ESA Learning Center Pilots New App

ESA’s Lower School Learning Center is making the most of a new program that uses iPads to provide a phonics program customized to each student’s needs. ESA is piloting the Hill Learning System, a new app developed by The Hill Center, a nationally recognized School and Teacher Training Center for Learning Differences, Learning Disabilities and ADHD in Durham, North Carolina.

The entire curriculum for The Hill Center’s phonics program is included on the app, which is loaded on the Learning Center’s iPads. The teacher uses a master iPad to push specific tasks to each student’s device.

“The program makes differentiation easier as it tracks each student’s progress and tailors the tasks to the child’s level,” says Learning Center Director Shannon Frugé. As Mrs. Frugé works with groups of three to four children, she can push different challenges in oral drill, phonological awareness, word attack/sight words, fluency and spelling to each child. After a challenge, students can see their progress in colorful charts and dancing stars, and are compared only to their own previous work, not to the other students in the group.

The all-electronic tracking replaces thick binders of printouts and hours of teacher reporting to chart the students’ work. Instead, the app sends the information directly to Mrs. Frugé and to the Hill Center. Mrs. Frugé receives immediate feedback about where the students are in their goal of reading at their appropriate grade levels.

ESA's Lower School Learning Center program is the only program in the state of Louisiana to use the new Hill Learning System app. Mrs. Frugé is a Level 2 certified Hill Center instructor, and Learning Center instructor Elizabeth Pham is a Level 1 certified instructor. As a program model replication site for the The Hill Center,  the ESA Learning Center gives students the reading, writing, math, organization and study skills assistance they need to succeed now and to find success independently.