07/25/07 — Southern Wayne High School gets reading program grant

View Archive

Southern Wayne High School gets reading program grant

By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on July 25, 2007 1:45 PM

Southern Wayne High School will launch a new reading program in the fall for rising ninth graders, officials announced this week.

Designed to respond to students needing supplemental skills in reading, teachers are being trained in new teaching methods and introduced to new materials.

Southern Wayne is one of two schools in the state receiving the Johns Hopkins Learning Grant, $5,000 worth of materials will be provided for two English classes at the school. It will also pay for a part-time reading coach.

"We'll start with this year and (the grant) will fund it and the part-time reading coach who will work with these two classes of students," said Hope Meyerhoeffer, director of the English/language arts program for the school system.

"They're hoping it will be picked up by the county in the future if they see results to be very positive."

The effort is geared to ensure methods and strategies are effective in dealing with students having reading difficulties, Mrs. Meyerhoeffer said.

Instead of taking a semester of English, it will be a yearlong class for students in the program.

"I'm real excited about it. I think it's going to be good," she said. "It will help for these high school teachers to do something different to meet the needs of all students."