Just added - see a typical day in a Reading First Classroom

Reading First summer program better prepares Curie students for upcoming school year

Through the federally funded Reading First grant, Marie Curie Institute of Engineering and Communications continues this summer to assist K-3 students in becoming more proficient readers.

“The Reading First summer school enables children in need of reading remediation to practice their reading skills during summer months,” Mary Mathey, Curie principal, stated. “The summer school also allows students to continue to grow as readers, and better prepares them for the upcoming school year.”

The summer school runs for three hours each weekday morning for a total of 4 weeks. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods to strengthen students’ reading skills and incite eagerness to learn. For instance, the kindergarten class incorporates center-based learning that has students receiving individualized instruction to hone their reading skills and develop the confidence to read beyond the classroom. Each center focuses on aspects of reading, including letter identification, sound, high frequency words, vocabulary identification and sentence completion.

Grades 1-3 function much in the same way with students receiving intense individualized instruction in reading. The teacher may engage students in a choral reading activity to increase oral reading fluency. Then students may be broken into groups of two in which they read together aloud and then separately to one another to sharpen reading skills. The exercise allows for the instructor to visit the pairs of students and work one on one with each pupil. Furthermore, the activity, again, develops the student’s enthusiasm and confidence, encouraging them to practice what they’ve learned outside of the summer school classroom. An additional strategy incorporated into the classroom is called echo reading. This technique allows students to practice new vocabulary, pacing, and fluency under the watchful—and encouraging eye—of the teacher.

“We’re very fortunate to have the Reading First summer school at Marie Curie,” Mathey stated. “What’s additionally wonderful about this year’s summer program is that we have busing each day, which allows for students who may not have had the opportunity to previously participate because of transportation problems to do so now.”

Reading First is a focused nationwide effort to enable all students to become successful early readers. The federally funded Reading First grant helps states and local school districts eliminate the reading deficit by establishing high-quality, comprehensive reading instruction in kindergarten through grade 3.

To view more Reading First summer program photos, click here.

Voyager U Academy: Building better teachers who build better readers

New teachers at Marie Curie recently attended the Voyager U Reading Academy, a daylong professional development program offered as part of the federally funded Reading First Program grant that the elementary school receives.

New teachers meet monthly for the Voyager U Reading Academy and focus on those aspects of teaching reading that are supported by research in the field. Through these intensive monthly workshops the new teachers receive explicit instruction in how to build more proficient K-3 readers. Hence, the teachers return to their classroom implementing strategies explored during the sessions, feeling more confident and competent with their reading instruction.

“The Voyager U Reading Academy provides teachers with an opportunity to refine their teaching skills and assists us in delivering high quality research-based literacy instruction,” Susanne Dorr, Director of Federal and State Projects, said.

The Academy this past Thursday focused on vocabulary and the best choices available for teaching it. For example, when a teacher introduces new vocabulary they need to provide many opportunities for their students to interact with the words. A few ways to do this is have students create their own examples of a word or relate words to synonyms they already know.

The daylong Academy was broken into several sessions, including large/small group analysis and discussion, computer case study interpretation and additional reading and resource exploration. Furthermore, the teachers and reading coach collaborated to create an instructional plan of implementing the addressed literacy strategies into each teacher’s classroom, and on the next training date the teachers will report on their successes and challenges of their plan to get the necessary credit points needed to pass the academy.

The new teachers at Curie feel very fortunate to have this opportunity for professional development in reading instruction, as Curie is the only school in the district to receive the Reading First grant. Of the Voyager U Reading Academy, Shannon Loveland, Building Coach, said, “As teachers we all need to be lifelong learners and Voyager U is an effective way to keep us all up-to-date with current instructional strategies in the area of literacy.”

Reading First—an overview

Reading First is a focused nationwide effort to enable all students to become successful early readers.

Federal funds help states and local school districts eliminate the reading deficit by establishing high-quality, comprehensive reading instruction in kindergarten through grade 3. Building on a solid foundation of research, the program is designed to select, implement, and provide professional development for teachers using scientifically based reading programs, and to ensure accountability through ongoing, valid and reliable screening, diagnostic, and classroom-based assessment.

District program description:

The Greater Amsterdam School District will assist K-3 students at Marie Curie Elementary School in becoming proficient readers through the delivery of high quality initial reading instruction grounded in scientifically based research, the early identification of reading difficulties, and interventions responsive to student needs. The Scott Foresman Reading program serves as the core literacy program for the delivery of direct, explicit and systematic instruction in the five critical areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Assessment tools in addition to the Scott Foresman Core assessments include the Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills, the Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment, the Gray Oral Reading, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Woodcock Johnson, and the Terra Nova.

Supplemental and intervention programs have been selected to accelerate the progress of struggling readers. Ongoing professional development will focus on building capacity to deliver high quality reading instruction, utilizing data to inform instruction, and supporting teachers’ acquisition of new skills through modeling and coaching.

Our team

• Mary Mathey, Principal

• Shannon Loveland, Building Coach

• Jerilynn Einarsson, Intensive Reading Intervention Teacher

More information

For more information, contact Susanne Dorr, Director of Federal and State Projects at 843-5233.