Helping their students develop a thorough understanding of letters, sounds, words and linguistic patterns is a process that teachers take seriously in the North Bellmore School District. They recognize that the ability to read, write, listen and speak is central to knowledge acquisition in all other areas.
Alexa Laskowitz, a first grade teacher at Park Avenue Elementary School, makes sure that significant time each day is devoted to language development. Her classroom is an example of how early childhood literacy instruction takes place across the district, using numerous resources and techniques.
North Bellmore uses the Heggerty phonemic awareness program, a listening-based approach to help students hear and identify different sounds. Students make chopping motions for each sound in a word, and even a one-syllable word can have three or four chops depending on the combination of letters. By seeing connections among words, consonant blends or vowel sounds, students become stronger spellers.
Ms. Laskowitz explained that they take this knowledge from their carpet meetings back to their desks to use in their reading and writing. A teacher-led lesson must be followed by opportunities for students to apply what they’ve learned, either through independent, partner or small-group activities.
“It’s been beneficial to them for both reading and writing,” she said. “It’s fun and the students enjoy learning.”
Fundations is another tool Ms. Laskowitz and her early elementary colleagues use for literacy development. The program focuses on written letters and words, and uses a research-based approach for instruction in reading, spelling and handwriting. She has a wall full of Fundations sound cards, with individual letters and letter combinations. Students become the teacher as they point to the different letters and blends to help spell out a word.
Ms. Laskowitz said that each lesson focuses on a specific language skill, such as closed-syllable words, which end in a consonant and have a short vowel sound, or open-syllable words which end in a vowel sound. During a recent class, she read “Fred the Frog” to her class, then had students go back to their desks and reread portions of the story on worksheets. They were tasked with marking any blends, closed syllables and bonus letters.
Using components of both Heggerty and Fundations has enhanced literacy instruction, Ms. Laskowitz added, and she is noticing the difference on iReady diagnostic assessments as well as her own evaluations of student progress.
Date Added: 3/20/2024