Literacy support program gets students on right path

By Leigh Ann Maze

When Christina Chan joined the Los Gatos Unified School District this fall as a full-time literacy-support specialist, one second-grade girl was still reading at an early first-grade level. She was a reluctant reader and would just shrug her shoulders, Chan said.

After a few months of early literacy support and strong, balanced teaching in the classroom, the girl has progressed immensely Chan said.

"It's been really rewarding. It shows what intervention and a strong regular classroom program can do for a student who up until now hasn't experienced much success in reading," Chan said.

The district last spring adopted a goal to have every child reading at grade level by the end of second grade. That means each child would be able to read and understand a book written for a second-grade student.

"Literacy is at the core of student success," said Raf Strudley, principal of Lexington School and the district's staff development coordinator. "We've focused our financial resources in staff development in literacy, mostly in K-2."

Although the district has generally high test scores, some children need a little extra help to get up to speed. Strudley recruited several literacy experts, such as nationally known Adria Kline of Fullerton State University and Debra Estes from Texas. These experts and others trained Los Gatos teachers to better assess children's reading level, and gave them tools to increase literacy in children. "They are more fine-tuned, and can better provide for the children," Suzanne Sanders, the district's assistant superintendent, said of the teachers.

A grant from the Noyce Foundation allowed the district to hire literacy consultant Linda Sherry, who is training teachers at each school to become literacy coaches--people other teachers can turn to for help or with questions. The grant also helped the district provide a weekly take-home book program for kindergartners and their parents. Each week a child brings home a book, sometimes with activities, to do with a parent.

Gayle Gordon, a teacher at Lexington School, has become a literacy mentor in the district. She presents workshops to other teachers along with Lisa Marazzo at Blossom Hill. Gordon and Marazzo teach others how to set up literacy activity centers in the classroom, so that more advanced students can further their literacy skills independently, while the teacher works with a small group of students who need extra help.

"It allows teachers some tools to manage differences in the classroom," Sanders said.

The state also adopted tougher literacy standards last year. Measure of the district's student literacy compared with that of other California schools and compliance to new state standards will come in January, when the state ranks school districts from the results of the star testing program. Each district in the state will be given a literacy goal to meet, to show that it is working towards the new state standards.

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