KEC Provides Extra Support for Students

What is the KEC?

At Bright, small class size is key to individual learning and differentiated instruction. When a student needs additional enrichment or extra support, the Kilbride Enrichment Center is here to provide that with both literacy and mathematics.

The KEC was established by the Kilbride family after their son, Ben Kilbride, died in an accident during his sixth grade year at Bright in 2000. The center’s role over the last 20 years has evolved, but it has continued to help Bright fulfill its mission to encourage and challenge students to develop a life-long love of learning.

The KEC includes Sue Lyman, Karen Smith and Susan Pesterfield, three instructors who each have more than 20 years’ of teaching experience; Marla McDaniel, a speech language pathologist; Sarah Powe, an occupational therapist who works for outside practice neuroBridge; and Rachel Blanton, the school counselor who also coordinates extra services for individual students and their families. All of these services except neuroBridge are included in tuition.

Classroom teachers, along with our Student Support Team, which meets regularly throughout the school year, identify students who need extra help, particularly in reading, writing, fine and gross motor skills. KEC instructors (Mrs. Lyman, Mrs. Smith and Ms. Pesterfield) meet one-on-one with students or in small groups to work on those skills. The goal is to reach all students with all types of learning styles and abilities and build their confidence.

New this year is Leveled Literacy Intervention, a more intense support for reading and literacy as students approach third grade, which is a critical academic year. Research across the nation shows students who are reading at grade-level in third grade are more likely to succeed in the remainder of their academic journey. KEC instruction supplements work in the classroom, and all the learning aligns with curriculum across all grades.

Students who need speech and language therapy or work with fine and gross motor skills may be referred to Mrs. McDaniel, who is the school’s on-site speech language pathologist, or Mrs. Powe, who comes to Bright to work with students. When a student’s learning issue goes beyond these services, Bright refers families to Hamilton County, neuroBridge, or The Blue Ridge Center for Children and Families for an educational evaluation and provides as much support as possible through the process to identify the needs of students.

Another element to the KEC is social-emotional growth. Mrs. Blanton works with individual students, small groups and entire classes to talk about friendships, family relationships, and managing emotions and stress.

Next week’s Woodshop will include profiles of Mrs. Lyman, Mrs. Smith and Ms. Pesterfield so you can get to know these instructors who get to know each student throughout his or her time at Bright.

Meet Our Instructors

Sue Lyman

Mrs. Lyman works with kindergarten and first grade. With a background in early childhood development, Mrs. Lyman helps students with skills identified by the teachers and in assessing progress.

“Every child has gifts, but they just open them at different times” is how Mrs. Lyman describes the needs of students. You may see Mrs. Lyman be very animated while working with a student in the hallway as he or she writes on a wipe-off surface or says a letter or word on a flash card. She uses puzzles to finish her short lessons to help build confidence. Teaching young students early reading skills is her passion.

Mrs. Lyman performs daily short visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile drills that circle around past and present skills within each grade level. She works on memorizing, differentiating between upper and lower case letters, recognizing “snap words,” and pronouncing words or sounds correctly. For instance, a student who pronounces “with” like “wif” will not be able to spell the word correctly.

This is Mrs. Lyman’s 12th year at Bright, starting off as a PK assistant, and prior to that, she was a 4-year-olds teacher at private preschool on Signal Mountain for 11 years. She also taught adult literacy through the READ program. You will find her working in the Early Childhood Center building, first grade classroom or hallway.

Karen Smith

A teacher for 28 years, Mrs. Smith is new to the KEC this year after teaching fourth grade, second grade, and then first grade at Bright. Her position as a leveled literacy intervention instructor is new to Bright and is focused on grades 1-3.

She is using the Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention System, which supplements classroom instruction with small groups of students working on reading, writing and phonics. Mrs. Smith meets with the groups of usually four students for 30 minutes each day. The goal is to raise the students’ skills to grade level. (Parents may recognize Fountas & Pinnell as the alphabetical system used to identify reading levels of students.)

On a recent morning, Mrs. Smith was working with second graders in her brightly-decorated space in the KEC, which is located off the main lobby. They each had cards with letters on them to spell certain words. First they “pounded out” the words by pounding one fist into the other hand while saying the letters one by one. Then, they used the cards to spell the words. After that, they read sections of a short story that included the words they had just spelled, and they used highlighters to mark each word. “The main goal is to build confidence so they can be independent readers,” Mrs. Smith said.

Mrs. Smith says teaching reading is her passion, and she wants all children to enjoy reading. Identifying any learning needs as early as possible is key. With our personalized instruction and multi-sensory strategies, we can support all readers. The KEC instructors, classroom teachers and parents form a team to help each child learn and grow.

Susan Pesterfield

Ms. Pesterfield provides instructional support to fourth and fifth graders and can be found working with children in the classroom or in small groups or with individuals in her room off the fourth grade hall.

Her role varies from providing reading level assessments three times a year to making sure students are on track and turning in work to monitoring students who may need more time or a more quiet place to take tests. Ms. Pesterfield also has several book clubs she coordinates, and she enjoys listening to the students analyze what they are reading. As she says, “I help all students but target those who may need more support.”

Ms. Pesterfield meets with the teachers every Friday to plan the week ahead and where she needs to be during each block. By fourth and fifth grade, the specific learning needs of students may already be known. She works to modify or enrich the workload to support students’ learning goals and environment while boosting confidence and motivation.

Ms. Pesterfield has been teaching at Bright for 13 years, the last six in the KEC. She came to Bright after creating a childcare facility for Erlanger employees, teaching at Fairyland School and raising her twin sons who graduated from Bright. She takes pride in getting to each child individually and connecting with them on a personal level to help them feel supported and celebrate their academic achievements.

More Student Services

For many years, Bright has helped parents and students find the services they need that are offered outside school. Often these services included speech and language therapy and pediatric occupational therapy. These services help children who have certain developmental delays or disorders. Over time, it became harder and harder to find and schedule services, and it can be very expensive. Having this expertise at the school also provides a great resource for teachers.

Two years ago, Bright hired Marla McDaniel, who has been a speech and language therapist for nearly 20 years, to practice at the school and during school hours. The cost of these services is paid by the school.

Mrs. McDaniel works with children who have speech sound delays and disorders (including phonological delays), language delays and disorders (speaking, reading, and writing), social-emotional needs (using classroom language successfully and peer relationships), stuttering, and hearing impairments. Each student is different, and so is the amount of time she spends with each one on a weekly basis. “Generally, I meet with a student one to two times a week outside of class and sometimes I go into the classroom and work directly with the student in class,” she said.

Similar to the interventions provided by the KEC instructors, speech therapy at a young age lays the foundation for success in the future. It is important for parents and teachers to ask questions and recognize the need for therapy. Mrs. McDaniel offers these tips to parents:

If your child is highly frustrated with verbal or written communication at home, at school, or in the community, it is often helpful to seek the advice of a speech-language pathologist to talk through a possible why.
If your child has difficulty following simple directions, completing developmentally appropriate tasks, routinely re-telling a simple story in the correct order, or if your child uses a sentence structure that is largely different from children of a similar age and background, talking with a speech-language pathologist about an evaluation would be a good first step.
If you have a difficult time understanding your child's speech more than half the time relative to other children of a similar age, it is often helpful to seek an evaluation for a possible speech problem.
When a teacher or pediatrician recommends a possible referral or evaluation, please seek one out.

Occupational therapist Sarah Powe has been coming to Bright to work with students since 2015. Over the years, her caseload has grown, and she sees between 15 to 20 students a year. Her services through neuroBridge, a therapy practice she co-founded, are not covered by tuition but can be arranged to be held on campus during school hours.

Mrs. Powe has been a pediatric OT for nearly 25 years and has three children. She works with children of all ages and stages and is an expert in child development. Occupational therapy is beneficial for children who need to improve motor coordination, core strength, posture control and executive functioning skills. She can help students make gains in development and/or work through adaptations to better access the curriculum and teaching environment.

How do you know if your child may need OT? Similar to the other services, teachers may refer parents and students to Mrs. Powe. Screenings are free. Here is a list of common signs to look for: