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Aurora Elementary

Schedules

Parallel Block Schedule for Elementary

Aurora School, along with all the elementary schools in West Fargo is using a Parallel Block Schedule. This schedule allows for strategic flexibility for the school and teaching staff to better organize the day for instruction with less fragmentation of children missing classroom activities due to special services and specialty classes throughout the school day. It will also allow special education to attend special reading or math classes during the same blocks as their peers and not miss other instructional content, as each grade level will instruct specific material at the same time.

There will also be PE and Music classes every day for children within the block at consistent times, along with scheduled library and art times worked into the schedule. This allows for better daily organization of when things will occur, and allows the classroom teacher, special education teachers and reading teachers the opportunity to co-teach within the regular classroom setting for special curriculum units and themes. This will assist in less fragmentation of children who are on (Individual Education Plans) IEP’s who normally would be pulled out of the classroom to learn material with special service instructors, and allow them opportunities throughout the school year to remain in the classroom to learn with peers.

A special feature will be the I/E block or intervention and enrichment block. This block will allow classroom teachers, special education, reading teachers, and other school personnel the ability to assist children who need help on identified skills and curriculum (as noted by our MAP assessment data and other formal and informal assessment data), by breaking up students into small groups to provide them more opportunities to work on ELA (English, Language Arts) or math skills that they may be struggling with, or for those who need enrichment in areas of strength.

This schedule provides strategic flexibility to get all the required State minutes per subject met each week, and allows for many unique opportunities to help children learn and grow. The schedule also allows teachers to easily make-up missed days. By following a rotation of the schedule, if school were called off on a Tuesday, the schedule would pick up on Wednesday with what was missed on Tuesday. Therefore, children aren’t missing special services/activities and teachers don’t have to find ways to ‘make up’ the curriculum or material.

The schedule will also hopefully assist children who move between schools in the district, as the block will be the same and allow children less anxiety over learning new routines. Children leaving grade 5 will also be better prepared to enter the middle school, as Cheney Middle School and Sheyenne 9th Grade Center both use a form of block scheduling.

KEY:

• Rotation: Every 5-days – there will be a 90-minute collaboration time for teachers during Block I and II for each grade level. Children will attend specialty classes during this time. Their normal PE/Music for that day within the block will be switched to academic instruction. This rotation will allow grade levels to plan together along with special education, reading and other personnel to review assessment data, make changes to instruction, and plan for the remedial/enrichment block each week to help children with specific academic skills.
• ELA: English/Language Arts
• SS: Social Studies
• Math: Math
• Sc: Science
• I/E: intervention or/and enrichment
• L/R: lunch and recess
• PE/Mus: Physical Education and Music