Seeking to change learning culture

There area a wide variation of abilities among kindergarten children entering school with some knowing their letters and others already able to read.

Meeting those children's needs where they are, without slowing down those more advanced nor frustrating those who need beginning instruction, is one of the goals of a new model planned for Pea Ridge Primary School next year.

Primary School principal Aaron Gaffigan shared a plan for pupils at the Primary School with the Pea Ridge School Board recently.

Constantly improving the educational culture at Pea Ridge, educators and administrators research new models in education.

"This is something new and innovative," Gaffigan said, sharing an education model at Roots Elementary in Denver, Colo.

"Do School Differently" involves having one teacher per content area allowing teachers to go deep instead of broad in a subject. Three teachers -- Mindy Hanna, Courtney Woodward and Sarah Lamer -- will teach the 70 pupils in this personalized learning program. Parents will be invited to a meeting May 3 to learn more about the PLP and to register their children for it.

Hanna will teach reading, Woodward will teach phonics and writing and Lamer will teach math. There will be positions for 20 kindergarten pupils, 25 first-graders and 25 second-graders.

"When you have 25 children, you try to shoot to the middle," master teacher Mindy Bowlin explained to board members. "That's worked fine, but when you know better, you do better for your kids. With this model, you can pull smaller groups to meet the needs for those kids above grade level and for those kids who are struggling."

"Students will be grouped by ability level within that subject area based on assessment data and can change groups as they progress based off data," Bowlin said.

"This goes along with the Leader in Me," Gaffigan said, referring to a program begun last year that encourages character education.

Students will have homerooms and will still meet minutes in physical education, art, music. Groupings will be no larger than eight to 10 pupils, he said.

"I see this taking off," Gaffigan said, when asked what the long-term vision was. "I see us personally being able to meet the needs of children on their level instead of giving blanket instruction."

Gaffigan said that eventually, he envisions a "reading hallway" instead of a first-grade hallway and a math hallway and each area of the school focused on subjects instead of grades.

"I wish we'd had this model for my third-grader," Bowlin said of her own daughter.

In this model, children get to move from room to room and change location about every 30 minutes so it is "huge for children who struggle to pay attention," Bowlin explained.

"One of the hardest things as an elementary teacher is prepping for five to seven subjects a day," Keith Martin, assistant superintendent, said. "Now, they can become experts in one subject and develop lesson plans specifically for those levels."

Gaffigan said he plans to use iPad minis with these students and there is an app which will help the students with their lessons and schedule.

Superintendent Rick Neal, who said he learned about the Roots school in Colorado from the director of school innovation in Arkansas, said: "All of a sudden the culture changes, the light bulb comes on ... it will enhance the Leader in Me."

"Kids can learn in any environment," Neal said. "What we're trying to focus on here ... is take a building ... make it attractive, appealing to the learner."

General News on 04/20/2016