Programs

Hurd School Elementary Program

 

94 Lebanon Street ~ Melrose, MA. 02176

Phone: (781) 662-4111

Fax: (781) 662-6111

Principal: Jennifer Thornton, M.Ed

The SEEM Collaborative Hurd School program is a therapeutic public day school program whose students range from 6 to 11 years in age. Students enrolled in this program do not possess the skills necessary to meet the day-to-day demands of traditional elementary programs. Despite years of significant local modifications to their schedule and curriculum and intense special education intervention and support, they exhibit behaviors and challenges that in the Team's judgment, warrant out-placement in a therapeutic day school program.

Students enrolled in the Hurd School Program have cognitive abilities that fall in the average range or above; however, many students have significant learning disabilities, organizational issues, social, emotional and/or behavioral issues that greatly impact their performance in academic areas. All curricula taught at the Hurd School follows the standards specified in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks while at the same time provides individual students with support, adaptations and accommodations they need in order to learn their potential.

Students with learning disabilities, emotional and/or behavioral issues tend to learn and retain information better when they are taught in small group settings with clear and consistent routines and expectations. At Seem Collaborative's Hurd School Program, students are placed in reading and math groups based on individual needs and abilities. Learning disabled or highly distractible students may be most successful in reading or math tutorials or a group with a 2:1 student to teacher ratio. Students who are working on or above grade level may be most successful in a slightly larger group.

Students with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, may require a structured multi-sensory approach to reading instruction. The focus of these reading programs is to improve the student's word analysis skills and sight vocabulary and apply these skills to read connected text at an appropriate reading level. Many students who struggle with reading lack the motivation to learn to read, because it is difficult for them. It is critical to boost a student's confidence level, so that reading becomes less daunting and more enjoyable. For student working at or above grade level in reading, the focus of their reading program is on improving reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary skills and discussion skills. All students participate in a forty-five minute reading, language arts block and a thirty minute literature period per day.

In math, students at all levels develop concepts using manipulatives and visual aids before transferring skills to paper and pencil tasks. Students are exposed to daily problem solving activities that help develop their mathematical thinking skills and teach specific strategies and steps to follow when solving one-step or multi-step word problems.

Many students in the Hurd School Program have organizational challenges and/or written language delays that affect their progress in all academic areas. Teachers use a variety of graphic organizers and writing templates throughout the curriculum and teach students specific study skills and strategies to use or organize their thoughts and ideas and share their knowledge with others. Alpha Smarts (individual keyboards) are used at all grade levels to support students during writings tasks. Teachers consult regularly with the occupational therapist in order to monitor individual student's skills in area of fine-motor development, keyboarding and handwriting and consult with speech and language pathologist in order to monitor individual student's skills in terms of sequencing, vocabulary, receptive and expressive language and grammar. Middle school students use the "Master Notebook" system to organize all notes, assignments and homework and are taught specific note-taking strategies and study skills.

Students participate in daily lessons in the content areas (social studies and science) at the actual grade level with adaptations for individual students whose skills may be below or above grade level. Students are required and encouraged to share their knowledge through discussions, hands-on projects, experiments, written assignments and various other activities. Again, students are taught how to use graphic organizers, such as webs, in order to organize learned information and aid in retention of the material.