Education Foundation Grant is Helping Students Assimilate into Junior High
McMeans Junior High ESL teachers saw the challenge their students faced when prompted to read a novel in English rather than their native language. There was a gap in resources when it came to finding reading materials each student could comprehend. That all changed when the Katy ISD Education Foundation awarded their team of teachers a $5,000 grant that purchased 496 high-interest, low-level novels.
Katy ISD Secondary ESL provides modified instruction according to each student’s level of language proficiency across all content areas, and meets specific needs of each secondary English learner. “We wanted our ESL students to read novels at first through fourth grade levels that weren’t picture books,” said ESL teacher Allison Farris. The abundance of resources they now have to pull from has changed the classroom experience for both students and teachers. “Their progress is occurring much faster than previous years because students are reading text they understand, and building to the next level,” said Farris. The growth in the students’ reading levels and comprehension is allowing them to grasp content better, shrink the language barrier, and make them more successful in the classroom.
About the Katy ISD Education Foundation – The Katy ISD Education Foundation has awarded $1.6 million in its first seven years of Inspiring Imagination teacher grants, impacting students in classrooms all around the district. Funding for the program is provided in part by long-term investors and annual fundraising events such as Fireflies & Foodtrucks and GROOVE. To learn more, contact us at 281-396-6031 or visit www.katyisdeducationfoundation.org.