Special Education-

Alden has a Special Education program taught by Kay Madden and Tiffany Mason. The Special Education programs serve students who have identified mild to moderate disabilities. This may be in such areas as reading, math, written language and/or behavior.

The Special Education program serves students through an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). The IEP is developed jointly with the parents, teacher, and special education teacher and reviewed yearly. Students receive services to meet their specific academic and/or behavioral needs. This can include adapting general education lessons to their learning style and at their level, and receiving specific strategy instruction in their areas of need at their skill level.

The goal of Special Education programming is to help all students to be successful learners. The teachers collaborate with the general education teacher(s) in adaptation of curriculum, providing modifications for implementation, and assessing the overall progress of the student.

Title 1--Reading and Math K-6

Alden has a Title 1 program for both reading and math. Title 1 is a federally funded program designed to improve educational opportunities for students who meet the criteria for supplemental instruction. The program at our school is designed to provide reinforcement of reading and math skills and strategies already being taught in the regular classroom.

Students are selected for assistance based in part on recommendations made by the classroom teacher, as well as classroom performance data, local assessments, and standardized assessments. Parental requests for Title 1 assistance are also considered for their child to participate in the program.

The goals of our Title 1 program are to: increase math and reading achievement, support the classroom instructional reading and math programs, develop positive attitudes toward reading and math, to help transfer reading and math skills and strategies to other content areas, to develop functional, literate readers and mathematicians and to develop independent study skills and work habits.

The Title 1 teachers are: Becky Young and Holly Wibholm.

WIN-

Literacy builds a foundation for success in school and life.

Alden Elementary implemented WIN time in early October 2018. WIN stands for What I Need. WIN time will be a common intervention time for 20 minutes each day and every student will be in a small group working with a teacher on reading. Some groups will be working on letters and sounds; others could be working on beginning reading, fluency, comprehension or writing; and finally some students could be in literature circles.

During this intervention time some groups will be using the program SIPPS. SIPPS stands for Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words. By using this program we will be helping new and struggling readers build the skills and confidence they need to gain reading fluency and comprehension. SIPPS offers a systematic approach to decoding that supports students in grades K–12 in developing reading fluency and comprehension.

Our goal in implementing WIN time is to give every child the instruction they need on their journey to becoming a reader (or a better reader).