Hillsboro focuses on literacy
Staff writer
Hillsboro Elementary School teachers are taking the initiative to familiarize themselves with the science of literacy for their sake and that of their students.
“All of our staff needs to get a Seal of Literacy that verifies that they have been trained in the science of reading,” principal Nathan Hiebert said.
Hiebert explained within the district, a variety of programs recognized by the state help meet that certification.
One of those is Keys to Literacy.
Together, the Hillsboro school district, school board, and superintendent pursued this program.
“We added more professional development days within our school calendar to allow our teachers to receive this training,” Hiebert said.
The program includes seven trainings. Hillsboro Elementary teachers have completed four development days.
To maintain their teaching licenses, Hillsboro Elementary teachers must complete the Keys to Literacy course in full.
“We meet with a professional from Keys to Literacy,” Hiebert said. “They come out and provide training on phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency, comprehension.”
According to Hiebert, the trainers have been pleased with teachers’ work.
“All of this is also an opportunity for us to be better,” he said. “There may be a few small tweaks, but a lot of the stuff we’re using is based off of the science of reading.”
Anyone with an elementary education degree has to have the Seal of Literacy.
However, the program has extended to other educational staff, including physical education and library personnel and even Hiebert himself.
“I’m learning things as someone whose major was business education,” Hiebert said. “I didn’t go to school for science of reading, so it’s been good for me as a principal just to know a little bit better what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We’re just looking for ways to continue to improve.”
The last three trainings will be in January, February, and April.
“Our district saw it valuable to provide that for our community and teachers,” Hiebert said. “It’s really good for our students because we’re looking for ways to improve on the science of reading.”
While some districts have been leaving it to teachers to figure out how to get their Seal of Literacy individually, the Hillsboro district has taken the initiative.
Direct involvement has created an avenue for elementary and even some middle school teachers to achieve their seals.
Teachers have been able to apply what they have learned.
“There was an early one about language, and it was so simple and basic, it was helping kids have conversational language,” Hiebert said. “It helped teachers with some of the ways we greet our students.”
Instead of a simple ‘hello’ or a friendly greeting of a high-five or fist-bump, teachers engage with their students on a conversational level by asking questions as they come.
This helps students learn a conversational piece of dialogue by not just answering questions but also forming questions and prompts students to give more than one-word answers.
This is not a remedial course but instead a set of tools to help stay on top of the curve.
The last development day focused on fluency.
“Two years ago, we looked at improving our fluency. That was one of the things we saw that was not necessarily poor,” Hiebert said. “Our scores in fluency were really good, and we’re real proud of those things, but we wanted to continue to get better. Fluency was one we wanted see how we could improve.”
To do that, Hiebert and a reading specialist went to Junction City and modeled a plan based on what they saw there.
The process takes ideas as teachers go through the Keys to Literacy modules and teaches how to apply them.
Doing this will create well-learned staff and hopefully more well-read students, Hiebert said.