I remember coming home from work a number of years ago to be informed by my wife that our oldest son just learned how to ride his bike.  I was initially confused when she told me that she didn’t do anything special to teach him.  He had just asked her to take off his training wheels.  He peddled a few times, and then just started biking on his own.

I’ve seen videos of parents trying to help their child to learn how to bike only to result in hot tempers, bruises, and full out arguments.  I was glad to have avoided all of that.  Isn’t it great when our children learn a skill on their own?

And, while that’s the case, reading isn’t one of them.  It’s not just the confusion of our language and words that seems to break rules right when you think you’ve gotten it down.  The reason why reading is difficult is because there’s a true science behind how students are able to decode words and make meaning of them.  It takes true training to shift from learning to read to reading to learn.  The science of reading, a charge by Governor DeWine, is a true curricula in which research is applied in how the brain learns to read by incorporating phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

In Oakwood Schools, our staff have continued to receive professional learning and align curriculum and integrate resources, including our Fundations resources, to ensure we promote the science of reading in our classrooms.  Last week, I was able to visit Mrs. Teeters’s classroom during her literacy block with 1st grade students.  With it being the beginning of the school year, students were gaining reinforcement skills from a variety of strategies throughout the block of time.  At first, Mrs. Teeters showed flash cards in which students stated the letter name, a word that started with that letter, and then the sound the letter made.  The repetition of different letters allowed students to learn and reinforce how those three parts connected to one another.

Next, Mrs. Teeters asked students to use their fingers and practice writing a given letter in the air.  She was explicit on where the finger should start, move, and finish.  Students practiced in unison and Mrs Teeters was able to visually check for understanding.  After a few trials, she handed out individual dry erase boards and gave them instruction in writing.  A difficult task in writing is making sure students practice writing letters with the proper technique above and below “the line”.  To help students, the dry erase boards had permanent lines across the page marking a skyline, plane, grass, and worms.  With those points of reference, Mrs. Teeters instructed the students on keeping the lowercase letter t between the skyline and grass with a horizontal line going through the plane.   

In what felt like a short amount of time, students were being reinforced from multiple directions on a letter, letter sound, a sound, an example, and practice writing it.  Mrs. Teeters also utilized the gradual release model in which she shows them what to do, they do it together, and then they practice on their own with supervision, reinforcement, and direction.  

In just observing the literacy block, I was exhausted.  So many things were happening in a streamlined, organized manner.   I can’t recall how I learned how to read, but I have a new appreciation for our teachers and the training and preparation they employ each day.  It’ll be great to see their progress throughout the year as they transition to reading books more and more complex into the future.

#OneOakwood