An interactive e-reader called LightSail has entered Mineola classrooms to help students become active readers.
The iPad app aims to engage students as they learn the material presented in their readings and has gotten positive feedback from students since it was first implemented in October, said Margarita Maravel, an English and social studies teacher at Mineola Middle School.
“Using LightSail is one of the ways we inspire our students to be lifelong learners” Maravel said at the school board meeting on Thursday. “We have helped students become more excited about reading, which of course is one of our goals.”
LightSail allows children to read at their own independent level and helps them monitor their understanding as they read.
It also allows teachers to keep better track of how much and how well each student is reading, similar to Mathspace, another iPad app used in Mineola schools.
To begin, students take an assessment called a “Power Challenge” to determine their reading level. From that point on, each student is presented with individual reading goals which they try to reach throughout the school year.
Fifth-grade teacher Deborah Dorothy and six of her students — Nicole Cruz, Jack Sargent, Hannah Katinas, Sabrina Matezer, Jack Ryan and Chloe Jean Noal — helped present LightSail to the board and have presented this program to several districts across Long Island.
“It amazes me how articulate the children are and how knowledgeable they are about what they are doing in school and their own learning,” Mineola school Superintendent Michael Nagler said. “It’s very impressive that they understand how they learn and what they learn.”
Board of Education President Christine Napolitano said people often associate iPad use in the classroom with mindless activity.
“This is far, far from mindless work,” she said. “The way the children articulated what they are doing ran rings around me.”
Napolitano said she would welcome more presentation of this type to show the public what positive things students are doing in Mineola classrooms.
The school board also approved Dec. 17 a resolution to submit plans for a $7 million renovation package at Mineola High School and Hampton Street School, an elementary school.
The plans for the high school’s new athletic field will be tied to ceiling repairs and other minor fixes to ensure the field is complete next fall.
Due to a backlog in the state education department, review for other parts of the project that require new construction — including a new athletic field and concession stand at Hampton Street School and a technology lab at the high school — will take almost a year.
The district has contracted with Rocky Point-based Tri-Turf, Inc. for the work.
