Success in Kindergarten Literacy

While we still have aobut 8 weeks left of school, our Kindergarten classes have already met thier literacy goals for the end of the year! (Which is no small feat, considering what they were like at the begining of the year!)

Ultimately, at the end of the year we would like to see Kindergarteners reading at a
DRA level 4 for Exceeding Expectations
Levels 2&3 for Meeting Expectations
Level 1 for Approaching Expectations
Less than level 1 for Below expectations.

The Goals We set at the beginning of the year are as follows:
80% Meeting and/or Exceeding
15% Approaching
5% Below

Here are the results of our last assessment:

Exceeding Expectations ------------6%

Meeting Expectations --------------78%

Approaching Expectations -------14%

Below Expectations ------------------2%

Literacy Assessment Wall

The data on our assessment wall are used for monitoring our program's effectiveness.  Our students are formally assessed 3 times per year with the DRA2 (Developmental Reading Assessment).  Our teachers also administer running records as an informal assessment at least once per month on each child.  Using the results of these assessments, we post a card for each child on our Assessment Wall.  The cards are moved each time an assessment warrants a move to the next level.  Our goals move each quarter (9 weeks).  Student cards are placed in the appropriate range (Below, Approaching, Meeting, or Exceeding) of expectations. Ultimately, our goal at the end of the school year is to have no more than 15% of our students in the 'approaching' range and no more than 5% in the 'below' range.  (In the picture above, the first 2 rows of cards represent our Kindergarten classes, the second 2 rows represent our First Grade classes and the third 2 rows, represent our 2nd grade classes.  The green letters represent the Guided Reading levels at which the children are reading.) 

Framing Words and Parts of Words - Emergent Readers

Learning to frame words is a useful technique for emergent readers to block out the distractions when reading text.  Either a whole word or a part of the word can be framed to block out the distractors and allow the reader to concentrate on decoding.  I have used several techniques with my emergent readers to frame words.  I found a great tool for framing this week.  It is a set of beginner chopsticks (as pictured).  The students can frame a consonant blend or a whole word and are able to concentrate on the word or word chunk.  My students are enjoying using this new tool.  

A Cool Find for 1:1 correspondence in K&1

If you have taught emergent readers you are familiar with the difficulty in (tracking) keeping the child's 1:1 correspondence between the print and spoken word.   I believe this is a developmental issue that cannot be taught.  It can however be reinforced.  I found a great new 'toy' for reinforcing it this week while shopping at what I call the 'crap' store in Kansas City.  The store is actually US Toy and they stock aisles and aisles of useless party favors, decorations and other 'crap'.  My find, however, proved to be quite useful this week in my small emergent reading groups.  I found a dozen creepy hairy fingers that my emergent readers can put on their own fingers and use as pointers.  They proved to be quite a hit with my emergent readers.  I'll post pictures of them being used later this week.

Before implementing the Comprehensive Literacy Model, I strongly recommend reading Apprenticeship in Literacy.  It is the first in a series of books on the subject.  It is research based, easy to read and it gives detailed information on how to approach the literacy model.   There are several more books in the series, I'll review them in later posts.

I'd like to open a dialogue on whether or not a child should learn to read very young (ages 3-5).  I was of the old school of thought that this was too early.  However my thoughts are changing after teaching Kindergarteners to read.  I have also been reading Thomas Friedman's books and have been thinking about what it will take for us as a nation to become leaders again.  If we get the task of reading out of the way early, we can then focus on technology and science instruction and get our schools back on track!

Where We Were When We Started in Fall '08

When we started our literacy program in the fall of 2008, our Kindergarten teachers described their new kids as a bit more developmentally delayed and lacked the readiness of the kids they had experienced the year before.   This is not unusual as Kindergarten classes go.  Sometimes a group is exceptional (like the Kindergarten class of SY '07-'08  class, but more on that later) sometimes a group is average and other times we have a group that makes you wonder what was in the water supply the year they were conceived. 

Our First Graders (the Kindergarteners of SY '07-'08)  as I stated above were quite an exceptional group of kids.  They were physically coordinated, emotionally stable, and developmentally and academically 'in their zone'. 

Just to back up a little, my school is considered a poverty school.  I beg to differ.  We do live in an area of the country that has a lower than average cost of living, so therefore, our average household income is less than the national average.  Due to this, it is easy to qualify as a 'poverty' school.  Our makeup of kids is, however very diverse.  We do have some extreme poverty, but we also have a very strong middle class representation.  Our parents are involved, of course, as a teacher, I would love to see more involvement, but I really can't complain.

Our teachers are among the most professional people I have ever had the privilege with which to work.  I have worked in both public and private schools in my 15 year career as a teacher.  (The least professional group of teachers I worked with, were in a private school setting.)  I have never had the pleasure to work with a more dedicated group of professionals than I do now.   I truly believe that this is one of the reasons for the results we are getting with our literacy model.

The Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy is the inspiration for the literacy program we use at my school in grades K & 1.  

Hello!

I am creating this blog for fellow teachers of literacy in grades K-1.  I am a literacy support specialist who supports those grades.  I have begun implementing the Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy which was developed by the University of Arkansas - Little Rock, Center for Literacy. While I have no ties with this organization, I have learned much from attending their workshops and training sessions.  I will share my school's successes using this model on my page.  I hope to get a dialogue started with others who are also using this model for literacy in the early grades.  I will also share our successes using the Guided Reading Plus model for students who lag behind in reading.  Please share with me your successes and concerns in the area of early literacy.