On an April morning in Rachelle Braiker’s Cummings Elementary School classroom, kindergarteners practiced spelling words and remembering letter sounds.
Braiker prompted students to spell out words such as “said,” and remember what sound is made by the combination of “ai.” They practiced identifying the sounds made by individual letters, such as the “j” in jaguar and “x” in x-ray.
This lesson is an example of teaching young students the foundational skills of reading – skills district employees say newly adopted curriculum will instruct better than the current one.
The new curriculum, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and titled “Into Reading,” was one of two piloted by 70 teachers across 25 schools in the Salem-Keizer School District before its recent adoption for all schools by the Salem-Keizer School Board.
In Keizer, teachers piloted the materials in Cummings, Forest Ridge, Gubser, Kennedy and Weddle elementary schools.
The materials come in both Spanish and English, which was one reason the district chose it, according to Rubi Hovenden, curriculum instruction program associate. She said the curriculum was chosen based on state and district standards as well as feedback from teachers involved in the pilot.
The curriculum, costing about $11 million to implement, comes amid low reading scores across the district.
Last year only a quarter of Salem-Keizer third graders and 32% of students overall tested at grade-level on state reading exams.
In January, elementary schools closed for two days to train teachers in literacy instruction.
District officials have said the new program will better align with the science of reading. This is an instructional strategy based on research establishing how children learn to read.
At a reading-centered town hall held by Salem Reporter in February, Superintendent Andrea Castañeda cited poor and inconsistent curriculum as a significant reason for schools’ challenges with improving student reading skills.
Hovenden said one factor of the inconsistency could be the teacher’s need to find supplemental materials for lessons under the existing curriculum.
Braiker, one of the teachers who piloted the new curriculum, said the current curriculum lacks routine practice for foundational skills, which are “the bread and butter” for reading.
Hovenden said foundational skills involve building skills in phonological awareness, phonics and fluency by identifying the sounds of letters and words. These are applied to reading words.
Braiker said learning these skills requires routine practice and explicit instruction, which is not consistently built into the current curriculum. This left the district to seek other materials to provide additional practice opportunities.
“There were some great, strong units, but there was a lot of supplementing,” Braiker said.
Practicing the skills can mean providing students with opportunities to practice identifying letter sounds or stories designed to help students hone a particular reading skill, Hovenden said.
The new curriculum reduces the need for supplemental material. It also has units centered on a key theme, with practice stories tied into the theme. This allows students to apply reading comprehension skills.
“I feel like if I would have used HMH from the beginning of the year, my students would have known their letters and sounds much quicker, because every single day, we’re doing that same routine,” Braiker said.
Braiker said her students were “very engaged” in the stories provided by the new curriculum. Units combined instruction in foundational skills and writing while tying in social studies and science topics.
Students each receive workbooks for annotations and notes, which Hovenden said boosted student engagement in pilot classrooms. Braiker said she can give students interactive lessons on the computer to practice their skills.
Braiker said teachers often needed to adapt or supplement writing instruction under the current curriculum, and supports provided by the district were not always “cohesive or developmentally appropriate.”
The new curriculum provides students a workbook dedicated to practicing writing skills, she said.
Beginning in May, Hovenden said the district will begin training teachers on the new curriculum and emphasize building on specific skills across each grade level to avoid gaps in learning.
Hovenden said pilot teachers generally gave positive feedback on the new curriculum, but noted that the large quantity of resources felt “overwhelming.”
“I foresee the stronger system that we create as a district will be supportive to ensure that our students are fluent readers,” Hovenden said.
She said the state assessment scores will be a key indicator of the curriculum’s success, along with other district assessments. She noted the district’s assessments include Spanish, which will help gauge success across dual language students.
She said middle updated curricula in recent years, and saw improvements in student performance during the first year.
