Portage Township Schools and William Fegely Middle School saw a need to provide more time for students to focus on literacy, reading, and math during the school day. William Fegely Middle School’s continuous improvement goal is to see students reading and writing in every class every day. Our schedule (See Appendix A) needed to provide this vital, intentional time for our students to review previously taught skills, remediate, reassess, and enrich all of our students.
The creative scheduling solution that we use here at Fegely Middle School is to extend our Warrior Time, advisory period, first thing in the morning. On Tuesdays, we allocate one hour for English/Language Arts review and remediation during Warrior Time. On Thursdays, Warrior Time is dedicated to Math review, remediation, and soft skills. Part of our Fegely lexicon is “WIN Time”. WIN Time is an acronym for “What I Need.” On Fridays, we allocate an hour for WIN Time. This is a flexible time when students can move from classroom to classroom to receive reteaching, reassess, review, remediate skills, or participate in enrichment activities.
In addition to this flexible scheduling time, we have added an IXL initiative on Tuesdays and Thursdays to have students work on their specific pathways to drive their learning and fill in the learning gaps.
This targeted practice has most definitely helped impact our students’ success. The added IXL practice after each Indiana’s Learning Evaluation and Readiness Network (ILEARN) checkpoint has also helped our students practice their soft skills. After IXL practice, students select an activity from our Warrior Time Activity Board (See Appendix B).
By implementing this schedule, we have seen improvements in our data and on the ILEARN checkpoints overall. Our continued focus on literacy remains a common goal in our district as well. Reading is power and is fundamental to educational achievement.
Appendix A
Bell Schedule Monday-Wednesday-Thursday, Tuesday-Friday
6th Grade
| Bell Schedule | Mon / Wed / Thur |
|---|---|
| Mod 1 | 8:25 – 9:00 |
| Mod 2 | 9:05 – 10:00 |
| Mod 3 | 10:05 – 11:00 |
| Lunch | 11:00 – 11:30 |
| Mod 5/6 | 11:35 – 12:30 |
| Mod 7/8 | 12:35 – 1:30 |
| Mod 9 | 1:35 – 2:30 |
| Mod 10 | 2:35 – 3:30 |
6th Grade Extended Mod 1
| Bell Schedule | Tue / Fri |
|---|---|
| Mod 1 | 8:25 – 9:30 |
| Mod 2 | 9:35 – 10:25 |
| Mod 3 | 10:30 – 11:20 |
| Mod 4 Lunch | 11:20 – 11:50 |
| Mod 5/6 | 11:55 – 12:45 |
| Mod 7/8 | 12:50 – 1:40 |
| Mod 9 | 1:45 – 2:35 |
| Mod 10 | 2:40 – 3:30 |
Appendix B
Tuesday Warrior Time Activity Boards
(Choose an activity to do after E/LA IXL Pathway)
Thursday Warrior Time Activity Boards
(Choose an activity to do after Math IXL Pathway)
No Place for Hate Choice Board (Enrichment Activity)
Written by: Malinda Malaski
Melinda.Malaski@portage.k12.in.us
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