HIGH FIVE LITERACY AND ACADEMIC COACHING

What if we could demonstrate the positive effects of getting parents and community members involved in changing inadequate instructional practices?  

High Five Literacy and Academic Coaching, in partnership with the Norristown Men of Excellence (Norristown, Pennsylvania), sponsored a child from the area to be part of a pilot for the Teach My Kid to Read (TMKTR) Train the Trainer model. A second-grader named TJ was chosen based on the recommendation of a community leader, Courtney Jackson, who mentors families through her organization, Misfit Heroes. Courtney volunteered to sit in on eight tutoring sessions to learn how she could not only help this child learn to read but eventually help others in the community become volunteers and mentor/tutors for the TMKTR “Road to Reading” literacy support program.  Courtney had been working with TJ with limited success when we began working together.

I have seen many kids like TJ in my thirty-five years as an educator: children with partial understanding of the alphabetic code who try to rely on whole-word memorization to read and get by in the classroom.  When the strategy fails them, they become belligerent in school and act out at home.  The response has generally been to label such children as having cognitive disabilities and/or emotional difficulties, give them individual education plans (IEP) and behavioral intervention plans (BIP), and place them in special education classes.  

Very rarely have educators questioned their instruction; usually, it is assumed that it is the children and/or their parents who needed to be “fixed.”

When I was first introduced to TJ, I saw a child who had not been given the right foundation in order to learn to read and write.  Our first session was mostly for assessment purposes, and it was apparent that TJ did not have a grasp of the basic phoneme (sound) and grapheme (letter) correspondences.  He thought the letter Y represented the sound /w/ and the letter U represented the sound /y/ because he mixed up letter names with sounds.  When writing, he was unsure of how to form many letters, mixing up the letters b and d, writing from bottom up and then adding on other parts to make it look right.  The skill of blending individual sounds from left to right and all through the word was not present, nor was the ability to segment individual sounds in speech to facilitate spelling.

The goal for our eight weeks together was to help TJ access reading material by building up reading and writing fundamentals. 

By our second session, it became apparent to me that TJ was extremely capable – he just needed to understand how the English alphabetic code works and practice the skills necessary to become a reader.  TJ’s mom or dad were always present, and Courtney sat in on our weekly Zoom sessions to learn how to help TJ and others.   She had volunteered to be part of the Teach My Kid to Read (TMKTR) “train-the trainer” model and to learn about explicit, systematic phonics instruction.  She and TJ’s parents practiced with TJ in between the sessions daily.  This was our agreement before starting the work, and it worked flawlessly.  

This commitment on the part of the family and the trainee is necessary to see the type of anticipated growth we expect to see, and which we saw with TJ.

By the third session, there was a noticeable change in TJ’s posture and enthusiasm for the work.  He even exclaimed, “I love doing this,” when he was writing on his dry erase board.  There is this “ah ha” moment when children just get it, even if they cannot execute accurately and consistently.  At this stage, he began to see that if he could say a word, he could write a word, and if he could write a word, he could read it back.  

This should be the goal of early phonics instruction.

Unfortunately, even when schools teach phonics, it usually is not done with fidelity or adequately, and many children are not given enough opportunities to practice with decodable books.  Without consistent practice, letter recognition, letter and sound correspondences, and letter formation do not move into long term memory. 

Eventually, TJ became more consistent as we worked on how to hold onto sounds as he moved through a word without forgetting the beginning sounds.  TJ was able to read sentences by the end of each session and was visibly proud of himself while I reported his accomplishments to his mom or dad.  

These fundamental concepts should be part of every child’s first encounter with learning to read.

Our final sessions were spent on automatic recognition of letters and sounds while building fluency in reading and spelling at the basic level.  With a firm foundation in place and a support system to help him, I am confident TJ will be able to increase his word reading ability.  

By sponsoring a child who was on the verge of falling through the cracks without proper intervention, the Norristown Men of Excellence have produced the first “ripple” of what we hope will be a wave of change much needed in the Norristown community. If we could witness the difference in this child’s reading over the course of eight weeks with once a week tutoring and daily support for error correction and feedback, there is no reason why he cannot receive instruction in school that meets his needs.  Now that his parents know what works for him, they are in a better position to advocate for their child.  The community volunteer who will be the turnkey trainer can now help so many others who would not be in a position to seek outside help.  

Special thanks to Courtney Jackson, our community member volunteer, Councilman Hakim Jones, who supported our work in Norristown, and Tre Hadrick, who coordinated this work and has been the changemaker behind the scenes, demonstrating his commitment to equity in education every day.

Below are links to websites and contacts:

highfiveliteracy.com

ifonlybooks.com

Marion Waldman, founder of Teach My Kid to Read, teachmykidtoread.org

Tre Hadrick, (Mr. Lit) Twitter@MrLitEdu, instagram.com/MrLitEdu

Norristown Men of Excellence, Twitter@nmoe19401

Courtney Jackson, misfitheroesinc.com

Faith Borkowsky is the founder of High Five Literacy and Academic Coaching with over thirty years of experience as a classroom teacher, reading and learning specialist, regional literacy coach, administrator, and tutor. Ms. Borkowsky is a Certified Dyslexia Practitioner and provides professional development for teachers and school districts, as well as parent workshops, presentations, and private consultations. Ms. Borkowsky is the author of the award-winning book, Failing Students or Failing Schools? A Parent’s Guide to Reading Instruction and Intervention and the “If Only I Would Have Known…” series.  She is also a board member of Teach My Kid to Read, a 501(c) non-profit organization with a mission to support and empower students, teachers, and parents through education so all kids, including those with dyslexia, learn to read.