K-2 Saturday Academy Graduates
This year’s K-2 Saturday Academy class beamed as each member accepted a certificate and small token of appreciation during a graduation ceremony in the School Heritage Museum at Huntington High School.
The 45 students in regular attendance were all English Language Learners. They participated in Saturday morning classes to improve their reading and writing skills. The recent ceremony included the presentation of several special honors including Best Attendance, Most Improved and Most Effort.
Instruction was delivered by teachers Vivian Joseph, Maria Romero, Carol Soskil, Angela Berner, Nancy Giorgos, Glenn Edwards, Lucy Moratta, Peristera Alfano, Donna Marie O'Shaughnessy and substitute Erika Sabogal. Miryam Palacio also worked in the program, assisting teachers and the students in the classrooms.
The youngsters were all kindergarten and first and second grade English Language Learners. The program was based at Huntington High School and ran every Saturday morning for two hours for about eight months. Students appeared excited to participate in classes that were designed to give them additional support in early literacy skills with an emphasis on oral language development, vocabulary and comprehension.
“This program has helped the students improve their skills notably,” said Carmen Kasper, district director of foreign language, ESL and bilingual programs. “I plan to offer this program next year again. The kids love coming every Saturday because the teachers make it so much fun for them!”
Huntington has been dogged in its quest to help students succeed academically. The Saturday K-2 ELL program is part of this determined effort. The program’s teachers served up lessons that were interactive and lively. The added weekend support, along with regular school day instruction, is helping to boost the literacy levels of the program’s participants.
“We use the ‘Treasure Chest’ for our lessons and add additional materials to improve instruction,” explained Ms. Kasper. “This program’s success is due to the teachers’ commitment to the students and their desire to see them succeed.”
The K-2 Saturday Academy faculty said students in the program demonstrated marked improvement from the beginning of the year to June,” according to Ms. Kasper, who has every intention of continuing the classes next fall.
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