Reading has its rewards

For a group of third and fourth graders at C.A. Tatum Elementary School reading during spring break paid off big time, and not just in the skills that they gained. Some who accumulated 400 minutes of reading in iReady also got a bicycle thanks to a donation from a community partner.

Deloitte Big Give, a program of the Deloitte Foundation, gave Tatum Elementary School bikes, reading blankets, teddy bears and 75 backpacks stuffed with school supplies for the readers. A program representative also brought the fun during a special assembly to celebrate the students’ achievement with music and games before the prizes were handed out.

Students who participated in reading tutoring got a bear that came with a special certificate and a note. Students who participated in spring break reading camp and accumulated at least 300 minutes of reading and 10 lessons in iReady got a certificate and a reading blanket or a teddy bear.

Those who read at least 400 minutes and more than 10 lessons—one student read 500 minutes and completed 14 lessons—also got a bike.

Renata Verástegui, the fourth-grade teacher who led the spring break reading camp, it was wonderful to see the students get the rewards because it was somewhat of a competition. 

“We worked with the parents, and they were enthusiastic, too,” she said. “Students were able to bring their computers home with them during spring break and were able to do both instruction and the fun part.”

Marisol González, who teaches third-grade bilingual reading, was also at the presentation and knows that the rewards go beyond the prizes the students received that day.

She started using iReady back in August with after-school tutoring to help students practice and develop different skills to improve their reading—foundations, comprehension, understanding different parts of the text, expanding vocabulary, different subjects, she said.

iReady offers the opportunity to go below grade level to meet the students where they are with lessons that help them develop skills by creating tracks that are unique to them based on their needs, González said.

It lets teachers use lessons from lower grade levels to help students develop foundational skills when they are more than one grade level below expected, before moving up to the skills at the higher levels, Verástegui said.

“iReady supports the skills the students need to gain to read at grade level,” she said.

According to González, at the beginning of the school year, of the 34 students in her Spanish/bilingual class, 23% met grade level in reading, 65% partially met grade level (they were one grade level below), and 13% did not meet, which meant that they were at least two grades below grade level.

By the middle of the year after using iReady, 56% of those students met grade level and 44% partially met grade level, she said. She estimates that by April or May, most of them will be at grade level.

“We have seen tremendous growth from the beginning of the year to now,” she said. “It’s also happening with the little ones.”