Quincy School Committee: Subcommittee (April 30, 2025)

001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the special education subcommittee of the uh Quinsey school committee. And on the subcommittee are myself uh as chair um Mrs. Lebo and Mrs. Hubley. And she is on her way. Uh the subcommittee is not a meeting of the whole school committee. So therefore, per open meeting law, only subcommittee members may discuss, deliberate, and vote on matters before the subcommittee. All right. So we have three items on our agenda tonight. Uh the first one is um a presentation on the pivotal response training. Uh so I'm going to turn it over to Miss Graham, Miss Shaughnessy, and Miss Sullivan. Thank you so much, Mrs. Partios, for having us here this evening. Um over the last couple of years, um in multiple presentations that my team has had before you,

002we have mentioned pivotal response treatment or PRT. Um so at the request of the committee tonight, I am honored to have Michelle Sullivan and Jamie Shaughnessy from the Sasher Autism Center to present to you on PRT in Quinsey Public Schools. Thank you so much for having us. I'm Michelle Sullivan. I'm the executive director at the Southshore Autism Center. Um, I'm originally from California and I was trained in pivotal response treatment by my advisor in graduate school. I'm Jamie Shaughnessy. I'm a behavior analyst at Socialore Autism Center. Um, I'm actually homegrown in Quinsey. Went through Quinsey public school. So, it adds this extra layer of excitement to be partnering with some awesome educators at RDLC and um super excited to be here tonight, too. So, thank you so much for having us. And we wanted to

003start out uh just by sharing a little bit about how our partnership between Southshore Autism Center and Quinsey Public Schools has grown over the years. And it really began about five years ago uh really uh with supporting some individual QPS students with some one-on-one ABA support. Um and then that grew from there with some collaboration uh really kind of looking at the initial vision for uh what has now become the D Christopher Learning Center really with uh Dr. uh Christopharo and Aaron Perkins. Um we were really involved in that initial vision and kind of planning for what that center would look like. Um and then we went on to do some program evaluations of the CARES program at Delica as well as um in the preK program as well as the elementary car programs at

004Snug Harbor and Squantum. And then now we have an ongoing relationship in the preK program at RDLC. and our our BCBA Jamie Shaughnessy is doing some consultation there in both the integrated and the um subsparate classrooms in the prek program. Um we're providing direct service for students there in the prek program and behavior assessment as well as behavior support. um we're leading ongoing pair professional trainings uh there for the the pro in in the RDLC program uh both last year and this year and then we've also been involved in the professional day of learning last year and this year as well. So we'll get into what ABA or applied behavior analysis is. It's an evidence-based scientific approach that uses the principles of learning to reliably influence socially significant behavior. It focuses on improving behaviors and

005skills such as communication, social skills, daily living skills, academics. And we also take a look at potential barriers to achieving those skills. Um barriers can include challenging behaviors. In ABA, we aim to identify the reasons that these behaviors might occur so that we can replace those behaviors with more appropriate skills such as communication, social skills, daily living, and those accessing academics. So, what many folks often think of when they see or hear ABA is a clip I'm going to show um and it's a clip of discrete trial training. So, in this video, in this clip, too, um, just watch for the skill that's being taught and the reward that's selected, and I'll talk through it after. So, Ree, what do you want to work for? Play-Doh. All right, we're going to work for Play-Doh. And

006we're going to work on letters J, F, C, and R. Reese, give me R. Good job. You gave me R. Give me C. Good job. You gave me C. Give me F. Uh-oh. Give me F. Good job. High five. There was a correction procedure without earning a token. Give me F. Good job. You gave me F. Now the child earns a token because he did it correctly. Give me J. Good job. You gave me [Music] J. Okay. So, this child was working on letter identification. The reward was a sticker or a token on on a sticker chart. And once he earns each token, he ultimately gets the selected reward, which I believe they said was Plato. Um, and that's contingent upon each correct response. So again, this is a type of ABA called discrete trial

007training, but what we do is a little bit different. There was at the bottom. go. Okay. So, pivotal response treatment um is a little bit different than what you just saw. It is the more naturalistic ABA intervention. So, it is evidence-based um but it was it really tries to focus on teaching foundational skills rather than like discrete skills like um where we're really trying to teach kids how to learn. And really once a child has learned how to learn, then it's going to allow the child to really be able to learn all those different skills that we want kids to learn without having to teach each of them in isolation. Um, and it was really developed initially back in the 1970s by Bob Kaggel and Dr. Laura Shriman um as an alternative way to teach

008um relative then relative to those like more rigid approaches that you just saw. So that um discretet trial is a little bit more uh highly structured, more rigid way of teaching that is very what you saw um adultled, adult driven. Um so by comparison, PRT is going to be more child-led um and look uh a little bit different as you'll see in a few minutes. So PRT emphasizes enhancing a child's motivation and engagement in learning, fostering a love for learning, and promoting generalization of learned skills. The key concepts, which we'll kind of see too in a few, um are that the practice is childdirected or child-led. Teaching is embedded in meaningful everyday activities. So really a learning opportunity can be accessed at any point during the school day. Instructions are varied across teachers locations and

009different materials throughout the whole learning process. Materials include toys and preferred activities and rewards um include learning by playing engaging in highly preferred activities and a whole lot of praise. So in other words, PRT is has a heavy focus on making learning super super fun. Okay. And PRT is really trying to address what are sort of the core areas of difficulty or deficits that are sort of foundational to getting a diagnosis of autism. Um so if you're familiar with what leads to a diagnosis, it really focuses on social communication and restricted and repetitive behavior. So to get a diagnosis of autism um an individual has to show diagnos has to meet diagnostic criteria in those two key areas. Um so PRT is going to try to address those social communication deficits first by trying to

010improve or advance communication areas of communication. Um and by addressing communication that's going to help to not only um improve communication but hope also hopefully help reduce any challenging or disruptive behaviors. So hopefully we can kind of get that increase in communication and a decrease in challenging behavior simultaneously. Um and by focusing on that social side of social communication can also help to foster the ability to develop social relationships with others in the environment and developing peer friendships. Um so sometimes that um like you saw in that clip with the um the discrete trial um there's often really a focus on adult to to child uh interactions. And so as you'll see in PRT we're going to show you some examples where there's peer-to-peer like kind of in a group setting as well. So it

011can help us to foster friendships with peers as well. Um, the other side in addition to the social communication side of of meeting criteria for autism is that like restricted and repetitive interests is also key to getting that diagnosis of autism. So, we're going to in PRT really try to broaden the interest, the repertoire of what individuals with autism enjoy doing, what activities do they engage in. So rather than having that limited skill set, really trying to broaden the skill set of the children that we're working with here. Um so through um making these improvements ultimately that's going to hopefully lead to a decrease in the reliance on adult supervision um which is going to help the children to be more independent, able to maybe manage their own behaviors over time um which will ultimately

012help them to be able to access more mainstream activities um and lead them to be able to be more available to general education um opportunities within in the school setting. And then the the key sort of word there in that pivotal response treatment is pivotal. What do we mean by pivotal? So, we're going to focus on what we call pivotal behaviors, which means that they're foundational skills. And we kind of think of these as like the obstacles. What is holding um kids with autism back? What makes autistic kids not learn in the same way that typical kids might learn? So we call these pivotal behaviors foundational skills. And so if we can support learning in these pivotal behaviors, then it's going to help students to be able to access their school curriculum and set them

013up for success. So what might these pivotal behaviors be? Um so one of them is motivation. Um what makes autistic kids maybe be less motivated to learn compared to other uh typically developing kids? So motivation is a key one. Um, another one is ability to be able to attend to multiple things at the same time. So that attention across multiple things in the environment. Um, third is initiation with others. So like you saw in that um little clip of the boy with the letters. Sometimes we see that kids who are learning in that kind of discrete trial way that they'll kind of sit back and wait for an adult to prompt them. But we really want our kiddos to initiate with others and not just wait to be prompted. So that initiation is really key.

014Um and then the last one is the ability to manage their own behaviors. So ultimately we want our kiddos to grow up to be independent um and not to be so uh reliant on adults in their environment for prompting. And so we want them to be able to manage their own behaviors and be as independent as they can be. Um, so these are the four what we'd call pivotal behaviors that PRT is trying to address. Um, that's ultimately going to lead them to be more self-sufficient um, and able to access again these like mainstream opportunities as much as the child has the potential to do. So, the skills that we can develop using PRT include increasing language, play skills, academics, coping skills, self-management, expanding interest, and and social skills. And that's not an exhaustive list.

015There's many more things that we can work on as well. So, let's get into it. This is the fun part. So we we implement PRT using these strategies, gaining the students attention, giving clear and appropriate instruction, teaching different examples to broaden interest, balancing instruction between things student know and things that they're actively working on and giving students choices and taking turns while we're teaching them. So we do a lot of modeling. PreK teachers and paras demonstrate these strategies across various parts of the school day. So, we're going to focus right now on gaining the students attention and giving clear and appropriate instruction to show you the clips. Um, so in the following clip, you'll see how the teacher gains attention from each kiddo prior to her instruction. Once she has their attention, she presents a

016clear and concise instruction to return a greeting. So, look for that. and then also to find their name on the board. She also differentiates instruction to each kiddo's level of ability. And you'll see that it's great. Hi, Ha. Hi, Hannah. Good girl. Come find your name. Where's Ha. Good girl. came to school today. [Music] Pink. Hi, Leon. Can you touch Hannah? Pink. First timer. Pink. Say, "Hi, Hannah." Hi, Hannah. Can you touch? Hi, Hannah. Good job. Come find Leon. Find Leon. Yeah, I'll hold this for you. Good job. Hi, Cameron. Hi, Hannah. Come on up and find your name. Yeah, I'm going to give you two choices. I took your name. Fine, Cameron. Good job. Cameron came to school today. [Music] So, very cool. Um, one way that she's able to gain attention is by

017making sure that she's at eye level with these kiddos. Um, she's using a tablet which has a visual that enables the kiddos to return a greeting effectively. Um, and she is looking for signs of eye contact or fleeting gaze. so that uh she knows that the kiddos are attending to her. And then you can also see that awesome um example of how she initiated oh we went um the instruction sorry she initiated um differentiating the instruction uh by making that the names the amount of names that were on the board for that newer learner just a smaller array. So he was set up for success. Really cool. And as you could see, he was really excited to do this. So, she's effectively making learning super fun. That's the theme. Okay. In the next clip that

018you'll see is another strategy we use that includes teaching different examples to broaden attention. So, in this clip, you'll see students learning about the letter Y. Watch for differences between this clip and then that first clip that we showed where the kiddo was identifying letters using um flashcards. It's my turn. We have little line first. Little line first. Little line. Big line. Ready. Come on. Oh, your friends. Now we're going to talk about our Y sounds. Do you remember all these funny pictures? What was this one? Zebra. It wasn't a zebra. It was a special snow monster. It's a Yeti. Yeti. Can you say yeti? And then we have yolk. Yoke. Yolk. Yard stick. Yam. What's this one? The head up and down. Head up and down is Yes. Yummy. Awesome. So, in that clip,

019you can see that the letter Y was posted on the SNAR board in the beginning of the video. kiddos were taking turns making the letter Y using wooden blocks. So, they're using their hands to be actively involved in participating in learning um how to form this letter in a really unique way. Then they talk about words that start with the letter Y. And at the same time the teacher is embedding different gestures, expressive language and listening skills to keep the kids on their toes and keep it engaging and um keep them actively participating as well. Beautiful. So, another strategy um or a couple strategies here is balancing instruction between things that students know and things that they're learning and giving students choices and um taking turns. So, in the next clip, you'll see instruction embedded

020within a preferred game that these kiddos really enjoy. The students already know their colors. They know how to label different items, but they're working on some tougher skills that include taking turns. Um, and also flexibility within a game. Notice the boy who doesn't get the card that he was hoping for in this clip. Ready? Now listen, we are not peeking. We're not peeking. Reach your hand in. Reach your hand in. No peeking. Let's see what color you got. What'd you get? Green. Green. Green. What? A green dog. No. Green star. All right. You ready? Can I have that? All right. Ready? Let's put your card down now. No peeking. Now, pick one. No looking. All right. What you got? What color is it? Is it red? Bunny. Is it red? Well, you'll find the bunny.

021Don't worry. But first, we found our puzzle for And it's a blue watering can. We use that for flowers. Hey, my turn. My turn. Look, I'm going to close my eyes. Blue car. Can you put it in the blue? Yeah. What do they get? Purple. I got purple flowers. You want to smell them? You don't like them? I love this clip so much. So, even though this buddy didn't get the card he wanted, he was requesting the bunny. Um, and this teacher knows that this kid kiddo really enjoys that card and this specific stimuli at this time, but she so he didn't get what he had hoped for, but she still keeps the learning happening, keeps it motivating, and keeps it fun. Um, and that's a huge key key concept with PRT. Um, so once

022we've started working on establishing skills, we have to reward them in order for them to stick. So by keeping learning fun and motivating, we're able to reward kiddos when they gain new skills. We reward skills re um reward the reward itself is related to the skill that the kiddo is learning. the reward is immediately delivered when the skill is demonstrated. And we also reward attempts. So we reward the kids when we see that they're really trying to achieve a certain skill or demonstrate a certain skill. So remember the kiddo that didn't get the card he wanted on his first turn. He remained calm, he remained cool, and he continued to participate. So, he demonstrated flexibility in gameplay, which is that skill that the teacher was looking for. So, in the next clip, notice her hand

023and how she strategically supports him to access the reward. All right. Are we ready? Ready. Put your hand in. Close those eyes. Ready? What'd you get? Bunny. A bunny. What color is it? Bunny. I know it's kind of a tricky color. Like, do you think it's more orange or more brown? You think more orange? I think it might be more. It's not red, you coconut. Um, yeah. So, a skill like, you know, tolerating not getting what you want, especially for a 5-year-old, is a really hard thing to do. Um, but even while he's learning this skill, he's super happy. He's super engaged, and he's having loads of fun with his teacher as he's participating actively in learning. Super cool. We love what we do. Oops. There we go. Okay. So, um we also when we're

024rewarding skills that we see as they occur, we do our best to do so as quickly as possible and even when the skill is not demonstrated perfectly. So, you could kind of see in a previous clip too when the teacher asked, "What is this?" And he the the child said star, but you couldn't really understand that it was star, but she still gave him praise for that. So, he's really trying and he's attempting to emit that word. Um, so we see a lot of that, especially in preschool, but we do want to immediately acknowledge and honor these sounds or approximations to words as if they are the word or request. This is how we shape language. This is how we continue to make the use of language and using our words super fun and engaging

025and motivating. So th those are um additional strategies on how we reward those behaviors or skills and making them stick. All right. So in the next clip you'll see some lovely examples of all of these things that we just talked about um setting the stage for pivotal response treatment um as well as rewarding a lot of these behaviors while keeping things super engaging and super fun. Good. And then we need our jaw big one. And it's good. All right. Now, if you use this, you can see one. Your turn. All right, Joey. There you go. You're so pretty. I'm missing the rest of the truck. Are you not going to give me a hug? Now, do you want to make a T? Shadow. That looks really good. Oh, shadow likes it. Why? [Music] Can you

026clear that one? And then you can make another letter if you want and I'll help Joey. Ready? So, first we need to make our Y, we need little line, big line, and a big line. So, first little line. Remember, right here, little line, then I'm going big line. Good. Then can you trace help? Let's start with the little line. Remember little line then big line. Now what letter do you want to make? Help. A C. Oh, that looks like a lower case. And what did you make? Looks like a D. That was good. There you go. Very nice. All right, why don't we make one more letter and then we're going to do our color game. He totally loved the camera. Loved it. It was great. So, yeah, awesome clip and awesome examples there. Um,

027the teacher embedded shared control or, you know, te the the activity being child-led, giving the child choices on what letter they wanted to do. They had the theme started out with as they were learning about the letter Y, they continued to make different um Y in different ways. So teaching those multiple multiple cues or multiple examples um provided immediate praise, high fives and um again being super engaging, keeping it fun, keeping it motivating. Um, yeah. So, if anybody has questions about this or, you know, we have a little link here if you're interested in learning more about PRT, um, you can contact us, but we're we're so open to any questions, too. Awesome. Thank you guys very much for that presentation. Any questions from either of my colleagues? No questions by anyone. Oh, okay. All

028right. Hold on one second. Turn your mic on. There we go. So, it was great to see how much fun they were having and how much they enjoyed it. It was amazing. And I think um to see how much you enjoy it is pretty fun, too. But it really is I what a stark difference from the regular ABA to this. I was never a huge fan of ABA. Um but this is amazing. This really is amazing. Very intense number-wise. I mean, you can't do it with a crowd of kids. It has to be a pretty small group I imagine to get this done [Music] well this type of ABA. So we're actually showing you examples where we're using it in a group setting whereas traditional discrete trial is usually onetoone exclusively. Um so we actually

029intentionally showed you some examples where we are doing it in a group. Um so you can do PRT and there's actually a whole book on using PRT in classrooms. um which we've actually modeled our training on um is classroom PRT. It was it just it was wonderful to see. It really was wonderful to see and I'm so happy. I I really like it way better than ABA and I didn't know why. So, I'm really glad you gave us this this and and and we're hoping to sort of help you to understand that that this is ABA. It's just a different it's it's a different type of ABA than what people typically think of when they think of ABA. Seems much more rigid to me. Right. And this is naturalistic um and and embedded in into

030the classroom in a way that we hope feels more um feels well naturalistic and and really just part of the everyday activities. You can do it all day long. You don't have to pull children out of the classroom to do um discrete trial. It can just be through across the day. And his excuse me, his uh love of the camera was pretty cool, too. Yes, they're having fun. They were having fun. Thank you. And the teachers too. Oh my. Teachers are too. Yeah. Having a blast all the time. So good to hear. That's who's with kids. So good to hear. They're learning. Thank you. Y this is Hubley. Thank you. I just want to say thank you for the presentation. This is this is wonderful. Like echo Mrs. Lebo. This is just this is great.

031Um and um I love the videos with the children. That that's why we're here. I mean that is that's amazing. And they're so sweet. Oh my god. And your energy is just so engaging. I'm I'm watching you and I'm I'm smiling because I'm like watching you talk and it's like making me smile because you're so engaged. It's it's wonderful to see. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um yeah, exactly the same thing. Just um definitely your your um passion for this and just how much you love it and you can tell how happy you are that the kids are are learning in this way is it definitely comes through. So thank you and just your work um both of you on just for autistic kids not only in Quinsey but on this shore

032in general just I feel like it it's always so important but I feel like just especially in this culture right now where we're I feel like different things are coming out that are really hurtful and hard for autistic families of autistic children to hear um and just to know that you're there supporting and continuing to do that hard work for our kids and just knowing that you know it's it's absolutely worth the investment that that we're putting in and um and they're just getting much more um self-sufficient in those life skills that are going to help them succeed. So, I appreciate all your work and all your time, too. Thank you. So, thank you for being here tonight. Thanks. All right. So, we'll uh end item number one for agenda tonight. And uh so item

033number two on our agenda is an out of district update. And I believe we have Miss Graham and Miss Liry for that. some closer. So, thank you again for having me. Um, it's kind of hard to follow that, but um, definitely not nearly as cute as those little pumpkins. And um I just again I reiterate the relationship we have with South Autism um has really grown and developed and they truly are partners with us and and we value the work that they do every single day in supporting our students and um as you can see the way Jamie was tonight is the way she is every day when we see her. So it's pretty fantastic. Um but switching gears a little bit. So, um, Jen and I are here tonight, um, to talk to you

034a little bit about, um, where we are at with our out of district students to kind of give you an update. Um, you know, we've had multiple conversations over the last couple of years about the opening of the Dristophal Learning Center and how would it impact um, the numbers of students that we have out of district and how that would look long term. Um, so we just wanted to take a few minutes to give you some updates um, and then certainly answer any questions that you may have. All right. So, we're going to start with what is an out ofd district placement and explain um what that means. So, an outofd district placement is a special education placement where students educated and receive services at a school or program that's not located within the students

035homeschool district. So, um not a school that is in Quinsey or part of the Quinsey public schools. The individualized education program team which includes parents, educators, specialists, determines if a student needs an out of district placement based on the students individual needs and the services they require. These placements um h have special education students only. There are no typical peers in these programs. So they're very restrictive environments for these students to attend with extremely specialized special education services. Prior to recommending an out ofd district placement, we try to exhaust all available in district supports um before we send a student on a longer bus ride to go to another town to a school that does not have any typically developing peers in it. As well um when we're making these decisions, which can be hard

036ones to send students to a more intensive program, we try to look as close as possible to home to help cut down on the time that the students are on transportation. Um and we require consent from parents in order to change student placements. So either to begin attending an out ofd district school or return from an out of district school we need par parental consent to do that. Um when the student is placed in an out of district school the district so we in Quinsey public schools are responsible for ensuring that the students IEPs are appropriately implemented by the school program that they are attending. This is a list of all of the outofd district schools where we currently have students attending. There are more in Massachusetts than this. Um and the number that you

037see next to each is the number of students that we currently have enrolled in those schools as of March 1st this year. Um all of these different schools, there's a long list here. They have different areas of focus that they specialized in. So, for example, schools such as Hagashi or the May Center, the New England Center for Children, Melmark all focus on students with autism. The Beverly School for the Deaf and the Learning Center for the Deaf focus on students with hearing impairments. Um, schools like the Kennedy Day School focus on students with significant medical needs and it's affiliated with Franciscan Children's Hospital. So when we're looking for out of district placements for students, it really depends um what needs they have, which school we're going to look at. As you can see here, social

038educational collaborative is by far our largest population of students from the Quinsey public schools. We have 61 students enrolled there. A collaborative program is a public school program where public school districts join together to developing develop programming to help support students with more intensive needs. Um, so we are a member district of the Southshore Educational Collaborative along with other towns on the Southshore that work together um to build this community program to help students who live in our area. Um there we have so many students there because they have several different programs that address different needs. So the community school supports students with significant medical needs. The mini school supports students with autism. The Quest program supports students with social emotional needs. And these programs um depending on how each one works can run from

039age three all the way up to age 22. Um yeah. So that's kind of a summary of our our the programs our students are at right now. So the numbers that you see on the slide are um the numbers that we pulled from the Aspen SIMS report as of March 1st every year starting in 2020 um all the way up to what we are projecting for 2026. Um for 2026 we are projecting a number of 143 which is pretty darn fantastic. Um this is based on our current students um with three additional students that Quinsey will become fiscally responsible for as of July 1st. And what that means is those students have already moved into Quinsey prior to April 1st. And then Quinsey does become fiscally responsible for them as of July 1. Um the

040students moved into Quinsey already with an accepted placement at an at a district school. So we cannot change that. Um, it's important to note that between 2023 and 2025, we had 10 students move into Quinsey public schools that already had out of district placements as their accepted placement on their IEPs. Um, two of those students were students that were previously at residential schools. um one of which is the Boston Hagashi School that does have an annual tuition of $297,540 and the other was at the Evergreen Center which has an annual tuition of 335,986. So when we're talking about our audit district costs, it's really important to note that there are many opportunities that we don't have any control over. um you know that's over $500,000 of of students that moved into Quinsey with that tuition

041bill previously attached to them. Um and then what I want to also point out to you are what our numbers at the RDLC and how that has impacted um our out of district numbers for the district. So, as you can see for school year 2024-25, um we currently have 48 students at RDLC in grades K through 8. Um we are projecting for next school year 2526 that will have 54 students. Um some of those are the difference is that there are um obviously a handful of students that RDLC is the proposed placement for students that are currently in either our prek cares or our elementary cares that the teams um have determined that those students do need a higher level of need um a higher lender of support, excuse me, um and that they will

042be transferring to RDLC um for September of 25. Um, I also wanted to give you some examples of some of what the tuition rates would be for um, students that had similar profiles, a similar level of needs. So, for example, as Jen mentioned earlier, the Southshore Educational Collaborative Mini School um, they have an annual uh, tuition of $83,000 699. In addition to that, there's an average cost per year of about $40,000 for transportation. So for one student to attend the Southshore Educational uh mini school um would be a tuition of 123,699. For students that would potentially attend the May Center, their tuition is 153 256,000. I'm sorry, 254,000 again with about $40,000 in transportation for a total cost of 193,254. Or students that could attend the Melmark School, which is another one of our programs

043that supports children with autism. They have an annual tuition of 150,257. again about $40,000 in transportation for a total cost per student for 190,257. And then when we look at those numbers um for 2025 2026 of those 54 students about 30ish are students that are in kindergarten through grade three. So, if we were to think about uh those 30ish students potentially needing to attend an out of district placement, we're saving the district because they're here in Quinsey in our own backyard 5.2 million per year for just those 30 students alone. And so, you know, when we originally talked about the RDLC, it was about how many students can we bring back? And, you know, those original cohort of kids that we talked about, they're now six years older and they aren't necessarily an appropriate fit

044for the school anymore because of their age. Most of them are middle school and high school age students and it wouldn't be appropriate for them to come back. So we really switched our thinking to what can we do now in order to keep as many children in district as possible and we really feel that those 54 students represent that. Um so thinking about 5.2 2 million. And most of those children would be if they were out of district anywhere between an additional 12 to 17 years at that cost with the, you know, projected increases in tuition as we know are going up every single year. Um, and so we really want to make sure that we emphasize for you, but also for the folks at home that although the the RDLC came with a pretty

045hefty price tag, um, the the benefits far outweigh um, that price tag. And, you know, first and foremost, we have 54 students that are here in Quinsey. That potentially wouldn't have been um, and that's a that's a pretty awesome thing to be able to say. And, um, at that, we'll take any questions that you may have. Thank you so much. Thank you for that presentation. Um, any questions or comments? Yeah, Mrs. Lebo, thank you. Yeah, this is very informative. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Um, I have a couple of questions. How many of the kids are residential, the other district kids? Oh, that's a great question, Mrs. Lebo. It's not as many. Well, to be honest with you, that number that we showed you previously, that big jump um from 25 to 26, there

046are a number of students that are aging out. So, there are a pretty good handful of students residentially that are turning 22 or have turned 22 um that are no longer part of that number. I would say um I apologize, we should have pulled that number for you previously. Um, I would say at the May Center, I think we have two or three students. At Boston Hagashi, at one point we had five students there. There residentially. I think we're down to three there. Um, at the Evergreen Center, we have one. Um, at the Perkins School, we have one. So, I would say, you know, maybe half dozen or so, but we can certainly get an exact number for you. And And when for the kids that are not residential, how what's the farther some of

047them have to travel to get to these locations? Um, you know, as we know, li living in Quinsey and living on the Southshore, it's not always about the distance, it's about the time. Um, and so I would, you know, we really and truly try to keep it at about an hour. Um, unfortunately, there are some students that, you know, an hour and 15, an hour and 20 depending on traffic. Um, you know, but then we have students like furthest distance is really the landmark school in Beverly is pretty far, but it's really a straight shot. And so getting there um once you get through Boston is fairly easy, but we definitely try and keep um you know within that hour distance. I I mean I think we're lucky um in this state that we have

048so many options for kids that need special programs. We are incredibly lucky and we have some really fantastic schools that we work with. Yeah, we do. And I I'm wondering at some point in time we're going to have to think about middle school and high school. We are this population. I mean, I think really this is just the fact that if we and we're not giving them a lesser education. Absolutely. We're giving them a significantly better experience without the traveling and staying in their own community. I would agree 100%. And the fact that we have um they're here with us in Quinsey and their families are part of that school all day every day. Um and really also that you know the events that we have um you know there's a couple of springtime events

049coming up. There's an art show, there's a field day. They're right here in Quinsey. So families can drop by, they can see their student, they can then head home or back to work. Um and also that we have um the utmost of say oversight um over their day-to-day programming. And although our our other schools are incredible partners with us and we are able to observe and have our say, it's really different when we have boots on the ground and we can really look at the day-to-day operations and and the programming that we're offering our kids and making adjustments because you can see it. So you just I mean I know those are great schools, but you send in a kid there and you don't really know who's there that day. And yeah, we have that

050control here and so it's it's wonderful. It really is wonderful. It's a fantastic program. Um, like I said, we're going to have to expand it up. I don't know what the other population will want to go for next. Miss Perkins, this is really amazing. It really is amazing. So, and I think we'll hear that we start have to start doing something for the 23 year olds. Something somebody's got to do. Every town, every town is facing these these prices. Everybody's budget is already impacted by them. And you can hear it every time you read the newspaper. You can see it that the out of district tuitions and transportation costs are are killing the students. We're certainly not going to get any relief from the federal government. Right. Now, I don't know if the state can

051help more. I know they try. They do try. Well, thank you very much. You're welcome. I think we had about 10 students last year who were residential, but that was just a quick breeze through the list while you were talking. That that's a significant difference in tuition, right? Yes, very much. Give me an one one place what the tuition might be at residential. Okay. May Yeah, the May Center is a good Yeah, we have one. Thank you. This is the state list of all the tuitions. So, it's long. Uh so the May center for the day program it this current year is $153,54 and for the residential program is 318 254. Um so it's it is a pretty significant difference. Um Katie just mentioned the New England Center for Children. The day program there is

052156,000. Um and they have three different levels of residential that range from 312 to $455,000. So it is a pretty significant difference for day versus residential. Almost. Yeah. Thank you. Um, thank you both for this. Um, I'm really glad to to see this data and thank you for putting it all together. Um, couple questions for you. How many of that So, of the 54 you said a significant number would be out of district. How if you had to guess sort of how many do you think we could have kept here versus how many we we would have sent out? Do you think it's Do you think it's the whole 54 we would have had to send out or do I I wouldn't confidently say it's the whole 54. I would comfortably say it would be

053at least half if not threequarters. Yeah. So that 30 that you mentioned is probably kind of conservative on the conservative number. That's great. Um definitely that's that's what I think people sort of need to know the savings that even though we're not pulling people back, we never really intended to pull them out of a situation that was really working for them. Um it was more just an opportunity to come back if families wanted to. But I think um not only the cost savings, but keeping those 54 or 30 to 54 kids um in Quinsey, like you mentioned with the opportunities we have here and just feeling more a part of QPS um and and just, you know, less time sitting on a bus for those kiddos um and their families being able to participate more

054during the day if they have to work. Um so that's that's I think it's fantastic. Um and do you plan so so 54 K to8 are is the plan to follow them? Is the plan to grow it as they go sort of to Mrs. Lebo's point, is the plan to follow them through the high school years or what what would that plan be? So, when we submitted the application last year through the Department of Ed, we started to kind of already scaffold what that could potentially look like. So right now we don't have any eighth graders. So it's a it's kind of a non-issue for next year. But in thinking oh excuse me in thinking forward we do have a handful of seventh graders that ultimately we would like to keep them and and grow

055the program as they grow. And so because we already have the approval the adding additional classes for high schools is a fairly easy process. Um, and the woman that we use at the Department of Ed has has already given us um, the documentation that just one step at a time. Okay, that sounds great. And obviously you you'd be looking for opportunities to bring those kiddos into the, you know, the high schools or something if if they could handle that, but this would just be if if they couldn't, right? Okay, that's fantastic. Thank you guys for putting this together for the update. Excellent. Um, all right. Anything else on those? Oh, okay. Thanks. Thank you. Uh, and just moving on to our last item on the special education subcommittee agenda. Um, I'm super excited to have

056uh Sarah Wood come on up from um to give an update on the Quinsey Special Education Parent Advisory Council, the CPAC. Um, it's a group of parents that put their volunteer hours and uh with with their own uh time constraints with their own kiddos uh to to help Miss Graham and her team um do the best we can for these kids. So, happy to hear your update. Thank you for being here. Yeah, thank you for having us. Um, sorry. Um, this is going to be a quick one. We don't have We're at the end of the year. We're building on to our programs that to end our school year. Um, we have, sorry, I feel like that just got really loud. Um, we've had a great year. Um, we've had a number of parents start

057to join a good amount of parents start to join us, especially from the younger grades. Um, a lot of preschool through third grade. We've seen a lot a big uptick of parents. Um, and we've also started to see some of the older parents, older kids, not older parents, parents of older students start to participate a little more. Um, I'm working on that one. But um it's been a good year and I have to say the first thing I want to say is we really need to thank uh Mayor Ko who has supported us a lot the past two years and he has been providing us with funding to do some of these programs that we are working really hard to start to initiate within the city um and really start to promote more things for

058our students to participate in. uh more chances for inclusion, more chances for participation, and more chances just to have their own individual programs to do at within their city. Um so we really appreciate that support. And um so the one thing I um Julie, I've worked with Julie, I've worked in Miss Lebo and Miss Hubley. Um and we have a lovely mom who came to us and asked for support in getting a program called I Can Bike. Um and it's a great program. I know tons of parents who are love it. It they say their child learns to ride a bike within a week and to me that's amazing. It's for all special needs students. Um it starts at the age of eight and it goes to 100. It we're anybody can participate as long

059as you have to be eight years old to start. Sorry preschool and kindergarten parents. But um and we are going to be bringing that this summer. Uh we got funding through Mayor Ko again which we really truly appreciate his support. Um, and this program is going to run the week of August 18th. Um, and we'll be sending out information in the next hopefully three weeks or so, but it will be at the end of the summer. And, um, the one thing I want to say is anybody who thinks that their child could use this, I'm telling you, it's a worthwhile thing. Riding a bike is one of those basic fundamentals of childhood, of adulthood, of teenager, teenage, middle school dome. My son is a avid bike rider right now. And I think it's such a

060great skill for these kids to be able to get out with their families to be able to get out with, you know, and friends and just go and ride your bike and just have a little bit of freedom and a little bit of time just and it's an it's an activity that's physical which a lot of these kids don't always get this physical activity. So, it's a great thing to have. Um, so we will be sending out information coming up. The one thing I will say any teachers out there, if you know kids who you think might benefit from this, sometimes parents are a little hesitant because you may have a kid who has struggles with different things. My son is one of them. I he struggles with physical activity. He one, he doesn't like

061it. Um, and two, he motor skills are not the best. So, we hesitate to do stuff like this, but I feel like this is a great opportunity for him to really get some one-on-one and hopefully learn some really great skills. So any teachers out there, if you think this might benefit your students, start talking to parents, giving them information. Um, it's a limited number. I think we it's 40 40 students can participate. So it is going to be a first come first serve and it's also going to be you have to commit to the full week. If you want to participate in this program, you have to be able to say that you can be there Monday through Friday. It's a 75 minute t time limit per group. Um so we would need those kids

062to participate for 75 minutes every day for five days. Um that's the way the program works. So truly we would love for people to participate but please be aware of these constraints. Um because we want everyone to have the chance. So if this is successful we hope to bring it back maybe in a couple year like try and do something every couple years you know we'll see what we can do. But um so this is the big program we've been kind of working on through the winter. Um the other thing we have coming up we have a great presentation in May. I'm just going to mention it real quick. Um, with a special education lawyer who goes through the A through Z's of special education law for anybody who has issues that may need some

063support or just wants to know the information because sometimes you don't realize the things that you need support on, especially as the kids get older. Um, things like guardianship, things like social security, all of those things that become important as your child gets older. Um, I I'll say for myself, I've had to contact someone just because we were denied social security for my son, which I still am boggled by, but we're trying to work on how that we can appeal that. But these are the kind of things that as a parent, you're just kind of like slogging through over and over and how is this supposed to work, but um, so he will be there to discuss some of these issues. Um, on May 27th, that'll be going out on our website and through all

064of our social media. Um and then finally, lastly, June 7th, we are having our end of the year celebration. Um where we invite all of our special needs kiddos to come out. It will be in the parking lot behind the learning center. Um we have bouncy houses, we have uh face painting, we have all kinds of fun stuff. The kids had a great time last year. It was a huge event and we had a great time. So that will be coming up too. But we've had a really good year, a successful year. There are things we want to work on and things we have coming up through the pipes that we want to see happen, but so far we feel pretty good about how the year has gone. And parents, I will say from the

065learning center, we have heard nothing but good things. Um, so I have heard no issue. Everybody loves the program that that are in the program. So it's definitely a success. Yeah. Um, thank you so much. Oh. Um, I am so excited about the I can bike program. I know that Mrs. Hubli and I uh reached out to the to the company when we heard about it because we heard about it because it was in Ham I think a couple years ago. Yeah, it was in Hingham and um Beth um just Fen sorry I was just I always blank on her last name. Beth Fen um came to us about and asked about it. Um her son Sammy she wanted to get him involved in it. So that's where it started from and that's kind of

066what pushed this through. It's so it's so exciting. And Kathy and I and Mrs. Hubby and I actually went to the mayor and said, "We can't ask the district to pay for this. I mean, I can't scream this on them." And he said, "I'll cover it." I mean, when he's been amazing. He really is amazing about things like that with no fanfare or anything, you know. He just said, "I'll cover." Yeah. No. And I think it's it's we had Mrs. Hubby and I had planned to have a fundraiser. We were going to have a fundraiser like a kidney because who wouldn't who wouldn't contribute to that, you know, would have had fun. But he just said, "No, I'll cover it. Don't worry about it." So it and it has like a 90% success rate which

067is amazing. It's really amazing. What I really like about it is it's age appropriate. So the kids will be grouped with people who are sort of their age. Am I right about that? That's the they try to do it as much as possible. I think sometimes the older the student is or the older the adult is, they might get grouped with the younger kid. It just depends on how it works out. But I think a lot of times it's it is age appropriate. And I I think it's really important to mention that we need volunteers because every single student who's learning to ride a bike has two people with them. Yes. And you can't do it all day because you're running, you are walking fast, running behind a bike or next to a bike. So

068I think c certainly we can reach out to our students to do it. I know the summer the sports teams would be right on it for 45 minutes. Take more than that because I've already spoken with North and a couple. So, I think we'll definitely have It's gonna be We're gonna need We're gonna need college kids, too, I think. Yeah. Sadly, most of them. That's actually my daughter is going to be a freshman and we she moves in that weekend before the bike program. So, she won't be here. She's my photographer. She's the one I would have taking pictures, but we will be moving her into college that weekend before. So, a lot of them will be leaving. So, we won't have the college kids, but the high schoolers need the the hours. So, it's

069definitely So the teams love to do stuff like that. Even the teams that are in season, you know, they take 45 minutes out of the day, whatever it is. Well, it's they're running around. They're getting their exercise. It's training. It's conditioning. I know. I couldn't do it for 45 minutes, but I I plan to volunteer and do anything else they need. I'm sure there's something I can take attendance or something. Yeah, I'm not going to run with the bike. You take pictures for us. Like I said, I'm losing my photographer, so I can do that, too. But I I am so excited about this. And especially um I think there's a new gentleman that's working part-time at the city and part-time at the park department. Yes. Matt Low. Matt. Matt Low. Matt Low. Yeah. And

070I met with him, too. And he's looking for things to do in the in the city. And I mentioned to him about older kids. And I said, "You really you need to get things that you can have them for for the younger kids, too, but if we're going to have something, you can't be putting eight-year-old kids and 18-year-old kids in the same event." Yeah. And he understood that. So hopefully he'll be coming. It's one of those things where I think for a long time it was kind of just not thought about because you just thought you're giving them an opportunity. So it doesn't really But now as as we start looking at inclusion and how we're giving them this idea of being able to be themselves and be around other people respectful. My son is

071going to be 20 years old next week. He is a tall kid. He's a big kid. And if he walks into a room and there's a 5-year-old there, that 5-year-old is of no interest to him and probably will annoy him more than it will help him. So, he needs to be with his peers. And I think, you know, I love I love I love everything that we have. I love buddy ball. I love top soccer. I love everything. But I think there's always room for improvement. And things like that could use the improvement of just maybe giving them a little gap with the ages. It just it's I think it's respectful. I do too. I think it's very respectful. I think it's important. So, I'm I'm thrilled about that and it's great to have Matt

072Low on board. I think he's going to do some great things with us for all of our kids um in our community. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Huby. Yeah, I was basically going to say everything just said. I'm so excited about the program. I think it's going to be fabulous. I'm so glad that we're able to get it off the ground and that it's going to take off and I know it's going to be amazing. Yeah. Um and I was also going to elaborate on how we are going to need a lot of volunteers. So yes, that is like going to be a huge thing. So hopefully the sports teams do come forward because that's going to be a it's going to be right there. We really need the volunteers. Yeah. Thank

073you. Thank you. Thank you. And just to add to my um my thank you for all the work again your group does uh as parent volunteers sort of helping us uh the amazing job that Miss Graham does already, but just adding on to that some supplemental support and ideas for that is fantastic. Um and also you guys have your support group too. So just families are able to even use you as not only a resource but also having that support time for support and just social time. That has become a very big very popular thing um in the past since actually since the beginning of the school year. Our caregiver support group. We actually had one um at the beginning of April and we actually did a hybrid where it was in person but also

074we gave the option to virtually come into it and we did it at the learning center. So, we had the big screen, so if you were up on the screen, you could see everything that was happening. And we had babysitters. So, we had kids in the other room who were playing with my daughter and um another mom. And it was a great we had a good amount of people show up and they were looking, they want the support, they need the support, they want to be able to ask questions or just talk. So, we're going to be looking to extend that and maybe create more opportunities for that. So, that's definitely in our wheelhouse right now. Yeah. So, we so appreciate that. Um, and did you want to mention the CPAC website or any way

075that families could get all of this stuff? You can go on our Facebook page, um, our website, which of course I don't have in front of me right now, but I know it's like qu it's quincy.com. Um, but you can look us up on Facebook and we also have an email. So, if you send us an email, we will add you to our email list. And we send out information all the time. we are constantly um sending out emails letting people know about things coming up, events or other ideas of things that we were going to be doing. So um and just at the I'm just going to say we have two of our board members who are leaving us at the end of this year and so we are we are looking for two

076new board members. Um but Emily and Darlene have been part of our group for the past couple years and have been really significant in us building up this board. So, um, we are losing them this year and it's we're very sad and we're going to miss them and we appreciate them so much. So, we want to just thank them for everything they have done um the past couple years to support the the movement of CPAC and seeing it go get bigger and better. So, Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for mentioning them and for all their work and um I'm sure they'll stay involved anyway. Oh, yeah. Um, so uh but thank you very much uh to you and your group and uh Miss Graham and I think with that we're I'll adjourn the subcommittee,

077the special ed subcommittee tonight. Thank you. Thank you. evening. I'd like to call the teaching and learning subcommittee meeting of uh April 30th to order and I will turn it right over to Mrs. W. Thank you. Thank you. Hello everyone. Thank you for having us. I'm Bridget Vaughn, coordinator of literacy and ELA K to8 and I'm joined by by Miss Abby Nazaro, one of our wonderful, wonderful eighth grade ELA teachers at Central Middle School. Um, I also want to mention that in addition to Miss Nazaro, there are several other educators and students that have contributed to the content of these slides. You'll hear from uh Spencer Matthews and Victoria Cronin, two of our middle school reading teachers, as well as students from Broad Meadows Middle School. And you'll see examples and photos from many literacy

078events throughout the district, some of which include you. Um so, thank you for participating in supporting our literacy efforts. Tonight's presentation is about why the texts we choose for students to read are so important. We'll aim to show you how text shapes students experiences, growth, and understanding of the world. Literature, as we all know, is a powerful tool. It builds empathy, fosters self-awareness, and help students connect to a wide variety of experiences. At Quinsey Public Schools, we work intentionally to offer students a wide variety of texts throughout their education. In the core curriculum, students encounter texts that are part of structured lessons in thematic units. For novels, we have a thoughtful approval process that ensures selections are academically rigorous and culturally inclusive. Texts also serve as both mirrors and windows. Mirrors to reflect students own

079experiences and windows to introduce them to new perspectives and cultures. Additionally, classroom libraries allow for independent book choice, giving students autonomy and encouraging a love for reading. It's essential that students have access to both assigned and self- selected texts because it fosters independence, curiosity, and a sense of ownership over their learning. The goal is to provide many various pathways to literacy, ensuring that every student finds a book that resonates with them, challenges them, and helps them grow. So how do we choose the text that we use? Choosing what students read is a deliberate and thoughtful process. We closely follow the Massachusetts Department of Education of Elementary and Secondary Education Desi ELA frameworks which guide the skills standards and expectations at each grade level. Implementing the Massachusetts Tech selection process ensures that we apply best practices

080when adopting new materials. We used this process over the um past several years to choose, roll out and implement um the new core curricula in grades K to 5. In the implement MA graphic at the bottom of the slide, um you can see the four different phases of choosing highquality instructional materials in the colored circles. Learn and prepare, investigate and select, launch, and implement and monitor. Each phase allows for feedback from all stakeholders, ensuring that we have all the information we need um and are confident in our curriculum selection. We also seek out grant opportunities such as Gleam, which stands for growing literacy equity across Massachusetts. Grants like Gleam provide crucial funding for bringing in new texts in highquality instructional materials that might otherwise be out of reach. So by using our frameworks in ELA,

081our state implementation guidance process and literacy grant opportunities, we can ensure that we're offering students highquality, inclusive, and challenging texts that are aligned with state standards while honoring the various backgrounds and identities represented in our classrooms. In addition to frameworks and grants, we have several evaluation tools that help ensure quality and cultural responsiveness. Curate, which stands for curriculum ratings by teachers, involves real educators reviewing instructional materials for rigor and inclusiveness. We also consult Ed reports, an independent nonprofit that evaluates curriculum programs based on alignment and usability. Tools like the NYU culturally responsive scorecard help us assess whether texts accurately and respectfully resent represent different cultures and communities. The reading league's curriculum evaluation tool ensures that literacy instruction builds foundational reading skills and uh and while common sense media provides insight into age appropriateness and potential

082sensitivities. So by cross referencing multiple sources we ensure that texts we select are not only educationally strong but also affirming, diverse and developmentally appropriate. So, in grades um K through five, students engage engage with a rich and varied selection of texts. We use decodable readers to build early reading skills through systematic phonics instruction. Informational texts introduce students to the world of non-fiction, helping them learn how to read for knowledge and inquiry. Fiction trade books, highquality age appropriate stories spark imagination and emotional connection. We also introduce students to novels, poetry, and plays, exposing them to different genre and styles of writing early on. Incorporating this variety is critical because it teaches students to navigate different text types and genres while also developing comprehens comprehension strategies, critical thinking, and a love for literature. Through all these formats,

083we prioritize diverse voices and experiences, helping even our youngest learners to begin to see the value of multiple perspectives. When it comes to novels selected for whole class instruction, we have a robust novel approval process. Teachers proposing a novel must provide detailed rationale explaining how the book meets curricular goals, developmental appropriateness, and cultural responsiveness standards. This process ensures that novels reflect the values of our community and our students. It's not just about literary literary quality. It's about ensuring positive, meaningful, and inclusive representation. Curriculum adoption on a broader scale for anthologies, core programs, um, and supplemental materials involved involves multiple layers of review, including feedback from educators, administrators, and students. Also, for a little over 20 years now, in addition to my work here in Quinsey, I've been teaching writing and children's literature courses as an

084adjunct professor. This helps me to articulate the why behind effective literacy practices. It enables me to more confidently coach K to8 teachers, support curriculum decisions, and advocate for highquality cultural responsive literature in classrooms. In addition, in January of each year, I'm able to join the ALSC, the Association for Library Service to Children. Um, they have open meetings where they review and identify the best of the best in children's books, recordings, and other digital media for ages 14 and younger. So ultimately our goal is to build a collection that's rich, inclusive, and powerful. A collection that reflects our commitment to educational excellence and equity for all students. And so now I'd like to share a video um with you where Mr. Spencer Matthews, one of our six grade six reading educators, shares, excuse me, how this

085process works. Hi, my name is Spencer Matthews. I'm a grade six reading skills teacher at Central Middle School. Uh, tonight I'll be going over the Quincy public schools book approval process. In order to do that, I put together a quick presentation. So, I'm just going to share my screen with you. So, the goal of this presentation is to explain the process itself. I'll highlight the two books that I recently had approved and I'll also explain why it's so important for teachers to be able to do this. Um, so the first thing that a teacher does when they find a book that they think that students will really enjoy is they go and double check the list to see if it's on there. Uh, this list can be found on our Google Drive system. Uh, you

086can see the books approved for elementary, middle, and high school levels. I checked it. I didn't see the two books I want to get improved, so that's why I went through the process. Uh, eventually they got added to the list for grade six. Uh those are those two books highlighted there with the stars next to them. By the way, those two books were Booked byWame Alexander and The Last Quintista by Donna Barbara Haggera. Uh I chose these two books for a variety of reasons. Uh one of the main reasons the main characters are 12 years old. Uh which my students are the same age so they can really relate to the characters experiences. Additionally Alexander, he's award-winning author. Uh what he does is he writes these verse uh verse poem novels. So the entire story

087is written in poetry format. Uh, this makes kind of poetry a lot more accessible for students because they really struggle usually when it comes to poems. Then we had The Last Quintista. This was the 2022 Newbury Medal winning book. Um, it's a sci-fi dystopian story that a lot of students can have a kind of intense conversations about really interesting kind of topics. Um, but I wanted to kind of focus on the fact that it won the Newber Medal award just a few years ago. So I think teachers what they do is they always are updating their best practices in terms of teaching but we also need to apply that for the materials that we're using which is why this book approval process is so important. Uh teachers have a chance to really share stories that

088they love themselves. Um but also sharing the the latest in young adult literature. So the steps you have to go through is first you find a book you read it you say okay this would be great for my students to read. Uh then you share it with your principal. In this case, I shared it with principal Darro at Central Middle School. Uh he read both of the books. Uh he also said they were great and we should pass it on. Um so then I had to fill out a form which I filled out and I shared with Bridgeton, our ELA coordinator. Uh the form looks like this. It's two pages. Basically, you explain what the book is, uh what it covers, and then you also kind of go into how you would might teach it

089very quickly. Uh we use Common Sense Media, the website to kind of make sure that it's age appropriate. in this case booked. It's ages 10 and up. It'll tell you any difficult topics that might pop up or any inappropriate scenes, but both of these books are appropriate for our students. Uh then we check to make sure that uh we can obviously teach this. It's not just reading a fun book. We got to make sure we're following those ELA frameworks, the Massachusetts standards. Uh and we check to make sure that the book meets the criteria for being a complex text. Um but of course both of these being kind of written by new medal winning authors they they met those text complexity um criteria. Yeah. So that's kind of the process. It's just a few steps.

090Um just want to highlight that with you tonight. Uh I think it's really important for teachers to have a lot of more say and voice and choice in their classrooms. So when they get to find a book that they really love and enjoy and they want to share with their students, uh this book approval process allows for that uh which I think is the the greatest benefit. Uh so thank you so much for listening to my presentation. Uh I really appreciate taking your time. Um so um that was Mr. Matthews. And uh I know he spoke sort of quickly, but that was because I put him under the gun as far as like making it a brief video. So I I'm happy to answer any specific questions about that process uh afterwards. So um literacy

091isn't just about what happens inside the classroom. It's a celebration that happens all year long all across the district. Um, we honor National Poetry Month each April by encouraging students to read, write, and share poetry from different cultures and traditions. In early May, I'll be attending a local author event featuring New York Times bestselling authors Kwami Alexander, um, which was one of the authors actually that Spencer Matthews me mentioned, and Jerry Craft at Belmont Books. Um, you may recall that Jerry Craft visited with us virtually a few years ago um when we had the graphic novel New Kid as part of our one book, One School initiative. These two authors have recently paired up and have a new hybrid illustrated novel coming out May 6th. Um, so I've invited teachers to this event and I'll

092be purchasing some copies for us to review. Author visits bring real world connections to students, giving them a chance to meet the minds behind the books they love. Events like ReadAcross America Week and Raising Multicultural Kids emphasize the importance of daily reading and celebrating the diversity of our nation's readers and writers. Programs like the United States of Readers from Scholastic provide free books to promote equity and access. Schoolwide literacy celebrations such as reading challenges and themed events create a culture where reading is not just academic, it's joyful. Um, and you can see some of that joy through the photos on this slide. Um, on the top right, you see Mayor Ko reading to students as a special guest during ReadAcross America Week. I also added some photos from events with some award-winning authors. Um, author

093Jan Brett read from her new book to many QPS educators at the Massachusetts Reading Co conference last month in Newton. Author Jerry Pada read to students at Clifford Marshall during the United States of Readers kickoff event. and author Sylvia Louie shared one of her books virtually during World Readaloud Day. Um, and speaking of World Readaloud Day, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Nazaro to speak more on that. So, this past February, I was able to schedule over 12 different authors to come to my classroom virtually on World Readaloud Day. So we had two different authors from Europe and the rest came from all different parts of the United States and they were able to zoom in. Um I had sixth graders, seventh graders and eighth graders. I invited the whole school to the

094day and it ended up being an awesome afternoon. I've done it for the past couple of years now and we were able to use the auditorium. We put them up on the big screen. The kids were able to see them. They were able to see the kids which was awesome. Um, so the students were read excerpts from whatever book the author was generally trying to promote and um, after the readaloud, students were able to ask the authors all kinds of questions about their writing process, their inspiration. Um, and then every author ended up finishing the presentation with some book recommendations for the students that they've read aside from their own book that they liked recently. Um, which was perfect timing. We had the Scholastic book fair at school that week and some of the authors

095actually recommended some of the books that were able to be purchased at the book fair. So some kids had taken those and our PTO was nice enough that we were able to fill a bag and I got a bunch of new books for my classroom that the students could read as well which was great. So them being able to have the opportunity to allow authors into the classroom put a huge like wide variety of diverse texts in front of them that they may not have had access to before which is great. and some examples from the um core curriculum in grades six through eight that we use. So um starting with the collections anthology which consists of short stories taken from there and then common lit and read works which are provided to us by

096the district. Those are great for supplemental texts um non-fiction essays things like that um as well as whole class novels like Miss Vaughn talked about poetry plays and reader theater. So, in the eighth grade at Central, we have a really wide range of diverse texts. Uh, we start the school year off with a unit on culture and belonging, and we read stories like My Favorite Chaperon, which is a story about a young girl who moves to America from Kazakhstan. Uh, Bonani, which is a personal essay about a boy from Haiti, and Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan, which is a story about a girl who's embarrassed by her family and her culture. So, something that they all can kind of relate with pretty frequently as middle schoolers. Um, so they resonate a lot with them. And

097then after that, we spend a lot of time reading The Diary of Anne Frank as a whole class. Um, so we do that as a whole class novel. And then we finish off the year, which we just started this past week with a unit on global citizenship um by reading the book and watching the documentary Girl Rising, which um has a big part in QPS, which we really love. And the kids really get very into it. It's kind of funny to watch them step out of their own bubble of Quinsey public schools and say, "Wow, this is we're so lucky to get an education." and it's it's really heartwarming to hear them say that every year. It's really great. Um, so these are some district-wide initiatives that we've been working on for diverse tech. So,

098we're given the opportunities to engage with tons of diverse texts, which is awesome. So, for example, um, we celebrate with the district-wide initiatives like the collaboration with the Thomas Crane Public Library. Um, back in October, we took all of the eighth graders at Central. We on a walking field trip, which was very brave of us. We walked from Central over to the library and um we were able to bring all the kids into the library. We got a tour of all of the the new teen room, the archives, all the spaces that they could study in, everything that they could utilize there, which is so much that most of them really don't even know about. Um and then every kid was able to get a library card as well if they didn't have one before.

099And I would say probably about a third of my students were able to take home a library card that day when they hadn't had one. Um, which was fantastic. This exposed them to so many texts that they may not have had access to before. Um, and then we also provide access to these books through suggested summer reading lists from the ALA, the conferences like Miss Von talked about, the MRA. Um, and then back in November, I was lucky enough, you can see in this picture here, um, to be able to attend the National Council of Teachers of English convention in the Seapport, which was an absolutely outstanding two days. It was so wonderful, not only to connect with our colleagues, but I learned so much over those two days that I was able to take

100back to my classroom immediately. Um, so we got to attend workshops and sessions um about a ton of different topics, but really my highlight was being able to bring back so many titles to my classroom that maybe I hadn't heard about before. Um, and there was a huge room where they were just giving out books for us to bring back to our classrooms. And I'm sure, you know, publishers trying to get the h them in kids' hands. But, um, they were a wonderful variety. And you can see in the picture, this waswami Alexander, who we've spoken about tonight, um, at the conference, we heard him speak. He was wonderful. Um, and he's written a ton of the middle-grade novels that kids are reading now. he just is a really popular and he does it really

101well in a way that kids love his books. Um and then finally for systemwide professional development last spring I presented to my colleagues on the topic of diverse books um and the use of mirrors and windows in the middle school classroom after I finished my master's thesis on the topic. Um so I'm going to share some information about mirrors and windows in the classroom with you all now. So this is a quote um by Rudine Sims Bishop. It says, "Books are sometimes windows offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. So Rudene Sims Bishop is often regarded as the mother

102of multicultural um children's literature and she coined the phrase mirrors and windows which is what I did the majority of my study of my thesis on. Um it's important to kind of connect this idea to the um vocal survey which uh is the views of climate and learning survey that eighth graders take um in Quinsey public schools every year. And one of the main questions that students are asked is,"I read books in class that include people who are similar to me." So part of our aim in teaching about mirrors and windows is to ensure that students understand that people who are similar to me has a really wide range of meanings. So for example, a student might initially think when we read the diary of Anne Frank, I don't really have that much in common

103with Anne Frank. and then maybe they're a boy, maybe they have a different religion, but then once we dig deeper into the book, they start to realize that they have a lot more in common with her. She was a really typical teenager. She fought with her mom. She dealt with insecurities. She dreamed of something bigger. Um, and that's something that they all can relate to. And sometimes the vocal survey can seem really literal to them. Um, especially as a middle schooler, they can take it really seriously. But um if we just teach them how to identify with these characters in a way that makes sense to them um they can see themselves in a much wider variety of the texts that are presented to them. So what are windows? A text can be considered a

104window when the reader can find themselves wrestling with the unfamiliar and getting a peak into a world that is unlike their own. So books act as windows to help students develop an understanding about the world. Realize that there are many similarities between them and the others who and others who may not seem so similar at first and learn about how they might fit in the larger world. So when we read a text, we always want to um ask students to find a window. So we usually ask them or I do in my classroom, how does your book offer you a view through a window into an unfamiliar world or a new perspective on life? So what gives you a way to see something that you maybe didn't see before? And then we also talk about

105mirrors. So a text can serve as a mirror if the reader sees some aspect of themselves reflected on the pages. So these reflections can be physical, cultural or emotional. Um, and physical reflections prompt students to see themselves maybe in the illustrations of a picture book or in the narrative of a novel. So, cultural reflections invite connections between um, readers experiences, maybe their families, communities, values, traditions, language, religion, um, and emotional reflections inspire readers to connect with characters and classmates in various ways um, as texts provoke similar emotional responses. So our guiding question that we ask when we want students to look at a mirror in a book is how does your book reflect elements of your own life and your own experiences back to you. So these texts can be used to help build community.

106Um so these are some ways that you can use any teacher could use these types of texts in their classroom. Um building community by encouraging students to have interpersonal connections with one another. Um, you can use them to kind of mediate discussions with meaningful interaction among students. Maybe they realize, oh, that resonated with you. I didn't know that about you. That resonated with me, too. I had went through something similar. Um, and also building community by engaging families with these texts. Um, which can be done through encouraging the use of multilingual texts, which I know is something that many of us do in our classroom. So using a multilingual mentor text um can encourage students to write use their own writing in multiple different languages just to reinforce their cultural and their linguistic diversity that

107they see in their own homes. Um and then teachers can incorporate bilingual and multilingual texts to enhance readers making meaning and fostering inclusion um around fluid mentor texts. And then tackling tough topics. So supporting students in dealing with some complex feelings when these things come up. Um not only can these texts reflect it as something that you could make a positive out of it. Um but they can also support stealing students in dealing with these topic topics and occurrences. Um and then obviously scaffolding writing as well. So utilizing mentor texts that allow students to find their own voices and share their own stories. So, strategically selected mentor texts um can tap into, you know, funds of knowledge that promote creative writing to help them find their own voices, share their own stories in a way

108that maybe they didn't think that they could before. Um, and help them participate in a meaningful culturally diverse classroom in a way that maybe they couldn't prior. Um, so in this way, the writers simultaneously learned about writing skills while also centering the identities of their classmates in a way that maybe they hadn't seen them before. So these are some questions that educators um can ask themselves when presenting these books to your students. So who is reflected and validated through the books in my classroom library or in the books that I present to my students? Does my collection contain culturally specific titles in addition to culturally generic and culturally neutral titles? How are the characters humanized? In what ways are the characters multi-dimensional? Do my books match my student population and the side society in our

109community? And then these are just some of our major takeaways. So students should be able to see themselves represented in the texts that are put in front of them. Um student identities are complex and text should allow for a variety of connections. Uh mirrors and windows allow students to build both empathy and sympathy. Um it's important to review and audit your classroom library in a way that supports all students. Um, and then allow for accurate representation of students in a way that celebrates joy. Um, and centers joy. Sometimes these texts can be, like I said, a little tough um, a little bit the sometimes they just get a little down when they're reading them. Sometimes the Dario of VanFrank can be tough to teach to eighth graders. Um, so also including books that do center

110some kind of joy around their culture. And then, uh, as educators just being vigilant about how we choose novels for whole group and individual purposes. Um, and then now we have a video for you guys about the uh student voices and choices in the texts. And this is from my colleague Victoria Cronin over at Broad Meadows. She teaches seventh grade reading. My name is Victoria Cronin. I teach grade seven reading at Broad Meadows Middle School. Um, we start every day the same way. Um students come into class, they take out their choice novels and we spend 10 minutes in silence reading. Students can read whatever they want. Um the book can come from home. It can be on their Chromebook. They can listen to audio books um on the Sora app. We have an amazing

111classroom library that's been donated um over the years that students have a diverse selection of authors and topics that they can choose from to read. I'm Kate May in seventh grade. My favorite book from middle school is probably The Red Pyramid by Rick Ryarden because I like magic and mythology. I connect with the chapter books I read because most of the characters in the chapter books are around my age. So I can empathize with a lot of the situations that happen in the books. I'm Ty Lee and I'm in seventh grade. My favorite book to read in middle school is Stamped by Ibram Kenny cuz it gives a interesting perspective on the world. I connect with a lot of the chapter books I read with being able to learn new things with with them. It's

112more rewarding to choose these books because I'm able to challenge myself with the reading level. My favorite book for middle school is um New Kid by Jerry Craft because it was the first book that I read in sixth grade and it allowed me to explore more genres. I connect to the chapter books that I read because they like have the same experience as me or they're probably like in the same age range as me. I find that reading short stories and plays and poems, that's where I'm giving them the text. But when they're able to have their own choice, um, and, you know, have a voice in what they're reading, that's really where the growth happens. And, um, so I hope that, um, that this was really fun. And I'm glad that um you requested

113a presentation like this and more information about it. Um you can see that um many of our students and teachers, you can hear it, you can see it in their voices um hear it in their voices, see it on their faces um about how amazing um it is and how many opportunities we do have in the Quinsey public schools for them through books. And with that, um, thank you for all your support and we'll take any questions. Thank you. Mrs. Hubly, please figure out who she is. Great. Thank you for the brief. Okay, now I'm there. All right. I just want to say thank you for the presentation. I love your um windows and um mirrors and windows reference. I think that was that was great. Um so I do have one question, not actually

114my question. I was out um talking to a group at um Troop 42 the other day. Great group of kids. And um one of the things they had asked was about student feedback on um when they have to read class books or all school books and can they actually give some student feedback on it and a book uh Clementine especially came up that that was not a favorite and they would like to be able to voice their opinion that that was not a favorite book. And it's funny because my son is 24 and I remember him having to read that book back when he was in middle school and I don't remember him liking it either. But um but I just wanted to know what I could bring back to them as to a way

115they could voice that they just did not like that book. In my classroom um I do it pretty informally. I'd like to think that I have a good enough relationship with my students where if they don't like a book, they will definitely let me know. Um for sure they have very strong opinions like that. Um we read a really great book called The Contender in 8th grade and they love it. Every year it's like we love this book. It's a little violent. they it's about a boxer and they're like this book's awesome like yeah that's great. So I think in in my experience if I ever got the feedback from them that they were like all right we're beyond this like we're moving on. I think I would be able to take that and be

116able to internalize it a little bit and move on. Um but I think most teachers do kind of take the feedback just in anecdotally I think from students. We don't have any like process for it but I think if I ever heard from my students like yeah we don't like this book anymore like okay I think maybe we can move on. But um yeah, I'll add to that. So um what some teachers do is they have literature circles. So when they are doing a whole class novel, they might have you know four different novels. um that may not happen right at the beginning of the year, but then once they get to know the students and you know what kinds of things they like to read um you know it's the teacher's job to kind

117of take them out of their comfort zone and try something different but at the same time there's an opportunity to go back and read what you like. So sometimes there's concurrent novels happening at the same time. Um, the other piece I want to mention is, you know, there's no author out there, I don't think, that intended for a novel to be sort of stretched out over many, many, many, many weeks. So, teachers do try to condense that while trying to get, you know, the standards and what they're what they're trying to get out of it um done quickly. Um, so they may not read an entire novel. And then if the students do like it, then they can continue on um to finish it. And if they don't, that's okay. Um, and then they also

118have that opportunity for the independent reading. Um, and then in a previous presentation, you'd heard, you know, we've trying to incorporate the writing revolution and one of the teachers, um, instead of having like traditional chapter quizzes is having more responses in writing. Um, and the feedback, you know, she's taking surveying her students and she's getting more positive feedback about the books they read because they have to think more about what they're reading rather than just answering chapter questions, you know, about um the content or the plot. So, all right. Thank you, Mr. McGulli. Yeah, that's all very nice. Um, where do the classics fall in uh in all of this? They they fall right in line with all of this. And give an example. The Diary of Anne Frank. Okay. In the high school level.

119In the high school level. So, I I coordinate K to8. Okay. And I but I do collaborate. Um I just spoke to an ELA teacher this week and they still do a lot of the classics. Um you know it depend I think it depends on the course level that the students are in but the classics still are pretty prevalent at North Quinsey High School and Quinsey High School. That's what I'm asking. It would be a shame to have that not not being taught. I will say I look at the list pretty frequently of like the approved novels and the high school is very picky about they they those are theirs. the a lot of the classics and they're not willing to give them up. Um, a lot of like Tequila Mockingbird um used to be

120regarded as an eighth grade text, now it's a high school text. Um, but I think they spend a lot of time like dissecting it at that level, which is the difference between like maybe eighth and 10th. Um, but I know at Central and 7th grade some of the um students read Animal Farm and um Lord of the Flies as well. So those are two classics that I know are being taught at the seventh grade level. I remember reading Great Expectations in grade 10 and I wanted to pull my hair up. I succeeded. Um I know The Great Gatsby is still at the high school level. They do more Shakespeare whereas um you know Mid Midsummer Nightstream is introduced in grade five. So some of those classics are introduced on a smaller scale or in an

121a bridge version in younger grades and then they can get into more depth when they get to high school. at the elementary level when I used when I used to teach um I used to sign a list of new award winners uh and they the kids would choose uh from those those uh those books. I remember u one young young man in fifth grade chose the Jungle Book by Reic Kipling. He's teaching at uh North Quincy High School now. I bet. I mean that is a challenging text. Yeah. and he got through it and wrote a great report. So, I just think it's um it's important for them to again to have exposure to those and I'm glad we're still doing it. Oh, yeah. And we still um have Charlotte's Web in grade three as

122sort of one of the first um novels that everybody reads and it's, you know, a a book full of animals. How can we relate to the animals? But every child can relate to one of the animals in that book. you know, it's just about the exchange and the discussions that that the teachers have with the students. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I have just a couple of questions. So on this um Thank you very much. This was really really helpful. How we choose um what text we use that list that's used for the whole class. Is it also used for the choice books? If somebody wanted to bring some a novel in as a choice book, how do they get Yeah. Um, so that process that Spencer Matthews was referring to, that's for whole

123class novels. Um, some of the other books on the list there, um, when he has to go and check, um, some of the books on the list that are on the checklist from other grade levels may not be used as whole class novels. For example, we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of picture books in elementary level that may have been um, made into novels in middle school. Um, and that would be okay to use in some circumstances, but we still have to go through the process because some of these books are made into movies and the movies aren't appropriate. So, for whole class novels, we really have to be careful because once it gets on that list, that means it's accessible for anyone across the district. One of the other pieces that he didn't

124mention is that now with Google, I can hyperlink what he what a teacher sends to me as far as what might be a little bit of a touchy subject or whatever. and how and there's a section on there. It was highlighted about how would you as a teacher handle this? Maybe you send a letter home to families in the beginning or do you know who are the people in your classroom, right? And what what have they um have they experienced this or have they not experienced this and we don't want them to. Um so if there is anything like that um it can be hyperl in there now so that if a teacher says oh this is on the list they don't just pick it and then they can run with it. they can read

125about how to handle these types of situations or discussions if it comes up which has been really helpful. Um but for classroom libraries you know that we rely on common sense media for that. I mean, sometimes, you know, like the last Quintista that said 10 and up, I believe on Common Sense Media, that doesn't that means the content is appropriate for that, but the reading level might be far above that for and more appropriate for middle school. Um, so I I do like that site because it gives reviews from parents, from students themselves. Um, but you know, if there if a student um, and I may be giving you a long-winded answer, I'm sorry, but if a student has a certain issue and a parent asks, we want to be able to have access to

126other books that that a student might need individually for something that they're dealing with or that they're interested in. So, that's a little bit more um, flexible. I don't know if you want to add to that. So, I also do choice reading. I call it independent reading in my class. But um so my students, it's one of my goals for the year is for them to build their reading stamina because their reading stamina sometimes just by the time they get to middle school can be really low. So I start off with eight minutes a day at the start of the year, then we go to 10, then we go to 12 by the end of the year, which they do pretty well. So I let them bring their own books. Um I do send home

127a permission slip before that says, "Your child is choosing this book. I would like you to sit down and discuss with your child what book they are reading. Um, and parents are usually great about it. They say, "Okay, this book is okay with me." Um, and I usually at open house and at parent teacher conferences say, you know, it would be wonderful if you could maybe discuss the book that your child is choosing because they could have gotten it from the library. They could have got, you know, they could have just picked it up off a shelf at home. Um, so I just say to them, uh, what's okay for your family might not be okay for another family. So, I really just put it back on to the parent and say, "What you know

128your child best and what's okay for them to read is is really up to you." Um, if I see something that I'm like, I don't know, like um a serial killer book, I might say send an email home and say, "Hey, I saw that so- and so was reading a book about serial killers. I just wanted to make sure that this was okay with you." And usually the parents will get back to me and say, "Yeah, they were interested in that." Or, "Yeah, they maybe I'll have them pick a different one." um just as an example, but not that that that's never happened, but if it did get books from from anywhere on their own, you know, and parents are usually very receptive to that. And um I always say it's causes for good conversation.

129What did you read about in your independent reading book today over the dinner table or something like that? So, I think for for the um for the choice books, you you're getting to the mirrors and the windows, too, because we don't and I I agree with you. Sometimes the kids don't understand that question. We've talked about that a million times, the MCCAST question, but it still is something that we're dinged with every year. So, I love the fact that we're talking about mirrors and windows with kids and and having books in the classroom like the culturally responsive culturally responsive teaching. Now, what is that? What is that group that's in some of our schools? Oh, raising multicultural raising multicultural kids. Yeah, absolutely. And that's really wonderful. It really is wonderful. I just have one question

130though. What if a parent doesn't like your your whole book? Have you ever had anybody ask you to reconsider a book? I person I have not. Bridget might Yeah. I I mean it's come to me um as a teacher and in my role now. Um and so you know we have a discussion about it. Um I you know we are not in the business of making anybody upset with reading. We want kids to love reading. We've got there are so many books out there that we can teach. So if someone is upset, usually it's just a non-negotiable. We just Even if it's a if it's a whole class book that everybody Even if it's a whole class book. Yeah. I'm not I mean if if I don't know I think if you had if you

131had really gone through all your process here and decided this was a great book for the curriculum and one parent didn't like it, I don't know that I would. But if they have a rationale, we have so many others to choose from. Luckily, you know what I mean? I want to val I I want to value them. I mean there there are other way there are so many other books if I have to teach or you have to teach theme or um you know different points of view there are other books that we can do that if it's going to if it's if it's really something that is going to be upsetting um it's going to have a negative it just bothers me if the the whole classroom or whole doesn't get access to something

132that we think is good because one parent may be challenging it be I mean couldn't we give that student a different choice instead of saying nobody's going to read this book if we all have agreed that it's a great book. Yeah. Well, I mean that's that's kind of the beauty of the literature circle model in some cases, you know, because then there's like there's four sometimes five different books circling around and they can choose. Um it it doesn't happen very often. I can tell you that it's very rare. Um and I I don't believe Miss that we have any policy around sex selection at all. is a very old policy valid. I think that the MASC policy is very succinct and I wonder if we could just put that into our policy set to look

133at that. I don't think we need to write a big deal policy. It seems like you guys are sort of know what you're doing here. But I do think that if there's a policy in the book that's old, we should update it with what's current in the NASCA, which I looked at and is not very it's not it's not really going to hold your feet to the fire about anything. I can say that the form that Mr. Matthews mentioned in the video that used to be sort of um basics about standards, ELA frameworks and standards, right, and text complexity that has changed quite a bit. I mean, he went through it pretty quickly, but it's it's an in-depth process. I think in some ways, you know, um when a teacher reads a book or wants

134to bring it or a student brings a book and says, "Can't we do this as a whole class?" And then you kind of have to go through the process, you say, "I don't think that's worth it." You know, so that's why it doesn't happen that often. Yeah. I'm also a little concerned and I understand the rationale that somebody brings a book in about a serial killer and they're sitting next to my six-year-old who's reading, you know, something really gentle. I might be a little concerned about that. But so it's a it's it's a little difficult thing to to balance too. That's in my I do generally don't have them share too much about their independent reading books with each other. Um only like if they have Yeah, exactly. If there's a title that I've read,

135I'll share that with them that I think might be good for their age. But um in general, I try to have them just because I know what's okay for one might not be okay for another. I've actually said you cannot bring that book to school and that was it. Mr. Regalio, Kathy, Clementine has a darling book about these. Uh, just two quick ones. I like it. For our special education students, do we they have access to books on tape? Yes, they do. Okay. Yes, absolutely. And then um what Miss Nazaro was talking about um with some of our supplemental materials for excerpts with common lit and read works um students can be reading about the same content but maybe at their appropriate reading level. So we have access to that. That's good. And then um

136we used to have way back when again um time during set aside during the school day was called deer time. Mhm. Drop everything and read. Is that what you're talking about? That's basically what I do in my classroom. Yeah. They come in for the first 8 10 or 12 minutes and they just sit down. They know they come right in, sit down, take out your independent reading book. Yeah. We used to do it right after uh lunchtime, which is perfect because uh we just settle them down. So, I'm glad to hear that. That's great. Thank you very much for presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both. Motion to adjourn. Mr. Thanks everybody.