Did You Know That...
Developmentally appropriate, formal reading curriculum in Kindergarten can be effective?
As reported in the October 2003 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, a school district in Alberta, Canada, has designed and tested a reading curriculum for kindergarten that is nurturing, fun, and successful. Built on the students? developed listening/speaking vocabulary, in its first year, the Picture Word Induction Model successfully brought all students to some level of print literacy by June. In addition, there were dramatic drops in special education referrals (2 for speech problems rather than the usual 20) and in students reading below grade average at the end of first grade (5% rather than 50%). Results were not tied to gender or socioeconomic status.