By Mary Stewart

The Selma Times-Journal

Students at R. B. Hudson Middle School have been hitting the books this year for the Read 180 Program.

Read 180 is an intervention program for students who need additional assistance to further their reading skills.

“We looked at the student’s data to determine students who were in need of additional instruction,” Dyphelia Thrash, the school’s assistant principal said. “Ms. [Carletta] Jones provided them with daily instruction in small group and whole group instruction, and they also got to use the Read 180 Scholastic software program. So, they had direct instruction from a teacher, and they could practice on their own on the software.”

Thrash and Carletta Jones, the intervention instructor, were hands on with their students.

“When they do not make the type of progress that we want them to, we take it back to the drawing board to determine what’s the problem and allow them to problem solve with us,” Thrash said. “We set goals and work towards those goals.”

One of the ways they helped students be responsible for their progress were their data notebooks.

“They have to keep what we call a data notebook where they keep track of their data so they are able to take ownership of their own progress,” she said.

Thrash and her staff have made some improvements to last year’s programs so that the success rate this year would be higher.

“We were more successful this year once we started to monitor the program a little more, providing the instructor with some professional development and coaching and helped the students become more serious about the program,” she said.

Thrash says she wants the students to realize that this is assistance for them to be more successful rather than seeing it as a punishment. She also believes the program helps with the students’ confidence.

“Read 180, for this select group of students, has definitely built their confidence and allowed them to see that they can function right along with their peer who didn’t need intervention,” Thrash said.

She told her students that she doesn’t want them to need assistance, but if they do, then it will be provided to them.

Twenty out of 57 Read 180 students were honored this week for their progress.

The students each gained 10 points on their reading level score from the beginning of the school year through May. The selected 20 had a celebration Monday and received a certificate.

Thrash says that 100 points was the minimum requirement, but many of her students gained more. She says she did struggle to get students excited for the program, but once they saw their progress they were excited about the gains they were making.

“It’s great, and it made us feel that the work that we’ve done hasn’t been in vain,” Thrash said. “To see the excitement on their faces when they actually saw that they actually could do it was exciting.”