News Photo by Kaitlin Ryan Alcona Elementary Schools students work on math skills during one of the dedicated time blocks designed to provide sufficient focus on math and science.

LINCOLN — Alcona Elementary School has implemented an Elementary Modified Instructional Model for first- through third-graders to ensure students are getting a strong foundation of math and science.

For the 2017-18 school year, the state’s MISchooldata.org shows more than half of the 102,587 third-grade students tested statewide are considered only partially or not proficient in math. That deficiency compounds as students continue through the grades and can become a major obstacle.

The new model adopted by Alcona schools has created a daily schedule that includes a 55-minute block for math and one for science. In previous years, it was up to the classroom teacher to arrange daily lessons. With those dedicated lesson blocks, students will receive sufficient time and focus on those core subjects, school officials said.

There are two classes per grade level, and the classes take turns switching between the two curriculums.

During math, students are co-taught with the classroom teacher and a math teacher, while science has one teacher.

The classroom teacher is present during math to help co-teach students and assist with hands-on work. There are also interactive projectors in every classroom to help students apply the lessons. With the classroom teacher present during math, it also allows them to further implement concepts in other areas of the classroom.

“The classroom teacher is able to carry over that language and dialogue in extension into that classroom as well,” Principal Timothy Lee said.

When the students are in science class, it frees up one classroom teacher to be an interventionist for another classroom and provide extra assistance for students.

Lee said that means there are six highly trained interventionists to provide help in any capacity during that time.

Each class also has a place-based project that coincides with the science curriculum. Lee said the first-graders visited the harbor last week to do a beach clean-up, for example. He said it is a more inquiry-based approach that is specific to Michigan, which helps promote standards that are less about basic memorization and more about actual, real-world application.

“It provides those unique learning opportunities to kids,” Lee said.

Lee said first- through third-graders were chosen because it was the most sustainable model. With the staff available, he said it made the most sense, and it will be a model that can be maintained.

Kaitlin Ryan can be reached at kryan@thealpenanews.com or at 358-5693.