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During Kelsi Iturralde鈥檚 45-minute guided reading session on a recent Monday, six students at a time sit with her at a kidney table while the rest of the class 鈥渨hisper reads鈥� at their desks.

鈥淚 tell them not to read at the same pace that your neighbors are reading, not too loud that we鈥檙e distracting someone, but just enough that you can practice your reading voice,鈥� the second grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School says.

鈥淪o we talk a lot about how to make our reading sound like a storyteller鈥檚 voice, you know, if there鈥檚 an exclamation point we want to sound excited, or if the characters are upset, then our voice sounds upset.鈥�

At her table, students don鈥檛 just jump into reading.

Iturralde tries to make the book more accessible first. Students ask questions before reading and take a 鈥減icture walk.鈥�

鈥淚t also gives me a chance sometimes to introduce some of those harder words,鈥� she said. She does a round of flashcards with vocabulary words with each student, which she said helps make reading less daunting.

鈥淭hey鈥檝e got a general idea of what the book is, and it helps just make it a little bit more accessible.鈥� She is seeing that after returning to a classroom from being home during the pandemic, more students are behind, socio-emotionally and academically.

鈥淭here鈥檚 definitely a larger deficit in academics than there has been in the past,鈥� Iturralde says.

鈥淚 have a lot of students that are below grade level, and so with this year being so heavily impacted with students coming in below grade level, we have to assess the students and what they need.鈥�

Iturralde has worked at Kingsburg Elementary Charter School District, a five-campus district in the rural Central Valley of California, for seven years.

There, a majority of students are Hispanic, and over half are classified as economically disadvantaged, according to EdData and the California Department of Education. Low-income students of color are much more likely to read below grade level, according to the California Reading Coalition, putting, it would seem, the district at a disadvantage.

But that鈥檚 where Kingsburg Charter stands out.

The Reading Coalition released its annual Reading Report Card earlier this year, ranking the top schools in the state for student achievement in English Language Arts. Three Fresno County Schools cracked the top 10 in the state: Kingsburg Charter, Clovis Unified, and Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified.

The report looked at achievements in what the coalition calls a 鈥渒ey subset鈥� of students 鈥� low-income Hispanic/Latino third graders.

The report pulled data from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, a statewide student assessment system.

No testing took place in 2020, so the scoring is based on the prior two years. Because Hispanic students make up 43% of the state鈥檚 K-12 enrollment and are less likely to have outside learning supports, the results are clearer about how effectively schools teach reading, according to the coalition.

鈥淲e believe that better results for these students almost certainly mean better reading instruction for all,鈥� the report read. And Kingsburg Charter has seen its scores improving for years. In the 2014-2015 school year, only half of all students were reading at or above proficiency level, according to school data provided by the district.

For low-income Hispanic students, that number was a dismal 39%.

Guided reading shows big promise

Then something changed, said Melody Lee, the district鈥檚 learning director. About six years ago, the school began working with educators around the region to train all the district鈥檚 teachers in guided reading, which greatly supports English Language Learners.

The vast majority of ELL students in the district are Hispanic.

The program was called Focus on Early Literacy.

The following school year, 2015-2016, the district鈥檚 overall score jumped to 61%, and the low-income Hispanic student group also rose by 10 percentage points to 41%.

Scores continued to increase steadily, and as of 2018-2019, 66.39% of students were reading at or above proficiency, including 58% in the low-income Hispanic subgroup.

It took a lot of training on the part of teachers to implement new strategies, Iturralde said. Most of that focuses on a concept called guided reading, where a teacher supports students reading more challenging texts. Teachers and administrators say Kingsburg Charter is more likely to be successful because of its 鈥渃ohort-style鈥� schools, which benefits students and teachers.

鈥淥ur principal really wanted to make sure that we understood it, and we were shifting gears to help these students and make them strong readers,鈥� she said.

鈥淪o we would have training days, I would say, probably once a trimester, so at least three or four times a year.鈥� The training wasn鈥檛 just for teachers either, Lee said.

Administrators and paraprofessionals were also taught 鈥渉ow to use supplemental resources to enhance what was happening in our guided reading groups.鈥�

For example, students answering 鈥渨ho, what, when, where, and why鈥� questions before reading are practicing comprehension strategies.

Working in small groups with a teacher is a way to help kids progress in their reading development, according to Melanie Sembritzki, the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction.

鈥淪tudent engagement is a key component of guided reading, and all students participate in simultaneous reading, talk about the story together, and ask and discuss questions,鈥� she said.

鈥淭here is more time for students to actually do the work, in this case, read, rather than the focus on the more traditional, round-robin style of reading where students spend a lot of the reading time waiting for their turn to read.鈥�

Why it works

The official guided reading program was designed by two college professors with classroom teaching experience but has evolved to mean providing a child support while encouraging them to read more challenging texts, according to Steve Hart, a professor of literacy, early, bilingual and special education at Fresno State.

鈥淭he idea is that the teacher serves as a coach, or a support, during the actual reading process, providing students feedback and prompts at the moment of need,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o rather than having the student just reading and then taking a test and then we look at their results …. guided reading is really designed to be at the point of need, and the teachers, they鈥檙e supporting the kids as they鈥檙e actually engaged in the act of reading.鈥�

Hart said students can receive more targeted support that way. Guided reading is one of the tools that are emphasized in the literacy education program at Fresno State, he said. Hart said typically, in second grade, students are building off their development of oral language and beginning to connect how speaking can be represented through printed symbols.

鈥淪o now we start to see them learning the skills of taking what they already know about language comprehension, and then applying that as they鈥檙e making sense of these written symbols, or as they鈥檙e decoding and engaging with stories in that way.鈥�

One aspect he wishes schools would focus more on is thinking about 鈥渢he cultural resources that kids and families bring to the education in the classroom,鈥� he said.

鈥淪o understanding who kids are as people. Like, what are their family backgrounds, what kinds of literacies do they use within their families?

What kinds of cultural experiences do they have, and how can we build those into the kinds of things we鈥檙e teaching them and the kinds of books we鈥檙e reading?鈥�

English language learners in Iturralde鈥檚 class get extra curriculum time that focuses on how they can show what they know, but in their non-native language.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want that language to be a barrier,鈥� she says, 鈥渟o trying to support them and also still celebrate language differences is what we really hone in on.鈥�

When intervention is needed

Lee, the learning director, says the district is lucky enough to be able to hire paraprofessionals to work on reading with students in the classroom and one-on-one. Iturralde says she has a handful of students getting extra help with reading, including some who are using RTI or Response to Intervention. 鈥淚f I notice that a student is really struggling to decode words or they鈥檙e making the same mistakes over and over, and my teaching isn鈥檛 helping them get to the level that they need to be, then I鈥檒l have them do RTI,鈥� she said. Sometimes she鈥檒l go to other second grade teachers at the school and ask for suggestions, she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really great about sharing resources here, and if that鈥檚 still not working, that would be the point where I might reach out to the parents and then our intervention team on campus.鈥�

Cohort style campuses

Lee and Iturralde say their charter schools鈥� cohort-style learning is a huge benefit for students and teachers. Lincoln Elementary, for example, houses only second and third grade classrooms.

There鈥檚 a transitional kindergarten and kindergarten campus and a fourth, fifth, and sixth grade campus. Iturralde and the other eight second grade teachers at her campus meet weekly and share ideas.

She believes having a group of others with different amounts of experience is valuable when they have a goal in mind, such as bringing up reading scores.

鈥淲ith a team so large, there鈥檚 really just a strength in numbers,鈥� she said.

鈥淗aving that variety of skills brings out the best in everyone.鈥�

鈥淭hey鈥檙e sharing best practices, and they鈥檙e talking about some of the things that they鈥檙e trying that might be pushing kids to that level, or maybe they鈥檙e stuck, and they have a group of kids that they鈥檙e really concerned about that haven鈥檛 been making progress,鈥�

Lee said. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 kind of like a gold mine of everybody together in one place with common goals.鈥�

‘Behind鈥� during COVID-19 pandemic

During whisper reading time in Iturralde鈥檚 class, 7-year-old Nicholas Villagomez reminisced excitedly about the last time he visited his school鈥檚 library.

Sitting at his desk, he listed off all the books he鈥檚 read: The 鈥淢agic Tree House鈥� series, 鈥淔ly Guy vs. the Fly Swatter,鈥� 鈥淧ete the Cat.鈥�

鈥淚 get new books every week,鈥� he said.

Iturralde says she notices students are excited to be in class again and visit the library and do other hands-on activities.

She says despite the academic gaps, the curriculum has stayed the same as in years past, 鈥渂ut having to make decisions at every level means sometimes recreating how we make the curriculum accessible, and so maybe we have to teach it a little bit different than we had in the past.鈥�

Hart said he wouldn鈥檛 call students 鈥渂ehind鈥� due to the pandemic.

鈥淏ecause if you think about the guided reading approach, it really emphasizes the idea of (finding) where students are and building them up and urging them to continue to grow.鈥�

Teachers and parents will struggle if they push students into what they believe is grade-level work instead of meeting them where they are, he said.

Although parents and teachers can recognize that a lot of children didn鈥檛 get the expected lessons or skills that they were hoping for because of the pandemic and distance learning, 鈥淟et鈥檚 find out their abilities,鈥� he said.

鈥淎nd now we can use interventions to support where we find that they need that support.鈥�

This originally appeared at  and is published here in partnership with the .

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