Tireless teacher educates parents the importance of reading

Mat Su Central teacher Janis Bishop is the quintessential teacher who embodies the quote, “I touch the future, I teach.” Mrs. Bishop demonstrates this quote by teaching others the power of reading.

Once a week on Wednesday at Mat-Su Central School, Mrs. Bishop teaches a class called Coffee, Tea, and ABC specifically for kindergarten parents. She educates parents with the science and social studies thematic to units based on literacy. Just as the name implies, coffee, tea, and ABC is offered throughout the class.

“I originally taught a class called ABC and Me. It only lasted an hour thus I didn’t have enough contact time with the children. Other than the newsletter I gave to the parents, there wasn’t a way for them to expand on the lesson,” Mrs. Bishop said.

It was two years ago Mrs. Bishop decided to teach the same class, but to add some online work for the parents so that they could spend time teaching their children over the entire week with the lessons learned in the class.

“Overall, the class is like helping the parents, or assisting the parents to teach their children in an effective way,” Mrs. Bishop said.

A specialist with a Master’s Degree in Reading Instruction, Mrs. Bishop believes reading is extremely important. “Everything we do in our lives is based on the reading process that we learn in school.”

Studies show that reading every day or even five times a week promotes language development, comprehension of story content, knowledge of story structure, and a better understanding of language– all of which lead to literacy success.

“Mrs. Bishop is not only a special person, but also an amazing teacher. My belief is that Mrs. Bishop’s class is a culture for Mat-Su Central School. I don’t see her class as a class, but as a team,” Mat-Su Central School principal John Brown.

Mat Su Central teacher Jay Weber has worked next to Mrs. Bishop since 1999. He remembers starting at the school at the same time as Mrs. Bishop when she transferred from Finger Lake Elementary.

“Mrs. Bishop is one of the people that makes work enjoyable. She doesn’t just teach, but also teases in friendly way. She is like a friend at school,” Jay Weber said.

Mrs. Bishop said she’s seen children who can’t read until third grade and all of a sudden become fluent readers. No one knows why, but some children are born natural readers. They become fluent readers at first grade. Whereas other children need to learn phonetics and then are more slowly taught to read.

“We can look at research and see if it is the curriculum, if it is how much parents spend with that curriculum, or is it reading to a child everyday,” Mrs. Bishop said.

It is important for families to talk with their children, too. Parents who not just read to but also talk to their children expose them to about 62,000 to 215,000 words per week. Furthermore, 3-year olds receive the first thousand words that they will use throughout their lives. Not only do they learn the rules of grammar, but also begin absorbing the communication of their community.

“We know for a fact that children who are read to everyday and have books start school ahead of children who are not read to everyday or have books. Some of those children that start kindergarten who don’t have books or who have never been read to start school two years behind. Sadly, none of those children never catch up,” Mrs. Bishop said.

Research shows that pregnant moms who read aloud every night just to herself can form a connection. Once babies are born, reading to them is natural. And the children become academically successful.

There is much research to why children fail, and the majority of that research is based on reading. The Department of Justice states illiteracy and crime are closely related. The link between academic debacle and delinquency, violence, and crime is consequence to reading failure. Over 70% of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level. So, Mrs. Bishop’s dedication to early literacy is more than just for success in school. It is for success in life.

Mrs. Bishop has seen major improvements in her ABC students’ test scores. Aimsweb is a web-based reading evaluation program created to help students develop reading skills they lack with progress monitoring in fluency, letter names, and letter sounds.

Mrs. Bishop has noticed a growth in the children’s learning since starting Coffee, Tea, and ABC. However, the class time is only a piece of the puzzle, the most important growth to look at is the escalation of fun. If a child shows that he has fun in learning, he will learn more than one who doesn’t have fun learning. She encourages parents not to worry about their young children’s test scores because reading is a process. The first step in school teaches sounds and phonetics. Then reading progresses to parts of words, and reading whole words. But, it has to be fun and always building on success.

“I love Mrs. Bishop’s class. With the help of the activities, my child is able to recognize the letters and sounds of the alphabet. She also has fun doing it, too,” Mat-Su Central parent Teressa McClellan said.

Mrs. Bishop bases her materials off of the Sonday System, an Orton Gillingham type reading program. Sonday was designed for children who struggle in writing, reading, penmanship, and spelling.

Every week, she picks a letter name with the same sound embedded in it. The basis of the program is using the introduction of letters and sounds from the Sonday System, and then with that she finds a theme beginning with a specific letter such as S.

For example, she will first teach letters such as S which have the same sound embedded in it. As the children get better with those letters, she works her way to the other sounds which do not have that sound embedded in it.

An example of a theme could be the sea. Mrs. Bishop will find stories, read-aloud books, activities, music, art, and cooking activities that are all based on the sea. Then the parents will have all week to teach and practice with their children what they learned in class about the letter S.

“My overall objective for the class is anything that I do is to have fun or to enjoy it. For the parents to enjoy it and get information from what I deliver to them is another one. My serious objective for the class is to provide parents the information they need to help their children to learn the letters and sounds in kindergarten,” Mrs Bishop, “Reading is the foundation to everything you do in school.”

Mrs. Bishop noted that the love of learning fuels her everyday. With her partnership with parents in Coffee, Tea, and ABC, she continues to teach families of Mat-Su Central School the joy of reading.

Rosabella Cebrian is a junior at Mat Su Central.

Janis Bishop reads Dr. Seuss to Lana and Cherry Cebrian, showing them new words to add to their expanding vocabulary. Mrs. Bishop has 45 years of teaching families the values of education. She continues her legacy of teaching with her class Coffee, Tea, and ABC held for parents and their early readers. (photo by Rosabella Cebrian)

Janis Bishop prepares the context and material for the class as the parents review from the last week. This expands the parents’ skills to pass on new material to their children, and at the same time, to have fun. “In order for the children to improve, they must have fun or be excited for the lesson,” Mrs. Bishop said.