Chalkbeat Feature: “Science teachers, math teachers, history teachers—we’re all reading teachers now.”

Article by Springfield Prep Science Teacher and Grade Level Chair Ian Hartigan;

Published by Chalkbeat.org on May 2, 2024.

“Imagine — and if you’re a science teacher, you won’t have to—trying to get through a lesson on the water cycle with students struggling to sound out keywords like “condensation” and “precipitation.” These are longer, multisyllabic words that students can sound out if they have a basic mastery of phonics, but they become impossible if students lack this foundation...In pre-pandemic days, it was normal to have a few struggling readers per class. Post-COVID, it has often felt like there are few readers who are not struggling. It was clear that a new approach to literacy instruction was needed—one that leveraged every teacher in our building and gave us ways to catch our older students up on second-grade skills without infantilizing the content.” Read Full Article…