February 2007 Edition - East Ramapo

A newsletter from the
East Ramapo Central School District
for non-public school parents.
105 South Madison Avenue. Spring Valley, NY 10977
Dr. Mitchell J. Schwartz, Superintendent of Schools Susie Grama, Editor
FEBRUARY 2007 VOLUME V NUMBER 4
From the Superintendent
It’s so nice to have an opportunity to speak with you again. I thought I’d share with you a
couple of things that we are planning to take place shortly. One of these things is a mid-
March meeting that we would like to have to which we will invite the board presidents of all
non-public schools to come one evening to meet with me and members of our Board of Education.
The purpose of such a meeting would be to make sure that board presidents understand
Dr. Schwartz the services and supports available from the district; for us to hear from board presidents any
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feedback and concerns that they might want to share with us; and for us to answer any questions that they might
have. We meet regularly several times a year with all the non-public school principals, and we want to make sure
that we also reach out to the board presidents because of their critically important role and because we would like
to get to know them on a more personal basis.
The second initiative that we’ve planned comes through a sub-committee of our non-public school principals
group. Through this sub-committee, we began a pilot program at the Yeshiva of Spring Valley Boys’ School
called the Intensive Mentor-Tutor Program. This pilot represented a different, more intensive design for providing
academic support for students greatly in need of remediation. The traditional model that we’ve used for providing
Title I funded remedial services in the non-public schools is to use a one-on one mentor-tutor model
whereby a student gets anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour a day of one-on-one remedial assistance from a
mentor-tutor. This new design takes a small group of students and has them continued on page 4
ERCSD News in Review
On
On Dr. Sue Heinz’s visit to East Ramapo, in
addition to presenting a workshop to NPS teachers,
she visited Avir Yaakov, Ateres Tzvi, Maalos, Bais
HaChinuch, UTA, Bais Mikroh and Viznitz.
At each school, she observed teachers, had feedback
sessions and talked with principals. She said, “It's
also a good time to talk to teachers whom I've met
in previous trips. That’s always fun!
Dr. Mitchell Schwartz (c.) was honored at the Bais
HaChinuch Dinner on January 13. At left is the
school’s principal, Rabbi Naftali Eisgrau;, at right,
Executive Director Jordan Most
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Dr. Heinz and Slingerland ® Are Back in Town !
fluent execution and co-ordination of word recognition
and text comprehension; vocabulary, phonemic awareness,
and decoding and spelling; sight recognition; and
background knowledge. Dr. Heinz said that teachers
should try to get non-phonetic sight words internalized by
students by second grade In the early grades, up to second
grade, children should almost be able to write what
they can read.
A stumbling block to becoming a good reader, she
said, is difficulty learning to read words accurately and
fluently. The majority of children who experience reading
problems in elementary school have early
difficulties acquiring accurate and fluent word reading
skills beginning in kindergarten.
One of her suggestions for motivating a child to read
more fluently is to make a game of timing his/her reading.
Dr. Heinz’s model for preventing reading failure
in grades K-3: A) Increase quality, consistency, and
reach of instruction in every K-3 classroom. B) Conduct
timely and valid assessments of reading growth.
She feels that if screening assessments and progress
monitoring are conducted, then teachers will not overlook
Dr. Sue Heinz at work
The love fest that occurs every time Dr. Sue Heinz
comes to town took place again on January 8. The popular,
dynamic Director of the Slingerland® Literacy Program
presented a workshop on Testing, Observation, and
Remediation to teachers and mentors of the non-public
schools. She focused on the question :What is the most
important single goal of instruction She answered with
one word—comprehension.
She noted that the ingredients of reading success are
three intermingling components of Intention, Intensity,
and Instruction. She said,
“The intention to teach children is a conscious decision
for us as professionals. There are a lot of life skills
that are as important as reading, but what I firmly believe
is when we teach children to read, and ultimately to write,
many of those other concerns fall into place more or less
automatically.” She added that teachers can be nice as
well as have high standards.
Intensity, according to her pedagogic parameters,
means doing more of and better at what one already
knows, and the teacher exposing a child to what he/she
needs to know. The teacher should use a great deal of visual
aids, and have them around the room. Working with
ability groups is important. In many cases, this approach
eliminates the need for children to get special instruction
outside of the classroom. Intensity does not denote stress,
rather the consistent, purposeful exposure to the information.
Her quick motto for Instruction is “Do a little bit a lot
on paper.”
The basis of Slingerland ® instruction is phonetic,
stressing a multi-sensory approach, with information
given in small, developmental doses, with much repetition.
Dr. Heinz noted that reading comprehension depends
on: 1) How well the children read the words on the page.
2) How much they know and how well they think. 3)
How motivated they are to do “the work” of comprehension.
The characteristics she listed for skilled reading are
Dr. Heinz enraptures her listeners
the students who are less prepared and not making adequate
progress in learning how to read. Reliable screening
measures will indicate which students are weak in the
skills and knowledge required for success in the classroom.
They will also show which are the skills and
knowledge that are particularly weak in the students.
In the extensive hand-outs that Dr. Heinz distributed
were lists of words and assessments, guidance information,
and scoring material. She also gave seatwork suggestions
that the teachers could use.
As has always been the case, the teachers gained a
great deal from Dr. Heinz’s presentation. She modeled
the intensity portion of her workshop by giving a great
deal of material without stressful methods. She is passionate
about her mission of helping teachers teach, and
gives her information over in a pleasant, often humorous
manner.
Go as fast as you can, but as slow as you must.
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Non-Public Schools Administrators’ Meeting — January 9
Among the many items discussed at the regular NPS Administrators’
Meeting was the parting of Josh Kamensky, Assistant
in the Office of Funded Programs, who has assumed the
position of Deputy Superintendent of Schools at Kiryas Joel.
Elie Wizman, Director of the Office of Funded Programs said,
“Josh has made a significant contribution
to improving education for our
non-public school students.” He added
that the ESL guidelines that Mr.
Kamensky developed with the Title III
funding are being studied by the State
Education Department as a model for
future regulations. He was also instrumental
in developing and organizing the
Professional Development Program,
among other projects that his work enhanced.
Mr. Kamensky said his farewells
and thanked the people in the OFP
for their help. Superintendent of
Schools. Dr. Schwartz praised Mr.
Kamensky for his fine work on behalf
of the District. He said that it seems that
Josh has been here for a much longer time than he has because
of the great impression of his efforts.
Elie Wizman spoke about the K12 Alert System, which is a
phone system by which the District Office can quickly contact
all the schools—either for emergencies, school closing, or
other business.
He gave a report on the highly anticipated Staff Development
Day on February 20. He said that there will be 41 workshops
on a broad range of subjects for all grade levels, and 640
teachers are registered to attend. He reported on a meeting of
the Professional Development Committee, which gets feedback
from the schools pertaining to the feasibility of the workshops
that are offered.
He told the group that Dr. Heinz, the Director of the Slingerland®
Literacy Training Program
was in town to give workshops and
visit schools to observe teachers who
took the summer program. Mr. Wizman
said that they are discussing long-term
goals for the Slingerland Program.
He reported on the great progress
that is being made by children in the
pilot of the intensive mentor tutor program
at Yeshiva of Spring Valley. He
praised Dr. Granick and Rabbi
Greenbaum for their hard work in helping
effectuate the program. Mr. Wizman
related that they are seeking funding
from Senator Morahan and other
Dr. Mitch Schwartz thanks Josh Kamensky for his dedicated
work for the non-public schools in the ER School District. sources to implement the program in
other NP schools.
Dr. Schwartz addressed the administrators about the EX-
CEL Aid, which gave the District millions of dollars to make
repairs in public schools without costing the taxpayers any
money. He expressed his appreciation for the support that was
shown by the non-public school community.
He surveyed the schools about their interest in an afterschool
musical group activity for students. Such an activity
would give the children not only musical education, but would
develop a spirit of cooperation and unity.
REAPING THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOR
Dr. Schwartz and Mr. Wizman visited the Pupa Boys and Girls Schools to observe some of the classes. Rabbi Lauber, Principal,
joined them. Of particular interest to them was seeing the teachers implementing teaching techniques that they learned in
the various workshops that were offered by the School District. The teachers reported great success in improving their teaching
skills and consequently, more progress in the students’ learning.
Mr. Wizman
watches a tutor mentor
working with a
student.
Dr. Schwartz sits
in on small group
reading lesson
given by a
tutor mentor.
Rabbi Lauber
meets with Dr.
Schwartz and
Mr. Wizman.
Nice
penmanship!
3
2

Professional Development: Questioning Strategies for Active Thinking
“Questioning Strategies for Active Thinking” was the subject
of the workshop for NPS teachers and mentors on January
17. It was presented by Loretta Brooks of Catapult Learning.
She noted that there are several reasons
for asking questions. Questioning,
instead of lecturing, is a springboard to
stimulate thinking, to get students to get
involved with the lesson or subject, to
find out what the students know, and to
make connections between what they
know and the new information. It also
evaluates what a student comprehends,
provides review and drill, and gains the
attention of wandering minds. It helps
students organize thoughts and feelings,
and develops reflective and metacognitive
thinking (thinking about what
you’re thinking about).
The presenter’s use of questioning in teaching is based on
Bloom’s Taxonomy, a learning system set down by Benjamin
Bloom, which incorporates various mental processes that the
teacher should activate when teaching. They are: knowledge—
child should recall or define information; comprehension–
child restates or explains; application –use a concept in a new
situation; analysis—break down information so that it is readily
understood; synthesis—generate something new from the
information learned; evaluation -
make judgments about the value of
ideas or materials.
Ms. Brooks also demonstrated
the QAR (Question-Answer-
Relationship) technique by having
the participants go through the
process of reading a paragraph and
answering questions according to
the guidelines of this questioning
strategy: Is the information right
there Does one think and search
in the text Do I find the answer
on my own by using personal experience
combined with the text
(Ex: In what way can moving to a new house be exciting) Author
and me—think about what is already known, what author
is saying, and how it fits together.
The questioning techniques are very exciting and Ms.
Brooks gave the teachers a great deal of food for thought.
Ms. Brooks engendered much interaction with the participants.
Professional Development: Using Non-Fiction to Explore Reading/Writing Connection
Developing the ability to read and write non-fiction was
the topic presented by Carrie Redstone of LitLife at the January
31 workshop for NPS teachers.
Mrs. Redstone suggested immersing
the students in non-fiction work by
having that type of book in the class
library and reading non-fiction books
to the class. The children have to
learn the difference between fiction
and non-fiction—that non-fiction is
something real There are many nonfiction
books available with beautiful
pictures that enhance the text.
A fun non-fiction writing project
is creating a “How To” book. Other
non-fiction genres are letters, recipes,
or instruction. The students could also
write about what they are expert in or
are passionate about
Mrs. Redstone not only made useful suggestions to help
the teachers stimulate good writing by the students, she also
showed techniques that will help develop critical thinking
skills. One of these was the format of “What I learned” and
“What I wonder”. This entails reading a paragraph or page,
stopping to think about what you learned, then thinking about
what you might still like to know
about the material. The answer to
this is often found in the passages
following what was just read. The
child can write down on a chart
the answers to the two questions.
She added that finding the main
idea or concept is an important
skill to be developed.
She stressed that teachers
should take time and give
thought to the non-fiction books
that they present. They should
think about the print, directionality,
layout, pictures, and vocabulary.
Teachers should point out
the parts of a non-fiction book that students should peruse,
such as the table of contents and the pictures.
Non-fiction includes subject matter books, and the reading
and critical thinking skills should be used when reading text
books.
Mrs. Redstone demonstrates reading a non-fiction book.
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Superintendent continued from page 1
remain for a two-hour block and receive math and reading remediation from a highly qualified mentor-tutor assisted by an
aide. Of course, the traditional one-to-one model will still be standard.
The pilot at Yeshiva of Spring Valley appears to be quite successful. We feel that our next step should be to expand this
pilot to three other sites. An appointment has been set for mid-February with Senator Morahan. I will go with a small group of
non-public school leaders to request funding from Senator Morahan that will flow through the District to support three additional
sites for this Intensive Tutor-Mentor pilot design. In a future issue of Education Matters, I’ll be happy to bring you upto-date
on the results of both of the meetings described above. Be well.