Schools demonstrate how learning happens after school

Students do some detective work and investigate a mock crime scene.

Students read aloud "Where the Wild Things Are" by Author Maurice Sendak.

Students also performed "Where the Wild Things Are" for visiting parents.

Students play competitive games of Scrabble.

Washington School eighth grade social studies Teacher Alfred Manigo demonstrates
some strategy games students play and explains how the games require
students to use math skills.

Washington School RTI Coach John Donermeyer addresses parents.

The lights were on and the children were learning in fun, engaging ways in several Dolton West Elementary District 148 schools during a special, after school programs event.

Parents and other visitors joined students at Franklin, Lincoln Elementary and Junior High, Roosevelt Elementary and Junior High, Park, and Washington schools on Thursday, Oct. 22nd.

The observance was part of the Afterschool Alliance’s 10th Annual Lights On Afterschool celebration of after school programs nationwide.

The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit public awareness and advocacy organization working to make sure all children have access to quality and affordable after school programs.

In District 148, the occasion gave teachers and students the chance to show off what they do in their buildings four days each week after the regular school day ends.

At Roosevelt Elementary School, for instance, second-graders played vocabulary games,others read aloud and performed their own rendition of the popular children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are” by author Maurice Sendak and fifth grade students used their math skills to play some card games.

In addition, sixth-graders were engrossed in some competitive games of Scrabble and some fourth- and fifth-graders were busy doing detective work as they gathered make-believe crime scene evidence.

“This is another snapshot of what we do for after school, and they’re learning,” Darlene McMillian, Roosevelt Elementary’s Success For All facilitator, told a group of visiting parents.

At Roosevelt Junior High, seventh and eighth grade students played math games, participated in team building activities, created their own newspaper, and indulged in Trivial Pursuit competitions.

Washington School staff provided parents and others with information about Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, Success For All, Response to Intervention, A+, technology-based prescriptive learning, and Illinois Standards Achievement Test preparation.

Parents and children also took part in a family reading activity and received books to take home. Washington’s after school program is currently only available to elementary students.

In recent years, standardized achievement test scores have shown improvement among students who have attended the after school programs, McMillian said, and the sessions have become so popular there currently are waiting lists in some of the buildings. Roosevelt Junior High, for example, has about 15 students waiting to enroll in the after school program.

The district’s after school programs are funded by a federal, 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant. The intent is to provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children and helps students meet learning standards in core academic subjects such as reading and math.