Root to Fruit — The Sprig Learning Newsletter for Holistic and Equitable Early Learning.

From diverse developmental timelines to limited exposure to print and vocabulary gaps, each challenge demands attention. This is especially true at a time when there are curriculum/standard mandates for kindergarten being introduced at various jurisdictions.
Educators in kindergarten need help to transform their teaching practices.
In this blog, we delve into the specific challenges kindergarteners may encounter, shedding light on how evidence-based practices can transform traditional teaching methods to provide enhanced literacy support for struggling readers.

Weekly plans can keep students engaged in learning essential concepts, while allowing flexibility to address individual learning needs and take appropriate next steps.

If you’re eager to explore a comprehensive list of research-backed and proven foundational reading skills, check out this detailed article on the Sprig blog. It covers each foundational skill, providing insights into their importance and citing supporting evidence.

This article covers how classroom teachers can master the assessment, instruction and re-assessment of foundational reading skills on a weekly basis.

It’s one thing to assess how a classroom is faring on the foundational reading skills– if they have been assessed, if they need explicit instruction, or if they need more practice.

It’s another thing to then have the means to provide differentiated instruction to all children in the classroom.

This article will explore why small group instruction, along with early literacy assessments, are essential in early literacy.

It will describe the advantages of this personalized approach to instruction and how it complements the formative assessment process, creating a more effective learning experience for budding readers.

In the first part of a two-part series on diagnostic assessments, Sprig Learning uncovered the essential qualities of diagnostic assessments, shedding light on their pivotal role in shaping evidence-based literacy instruction.

Re-entering this exploration, Sprig delves deeper into the nuanced aspects that distinguish diagnostic assessments as indispensable tools in the early literacy landscape.

Diagnostic assessments are typically administered at the outset of a school year, term, semester, or teaching unit. Serving as essential tools for teachers, these assessments play a crucial role in planning instruction and establishing precise learning goals.

They offer valuable insights, empowering both teachers and students to assess existing knowledge and skills related to overall and specific expectations.

Diagnostic assessments embody five powerful qualities that make them powerful drivers of evidence-based early literacy instruction, meeting the pressing needs of teachers in today’s educational landscape.

A wide range of assessments are available to school leaders and educators, each serving specific purposes in identifying, monitoring and supporting a child’s literacy development.

In this article, Sprig Learning explores the various types of early literacy assessments and provides guidance on choosing the right assessment tool based on your specific needs.

The format consists of a series of 11 questions, as asking questions is integral at any phase of gathering information when deciding what is the right early literacy assessment for your school and students at this time.

This article is the second installment in a two-part series aimed at assisting education leaders in refining and enhancing existing reading strategies and programs for the upcoming school year. If you missed part 1, Starting Strong: How Educational Leaders Can Transform Reading in Their School, be sure to give it a read, as it offers valuable insights into how to lay the foundation for future reading achievement by addressing all aspects within the system.

This article delves deeper into what to watch for and how to continually enhance the implementation and sustenance of a reading strategy once it has been set into motion.

Starting strong is essential to early reading success. Not only for young learners, but for teachers and administrators as well, where they review what has worked and what can be improved, to create an action plan that will serve them well for the upcoming school year.

This article will help school leaders to optimize early reading resources, engage educators, and implement impactful changes to elevate literacy outcomes.

Building on this week’s article, 5 Emerging Themes in Improving Early Literacy, Sprig Learning is thrilled to present 5 more of such themes for success in early literacy.

Hopefully, this series has been useful in getting ideas and inspiration for taking on initiatives to improve the quality of early literacy programs in your classrooms and schools.

There are more stories corroborating these themes, or exploring new themes that may be just as useful in rethinking existing literacy initiatives at your school.

Without further ado, here are 5 more emerging themes in improving early literacy. Let’s nurture a generation of confident and enthusiastic readers together!

In December of last year, Sprig Learning published 46 Stories of Improving Early Literacy Achievement in Schools. If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet, it is highly recommended. It features 46 amazing stories that offer valuable insights and inspiration for improving literacy in schools and preschools.

Out of the 46 stories, 7 were showcased in the early learning centers/preschool section, while the remaining 39 were highlighted in the school/school districts/school boards section.

Additional stories from past editions of the newsletter have been organized into 5 more themes, each offering valuable insights for early literacy achievement.

The 5 themes are as follows…

From Pre-K to Grade 3, educators, specialists, and support staff collaborate to build strong foundations in early reading and writing.

Sprig has previously written on the need to create the right team of literacy professionals in schools, whose contributions are invaluable to the ultimate reading success of every child in the classroom.

This article in particular, focuses on the literacy aspect of early learning, and how all the different roles work together to increase the likelihood of children reading proficiently by Grade 3, regardless of their circumstances.

Educators play a vital role in guiding students through this transformative process.

By understanding the milestones and implementing effective strategies, more students can become confident and proficient readers.

In this blog, we will delve into the path of emergent literacy to reading mastery, exploring key stages and evidence-based approaches that will take an early learner beginning to show signs of literacy to a proficient reader.

Reading is an essential skill for success for all learners.

Not all students develop reading skills at the same pace, however. Therefore, teachers need to be equipped with the right tools and resources that support all students to receive the right instruction, at the right time, and at the right level.

The science of teaching reading involves effective reading assessments, explicit reading instruction, and targeted reading interventions. In this blog post, we will explore each of these elements and how they can enhance student reading skills.

Through structured literacy instruction, students who excel in certain areas can naturally advance, while those who struggle in certain areas receive additional instruction and practice, so they do not fall behind and are not left struggling by the time they reach Grade 3.

Teaching reading is both a science and an art, and it is important to learn from experienced early literacy researchers, teachers, specialists, coaches, and interventionists to determine the best practices for effective reading instruction.

This article compiles 15 valuable pieces of advice on how to teach early learners to read from highly experienced literacy specialists, coaches, teachers, and experts.

As the new school year begins, teachers, schools, school districts, organizations and governments are looking to improve early literacy scores post-pandemic. Some states across the US have strengthened previous legislative acts, other states have action plans in place to deal with literacy inequity, while others have enacted new laws to increase early reading achievement.

In Sprig’s research thus far, there have been advice and case studies that fell outside the purview of previously written articles. However, these bits of wisdom have shown to be just as successful in closing the early literacy gap.

When these five gems of recommendations listed below were followed, schools and early learning centers were successfully able to surpass student language and literacy learning indicators targets.

Play-based learning is one approach to differentiate learning— something Sprig has covered in a previous article showing how differentiated learning supports all other forms of learning.

Indeed some children may display a greater preference for play.

But by itself, play-based learning as a strategy for the whole classroom is a great way to improve early literacy scores.

Play-based learning supports early literacy development in multiple ways.

When done right, PD can be a tool for strategic reading instruction.

It can consolidate and further advance the learning gained from teacher preparatory programs on evidence-based instruction.

Furthermore, it can introduce these concepts to teachers who have not heard of them before.

Most importantly, it can provide practical and actionable guidance to teachers by which they can improve reading proficiency for their students.

This article explores the goals of PD for strategic reading instruction and the ideal components of PD. It subsequently discusses the types of PD that are available, and the expectations of a high-quality PD program.

Improving foundational reading skills requires the collaborative effort of many. Sprig has written about these players in previous blogs. See for example, the primary teacher, the literacy specialist and the literacy coach. This article deals with the all important role of the school principal.

When enough principals adopt a validated, peer-reviewed approach to literacy, they can also influence the superintendents in their districts to try out evidence-based methods, which have been proven to reduce risk of reading failure.

Given the current state of affairs for K-2 students, and for those from marginalized backgrounds, Sprig has identified six factors that make a positive difference in the learning outcomes of children.

These six factors, when understood properly, can be used to make a difference for students who are: struggling to read, just beginning to learn how to read, or going to start learning in the near future.

In this article, we look at multiple aspects of SoR to derive lessons that can be applied in the classroom.

To do this, we rely on an assortment of 40 factual statements on SoR. They are grouped where appropriate, to offer valuable insights to educators, staff and leaders for improving reading instruction at schools.

Recently, there is more awareness about the immense value of early literacy. Studies continue to be published from various states showing that roughly a third of all K-2 students are missing early literacy benchmarks.

It’s a collective responsibility to ensure that the early literacy experience for children is optimized. Apart from parents, teachers spend the most time with kids in their daily lives during the school year. Their role in young students’ early literacy development is paramount to student success.

This article, Part 3 in our series, is dedicated to classroom teachers in early elementary grades who have a permanent seat at the early literacy dream team table. (Read Part 1 and Part 2.)