Supplemental classes – called literacy labs – for second-graders have been providing a necessary boost for children who need it.

According to Mary Heal, assistant principal at the Skilling School, “The literacy lab creatively uses our budget because it takes place during the regular day, using regular staff.”

Second-graders have been meeting four days a week for 50-minute sessions, with 12 students and three teachers working to achieve the benchmarks set up by the state.

“This is a supplemental program that gives kids a boost,” continues Heal. “It’s not a life sentence – as soon as a benchmark is hit, the child moves on.”

The literacy labs are part of the “intervention” efforts introduced by Superintendent Wendy Houlihan to help all South Portland students achieve. Her ultimate goal has been to keep kids from being labeled “learning disabled,” when all they really needed, she believed, was a little extra academic support.

Donna Clark, one of the second-grade teachers at Skillin, said that the particpating children come to see themselves as readers and writers. “They find joy in reading and making connections between what they read and their own life experience,” said Clark.

Meanwhile, over at Dyer Elementary, Principal Colleen Fleming said the two primary goals of her school’s intervention efforts are: “To provide children with a small-group, structured setting through which to further develop identified skill deficit areas, and to provide a learning environment where the children can gain confidence in themselves as readers and writers with the strategies that will help them be successful in the regular classroom.”

Last summer, Dyer hosted its first Summer Literacy Camp. For one week, in three-hour sessions, the theme of “Sail Into Literacy” meant the shark group made word games for snack time and each child read a fish book, like “Schools of Fish,” by Philip Strand, John Christensen and Andy Harper and “Swimmy,” by Leo Lionni.

The children finished the program with confidence, said Fleming, “That ‘I can learn, I can do good work,’ feeling makes a huge difference in the self-esteem of a struggling student,” said Fleming.

Dyer Elementary School also offers after-school interventions in both literacy and math. The children meet for one hour, two days a week, with a certified teacher. The idea is to keep numbers small, give children individualized attention, feedback and support, Fleming said.