Gateway Regional School district reading consultant Laurie Cousseau. (Photo courtesy GRSD)
HUNTINGTON – Reading consultant Laurie Cousseau and Director of Pupil Services Kurt Garivaltis gave a presentation on the district’s 5-Year Literacy Initiative to the Gateway Regional School Committee at their October 10 meeting.
“Research has shown that our brains are not hot-wired to read at all,” explained Cousseau, who added that an ability to read requires a complex decoding ability, which leaves many students behind.
Cousseau, who completed a literacy audit last year with faculty, specialists and administrators, developed a 5- year implementation plan to hone literacy instruction in the Gateway schools, K-12. The goal, she said, is to produce students who can handle the rich content that is being delivered throughout Gateway schools.
“There is excellent teaching happening throughout Gateway,” Cousseau explained after completing her audit, “with a dynamic, caring faculty that is open to this project.”
Implementation of that plan has begun with professional development to teachers during the summer and regular classroom visits to follow up. The Literacy Audit pointed out some gaps in how students are instructed in literacy and developed a 5-year plan to address missing pieces using research-based, best practice.
The elementary K-2 teachers are emphasizing individualized phonics instruction, which will be integrated into instruction and lessons that are already in place. At the upper level, a phased linguistics program will support readers at risk, using the Orton-Gillingham approach. This approach follows 70 years of reading research to help students who are struggling with reading, spelling, and writing difficulties. Teachers and special education faculty from the upper level have begun professional development on this with Cousseau.
In addition to staff training, curricular materials and a universal screener have been purchased. Inclusive practices programmatic alignment is also ongoing to ensure rigorous instruction with content certified faculty in the general education curriculum, is augmented by pull out, specialized instruction and services when appropriate.
“It takes 3 years to build a program like this and another two years to stabilize a sustainable model,” Cousseau reported to the School Committee. The plan uses a “train the trainers” model to maintain the program as new teachers and faculty are hired over time.
The 5-year cost of implementing this plan is estimated to run between $38,000 and $55,000 per year, with a total of around $228,000; this year’s funding was built into the Gateway budget. Funding covers consultation, materials and professional development.
Cousseau is the owner and director of the Green River Literacy Center in Great Barrington, a community-based resource committed to supporting people with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities. She is an AOGPE Fellow (Academy of Orton Gillingham Practitioner and Educators) and has worked in a number of schools and colleges. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Bay Path University’s Master’s in Reading and Literacy Instruction. In addition to working with schools in the Northeastern United States, Cousseau has consulted to schools in Australia, China and Malaysia.
Presentations to the school committee can be viewed on the Gateway website (www.grsd.org/) under the school committee drop-down menu.
