Enrichment Program

WCS elementary students enjoy a variety of enrichment classes and activities both during school hours and after school. Enrichment classes meeting during the regular school day include Art, Library, Music, Physical Education, Spanish, and Technology. In addition to those, WCS fifth grade students choose between Chorus and Band.

WCS elementary teachers further enrich student learning by occasionally integrating technology into their lesson plans. Such technology integration might involve using digital light projectors for presentations in regular classrooms, directing students to apply Microsoft Office skills in a project, or accessing information from the World Wide Web. Students have supervised access to at least one laptop computer in each classroom and to the computer terminals in the technology lab. WCS subscribes to a strong web filter and allows students to access sites specifically approved by the faculty and administration.

WCS also offers after-school enrichment opportunities for students through ASPIRE (After School Program for Instructional and Recreational Enrichment).

Accelerated Reader Program

Using Accelerated Reader involves three simple steps:

1. A student selects and reads a book.
2. The student uses a computer to take a Reading Practice Quiz for the book.
3. The Accelerated Reader software keeps track of the quiz results and generates reports for the teacher and the student.
   

Students choose books from the school's Accelerated Reader book list. This list contains all the books for which the school has quizzes. Every AR book also has an assigned book level, interest level, and point value. Book level indicates the readability of the text, while interest level relates to book content. Books are assigned one of these interest levels based on publisher recommendations:

• LG = Lower Grades, approximately K5 – 3
• MG = Middle Grades, approximately 4 – 8
• UG = Upper Grades, approximately 9 – 12
  

Students earn points based on books' point values and how well they answer questions on the quiz. As students progress in the program, they earn reading certification levels set by the school. Students may also exchange their AR points for items sold in the school's AR Store.
Search the school's new interactive AR quiz page.

Elementary Enrichment Reading

All literature is not created equal! While children should read from a variety of genres, some literature selections offer greater enrichment than others. The links below open record keeping charts with several classic titles that build readers' vocabulary and background knowledge - two essential components of solid reading comprehension skills.
The lists are also helpful for parents who are interested in finding challenging, high quality reading selections for their children. The lists indicate book titles, authors, reading levels, Accelerated Reader (AR) points, and spaces to record dates and teachers' initials. Students who complete a reading list and pass the corresponding quizzes will receive a certificate from the school.

Parents and students should understand that assigning reading levels to any reading material is not an exact science. It is true that readers should most often read texts near their grade level, but there is certainly no harm in a child reading an interesting book that is slightly below grade level. Some students will be able to digest literature that is two or more years beyond their grade level, and those students should be encouraged to read selections that challenge them.

Level A	Level B	Level C	Level D	Level E
Classic List A.1	Classic List B.1	Classic List C.1	Classic List D.1	Classic List E.1
Classic List A.2	Classic List B.2	Classic List C.2	Classic List D.2	Classic List E.2
	Classic List B.3	Classic List C.3	Classic List D.3
	Classic List B.4	Classic List C.4	Classic List D.4
			Classic List D.5
			Classic List D.6

Passport Learning - Academy of Math and Academy of Reading

The Academy of Math and Academy of Reading programs are implemented in several elementary grades. All students in grades 3 & 5 participate in the Academy of Math, and all students in grade 4 participate in the Academy of Reading. Select students in grades 1 & 2 are also enrolled in the programs. The programs are intended to aid students in the areas of Reading and Math. Pleae read the program descriptions below.

Academy of Reading

The Academy of Reading program is a unique, process-oriented, self-adapting path to skill improvements in reading. According to statistics, in as few as ten weeks, the computer-based Academy of Reading program yields average gains of more than two grade levels. Students learn at their own pace, guided through a series of reading lessons and instruction designed especially for them, moving gradually to more complex tasks that test cumulative development.

The Academy of Reading program is designed to set students up for success. This is accomplished using an assessment to target specific subskills that may be holding a particular student back. The results place each student in one of three groups:

• S-scanning/sequencing 
  
• Students experience difficulty in scanning words on a page.              
  
• A-auditory/visual
• Students have trouble connecting specific sounds with what they see.
  
• O-oral expression
• Students struggle with pronunciation and may have a slow speech pattern.
  

Identifying specific challenges to success allows the student to focus on those reading areas and allows the program to tailor comprehensive reading exercises and instruction for that student's needs. This adaptability increases the rate of success by providing intervention, offering acceleration and developing automaticity. The result is a confidence that extends to all areas of learning.

Passport Learning's Academy of Reading is a guided, comprehensive approach to reading instruction backed by over twenty years of research, and it is intended to be used right alongside the materials we are already using.

Academy of Math

The Academy of Math is a computer-based instruction program designed to supplement and reinforce key mathematical concepts introduced in the classroom, therefore enabling educators to help struggling students achieve computational fluency and improve their mathematical instincts. Its unique, process-oriented, self-adapting path to skill improvement in mathematics yields average gains of more that two grade levels in its student users. The goal: to provide our educators with a powerful intervention software solution for improving math comprehension that is well-suited to the needs of our elementary students.

The academy of Math's lively interative software program is based on four fundamental learning principles designed for improving math comprehension through targeted instruction:

• Accurate Placement: The program begins by determining the most appropriate starting point for every student, suggesting an effective intervention strategy in each case.
• Individualized Learning: Students work at their own pace, according to their own abilities, receiving constant feedback to motivate and encourage their progress.
• Skills Progression: Proceeding skill by skill, students advance to the next stage of learning only when they have achieved mathematical proficiency at the preceding level.
• Comprehensive Curriculum: From absolute beginner to basic high-school math, the program allows students to backtrack as far as they need to in order to fill in "skills gaps" and to accelerate ahead as their proficiency improves. The result goes beyond simple homework assistance to truly improve math comprehension in terms of real, grade-level advancement.

How it works:

Students learn at their own pace through a series of lessons designed especially for them, moving gradually to more complex tasks that test cumulative development. This method ensures that successes and challenges are quickly highlighted; so that students' progress can be easily tracked.

The software contains eight intervention levels, correlated with the fundamental skills for proficiency identified in the Content Standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Each level includes the following subjects: numeration, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, equations, measurement, geometry, and graphing.

Interactive and engaging, the Academyof Math makes the learning process a captivating one, maintaining students' focus and encouraging meaningful time on task.