Parents and teachers meet to discuss solutions
to confusion over assignments and work load
By:Marnie Kunz
Manville students in summer school programs may find it easier to keep track of their assignments, if a set of suggestions made by a group of parents and teachers is accepted.
Maureen Brown and Kelly Barton, teachers at Alexander Batcho Intermediate School, proposed the changes to the district’s summer school curriculum at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
"We formed a committee to address several concerns about the reading and math summer programs in our district," Ms. Brown said.
After talking to teachers, students and parents, committee members found that confusion over assignments, overly difficult work, and variances in grading processes from teacher to teacher have raised concerns with the summer programs.
To address these issues, Ms. Brown presented the committee’s proposals for improvement, including instituting "contracts of agreement" for school work and comprehension of the assignments.
"The contracts will be given out before the summer begins and will have to be signed by the students and their parents," she said.
In addition to the contracts, Ms. Brown advocated standard grading plans be used by all the teachers to ensure uniformity and fairness. She also suggested allowing students a choice in their summer reading, and sending out revised and clarified journal instructions.
For the math program, Ms. Brown proposed shorter packets with more straightforward instructions.
School board member Frank Jurewicz suggested putting the summer curricula instructions and workbooks on CDs or on the Web for the students, which the committee will look into.
After Ms. Brown’s presentation, Ms. Barton also offered ideas for improvement, focusing on easing students’ transitions between schools in the district. Ms. Barton proposed a few additions to the current orientation programs for third-graders moving to Roosevelt for fourth-grade, and for fifth-graders moving up to the intermediate school.
Included in her plans were a letter exchange between third-grade students and those in fourth-grade prior to an orientation day on June 1.
"The transition to ABIS is our primary concern though," Ms. Barton said.
Besides carrying on the regular orientation program for the fifth-graders, she advocated an orientation week starting May 17, in which each fifth-grade class would shadow students in sixth-grade for a day. The plan also included a sixth-grade mentor program for the incoming students and an essay contest about orientation and transitioning.
Board member Ned Panfile suggested that arrangements also be made for incoming students new to the district, which board members agreed with.