By Marley Seaman
As part of its Balanced Literacy Program, Malverne schools are using Fundations, from the Wilson Reading and Language System. Fundations is based on the theory that children will learn phonics better if their lessons incorporate physical memory. The program has been so successful, district officials said, that the Lynbrook school district may soon adopt it.
There are two parts of the kinesthetic approach: Decoding, or "tap to read," and encoding, or "tap to spell." Both are enforced by daily drills, which happen at a speed that might surprise an adult onlooker. In encoding part of the lesson, Robles will hold up a flashcard with a word written on it and sound out the word.
For example, she might say "Sh-ed, shed."
"Sh-ed, shed," the class repeats. When the students say "sh," they tap their thumbs and index fingers together, as if they are telling the teacher it¹s okay. On "e," they make a circle with the thumb and middle finger, and on "d," the thumb touches the ring finger.
"They use their hands and their whole body [as] part of the process," Robles explains.
During the decoding part of the lesson, Robles will take a pointer with a plush owl on it, and hand it to a student. The student stands at the whiteboard as the class calls out alphabet sounds. Then, he or she points to the letters on the board.
After 30 minutes of the phonics lesson, the students take part in the Readers' Workshop. The first portion of the workshop is called reading aloud, and it is standard classroom fare: In a recent lesson, Robles read an Italian folktale to the class. As the workshop continues, the students become more and more independent in their reading.
The class then read a short poem about migrating birds. This is the shared reading part of the lesson. After the poem is done, Robles teaches the class about the "busy e," which can be found in the poem as part of words like time and migrate. She also shows them quotation marks and "trick words."
The students then return to their desks, take out books and begin their independent reading. As they read the short stories, the children look for the busy e, trick words and quotation marks. The students will make notes about the reading, writing entries responding to the book. Later, the kids will gather in groups, with some supervision from Robles, for guided reading.
"It's a very progressive style of teaching, but it creates that kind of independence that we're looking for," said Robles.
Diane Scricca, Malverne's deputy superintendent for curriculum, explained that the district chose to implement the program after extensive research.
"Our literacy committee did a lot of homework," Scricca said. "We read a lot of work on national reading panel, we read balanced literacy information, and then we visited successful reading programs where these programs were in place, and then we made a decision from there and provided intensive professional development for our teachers."
Malverne has also added a new Reading Recovery program to help students who are struggling. The program was developed in New Zealand, where the literacy rate is 100 percent, and Scricca is optimistic about what it will mean for Malverne.
"We expect that within the next, I would say, two to three years, we¹re going to see a decrease in the number of students who will need remedial assistance in reading," she said.
Robles is particularly well-suited to these new efforts. The Malverne native was named a News 12/Dowling College Teacher of the Month for December, and filmed a segment for the news channel last week. Last year, the Lynbrook Elks Club named her their Teacher of the Year.
"She's just an outstanding teacher," said Scricca. "She's a professional who really reads a lot and stays on top of her craft, and she was an integral part of our committee."
Comments about this story? MSeaman@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
