Our team of four interdisciplinary educators (ELA, Math and Art) will build a sustainable system for assessing and addressing foundational literacy gaps among multilingual learners, ensuring targeted data-driven instruction across content areas.
Our project goal is to improve literacy in all grade levels at our Title I school, through targeted professional learning.
The Reading Department of Oakland International High School (OIHS) will use its LIGHT Award grant to deepen our instructional approach to reading for newcomer students. While we have established strong practices for teaching phonics and decoding (connecting the sounds and meanings of letter combinations), vocabulary, and word parts, we struggle to effectively teach syntax: the order of words to create meaning. We know that understanding how words work together is vital to the teaching and learning of reading, particularly for older learners and those with education gaps. Our project will allow us to receive training from experts (Strategic Inquiry). In collaboration with this consultant, we will learn new strategies, participate in inquiry cycles, and share widely with other educators at our school.
Our project was born out of a desire to acquire the necessary skills and tools to help our struggling readers. Orton-Gillingham’s multisensory training will provide our team of cross grade level elementary educators with the tools and protocols to deliver an effective Tier One and Tier Two intervention that will support students with dyslexia, multilingual students, and students struggling with foundational reading skills. We will work with an on-site consultant, share our learnings with site staff and district educators, and form a PLC to assist teachers who are learning how to implement these new strategies.
Our team is committed to doing all we can to ensure that all our students are successful readers. We are setting out to transform our kinder-1st grade literacy program by doing a series of personalized professional development with The Reading League.
This project serves to enhance our professional capacities as teachers by providing us with the requisite knowledge and skills to instruct emergent biliteracy students effectively.