Ryan Kane heads a team of five ECHO coordinators who will facilitate the activities and intervene with students who need additional attention.
ECHO stands for “empathy, character, hope and opportunity” and is intended to build those values in students — and to make sure they have fun. “We put the Saturday in Saturday academies,” Kane said.
After an ECHO training in mid-December, Coleman said he wanted to immediately bring some of the games and materials to his regular math class. One activity called Hills and Valleys divides students into two teams around a table of cups, half of upside down and half right side up. The teams battle each other to turn all the cups over to one side.
“The frustration is that as soon as you turn it over, someone is going to turn it back,” Coleman said. Students learn that they have to accept the rules and experience that frustration, “then move on,” he said.
As teachers prepped in Clemente’s library, three parents showed up to the informational session; all had already signed up to send their kids to Clemente this Saturday.
Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, the district’s chief of youth, family, and community engagement, and Adriana Joseph, her deputy chief, explained the structure of the academy and asked parents how they could be more responsive to their needs.
Jasmine Reed (pictured left) said she worries her fourth-grade daughter is not being academically challenged. They just moved to New Haven this year from West Haven’s district and her daughter had to be patient as she learned long division for the second time. Reed said her daughter loves math and outperformed her district on state tests last year — she wants her to develop that love in the Saturday academy.
“We’re not going to encourage kids who should be accelerated to slow down,” Lumpkin said. The program will help kids with remedial and accelerated work.
Kelli McBride said her fourth-grade son needs extra help with reading and is excited to go to school on Saturday. “He thinks it will be all fun and games,” she said.