To help students improve their overall academic skills, the Elementary School Learning Center implements an intervention program selecting groups of students to assist in math, English, and Spanish.

One to three times a week, Learning Center teachers go to the classes of K4 to fifth-grade students and work with them independently. They work under the same goal and the same subject with different activities and worksheets.

“We work the reinforcement under the same objectives of what the kids have to learn. We teach inside the objective but with different activities and in a smaller group to reach a better attention and permanence,” Gloria Cecilia Tobón, Lower Elementary Learning Center coordinator, said.

This was implemented because children have different ways of learning and when an institution is bilingual, more attention is paid to the literacy and the language.

“Alejandro or Susana help us improve in writing or reading. They bring us different activities so we can be better at it,” one 3rd Grade student said.

Learning Center takes into account at what reading level the students are in, teachers recommendations, and in a meeting called PAC, the students are selected according to their development in the classroom, subject areas, rubrics, and diagnosis.

“Kids selected for this groups are because they have lack of attention, others because they have a hard time following instructions, others because they can’t understand the topic being taught to them; they either forget it or they confused things, among other difficulties,” Andrea Gil, Upper Elementary School teacher, said.

In the first trimester, students are observed; in the second-trimester students are put into the groups. This is a method which was implemented 16 years ago.

“In the first trimester, students are observed by the Learning Center Team. We go to the classes and play with them or make different kind of activities by putting them into different groups each day,” Tobón said.

Learning Center reunites with teachers, to look at students’ progress. The parents always get notified when the student is joining a group, or when she or he leaves one.

“It’s an excellent strategy because it is a way for all children to be at the same level through these aids and it’s evident that with the work of small groups, the kids manage to capture more information,” Daniela Correa, High Learning Center teacher, said.

The inclusion philosophy is key to the Learning Center team; their goal is for everybody to be involved and to help those kids that need more support.

“We expect every student to be successful, especially the ones that we are helping because they are the ones that need a little bit more support and a little bit extra push and of course we want them to be successful,” Gil said.