Canton Public Schools: April 6 School Committee Recap: ELA Update, Hansen School And CAPT Spotlight, District Goals

Canton MA

29 April, 2022

8:21 PM

Description

Press release from Canton Public Schools: April 28, 2022 CANTON — Superintendent Derek Folan would like to share with the school community updates and information provided at the April 6 Canton School Committee meeting. A recording of the full meeting can be viewed here. Additional meeting materials, including all documents shared at the meeting and the full Superintendent's report is available here. Ms. Jaclyn Abrams, Ms. Rebecca Ashley and Ms. Lisa Kaminski presented an overview of the ELA Department Initiatives. The District's three important tenets of its ELA curriculum include: fostering a love of reading and proficiency of writing, promoting independent reading for pleasure and the opportunity to grapple with complex text, and promoting student engagement through voice and choice. To achieve these goals, the District implements new curriculum and instructional approaches at the elementary level, prepares students for the progression into middle school by engaging them with a variety of texts, provides opportunities for students in Literature Circles and Book Clubs where students have the opportunity to choose what they read, and designs opportunities for independent reading to happen at all levels to foster a love of reading. Points of pride for the department include a Text Tasting Unit in Grades 3-5 and the quality of text-based written responses to each book in the unit, the GMS Project-Based Learning program which provided an opportunity to create authentic and more focused reading experiences for students, and the C How We Read program at CHS which promotes independent reading. The C How We Read program at CHS was developed in 2016 to make space for pleasure reading. One Friday each month the C building becomes a reading zone and students in every English class read for at least 30 minutes a book that they have chosen and enjoy. To learn more about the program, click here. Hansen Administration shared school highlights and honored the work of the school support groups. The presentation included information on the following: Leadership and volunteers in the CAPT help make the school a better place by regularly collaborating with Hansen's administration and staff. The CAPT, which consists of 82 families, helps organize several events such as Chalk the Walk and School Positivity Project initiatives and the Penny Wars and Fun Run fundraisers. They also support teachers with materials and volunteer in a variety of ways every day. Moving forward, the CAPT looks forward to hopefully bringing back half-day events, the parent night out fundraiser and more. To view the Hansen CAPT Spotlight presentation, click here. The Hansen puts a strong emphasis on creating a culture of achievement, equity, inspiration, and joy for its school community members. To facilitate and foster this culture, the school has numerous programs and initiatives hosted throughout the school year including STEAM Alley, the Great Kindness Challenge, Bulldog Bowl and more. The STEAM Alley, created by the school's math and digital learning specialists, features new problems each week for students to grapple with. Once they have an answer, those who answered the problem correctly will be recognized on the morning announcements. The Great Kindness Challenge is held during a week in January during which the entire school participates in kindness challenges, led by fourth-grade staff and students. The week also includes a pep rally, focus groups and more. To view more school-based programs or initiatives that were highlighted, click here. This press release was produced by Canton Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author's own.