Since the start of the 2021-22 school year, I have had the honor of acting as district literacy consultant for the Lynbrook School District on Long Island, which took the brave step of completely overhauling its Tier 1 reading instruction to align with evidence-based practices, starting with the district’s Kindergarten Center. Read about it here. This school year, the first-grade teachers are continuing the transition by implementing the Sounds-Write program with the same cohort of children. For the first time, the district will be using decodable books for all emergent readers instead of leveled books. Lynbrook invested in sets of decodable books, including Phonic Books LtD (USA), which seamlessly aligns to the Sounds-Write curriculum, and will allow the children to practice their phonics skills. And not just a handful of books for a book room; Lynbrook bought sets of decodables for EVERY CLASSROOM! No other district I know of has made such a commitment to a structured phonics approach. In Lynbrook, the kids are now taught to “say the sounds and read the word” right from the start.
In Grade 1, teachers will build on the initial code (the simpler part of the alphabetic code), begin working in the extended code (spelling alternatives such as vowel teams), and teach the four key concepts children need to learn:
- Letters are symbols that represent sounds.
- Sounds can be spelled using one, two, three, or four letters.
- The same sound can be spelled in different ways.
- The same spelling can represent different sounds.
Since all first-grade teachers, reading specialists, and special education teachers have been trained in the Sounds-Write program, there will NOT be any mixed-methods cueing strategies to confuse children. The mantra across all grades and disciplines will be “say the sounds and read the word.” Having met with teachers from each building, I can attest to their commitment to carrying out the lesson plans with fidelity and using the balance of their literacy block to build language comprehension and vocabulary through read-alouds. Coaching will continue throughout the year to ensure tier 1 instruction adheres to the Sounds-Write approach.
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs), who will be working closely with reading specialists to target any children who are not making sufficient progress due to phonemic awareness difficulties. Because they did not have formal training in the Sounds-Write program, I tailored a presentation to meet their needs. “All hands-on deck” is not just a sound-bite in Lynbrook! This is an all-out effort to get every child off to the best start!
The work we do is not only going to be brought up through the grades; the speech-to-print philosophy will be brought down to the local preschool, which sends many of its students to Lynbrook Schools. As a district consultant, I will be working with the pre-k teachers and director to foster a seamless transition. Children will enter the Lynbrook Kindergarten Center primed for success!
Faith Borkowsky is the founder of High Five Literacy and Academic Coaching and is a Certified Dyslexia Practitioner with thirty-five years of experience in literacy instruction – as a classroom teacher, reading and learning specialist, regional literacy coach, administrator, and tutor. Ms. Borkowsky provides professional development for teachers and school districts, as well as parent workshops, presentations, and private consultations on science-based literacy practices. She 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 of books, conceived as a roadmap for literacy readiness and success for parents of young children. In 2021, Ms. Borkowsky was a finalist for the World Literacy Foundation award for her significant contributions to literacy.