The Danville District 118 School Board has given unanimous approval to using the next school year as a “pilot year” for the CKLA reading program for kindergarten through 6th graders. District 118 Curriculum Director MaryEllen Bunton said after Wednesday (Jan 17th) evening’s board meeting that this “Core Knowledge Language Arts” Program is meant for all students at all reading levels.
AUDIO: This is really about the knowledge building part; or what a lot of people are familiar with is the “comprehension” piece of it. It has a really strong vocabulary component to it. And the way that it really helps the kids talk about what they’re reading is a really huge aspect of it.
District 118 Curriculum Director MaryEllen Bunton explains the CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) reading program to the Danville District 118 Board.
Bunton says that for the rest of this school year it will be a matter of lining up teachers who will be participating, getting it rolling for the 24-25 school year, and then seeing if CKLA stays in 118 after that.
AUDIO: The rest of this year, we’ll start looking at kind of training the teachers that are going to pilot; and then next year we’ll implement it in the fall and see how it goes. And if we like it, then it will be up for adoption in our K through 6 classrooms.
Bunton says during the pilot program, participation among teachers and grades will vary at each school. But at South View Upper Elementary, for example, it will be important to distinguish between how CKLA approaches 5th and 6th grade students.
AUDIO: Because the sixth grade, it has more of a digital component. And the fifth grade’s; it’s more of a traditional experience. They look so different that we needed to see how they work together.
The initial cost of 118’s participation in CKLA, much of it scheduled to be paid for by ESSER COVID relief money, includes about $59,000 for teacher materials, and about $56,000 for student materials.
