Franklin Square students return

Students of Franklin Square schools, your superintendent has missed you.

In addition to overseeing a summer recreation program that served 700 youngsters, Superintendent Patrick Manley spent his summer whiling away the hours until the hallways of John Street School, Polk Street School and Washington Street School would again be filled with familiar, smiling faces. “A school can be a lonely place in the summertime,” Manley said.

The summer program offered students an opportunity to participate in reading programs, flex their hambones in a drama workshop and join in other fun activities, but Manley was eager for the opening bell to ring in a brand new school year. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. The festivities were scheduled to began at 8:35 on Tuesday.

There may have been a collective groan that morning from students who slept in all summer, but, on the plus side, chicken tenders and Rib-B-Que buns were on the lunch menu.

Manley was particularly excited about the district’s new literacy initiative, which will introduce a process called balanced reading, also known as guided reading, in the primary grades. There are multiple steps in the process, including early assessment and individualized instruction. A number of teachers work with students individually or in small groups, guiding them in their reading by using the context — stories’ visual and structural cues — to help generate meaning.

Teacher use texts at students’ specific instructional levels at first, and then gradually use more difficult material. Some of the strategies used during the process include tracking print left to right and word by word, using picture cues, applying letter and sound knowledge in context, activating prior knowledge, predicting and inferring, and retelling a story with sequence and story elements. In this way, Manley hopes his students build a strong literacy foundation.

“Ideally, this program will help students achieve a mastery level quicker,” he said.
Students will also find their schools more technologically advanced than when they left last spring. Manley said that some classrooms have been outfitted with interactive whiteboards, with more to come. The push for technology, he explained, has been an ongoing process, but it is one that does not come inexpensively. The district has also made progress in updating its computer labs.

Another of the district’s goals for the upcoming year and beyond, Manley said, is to align its programs more closely with those of Carey High School, in order to ease the transition for students entering high school.