RACINE, Wis. — Kristie Cushman is a literacy coach for students in kindergarten through second grade in the Racine Unified School District.

She works with students individually and in small groups to help with literacy skills, which often involves fun activities like using magnetic letters on a baking sheet to spell out words.  

“It’s kind of playing with letters and sounds in order to get them to be able to read and text,” Cushman said. “They can see it, they’re saying it, they’re hearing it, and they’re moving it. So, it’s getting a lot of different sensory opportunities, and that really helps it to stick in their head better.”

The activity is just one of a few different methods Cushman and the Racine Unified School District are using to change their approach to teaching literacy skills.

“With the shift, we really focus on those foundational skills,” Cushman said. 

The new approach is called the “science of reading.” 

S. C. Johnson Elementary School Principal Kat Hoffman said the school initially planned to roll out the new method just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

“What we noticed was, even during that time, we really needed to focus on our letter recognition, that phonics base, that phonological awareness,” Hoffman noted. 

When students returned to the classroom after virtual learning, the school started to shift more toward fully adopting the science of reading approach, as many students were showing some pandemic-related learning loss. 

In particular, they monitored first graders. 

“We were concerned about the first graders actually last year, because we noticed that gap because we were measuring reading levels at that time,” Hoffman said. “But, what we noticed was, is that when teachers really still step back and still monitor those foundational skills, that was really shown as they moved into second grade, which was really exciting for us to see that.”

Cushman agreed. She said she has seen her students make a lot of progress.

“Since we’ve really changed the focus now, and got these foundational skills, the data this year is just growing at such a faster rate than it has in the past that it’s very promising,” Cushman said. 

Hoffman said she believes this district-wide focus on early literacy will help as these students get older, too. 

“Getting these things in place are going to allow, as those students move up, is going to allow more and more ability to do other things,” Hoffman said. 

Teachers said parents play a big role in helping their students read outside of the classroom. You can find literacy resources here.