STUFF 'N SUgy an unusual paragraph © This is an unusual paragraph and it is up to you to try to find out why. Don’t try to find it right away; that will only annoy you. Try it gradually think it out slowly. Study it thoroughly and it probably will dawn on you. Obviously this writing is far from normal; it is sort of choppy and is not particularly fascina- ting,but don’t mind that. It will all work out all right as soon as you know its solution. If at first you fail, just try again and again until it dawns on you. If you finally find it out don’t say what it is. If you can’t do it, look for its solution. : ANSWER - NEXT MONTH for the younger set FOR THE YOUNGER SET Spring flowers Are soon buzzing around 1 S- -—---— Comes after Spring 2. P— — — — — — Children splash in them 3. R--- - Early Spring bird A oe SS Melt Sande drip 5 NS ae Birds build them GaGa ee Father digs it 7 8 9 A Holiday. Lion's Club Donate sisi Encyclopedia to School A brand new 1977 edition of. World Book Encyclopedia has just been received in the Cassiar School Library, thanks to the generosity of the Cassiar Lions Club, who have purchased it for the school. The encyclopedia, intended mainly for use by the upper elementary grades, . is a very useful addition to the library's reference collection. . At the Resource Centre. It’s impossible to tell by looking, but the Cassiar School library is actually two different things: a school library, and district resource: centre. 3 The ‘Stikine District Resource Centre’ is not a building, but rather a rapidly - growing collect- ion of materials: filmstrips; videotapes; Science kits; pictures; teaching aids and books. This collection serves all of the six schools in the Stikine, and the purchase of materials on a shared basis allows all the schools access to many more resources than they would ordin- arily have: Not all of the Cassiar collection is part of the District Resource Centre, of course. Items like reference books, magazines, and many books. especially at the secondary level, are purchased and used only by the school. If items are useful only to an individual school, then that school buys them. If items are useful on a shared, district - wide basis, then they are bought by the District Resource Centre. This allows much better use of school and district money and materials and in turn improves services to teachers’ and_ students throughout the district. olds the cow together ‘Teacher: “Tommy, | understand that -your hobby is magic. What's your favorite trick?” ; ~ Tommy: “Yes—six half-sisters.”- *-- - - - MSL ais Spring month Learning Assistance? What is it? Roger Bilger, sight vocabulary within new passage. by Beverley Evans Learning Assistant Having talked to many parents concerning their childs progress in school | have been con- fronted with varied ideas as to what Learning Assistance entails. Consequently | have prepared this article to describe the nature and purpose of this service in our school. As we look back at. our development and as we observe the development of our children we become aware of the fact that each of us has developed our abilities at our own individual — rate and that we all have our own relative strengths and weaknesses, be they in mathema- tics, reading, science, etc. We also have prefer- ences for the way we learn. We may learn more rapidly through our auditory channel, e.g. when procedures are explained verbally. Another indi- vidual may learn more effectively through his - visual channel, e.g. where he can observe the procedures being demonstrated. Generally speaking we all learn more effectively when the combination of the auditory and visual channels are linked. As a classroom teacher one becomes very a- ware of these differences in learning preferences. One also becomes aware that some children re- quire additional assistance to develop their weak areas to maximum capacity. As classroom teach- ers we are aware too that each child we teach is entitled to an equal portion of our time in direct | - instruction. What then becomes of a student who reads very well but experiences difficulties mastering his times tables; or the child who has complete mastery of his mathematic skills but has difficulty with reading comprehension? The Learning Assistance Program was design- ed to meet the specific needs of these students. Students experiencing difficulties are referred to the Learning Assistant by their classroom teacher who is aware of their need for extra in- struction. If the precise nature of the difficulty is known by the teacher a program may be de- veloped using this observed knowledge. However if a child is experiencing difficulties in many areas, a test or a series of tests, are administered to that child to determine the cause of the dif- ficulties. This cause when determined may be auditory or perceptual in nature and a program -is then developed to help alleviate this. ° Shown here are Elizabeth Hawkins, Steve Lantz, and Damian Mackie. They are involved in a task” requiting. them .to .id entify the vowel sound they ++ *students ‘are ’all.working-* on the, same féddinges \ Shown here are Wendy Hoodikoff, B. Evans and identification of an oral reading involved in the Students who are referred, remain in the regu- lar classroom and are scheduled into the centre for 30 minute periods. The children receive daily assistance until progress is sufficient to en- sure that they will have little difficulty working within their classroom experience. As often as possible direct one-to-one instruction is provid- ed. This however is dependent upon the amount of time available and the number of students referred. When more students have been referred than time is available to schedule them on an individual basis, then they are grouped according to similarity of need. Students requiring a lesser degree of assistance are scheduled on alternating days. A greater percentage of time is spent with pri- mary children to develop basic motor and per- . ceptual skills that are prerequisite to all learning. The object is to correct minor difficulties before they become major academic problems. Another facet of the Centre is the testing of all new students who transfer into the Cassiar School. The test results help us ascertain a child’s placement within the grade he or she is entering. Each grade is divided into partial grade levels, e.g. Grade 3.1, 3.2,....3.9, 4. A test result of 3.5 indicates that a child has mastered and is applying the skills that have been introduced and taught by the middle of the grade three year. In conclusion, | wish to emphasize that every child is an individual and as such deserves as much individual assistance in developing his re- sources as possible. The Learning Assistance Pro- gram at the Cassiar School is an added step to- wards this development. Damian «ackie is shown here engaged in a vowel recognition and identification task. Tasks are very often presented in a game format thus in- creasing the child's enjoyment of the learning situation, program and the extra assistance has proved beneficial in their progress.