Academic Support

Guided Reading

English Language and Math Support

After School Boosters

Guided Reading

At ASE, we believe that reading is the foundation of all education. It will equip our students for success and facilitate their path to a self-sustaining future, as it is the cornerstone of their learning.

Reading without comprehension is meaningless; we cannot derive knowledge or pleasure from what we read. Comprehension is the overall goal of all reading instruction.

The Guided Reading program at ASE includes students in Grades 1 to 5. This is part of a continuous curriculum that expands all the year through. Our Guided Reading program recognizes that children read and comprehend at different speeds and levels. Students are flexibly sorted and regrouped based on their reading development. That means that students in guided reading are divided into reading ability-based groups.

A teacher or reading coach will offer reading assistance that is specific to the group’s reading level. During these focused sessions, where teachers meet students in small groups, they emphasize improving vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension skills to help students succeed academically. Teachers are able to personalize lessons and reading selections for each group based on their specific needs. While guiding the class through the narrative or informational text, the teacher or reading coach models a variety of reading techniques meant to increase the students’ comprehension and fluency. The purpose of guided reading is to help children develop their reading skills and fluency.

Students are assessed through benchmark assessments of the reading level they are at. Benchmark assessments are used to establish a baseline for determining student progress. They evaluate each child’s proficiency on both reading accuracy and reading comprehension at the child’s reading level. Students who pass this reading benchmark assessment will then move to the next reading level. Assessment reveals the students’ level of reading accuracy and reading comprehension. Students’ scores are tracked and constantly followed up.

Guided Reading Books:

Leveled books from Reading A-Z are used for these sessions. This program provides a large selection of fiction and nonfiction books at each level, with each level getting progressively more challenging.

Guided Reading Assessment:

  • Students are periodically (every 6 to 8 weeks) given a benchmark assessment testing their accuracy and comprehension.Students must pass the benchmark assessment before moving up to the next level.

English and Math Support

The degree of each student’s skill proficiency varies, so individualized support is provided in both English and Math to ensure each student is able to reach their full potential. Teachers use a variety of resources and strategies to address specific areas of need and help students build a strong foundation in these subjects.

IXL

All students from grades 3 to 12 are supported with an IXL account. IXL is a personalized learning platform, built on four components that work together to provide an engaging, empowering, and effective personalized learning experience to all students.

These four components are:

  • Comprehensive Curriculum: The comprehensive curriculum covers more than 8,000 skills in the four main subject areas (i.e., English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies). The Common Core State Standards and the textbooks for each grade level are used to guide all of the tasks. Questions and tasks throughout the curriculum are accessible, equitable, and fair to all special groups in the student population.
  • Real-time Diagnostics: A real-time diagnostic is an adaptive midterm test that gives students and teachers an accurate, up-to-date picture of how well students are doing at grade level on important math and language arts (ELA) topics.
  • Personalized Guidance: IXL is truly personalized for each learner. Using information from both the IXL Real-Time Diagnostic and skill practice in the curriculum, IXL is able to provide tailored recommendations as to what a student should work on next. This level of personalization allows students to focus on their individual needs and make progress in their learning at their own pace.
  • Insightful Analytics: allows teachers to identify trouble spots for the entire class, groups of students, or individual students. Teachers can then use this information for targeted instruction, small-group instruction, or one-on-one work with students.

With IXL, students can track their own growth and set personal goals for improvement. This personalized approach allows students to take ownership of their learning and work towards mastery in a way that suits their individual needs.

Extra Support in the Elementary Classes:

The English Language and Math Support program assists students in grades one through five whose limited English proficiency prevents them from fully accessing the standard curriculum. The homeroom teacher and the co-teacher play an important role in this program.

Students are offered extra support in class through small groups or are to be pulled out of class when needed. By offering a program that blends inclusion and pull-out, teachers assist students in both environments. Homeroom teachers create a language-rich environment where students feel free to take chances and where each student’s needs are met. The program also provides small group instruction and differentiated tasks to target specific language and math skills that students may be struggling with. This targeted support helps students build a strong foundation in these subjects, setting them up for success in the future. Students are able to receive personalized attention and support to ensure their individual needs are met.

The extra support program enables students to:

  • To acquire communicative and academic English and Math skills needed to function successfully in the mainstream program.
  • To learn through active engagement in meaningful experiences.
  • To practice in a range of activities with their classroom peers.

The extra support program includes

  • Small class size.
  • Pull-out classes where teaching focuses on the development of skills. Students are offered to be pulled out of two of their activity sessions when needed to support them with their academic struggles.

Extra Support in the Middle and High School.

Students in Middle and High school are offered office hours. Office hours are drop-in hours for students to see their teachers. These office hours allow students to receive additional help and support from teachers outside of regular class time. This personalized attention helps students to improve their understanding and performance in their academic subjects.

The office hours are provided during the second half of the lunch break. Each subject is assigned a certain day on the schedule as follows:

Day Subject Day Subject
Sun. Math G9 – 10 Sun. ELA G7 – 8
Mon. Math G7 – 8 Mon. ELA G9 – 10
Wed. Science G7 – 8 Wed. SS G9 – 10
Thurs. Science G9 – 10 Thurs. SS G7 – 8

After School Boosters

Students who are unable to keep up with the class level are offered after school boosters in the following subjects: English, Math, Arabic, and MFL. These boosters are designed to provide additional support and reinforcement for students who may need extra help in these specific subjects. The goal is to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed academically and reach their full potential.

These boosters are led by qualified teachers who provide personalized assistance to help students improve their understanding and performance in these subjects. After school boosters are offered as part of our After School Activities program (ASA).