High School ELA
The Honors LA9 classes recently finished reading a memoir by Ted Stamp called This Was Just The Way. Stamp is a 1993 Huron High School graduate, and his memoir reflects on his life before and after a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed. The memoir explores how our circumstances shape not just our decisions and beliefs, but also who we ultimately become. Students discussed the book, wrote a reflection paper about it, and created a “map of life” visual book report project.
The yearbook staff has been working diligently to complete all the pages of the yearbook. It is not an easy task! They started the year with nothing and will end it with a beautiful, 176-page, full-color book based on their theme, Diary of an HHS Student. During the first semester, they learned the journalism skills necessary to create the book, and they have been busy ever since interviewing, taking photos, writing stories and captions, and putting together layouts. They will be glad to see the final product which will be delivered in August. This year’s editors are Chloe Carr, Ali Davis, and Hylton Heinz.
The applied language development classes finished their ACCESS testing at the end of February. This test scores their skills in the areas of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. With a high enough composite score, students test out of the EL program. The classes are starting the novel Jake Reinvented by Gordon Korman, a modern retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, set in a high school environment. The novel explores themes of popularity, friendship, and the destructive power of obsession, all against the backdrop of teenage life.
Chris Stahly
ELA Teacher
Huron High School
Sheltered classroom is composed of students who are English Learner (ELs) Students and are learning academic subjects while developing their English speaking skills. They simultaneously understand lessons, adjust to a new culture, and build confidence in communication. They balance learning content and language skills through peer-tutoring, scaffolding, and cooperative learning. Their learning focuses on both content knowledge and language development in order to improve comprehension and social skills.
In this school year, the third quarter concluded by writing an argumentative essay. This activity showcased all their learned skills on how to write an essay. They narrowed a topic, wrote an argumentative claim, researched evidence properly, and then listed their references. It has shown a quite challenging experience for the students; however, engaging the students in this kind of writing helped them learn how to use available materials efficiently and become more independent learners.
Ma. Christina F. Urzabia
Language Arts Teacher
Huron High School
Middle School Science
In Science, the students are completing a unit on the human body. 7th grade science students have been learning the different body systems and how they work together to help maintain homeostasis. We are wrapping up the unit with frog dissections. The students will compare and contrast the systems of the frogs with humans. Next, the Huron Middle School is gearing up to host the Science Fair on April 17, 2026. The judging will begin by 1:30pm with awards presented by 3:00pm. Friends and family are encouraged to attend this event to show support to their favorite student.
Heidi Blue
Sharon Engelhart
Camryn Romig
7th Grade Science Teachers
Huron Middle School
Buchanan K-1 Center EL
The English Language (EL) department at Buchanan K-1 Center has been very busy the last few months. We finished Access testing (an annual language proficiency test) all the EL students for kindergarten and first grade. The students have shown a lot of growth from the last time they took this test, and we are very proud of them!
Kindergarten:
Kindergarten English Language (EL) students have been working on listening when directions are given, speaking more frequently in their classrooms, and learning to read and write their letters and sounds. Students are also working on recognizing the beginning and ending sounds in CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words.
In math students have been working on building their number sense, addition, and 2D shapes. A big focus right now for these students is writing their numbers to 20, identifying teen numbers, and orally counting to 100.
We are working in Language class on identifying objects in the classroom and at home, speaking in full sentences, and answering questions about their life. A few other topics students have covered during Language this year include: clothing, food, answering what they like or do not like, and parts of the body/5 senses. Students are also learning about nursery rhymes in preparation for the upcoming Nursery Rhyme Olympics that is hosted by the kindergarten teachers. A special appearance from Mother Goose (EL teacher Mrs. Azure) during the Nursery Rhyme Olympics is always an exciting event.
In writing group, kindergarten EL students are working on writing the sounds they hear in words using kid spelling, proper handwriting formation of letters, and working towards writing full sentences. Before the school year is over, the writing group will focus on starting with a capital letter and ending with punctuation for their sentences along with drawing a picture to match their sentence.
All kindergarten students participate in a Music and Me class, where language skills are developed through music. Students in Music and Me are learning about carnivals and will be able to identify the people and things that are found at a carnival by the end of the unit. This is a fun unit for the students to participate in right before the circus comes to town!
First Grade:
First grade English Learners (ELs) have been focusing on further developing their foundational skills such as: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Mrs. Fryberger uses explicit instruction in her approach for teaching foundational skills as they are presented in a very direct systematic way. Students are given clear objectives and then a lot of practice to improve each new skill. Repeated review is also a vital part of this process.
First grade ELs have been utilizing strategies grounded in the Science of Reading in addition to building on their foundational skills. Reading is a skill that is essential for any student’s success. The Science of Reading shows that kids learn to read best when we explicitly teach them how sounds work, how letters represent those sounds, and how that all comes together to make meaning. When our EL students come to a word they are unsure of, they often look for picture clues. They sound words out to see if they make sense and learn to look for word chunks and then blend sounds together. They also go back and re-read a sentence until it makes sense. Lastly, they are taught to read ahead and look for clues that may help determine unfamiliar words.
All first grade students participate in a language class each week focusing on higher order thinking skills, abstract thinking, components of the English language, and overall gaining a better understanding of the rules of our English language. We recently did a unit on mapping skills and had the opportunity to explore different areas of the world to see where our students came from. It was an exciting way for students to learn about other areas of the world.
As the end of the year approaches, students will continue to work on foundational skills as well as numerous other strategies used throughout the year to help reinforce new vocabulary such as the language of math, science, and social studies. Our ELs have made significant progress this year and are encouraged to apply their language-based skills out in the community and at home as well.
Carrie Azure
Sabrena Brooks
Lacey Fryberger
EL Teachers
Buchanan K-1 Center
Leave a Reply