Stockbridge students working toward becoming super readers and lifelong learners
by Steve Keskes, Ed. D., Stockbridge Community Schools
Last year the district saw notable growth in Stockbridge students’ reading abilities based on screening assessments. Image credit: Road Trip with Raj on unsplash.com
“Children learn to read in grades Pre-K through 2 and read to learn in grades 3 through 12.” This old myth has been busted by the latest research.
The reality is, our students—and we as adults—are always learning to read. According to science-of-reading experts, reading is, at its core, a meaning-making process that begins as soon as we are exposed to the sounds and words that make up our language.
The language we choose to use to make meaning out of the same experiences changes, depending upon our circumstances. Use the example of a social studies teacher, a science teacher, and a math teacher. All three may choose to have our students write about an experience, like a change in the number of organisms in a pond. Depending on which class they are writing for, the students may choose different words to make meaning about the topic. One group might emphasize geographical features, another may focus on abiotic features, and the third may point out percentage of change over time.
This word selection based on the field of study is called disciplinary literacy. Several of Stockbridge secondary teachers are planning on learning how to apply techniques from their specialties to improve our children’s academic literacy skills.
Neuroscientists agree that our brains have the ability to make new connections throughout our lives as we age. They describe this new meaning-making phenomenon as plasticity. Have you ever changed careers or gone back to school to learn a new trade and found that the change required the use of new technical manuals or other written instructions? In these examples, you are still learning how to read, even as an adult.
But what about students in Pre-K through grade 5? Stockbridge teachers in these grades have been engaged in professional learning to help our students make meaning from letter and word sounds in a very structured way. A few teachers were able to get some unique training last year and absolutely loved it.
The district received grant money last spring for SCS teachers to engage in Orton-Gillingham training. This methodology is not new, but evidence points to it helping all students learn to read, even students with dyslexia. Teacher feedback has been extremely positive, with many voicing surprise that they were never taught this in their college or university studies.
Last year the district saw notable growth in Stockbridge students’ reading abilities based on screening assessments. The results showed just over 4% percent proficiency improvement.
This improvement represents a total team effort between Stockbridge classroom teachers, interventionists, tutors, and parents. SCS parents should expect their children to bring home more books from school and ask for more trips to the library to practice their new skills.
