By PAT KORDALSKI

Literacy Specialist

and SUSAN CONKLIN

Title 1 teacher coordinator

When the National Reading Panel Report was published in 2000, five areas in language arts were identified as being essential to a well-balanced literacy program. Upon reviewing the report, Lewiston curriculum staff determined that the district’s phonics instruction needed to be improved. After much research, the district adopted Phonics Lessons, Letters, Words, and How They Work by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Five elementary staff members attended a two-day train-the-trainer session facilitated by the authors with the intent that they would come back to the district and train other kindergarten through grade two teachers.

The program involves more than simply sounding out words. It is more about word study, and it includes nine different components: early literacy concepts, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, letter/sound relationships, spelling patterns, high frequency words, word meaning, word structure, and word-solving actions. Each accompanying lesson includes a teaching plan, an applications of the skill, and a link to a children’s book. The program includes picture cards, letter cards, word cards, and magnetic letters as teaching resources. Students also use the magnetic letters to make words and to change letters to form new words.

This fall, all teachers of kindergarten through grade two students attended a half-day session to become familiar with the materials. In addition, we teach a course that meets twice a month from September through February. The focus of these sessions alternates between helping teachers become more familiar with a specific aspect of the program and having teachers share their experiences with activities they have tried with their students.

Althaea White, elementary English Language Learner (ELL) teacher, attended the training and is helping the ELL staff implement the program with ELL students. Jane McGuire, first grade teacher at Farwell, and Donna Tardif, second grade teacher at Montello, also attended the Fountas & Pinell training; they are implementing the program in their own classrooms and serve as resources for other teachers.