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 interative 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

Educational Support Services (ESS)

Purpose
Westwood Christian School's Education Support Services (ESS) is a resource program designed to provide specific, directed, individualized, intensive and remedial instruction for students who are struggling in a regular classroom setting and who could benefit from small group instruction. Students may or may not have been diagnosed with a specific learning disability, attention deficit disorder, or another mild disability. The program also provides limited services to new students who might need some extra help adjusting to a new curriculum. Services are provided for students enrolled in 1st through 5th grades.

Goals
The primary goals of ESS are to remediate students' deficit areas and equip students with the skills they need to participate in a regular classroom setting on a full-time basis.
Testing & Placement Procedures
A student may be referred to the program by a classroom teacher or a parent. After a student is referred, the ESS director reviews the student's academic history and meets with the student's teacher and parents to determine how to help the student. The student will then enter into the intervention phase of the process. During this time, the student receives extra assistance from the classroom teacher, parents, ESS staff, or other outside sources. If, after a set period of time the student's academic performance improves, the student will not be referred for further testing. However, if the student's performance does not improve, it is suggested that the student be referred for a complete battery of tests to determine whether the student has a disability. A licensed psychologist through the county school system or a private licensed psychologist chosen by the parents may administer this battery of tests. After testing is complete, the evaluation will be reviewed by the ESS director and will be used to help determine how to meet the student's needs. Each student will be re-evaluated on a yearly basis for future placement.

Services
ESS is currently available in the elementary school. The program provides individualized and small group instruction for students in the academic areas of language arts and math. Diagnostic tests are used to help determine each student's ability level, and the students will be grouped accordingly. A variety of research based techniques are then used to help strengthen student's weaknesses and improve academic performance. An Individualized Accommodation Plan (IAP) is also developed for students who have been diagnosed with specific learning disabilities and is designed to help students continue learning in the regular classroom environment. Grades will be issued through the child's regular classroom teacher even while receiving services in the ESS classroom. Services will continue throughout the year based on the student's performance, assessments, and effort. Each child will need to show a willingness to learn, participate and grow through the ESS services or they will be removed from the program.

Young Scholars: An Honors Program for Students in Grade 3-5

Purpose
The Young Scholars Program offers participants a rigorous course of study designed to challenge advance readers in the upper elementary school grades. The program will provoke students to draw upon and develop their literacy skills by reading, analyzing, discussing, and evaluating high quality literature. Students will apply and synthesize the knowledge they gain through a variety of interdisciplinary activities.

Goals
The Young Scholars Program seeks to meet the following goals:

• Carefully monitor and guide the student's growth in reading-related skills, such as comprehension and vocabulary development, while he is reading and enjoying meaningful, time-tested, quality literature.
• Expose the student to a wide variety of literary genres and not restrict him to one common, reading book.
• Integrate the love and practice of reading with many other areas of study (e.g. the Bible, history, and science) to help the student become a read-to-learn person all his life.
• Teach students to read carefully and critically with an understanding of the Christian worldview and with the ability to identify opposing worldviews of the authors they encounter.
  

Methods
The Young Scholars Program employs a variety of instructional and learning methods to facilitate the accomplishment of its goals. The methods combine to assist the students in accumulating knowledge, processing information for understanding, and creatively expressing their analyses. A sampling of methods used in the Young Scholars Program include:

• Oral Reading
• Silent, Independent Reading
• Speech & Drama
• Composition
• Projects
• Homework*
  

* The homework required in this program will be more challenging and at a quicker pace than that of the traditional Reading program.

Literature Selection
The Young Scholars will be exposed to a variety of literary works that meet the following criteria:

• Literature that is consistent with the principles contained in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
• Literature that directs students to a Christian worldview. Literature selections provide a positive model to imitate or a negative model as a warning. The authors must present a clear distinction between good and evil.
• Literature that consists of quality writing. The program will have books that are well written, rich in character development, carefully crafted vocabulary illuminating figures of speech, and a gripping plot.
• Literature that is age appropriate. Young Scholars will read challenging books yet books they can decode and digest. Good books have colorful vocabulary and intricate nuances; therefore, it is not expected that each child will understand every world or allusion they encounter. Instead, the sum total of the reading should be profitable, enjoyable, and challenging for the Young Scholars.
  

Scheduling
Young Scholars will participate in all aspects of the regular grade-level program with the exception of attending Reading class. Young Scholars meet together for their own Reading instruction and activities each day. The director of the program coordinates the instruction, learning activities, and assessment for the Young Scholars. Due to the rigorous nature of this program, Young Scholars will be scored on a ten-point grading scale.

Eligibility
Parents must complete an application to the Young Scholars Program. Students must demonstrate their ability to be successful in the program through their report card grades, standardized test scores, and teacher recommendations. Acceptance is at the discretion of the program director and the principal.