Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada School Begins Second Year Of Innovative Program

Mrs. Ann Averitt, curriculum specialist at Nevada Elementary School, and Mrs. Natalie Sherwood, principal, are shown with the one way viewing glass.

The Nevada School District at Rosston is beginning its second year of an innovative program of early intervention in the teaching of reading.

Reading Recovery, a program which originated in New Zealand, is not a remedial program. Rather, it seeks to prevent reading problems by teaching at risk first graders to read at the same time as all the other children in first grade.

Highly trained teachers work with the children individually for approximately half the school year and then return them to their classrooms able to keep up with the average students. Many times they become some of the best readers in the class.

Nevada Elementary School started its program during the 1996-97 school year with grants from SMI Joist of Hope and Potlatch of Prescott.

Two first grade teachers, Rita Briner and Dee Godwin, were trained in a class led by Ann Averit, early childhood curriculum specialist of Southwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative in Hope. This year the program will be expanded to include Anna Atkins, a reading teacher.

The school district has provided a classroom equipped with a one way viewing glass. The classroom houses all the reading recovery teachers as well as Averitt, who teaches children in addition to providing training for teachers. The one way viewing glass is used by the teachers in training to give demonstration lessons.

Teachers on the other side of the glass discuss the lesson and use what they learn to improve their own teaching. The glass is mirrored on one side and equipped with a sound system so that the lesson can easily be seen and heard without disturbing the child.

Natalie Sherwood, principal, is pleased to have reading recovery in her school, as it works well with other programs, such as the early prevention of school failure, to ensure success for all students.

This year volunteers from the Unviersity of Arkansas Community College at Hope will give an hour per day to provide additional support to the children as a part of Presicent Clinton's emphasis on literacy, America Reads.