WOO DL AN D HI LL S S C HOO L D IS TRI C T NE WS
oodland Hills
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE WOODLAND HILLS FOUNDATION.
Woodland Hills Named Finalist for
PDE Innovation Award
We have received word that the Woodland Hills School District
has been selected as one of two finalists for a Keystones to
Opportunity Innovation Incentive Award for the category “Living
Your Literacy Vision and Mission!”
The Keystones to Opportunity (KtO) initiative is a federal grant
Pennsylvania has received to improve literacy outcomes for
students from birth through grade 12. Woodland Hills is one of 53
school districts in the state to have been competitively awarded
these funds. The purpose of the KtO initiative is to advance literacy
skills for students from birth through grade 12.
A total of 16 outstanding applications were received in the
“Living Your Literacy Vision and Mission!” category. Each application
was scored by 11 peer reviewers, using the criteria that was
published as part of the application. These scores then went
through the PDE Z-Scoring Process. We are pleased to report that
Woodland Hills received one of the two highest scores. The district
will receive a minimum of $8,000 as a finalist. If we are awarded
the first prize, we will receive $16,000. A site visit will be conducted
soon by a six-member KtO team in order to determine the firstaward winner. The district has completed a video vignette to
present to the team during the site visit.
The Innovation Incentive Awards will be given at the
Pennsylvania Literacy Conference in June 2016. Woodland Hills
will present twice at this conference to showcase the many varied
opportunities for literacy that we provide for our students!
This is indeed a very special award since the Pennsylvania
Department of Education has recognized the excellent work that is
being done to improve literacy outcomes in the district. It is a true
compliment to our efforts!
Award-Winning Author Visits Woodland Hills
Intermediate School
Submitted and Written by: Elizabeth Casey, Library Media Specialist, Woodland Hills Intermediate School
Children’s author Jacqueline Woodson visited Woodland
Hills Intermediate School on February 29, 2016. Woodland Hills
Intermediate was selected as a host school for the event, which was
sponsored by Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures. Woodson is a nationally
recognized, award-winning author, writing many picture books and
novels for children and young adults. Her book awards include the
National Book Award, Newbery Honor Medal, Caldecott Medal, Coretta
Scott King Award, and the Young People’s Poet Laureate.
To prepare for the author visit, Woodland Hills Intermediate students
in grades 4–6 “adopted a book” as a class to read and discuss. Those
books included Brown Girl Dreaming, Hush, Miracle’s Boys, Locomotion,
and Show Way. They also completed research about Woodson through
an author study project. A sixth grade Book Club, led by Woodland
Hills High School seniors, read Brown Girl Dreaming. The seniors served
as “reading mentors” to lead book discussions with the 6th grade
students, through a project funded by a Woodland Hills Foundation
mini-grant.
Fourth grade students participated in an interdisciplinary project
about the “quilt codes,” the secret messages hidden in quilts along the
Underground Railroad. Through a mini-grant from the Woodland Hills
Foundation, guest quilting artist Ruth Ward visited 4th grade students
to conduct workshops. Students lear