Frontier Middle School

ELA Lab is assigned to students for one or more of the following reasons:

*failing, or scoring poorly, on the previous year's ELA final exam

*scoring below grade level in the iReady reading benchmark assessments; these are given in the fall, in January, and at the end of the school year

*struggling with ELA coursework

*recommendation from a child's ELA teacher(s) if they are concerned about a child's reading or writing ability as it is consistently applied over the course of a school year

*parents

New York State mandates this service for students who fall into the above categories; the state name for this class is Academic Intervention Services, or AIS.  You may be familiar with the elementary practice called Response to Intervention, or RTI. ELA Lab is our effort to continue RTI within the challenges of middle school scheduling. However, each child’s needs are unique, so any decision regarding your child’s lab enrollment will be determined on an individual basis. Therefore, if you have questions, please call or email your child’s guidance counselor in Student Services.   

Students will work with the teacher in small groups, and one-on-one, in reading and writing strategy instruction. Critical thinking, study, and organizational skills will also be incorporated to address the needs of the whole child’s literacy development to help him or her be more successful now, in the high school, and later, to be “college and career ready.” This course earns an  “S” for satisfactory, or “U” for unsatisfactory. Effort counts heavily, but students will be assessed throughout the year in various skills after guided practice is provided. Students are expected  to work with me to track, set learning goals, and make progress throughout the year in order to obtain an “S.” All children are pre-assessed in reading and writing as they enter ELA Lab, and are given post-assessments at the end of their time here in Lab. “Satisfactory” grades are earned if students put forth effort, respect themselves and others, and have made reasonable and measurable progress. 

Your child will meet for lab every other day during his or her assigned class period. The lab class is skill and strategy based. We do not do novel studies. We work on the careful reading of short text---building, and then demonstrating--- deeper understanding in reading and writing. This is the basis of the New York State ELA and College and Career Ready standards. 

Daily lab homework for your child is to read an Independent Reading (IR) book, newspaper, or magazine for 20 (6^th grade) to 30 (7^th/8^th) minutes or more per night, or to keep up with the novel or article your child’s ELA teacher has assigned. Otherwise, all lab instruction is “chunked,” or broken down so that instruction, guided practice, independent practice, and assessment happen within a student’s assigned lab class. Please note: If a child is not using lab time wisely, SAIS will be assigned to make up unfinished or missed work. This would be arranged with a caregiver in advance

What can I do to help my child?

Most children don't read enough. It is a concerning reality of our busy, fast-paced lives. Research is clear; students need to read more outside of school. The school day is filled with necessary instruction and guidance, meaning that children need to be reading more than the time we have in school to give them.  For this reason, I urge you to schedule reading time for your child(ren) and monitor their completion of it. It may be a challenge, but I promise you, as he or she nears high school graduation, you will not regret it.