Page 6 April 18, 2019 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
School Spotlight
Sports WUSD
Vistamar
Eagles Take Another Step
to Ocean League Title
Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin
With the Ocean League at its halfway point,
El Segundo High School’s softball, baseball
and boys’ volleyball teams are all poised to
win Ocean League titles. The season has
seemed to fly by, but each of these teams
is playing with one goal in mind: to win a
league title.
Softball Team Takes a Step
Closer to Repeating
Head coach Megan McCann has her team
rolling at the right time. Hit with a devastating
injury that cost the team one of its top
players before the season started, the Eagles
have pressed on. Gabby Benjamin’s injury
was unfortunate, but the team has rallied
with the motto “next player up.”
The Eagles are 17-6 overall and 7-1 in
Ocean League play. They have a 10-game
winning streak going and their last loss came
a month ago to Culver City. The Eagles faced
Beverly Hills in a doubleheader and played
host to Culver City. They outscored their
opponents in those three games 42-1 and in
the process propelled themselves to the top
of the Ocean League standings.
El Segundo played Beverly Hills in a rare
doubleheader with the first game being played
because of a rainout earlier on the schedule.
It wasn’t too much of a contest, as the Eagles
won 15-0 during a run-rule game. Aubrey
Wiseburn Looks at Small Reading
Group Instruction at Cabrillo
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening, the Wiseburn
School Board members viewed a presentation
form Cabrillo Elementary Principal
Lisa Baggio and her colleagues regarding
the implementation of the school’s “Small
Reading Group” instructional program. Baggio
and her presenting team opened with
the tenet that their mission statement is to
“nurture the whole child to love learning,”
adding the tagline that “we learn and grow
together.” The next slide of the presentation
portrayed school 2019 goals, including the
implementation of the small reading group
program and development of an inclusive,
multi-tiered system of interventions to support
the program.
Baggio talked about what she termed the
PEDR cycle as one the school’s 2019 goals,
which means “plan, execute, debrief, reflect.”
The presenters spoke of building foundational
literacy skills as a cornerstone to enriching
learning opportunities for Cabrillo students.
Cabrillo students also were present and spoke
to the Board about the value that they have
gleaned from the small reading group program.
The presentation stressed the need to
build on foundational skills to help students
achieve at their highest levels, and delved
briefly into the available research that shows
the benefits of offering an environment “for
teachers and students to provide extensive
opportunities to express what they know,
and receive feedback from other students,
and the teacher.” IT also noted that studies
show “instructional conversations are easier
to support with a small group of students.”
The next slide presented posed the question
to instructors: “How am I meeting the needs
of my students?,” and noted how the best
avenue was to propose one specific strategy
or skill to a group of students who are at a
similar reading level and utilizing the same
book, as well as targeted mini-lessons and
development of strategy groups that target
skill rather than a specific rote reading level.
These tactics intend to help English Language
learners succeed by strengthening their
grasp of vocabulary and phonics, as well as
implementing decoding and comprehension
strategies, developing vocabulary fluency,
helping in the analysis of text, and opening
avenues to participation in book clubs.
The presenters next played a quick video,
which portrayed students’ thoughts on participating
in the small reading groups, and
why the elementary school students felt
it valuable. Six benefits of small reading
group instruction were highlighted, including
the benefits of individualized learning;
the confidence gained by participants; the
opportunity to glean effective feedback; the
collaboration that takes place; the increase
in students reading ability; and tracking
individual strengths and needs.
The next steps highlighted were the continued
use of data for the 2019/20 school
year to bolster small reading groups, the
continuing teacher-to-teacher observations
Buckheit Educational Leadership
Series 2019 at Vistamar
Brown University President Christina Paxson
What are the returns of a college
education? To what extent will college
choice impact one’s economic prospects
and social mobility? Does attending an elite
school really matter? Set against a national
conversation on college admissions, noted
economist and Brown University President
Christina Paxson will address these questions
and more in her Buckhet Leadership Series
talk titled “Higher Education as an Engine of
Economic Mobility.” The event will take place
on Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at Vistamar
School, 737 Hawaii Street in El Segundo.
The event is free and open to the Vistamar
School community as well as interested
members of the public. To register: https://
www.eventbrite.com/e/buckheit-educationalleadership
series-2019-tickets-59402949822
– Provided by Vistamar School •
Audrey Butler is not only one of the team’s top hitters, but also one of the top outfielders in the area.
Julia Chavez slides under the tag of Beverly Hills’ Ciara McCarthy.
See Eagles, page 11
See WUSD, page 13