Rapides implements new plan to teach reading
The Rapides Parish School District used summer to put into action a K-3 literacy plan, which will carry over into the school year.
The four-part plan is meant to address weakness across the district in reading, said Kim Bennett, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. It focuses on reaching students before they get to fourth grade when, as Bennett put it, students should no longer learn to read, but instead read to learn.
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It calls for comprehensive assessment of all K-3 students, as well as LETRS program training and a phonics framework guide for their teachers. The program has been written into the district’s pupil progression plan, which is a guide for how students move through grades, Bennett said. It will be a standardized reading program for Rapides schools.
The first component is Rapides Literacy Camp, a replacement for traditional summer school during the months of June and July. This year, about 775 students not reading at grade level were recommended by teachers to attend the program.
Though it may seem short, literacy camp is longer than regular summer school, and teachers said they have been able to maximize learning time with smaller classes and no testing. Not surprisingly, they are loving that, Bennett said.
"They (teachers) have been able to slow down and focus," she said. "They are saying they have seen tremendous, tremendous growth."
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Just a week of being with students as an instructor showed reasons for that growth to Liane Salinas, an eighth-grade ELA teacher at Northwood High School.
"They (students) don’t feel stressed. I think that’s a huge part of it," said Salinas, who has been a substitute at Pineville Elementary School this summer. "It’s just let’s learn, but let’s have fun, and they’re still getting their skills in."
Pineville and seven other elementary schools in the district that receive Title I funding for at-risk populations were sites for Literacy Camp, though first- through fourth-graders at any school in the district could attend.
An actual camping theme has helped kids feel more like campers than pupils over the summer. Their six hours in the program each day is split up to make time for campfire reading, s’mores word study, camper’s spotlight and literacy lab.
A favorite has been camper spotlight, which brings in community members, from elected officials and law enforcement to librarians and school district administration. They read aloud to groups of kids and stay to interact, answer questions, take photos and even sign autographs.
Some schools' classroom decor also carries out the camping theme. Students gather to read inside tents or around campfires made out of sticks and tissue paper. Some sit on sleeping bags and turn out the light to read with flashlights.
Caitlin Maddox, who will be master teacher at D.F. Huddle Elementary in the fall, has used crafts that complement the theme and books her third-grade class at Pineville Elementary read. She said teachers had room to be creative with their lessons so long as they focused on four skills: comprehension, accuracy, main ideas and phonics. Fun projects have kept her students interested in learning.
"They are more engaged, and they don't really think that they're learning something because they're having fun," Maddox said.
"That is the response that we want," Bennett said. "We said if nothing else, please walk away this summer knowing reading is fun."
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Miranda Klein is the education and family reporter for The Town Talk. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/MirandaTownTalk or on Facebook at facebook.com/MirandaTheTownTalk.