November 14, 2023
The echoes of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to resonate through the world of education, leaving a trail of disrupted learning and widening gaps in academic achievement. Among the most affected are young learners in the early elementary grades, where foundational literacy skills are established. In response to this challenge, educators and administrators at City Academy rallied to create a targeted education program to assist third grade students in reclaiming and advancing their literacy skills. The new program, WIN (which stands for “What I Need”), aimed to address the varying level of needs of each third grade student.
The third grade class was specifically selected as they were one of the most impacted by the interruptions from the pandemic, which hit during the spring of their kindergarten year, and forced City Academy to adopt a hybrid model of learning for the next 15 months. While necessary, these changes posed a significant hurdle for young learners still in the process of acquiring vital literacy skills.
“Those are the years when those real phonics skills and phonological skills develop,” said Liesl Schnuck, Director of Teaching and Learning. “So it made sense that they had some gaps. The research shows that the earlier you can catch a kid up with reading or make sure that they’re on grade level, the better their outcomes are.”
To bridge this emerging gap, the Student Support Team and the Administrative Team collaborated to design a multifaceted literacy program to move the needle faster for the third graders. Based on test scores, screenings, and professional knowledge, students were placed into one of four groups of six
to seven students. Each group had a different emphasis to match students’ abilities. One group, led by Director of Student Support Emily Hauge, focused heavily on the Fundations program, the phonics curriculum used at City Academy. Another group diagrammed sentences and participated in book discussions. Two groups blended math and reading, with some emphasis on social studies as well.
In order to allow time in the daily schedule for the additional instruction of the WIN program, administrators decided to replace one block of time reserved for specialist subjects (i.e. Spanish, music, violin, physical education, and art) for the second semester. However, the program was designed to utilize the skills of a variety of adults in the building, including the specialists, to address the needs of the third graders.
“None of this would’ve happened if our specialists weren’t willing to sacrifice the time to enable us to make it happen,” said Head of School Jarrett Young. “The specialists and the teachers were able to see the interconnectedness of their experiences, which allowed for the program to really take off.”
“We saw teachers who don’t normally work together, working together,” Schnuck said. “I’m just really grateful that we had the buy-in from so many people to say ‘This might mean that I have less instructional time with my primary subject, but I believe that this is important for our students in the long run.’”
One of the other adults called on to help out was City Academy President and Co-Founder Don Danforth, who along with Librarian Martha Altvater led one group’s book discussions. During the course of the second semester, the group discussed Holes, by Louis Sachar, and The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly.
Young tagged in as well, doing a deep dive into the United States Constitution with one of the groups. As a self-described “social studies geek at heart,” Young aimed to help students understand their rights as citizens and looked closely at court cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and
Dred Scott v. Sandford.
In order to evaluate the impact of the program, students took several assessments, depending on which group they were in. In addition to quarterly STAR testing, which evaluates overall reading comprehension, some groups participated in phonics screenings to assess whether students were understanding letter patterns and sound patterns. One of the group’s goals was to build vocabulary and figurative language, so they were evaluated based on vocabulary quizzes and writing responses.
“Some of it was also just observational,” Schnuck added. “You can see a child’s confidence change over the course of a few months.”
Schnuck indicated that while the work was by no means finished, there was improvement and growth across the board among the third graders. Due to these successes, WIN will be implemented in first, second, and third grades for the 2023-2024 school year. With more advanced planning, WIN time will be built into the daily schedule without missing any time with specialists.
“One thing I think will remain from this program is the memory that we are nimble,” Young said. “We can make choices that are in the best interest of students and we can do something that’s really hard, really well, really quickly. And we’re a strong enough community and a tight enough community that people are willing to make shared sacrifices for the good of the students.”