Patti Haasch

Patti Haasch, principal
Cass Lake-Bena Elementary, Cass Lake

Teaching reading is a priority in our school because the ability to read affects every content area in school no matter what the grade level! We have high expectations and set goals for all of our children to succeed. 

We are located on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. The elementary demographics are: 559 enrolled preK- 4, 91% are Native American, 28% qualify for special education services, and 87% free and reduced lunch. The poverty, mobility and unemployment rates are staggering.

To reach our high goals, we seek outside funding and have a number of reading interventions in place. We are a Title I school-wide program and in 2009 we used ARRA funds to target reading. We’ve been an Early Reading First and a Reading First school.  Reading interventions include: Reading Recovery, Early Intervention Reading (EIR), and LLI – Leveled Literacy Intervention. We’ve ordered more non-fiction and culturally relevant books, magazines, and materials to enhance our program. 

While we cannot control many factors in children’s lives, we do know that we can impact achievement through instructional strategies, classroom management, and curriculum design. More can be done to improve education by improving the effectiveness of teachers through professional learning communities, on-going literacy coaching, and learning new instructional techniques. The components of the reading instruction models we implemented focused on: 1) higher level thinking; 2) actively teaching word recognition and comprehension; 3) student support through modeling and coaching along with teacher-directed activities; 4) active student engagement instead of passively responding to literacy activities; and 5) reflecting upon the purpose of a lesson.

Research demonstrates that when students discuss what they know or reflect on a higher-level question, they clear up misunderstandings – which translates to better gains on test scores! One of the instructional techniques we adopted is “Think, Pair, Share”.  This allows students to think about a question, then turn and talk, listen and discuss it with others. This process allows them to practice thinking which:  helps students remember information better; increases brain capacity; gives them new ideas and better answers; helps them feel more comfortable; gets the students to see another point of view and compare opinions; plus it’s fun to talk to a friend, which helps them stay interested.

This year we applied to the Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC). This is a statewide initiative to help every Minnesota child become a successful reader. It is a strong intervention program for reading fluency and early literacy skills. MRC is an AmeriCorps program, the domestic version of the Peace Corps, which selects members who are serviced-minded. Our MRC preschool literacy tutor helps develop the preschoolers’ early literacy skills for kindergarten by enhancing daily literacy opportunities and conducting literacy assessments. Our MRC elementary literacy tutor works with grade K-3 children who need help learning to read. The tutor uses prescribed literacy interventions and conducts weekly progress monitoring to ensure the student is on track to read at grade level by the end of third grade. (To find out more about MRC, visit their web at MinnesotaReadingCorps.org or call 866-859-2825.)

Staff collects data and holds retreats periodically to review and make any necessary changes to meet students’ needs. Professional development is ongoing, plus we have a district-wide literacy coach. We just read, read and read some more at Cass Lake-Bena Elementary, giving our children the building blocks they need to succeed!