During my final year at Kennedy, the resource teacher, her aide, and I joined forces. The schedule remained the same, with every student participating in the 90-minute language block in the classroom. Then the struggling readers would come for a 40-minute Double Dose* class. The three of us divided up the duties and team-taught. We met four different grade levels each morning, and had three groups of six students each that rotated through our centers. (In the afternoon, we double-dosed math.) The resource teacher taught decoding, I taught comprehension strategies and chunking,* and the aide oversaw the computer center where the students practiced fluency. We had groups in the second-sixth grades (fifth and sixth were combined.)

Once a week, Reading Buddies would come in from their homerooms to read with them. On Fridays, we celebrated the week’s progress. Anyone who had been on time and worked hard the other four days participated in game day, while the others worked on make-up work or some other quiet activity. The games were fun and highly motivating, and always reviewed what we had been working on that week.

I enjoyed this experience very much. Everything was covered. Combining our efforts worked well for us and the students, as their scores show. For the 2006-2007 school year, Kennedy Elementary even added the ELL (English Language Learner) teacher to the Double Dose Team.

Results:

* See Glossary