Language Support

Introduction to the Language Support Program

The Language Support Program at Cathedral High School guides students with language-processing disorders of various types to learn and succeed in high school, college, and life. Our unique approach for expanding reading, written expression, and metacognition skills includes a combination of offerings only Cathedral provides:

• Trained teachers and small classes—English course requirements are taught by specially trained teachers to develop reading comprehension skills for all course work and life learning needs, with class sizes of only 12-14 students.
• Focused Composition course—A second, specialized course, Composition, is taught each semester in 9th and 10th grade to build written expression skills that are critical for success in all courses and assessments. Extensive formal writing practice is provided to improve fluency for high school level quality and quantity of written products.
• Latin within the program—Latin I, II, III and IV courses are offered within Language Support to fulfill the World Language requirement and expand vocabulary for word-level comprehension of content such as the sciences and standardized tests.
• Benefits of Learning Resource Center—In addition to these direct instruction components, participation in the Learning Resource Center offers academic coaching for study approaches and executive function supports such as organization and coursework management.
• Testing center—Our Testing Center provides extended time testing for all course and high-stakes testing. Small group testing and a carefully managed testing environment aim to reduce test anxiety and distractions, as well as the additional testing time that students qualify to receive.

The Director of Language Support creates a formal, written Accommodation Plan based upon a current (less than four years old) psychoeducational evaluation which diagnoses a language-processing difference (with or without attention challenges) and identifies a discrepancy between reading and/or writing skills and present grade level. This testing establishes the need for our specialized instructional approaches.

For more information on the ways in which Cathedral High School's Language Support Program embraces and enhances learning for our students, please contact Kerry Nagle, Director of the Language Support Program, at knagle@gocathedral.com.