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To read is to access the world by allowing individuals to identify, understand, create, and communicate. For young students, literacy is a vital foundation because it allows them to respond to what they are learning, supports their understanding to communicate, and helps them express and understand feelings. Literacy nurtures growth and contributes to students’ development, all while stimulating their imagination and expanding their understanding of the world.
“We can get them excited about it early on – for me personally, it’s letting kids know that they can express themselves, with reading, writing, and drawing,” shared Emma Cruise, Kindergarten Teacher at Prairie Ridge Elementary School.
Literacy is the building block for one’s future success. The sooner younger students are exposed to different types of literacy like communication, reading signs, and telling stories, the more immersed in their own environment they become. This will contribute to making students successful in both school and their daily lives. “As a school, we focus on the standards and curriculum and what our students need to be learning – we address reading, writing, and speaking in every lesson and in every content area,’’ shared Melissa Parson, Fifth Grade Teacher at Prairie Ridge Elementary School.
“Literacy is a way for students to communicate, understand, to be independent, and feel that empowerment that they know how to communicate with others,” shared Sherry Zamudio, First Grade Teacher at Prairie Ridge Elementary School. The primary years are very important for young children to be immersed in literacy everywhere – it builds their foundation. The earlier they become engaged, the more successful they will be.
There are many moving pieces when it comes to literacy. When students are taught writing at the beginning of kindergarten, they learn the five components of literacy – phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. If they have an understanding of these five components, it makes it easier for them to connect letters, but if students do not have any sound awareness, it will be hard for the child to read.
“What we are now understanding is not just words on the paper, but it has a lot to do with the sounds we hear,” shared Stefany Morgan, Literacy Teacher at Blue Mountain Elementary School. “We are putting those sounds with what we see in front of us together on paper. If one of those things is off, it makes it hard for the child to read.”
When students understand sounds it makes it easier for them to connect it to a letter and makes them strong readers. Early intervention for students is very important, and if teachers can get students reading before third grade, their trajectory and their ability to succeed soars.
“We are all extremely lucky to be part of a district that is doing really great things – it is great to see that we are all focused on the same goal, so students can receive similar instruction, and share good practices wherever they go,” said Morgan.
A NEW LEARNING STYLE
It is an exciting time to be an educator who is passionate about teaching students to read. Over the last 10 years, “we have seen a dramatic increase in the research around how people learn to read. This research has really ignited our teachers in the district to enhance how we teach our students,” shared Diane Lauer, Assistant Superintendent of Priority Programs and Academic Support.
When the district’s Dyslexia Task Force was formed in 2016, one of the main objectives was to figure out how teachers and administrators were going to work together to identify dyslexic students, and what practices would be best in supporting each individual student.
Research shows that for the 10-15 percent of students who may have dyslexia characteristics, learning to read requires explicit, systematic, sequential, and diagnostic instruction with many repetitions. However, new research suggests that 50 percent of students actually require an explicit, systematic, and sequential instruction. This is one reason why St. Vrain Valley Schools has added two specific programs to their instruction: Fundations and Orton-Gillingham. Both programs are explicit, systematic, sequential, and multi-sensory.
Not only were these two programs approved by the READ Act, but they were also piloted in St. Vrain. “It was really important for us to find a tool that would help us help our students,” shared Kathy McCall, Dyslexia Instructional Coach. Teachers saw strong student gains using one program, but noticed that when both were used together, the gains were even stronger. Fundations is a curriculum that uses the Orton-Gillingham strategies, but when they are used together, they complement each other. “We began building a very robust program to respond explicitly with literacy instruction for all of our learners,” shared McCall. Teachers are able to use Fundations but for students that may need more support than others, Orton-Gillingham is also available.
The research indicates that these two programs are proven to increase student literacy, and after being piloted in several schools, “we are seeing for ourselves that they were making a difference, that’s when we expanded the implementation across the district,” shared Lauer.
By the time the READ Act was revised in the 2019 Legislative Session, St. Vrain had been fully implementing this new research for three years, and had the advantage of leading the state. The district’s initial focus was on kindergarten through third grade, but because teachers began to see how powerful these strategies are, it expanded across the board from all elementary grades, and all the way to middle school and high school. The READ Act now requires anyone teaching reading to students in kindergarten through third grade to use scientifically-based strategies like those found in Fundations and Orton-Gillingham.
St. Vrain is the only district out of 178 in Colorado that has a state-approved training program, which allows the district to use its own in-district expertise to train their teachers; the other 177 districts have to outsource their training.
When students have access to the same teaching, they accelerate and learn how to read at an even faster pace. “This is some of the research that has really ignited our teachers. What has shifted is that previously we provided instruction to only students that we thought needed intervention, but because the benefit is so great and supportive, it’s advantageous for all students,” shared Lauer.
