Welcome

Maple Avenue Middle School is committed to an educational program that recognizes and values the talents of the individual student.  The mission of the ACE Program is to enhance and extend the learning and understanding of all students in the regular classroom while at the same time nurturing the strengths and meeting the needs of the students who participated in the elementary Young Scholars’ Program.  Maple Avenue’s ACE Program especially addresses the core content area of language arts.  A variety of instructional and curricula strategies will modify, differentiate and enrich the curricula in order to increase challenge and learning:

ð     Cooperative and collaborative group activities

ð     Use of choice

ð     Concept focus

ð     Scaffolded / tiered assignments

ð     Debates

ð     Socratic & shared-inquiry discussions

ð     Literature circles

Ultimately, the goal is to increase student achievement.  Another facet of the ACE Program that

will help this endeavor is data analysis.  We collect, manage and analyze various types of data to identify the strengths and needs of each previously identified Young Scholar in grades six, seven

& eight.  For example, one assessment may include the ELA that students took in fourth grade.  A question we might ask is, what areas of the ELA were the most difficult for students and what were the common errors?  Rigorous instruction can then be planned to target specific areas for improvement.

Meet the Players

Mr. Robert Loggins, principal of Columbian Springs is the ACE Manager.  Lynn Calhoun and Bethany Killeen are the two coaches who share the four houses.  They will be working with sixth, seventh and eighth grades.   Lynn Calhoun worked at Maple Avenue last year.  She will be here

on Mondays and Fridays.  She is also a Young Scholars teacher and an enrichment consultant

for several other school districts.  Being new to Maple Avenue this year, Bethany Killeen is looking forward to working with you.  Over the last five years, she worked in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district as a consultant, as well as, an enrichment and Young Scholars teacher.

Dates of Interest

The AGATE conference is coming up for those who may be interested.  The conference will be held this year on October 21& 22 at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University.  The theme

of the conference is Preparing to Lead: Building Talent in School & Society.   Workshop topics include parenting, leadership, social development, technology and the arts.  Dr. Abraham J. Tannenbaum, author of Gifted Children: Educational and Psychological Perspectives, and Professor (Emeritus) Teachers College, Columbia University will be the keynote speaker.

For more information visit - www.agateny.org.

We welcome your questions, feedback and input. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

Success!

The ACE Team

ACE@saratogaschools.org