back to the basics Graduate students collaborated with a local elementary school to prepare for their teaching careers. 112 The intervention and assessment class partnered with McRae Elementary School in Searcy in fall 2019 to improve the elementary students' reading skills and provide graduate students with hands-on teaching experience. The graduate students assessed their assigned elementary students at the beginning of the semester, planned an intervention strategy, and worked weekly with their students to achieve reading goals. Master of education graduate student Abigail Jones said the graduate students planned their own reading intervention lessons and personalized the focus to aid each elementary student's struggles. Jones said the fieldwork at McRae strengthened her teaching strategies when working with students. Jones said the unique approach to the class allowed the graduate students to work with individual children. "They get one-on-one intensive intervention that's totally focused on them," Jones said. Bethany Philpot, literacy coach at McRae, taught the graduate class. The graduate students met every Monday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at McRae and taught elementary students. The 10 graduate students paired up and taught their assigned students before switching to teach their partner's students. Afterward, the elementary students went home, and Philpot held a coaching session from 5 to 6 p.m. for the graduate students.
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