Literacy outcomes are improving for students at Bennett Elementary in Fargo, in part thanks to a partnership with Valley City State University (VCSU). Dating back to the 2021-2022 school year, VCSU pre-service teachers have had the opportunity to take part in a reading practicum that pairs them with Bennett kindergarteners to implement reading interventions. Each kindergartener in the program receives two, fifteen-minute lessons each week over eight weeks. This seemingly small investment of time has provided a boost for hundreds of kindergarteners who struggle with reading and, in turn, furnishes them with a solid foundation for the rest of their academic careers.
Pre-Service Teachers Work with Bennett Students in a partnership between VCSU and Bennett.
The idea for the program started with Kaley Mari, a former Bennett teacher and VCSU professor in the elementary education program taught on campus at North Dakota State University (NDSU). NDSU and VCSU partner to provide NDSU students with dual degrees in human development & family science and elementary education. This partnership allows NDSU students to receive an elementary education degree from VCSU while remaining on campus in Fargo. As part of her professorship, Mari took over the reading practicum for pre-service teachers. Reflecting on her own struggles as a teacher leading reading intervention in small groups, she reached out to Emily Oberg, interventionist and teacher, and Amber Remark, instructional coach, at Bennett with the hope of getting pre-service teachers into a school building to practice reading interventions. The overall intention was to build strong literacy intervention skills in pre-service teachers before they had classrooms of their own.
Emily Oberg (left) and Amber Remark (right)
The partnership between Bennett Elementary and VCSU has evolved since its inception from “trial by fire” to a targeted, structured program. When Mari first contacted Oberg and Remark about hosting a class of pre-service teachers, excitement is not the word they would use to describe how they felt at the time. “At first, we were like, ‘No, we cannot take that on.’ It’s 50 college students that we need to figure out what to do with. But of course, I was like ‘Sure! We’ll figure it out.’” Remark attributes some of this hesitance to the fact that 2021 was the beginning of the Science of Reading professional development requirement for educators in North Dakota and prior to their own training in LETRS® (a popular, in-depth training in literacy). Remark and Oberg originally believed that the partnership would be of more benefit to the pre-service teachers, but they quickly saw that the advantage was more evenly distributed between pre-service teachers and kindergarteners.
After reviewing feedback from that first year, Oberg and Remark became guest lecturers in the classroom portion of the reading practicum and taught students how to complete interventions. The program also shifted from one-on-one time with students to two pre-service teachers for every one kindergartener. This change had a dual-purpose: putting the pre-service teachers more at ease and allowing them to split the tasks of leading the intervention and collecting student data. The third year of the program, Mari came to Bennett when students were leading interventions to serve as on-the-ground problem-solving support.
One of the biggest improvements Remark and Oberg implemented in the program was an if/then decision chart to help students better target specific interventions for students. If/then charts allow teachers to follow specific interventions based on simple prompts like “the student can identify and spell their name.” If the answer is “no”, the pre-service teacher finds the appropriate intervention on the chart for that response and vice versa if the answer is “yes”. The chart is not curriculum based, so it can be used in any classroom with any curriculum.
Two pre-service teachers work with one Bennett student at a time.
This year, the reading practicum was taken over by Angie Zerface, an instructor at VCSU who works with the NDSU/VCSU elementary education program. The practicum begins with an intensive 8-week period of learning a curriculum prior to meeting with students. During the classroom-learning portion, Oberg and Remark visit the class to teach students how to run through interventions. After kindergarteners go through fall reading assessments in October, the pre-service teachers start working with the students identified as needing extra support. Kindergarteners take letter-word-sound fluency and letter naming fluency assessments. All kindergarten students who score at some risk or below on letter names and sounds are able to be served by two pre-service teachers because the number of practicum students is robust. Longevity data from the previous three years at Bennett indicates that the students who have received interventions early in their career have not fallen back into needing reading intervention.
This fall, 38 practicum students served 154 Bennett students in K-5. While spring assessments have not yet been completed, winter benchmark assessments indicate that the overall number of students who needed intensive intervention in the fall has decreased by approximately 30% and the number of students who have met standards increased by 20%. This partnership is demonstrating clear benefits for the kindergarteners receiving interventions.
Practicum Students at Bennett Elementary
For the pre-service teachers providing the interventions, skill building is also their goal. They learn how to give letter name and sound assessments, how to collect assessment data, and how to manage progress monitoring. For example, students learn that they need three different data points to prove a student has learned something before they are able to move on to a different lesson. They also learn soft skills like how to build relationships and motivate students, along with trialing their “teacher voice” as they balance clear instruction with positivity. The pre-service teachers also have the opportunity practice time management and implement routines. It’s exciting for Zerface to see students growing in the class. She remarked on how impressed she was that one of her students proclaimed themselves unprepared and then showed up the next session with an organized binder full of the needed materials that she’d familiarized herself with. It’s problem-solving in real time with a system of supports for the pre-service teachers. Ultimately, it also helps them build their confidence and comfort working with students.
The partnership between Bennett and VCSU is truly mutually beneficial. Oberg and Remark are amazed at how this program has developed and been refined after 4 years. That first year was a “learning curve for everyone,” Oberg stated, but it is now a shining example of how universities can partner with local schools. As the state grapples with how to improve literacy levels, the power of prevention receives high marks! We can’t wait to see how this program continues to grow both at Bennett and, hopefully, in other North Dakota schools.
Written by Kate Balstad, SEEC Events and Marketing Specialist