Hi, My name is Elizabeth Curran and I love kids! I also love books, so being a Reading Teacher is a perfect fit! This is my 12th year at Murray, but my 27th year at St. Paul Schools!  I am so happy to be part of this dynamic and diverse middle school! These foundational years in middle school are critical to setting up our students for a successful future AND solid reading skills are a key to that. 

WINN stands for "What I Need Now".  To the student who says, " I hate reading" or " Yeah, I can but I don't like it", I say, 'Well, you just haven't found the book that you can't put down" ! In small classes of 8-10 students, lessons focus on letter-sound correspondence, root words and prefixes and suffixes, PLUS DAILY  independent reading time where students choose a book that they want to read!

Students at the end of last year had this to say about their WINN reading class:

"I can 'sound out' a long word that I didn't know before.

"I am not afraid of hard reading anymore!" 

"I can break apart words to figure them out."

"I found an author that I really liked and read all of his books!" 

WINN "Homework" =  for your child to read 20 minutes every day at home! They can read a paper book on their iPad, or pick up a magazine. Maybe they are reading a recipe and helping you with dinner or reading directions to set up a shelf or to fix a carburetor and need information--the daily uses of strong reading skills are all around us! Research shows that just 20 minutes every day results in passing all their classes and moving to high school !!! The sky is the limit!!! 

Please contact me with any questions or concerns via email--elizabeth.curran@spps.org

I am looking forward to a wonderful school year!

Ms. Curran