Elementary teachers building strong foundations for literacy

Scurrying through the halls at Glacier View School during my prep period I love to pause briefly and enjoy the myriad “learning sounds,” as I like to call them: An elementary aide catches up on the latest K-2 gossip as she ushers a student to her classroom, a second-grader sings to herself as she completes her writing worksheet, a teacher’s voice lofts out of her 3-5 grade classroom as she asks if her students “can imagine that happening?” There’s also the K-2 teacher tapping out a sentence on a desk as the sole kindergarten student reads the words in her squeaky voice while a first-grader stands at a shelf of books fidgeting with her pigtail with one hand and exploring the book covers with the other.

High school teachers tend to be singularly focused on a subject area and the standards, methods and content associated with said area. It is the nature of the beast, so to speak. Generally, they are so far displaced from an elementary school, or even a middle school for that matter, that they lose perspective regarding how far students have progressed during their time in school; the span between “I am sad” and the intricate prose of Mr. Wilde is inestimable. But, at Glacier View School, the secondary teachers are fortunate enough to experience the hustle and bustle of an elementary school every day of the week.

Amidst the organized chaos and the method-based madness, there is some serious work being accomplished in Glacier View’s elementary classrooms, and in all MSBSD elementary classrooms. There has to be. Research suggests that if a student cannot read at grade level by second grade, it is more likely the student will struggle throughout his or her entire school career. It becomes a feedback loop — a student does not know how to read, the student then will not want to read, and as a student ages, demands in school become more rigorous focused on gaining knowledge through reading. Furthermore, research shows that if a student does not read, comprehension skills decline and the student is also more likely to become deficient in spelling and writing. It may seem like fun and games in an elementary classroom, but those teachers carry a substantial responsibility in teaching students to read. It is the singular most important skill students will learn during a school career. If students do not learn to read, they cannot read to learn.

As a secondary teacher, I am in awe of our elementary staff. As they keep the peace, teach social skills, present foundational cultural knowledge (think “please” and “thank you,” the days of the week, etc.), control (or tolerate) the fidgeting, the jumping, the wiggling, the squirming and sometimes even the crying, they manage to teach students to read. Incidentally, some researchers also suggest reading is not only the most important skill to teach, but it is also the most difficult.

As I sit in my classroom writing this piece, I hear a first-grade boy taking his Read Naturally assessment.

He plows through the passage about bears, pausing only briefly to decode a word and then moving bravely forward. When he finishes, I hear him ask a question directly related to what he read — he’s already comprehending and using critical thinking skills. I am deeply impressed with how far these children have come from being non-reading in kindergarten to reading more than 85 words per minute after the first quarter of their first-grade year. It’s truly magical. I am comforted to know the students who will one day be in my secondary classes will have a strong foundation in literacy; it makes me excited to do my job. As the keynote speaker at the Glacier View graduation alluded to in 2009, a student’s education should be a “cathedral” of knowledge, and you cannot build a cathedral on an outhouse foundation.

As teachers, students and parents, we must strive to build a strong foundation of literacy for our kids.

Author’s Note: The article published under my name in the Frontiersman on Oct. 23 was written by my student, Christopher Martin, and was erroneously attributed to me.

Claudia Berkley teaches at Glacier View School.