Mia Darone
Reading Specialist for grade K-2
Afterschool Hours: Tuesday until 4pm or by appointment
Contact Email: MRDarone@leepublicschools.net
Contact Phone: (413) 243-0336 ext. 1207
We are excited to be using the Wilson Fundations program as a supplement to reading. Additional Instruction will take place within the reading block and will be led by the Reading Specialist, the Title I Teacher, and the Special Education Teacher, who will all be “interventionists”. Students will be rotated through this program based on individual needs, teacher observation, student performance, and unit assessments.
Highlights of the Wilson Fundations Program
- Emphasis on systematic phonics and study of word structure
- Skills taught explicitly and systematically
- Instruction is cumulative and scaffolds presented skills
- Teachers model with Echo the owl puppet directing students to repeat sounds, words, and sentences
- Assessments monitor students throughout the program
- The manual provides direction for support staff to meet individual student needs
- Extensive practice provides multiple opportunities for skills application
Guided Reading is conducted with a small number of students and focuses on the individual reading needs of each child. During guided reading I work with students at their instructional level to guide them in using the context, visual, and structure cues within stories to generate meaning. By using instructional level texts that gradually increase in difficulty, students apply strategies in context and feel successful! The end goal, as with any literacy component used in reading is for students to become confident, proficient readers who love to read!
Several times a week I will be sending your child home with a reading folder and a ring of “sight words”. I ask that you encourage your child to review them often!! Your child will also be coming home with books that they can read. You will notice that a lot of the sight words will be in the books that come home. Please make sure that your child brings their folder, with their book baggie and sight words back and forth to school every day!