Clyde's 'wild' literacy night

CLYDE — Like how "Gerald the Giraffe" learned to dance, Clyde Elementary School students are learning how to read. With the help of the school's Title 1 teachers, Clyde VFW Post 3343 and VFW Auxiliary 3343, Clyde Elementary School hosted a literacy night themed to the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Reese. The story is about a giraffe who cannot dance. While he practices his dance moves for the annual jungle dance, he eventually comes up with his own style. The school's team of Title 1 teachers — teachers who provide additional support and early intervention for students learning language arts — started planning the event in the fall for the building's kindergarten through second-grade students. As a kindergarten Title 1 teacher, Susan DelGarbino was one of the event organizers. She said she came across the book and noticed the fabulous cover. Along with the great lesson taught, DelGarbino said the coloring throughout the book was striking. The students were guided through eight stations of reading games that helped them practice skills like sounding out each letter in a word, reading syllabus and recognizing "nonsense words," meaning words that do not exists like "Buj." Some games also required the students to reflect on the "Giraffes Can't Dance" story by asking them to do a "five-finger retelling." They recognized the story's setting, character, problem, events and solution. The event also had a photo booth set up, a table of free books students could pick from and a booth with extra literacy information and tips for families to take home provided by the district's literacy director, Brandon Mussell. "It's all about family partnership, involvement, engagement, getting them to come into the schools and sharing literacy strategies and techniques that they are teaching based on the science of reading in classrooms," Mussell said. "It adds some more tools in their toolbox so they can work with their child and support them the best they can at home." The science of reading is decades of research on the best ways students learn how to read, according to Mussell. Mussell and DelGarbino, said the night's event was put on to support students' foundational reading skills because reading impacts all aspects of life. Rather than guessing their way through words, students are learning how to "decode" them. DelGarbino, walked through the beginning processes of teaching students how to read, starting with letter organization, sound and names, to analyzing and dissecting multisyllabic words. The reading lessons taught at an early level are crucial, according to Mussell. He said it is like building a house: Without a strong, basic foundation, there is no way to build up.