When Luiz walked into the classroom that morning he didn’t know it was going to be the day he would read his first book. Laura, the CLI Professional Developer and Rose, the kindergarten teacher, had been working on getting the students to build their reading stamina using sight words, familiar poetry and leveled texts. They modeled again and again for the students how to hold a book, how to whisper read your sight word cards, how to get your lips ready to make the first sound, how to look at the pictures for clues, and slowly they were making progress.
“I READ THE BOOK!
I READ THE WHOLE BOOK!
ALL BY MYSELF!” ~ Luiz
Luiz sat day after day proudly practicing his sight words and attempting to read all of the words in his books.On this particular snowy day while the class was independently working, suddenly Luiz yelled out in a scream, “I READ THE BOOK! I READ THE WHOLE BOOK! ALL BY MYSELF!” Laura kneeled next to Luiz to listen carefully to his story. They decided to stop the quiet work and celebrate Luiz’s accomplishment immediately. Even the custodian sat on the carpet to listen to Luiz read. He read that book 20 times that day and took it home to read to his family that night. Luiz is a reader.
Kindergarten is thought of by many as “the reading year” and with good reason – students are expected to progress from simply identifying letters of the alphabet to mastering the sounds each letter makes to decoding and reading words by the end of the school year. The early reading skills learned in this pivotal year become the foundation for students’ future education success.
CLI has a proven track record of supporting teachers as they guide students through this critical stage, as evidenced by success stories like the one above as well as outside research. In June, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) released interim results from a three year study on the impact of CLI’s i3 program proving CLI has a significant positive impact on kindergarten student early reading skills, as measured by the Predictive Assessment of Reading (PAR).
In addition to impressive overall results, CLI has demonstrated a compelling effect on the letter-word reading PAR subscale. Through two years of study, CLI has shown a significant positive impact on the letter-word reading skills of kindergarteners. Why is this so important? The ability to read and decode words accurately is necessary for effective and efficient comprehension. In fact, it is often considered a prerequisite for comprehending text. When without this skill, students spend time on decoding that could be devoted to time spent on comprehension.
The National Center for Educational Statistics has reported that nearly half of urban students do not have the reading skills necessary to perform grade-level work by fourth grade and some schools in high-poverty areas have reported reading failure rates as high as 70%. By providing high-quality, effective support to teachers in the early grades, CLI has demonstrated a significant positive impact that can lead to a reduction in these reading failure rates.
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