Previously in Virginia, the way reading comprehension was taught revealed gaps in learning for minority students and set a small percentage of students into the special education category.
Now, research and experience has shown teachers and experts that most students will learn to read better with a new method and that students who immediately excel as readers are actually the small percentage.
A documentary, “Right to Read,” will be viewed at Kate Collins Middle School on September 12, 2024.
“I think bringing some awareness to the community about the work we’re doing as a state and as a division, and really across the country to establish good reading instruction in schools really across the nation,” said Jennifer Sturm, Waynesboro Schools‘ Director of Elementary Education.
Sturm said that Waynesboro Schools teachers began using the new method of reading instruction and what the Virginia Literacy Act mandates for public school education a few years ago.
Virginia has some of the most if not the most comprehensive literature legislation in the United States.
“I think it’s important for parents to know that,” Taylor Rose, Reading Specialist at Wenonah Elementary School, said.
Rose said the film is most appropriate for community members, parents and older elementary school students.
“The outcome that that’s going to have is, obviously, if we send kids better prepared in reading then they’re more college ready, they’re more workforce ready regardless of the path they choose to take after school. They’re more ready if they’re able to read and understand what they’re reading,” Rose said.
Now educators and administrators understand that gaps in learning reading are not COVID-19 pandemic, minority or income-related. A lack of learning to read is also not related to families not being involved in children learning to read.
“This is impacting kids from all walks of life in this country,” Rose said.
The previous method of thought was that if teachers gave parents and students access to enough books and created excitement about learning to read, then students would eventually learn to read. Now educators understand that added instruction for all students is beneficial for learning to read. A small percentage of students, 4 percent according to Rose, will catch on to reading without instruction.
“Public education kind of as a whole kind of got away from that very systematic, explicit phonics instruction as a foundational skill, and realizing now that that’s kind of the path they should have been on for a while,” Sturm, who previously served Waynesboro Schools as a teacher, said.
Learning to read is no longer just phonics based, Sturm said. Educators talk with students about vowels, sounds and rules and go in depth in understanding the English language.
“It’s that idea that you have all the skills you need in your tool bag to be able to read any word that you encounter even if it’s the first time you’ve seen it,” Sturm said.
Rose and Sturm said the research and knowledge behind the Virginia Literacy Act and new method are not new. What is new is understanding just how student brains acquire the skill to read.
Educators like Rose and Sturm imagine a greater confidence will be instilled in students with the power to read, which will also allow for students to become better writers. Rose said poverty and incarceration rates in Virginia may be improved with better reading comprehension as children.
“It’s bigger than the classroom,” Sturm said.
The goal in Waynesboro Schools is to encourage students to be good readers before they leave the public school system.
According to Rose, the new method of teaching students to read also emphasizes the importance of family involvement.
The film, executive produced by PBS “Reading Rainbow” host LeVar Burton, is 75 minutes and will be viewed from 6 to 7:15 p.m. with a reception from 5:30 to 6 p.m. and a panel discussion after the film.
Kate Collins Middle School is at 1625 Ivy St., Waynesboro.
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Rebecca Barnabi
