I suspect few of us remember much about how we learned to read. As a 1st grader in St. Raymond's Catholic School in New York, I vaguely remember the experience. I remember learning that when "Mrs. E was knocking at the back door" the vowel that preceded Mrs. E was long and Mrs. E was, herself, silent. Not to be so reductive about my literacy learning but, truly, this is pretty much all I remember about the process.

With rare exceptions, everyone learns to speak without any explicit teaching; however, this is not the case with literacy. While educators argue about what should be taught and how, there are few who argue that the skills needed for one to become literate do not need to be explicitly taught.

At Costa Verde, each of our four-year-old students is starting to embark on his/her individual "literacy journey." In this pre-literate state, students are discovering such things as: English and Spanish are read from left to write; text flows from top-to-bottom; there is a correlation between letters and sounds, and a representational relationship exists between letter sounds and real objects. To help children acquire these pre-literacy skills, teachers immerse students into the world of books. Each day the children spend time with a book, gliding their tiny magic finger under the words and using the book's pictures to help them "read" their book.

In English class, middle school students are learning about literacy and using what they learn to help shepherd these new readers through the process. As middle school student Jason explains, "Children in kindergarten don't know how to read. With this project we are getting them ready to start reading. To do this, we need to teach them some skills called "pre-literacy". To start reading, for example, they move their finger from left to right, they learn simple vocabulary or letter sounds, and they know where the book starts and ends. We, as part of Costa Verde, want to teach our little buddies how to read."

With this goal in mind, every Wednesday, middle school students grab the books they have specially selected and meet with their fledgling reader. Oscar is thrilled about the progress his kinder reader is making. "My partner is beginning to recognize the letters and sounds. The first time that I was reading with him he was a little bit shy. Now he is not shy anymore. He enjoys the book that I read to him, and at the end he reads it to me, and he tells me what was his favorite part."

Middle school student, Bianca, finds the experience of reading with the kinders "amazing." She writes, "I see a lot of progress in partner reading. Lua is only four and she is amazing. I love helping them and they love the time with us. We are starting a very strong friendship and it makes this experience even better."   

Middle school students like Kenia and Richie are learning not just about how one acquires literacy skills but also what adults need to do to engage children in the process. About her little reader Kenia writes, "He is a really smart child because he can recognize some letters, and he also knows the sound of the letters. Sometimes it's hard to get his attention. He doesn't know how to use his magic finger, but he knows that you have to read from left to right." In writing about his little reader, Richie shares that "one on my techniques is to pick books that have a lot of pictures.   I ask him, 'What do you see in the picture?' Most of the time his prediction of the picture is correct. Sometimes, though, my partner gets distracted when he is bored so I think I need to find a technique to make the reading more interesting."

Middle school readers like Sofie find the more she reads with her partner the better. She writes, "My little partner is a very sweet and happy child. The first day that I read with her, she was a little shy, and she did not want to read with me, but the teacher helped me to get her interested in the story. The second day I had more emotion and she was interested. She answered my questions, and she told me her favorite part of the story. It was a lot more fun."

The rest of our middle school readers are also thoroughly enjoying the experience and learning about how one learns to read. Kianna writes about her reader, "She is really smart, and she has a big imagination. While I am reading, she listens and gets the idea of what the book is about. She really likes to make word sounds even though she doesn't know how to read. The interesting thing about this is that when I read with her, I can see that she will become a great reader." Omar writes about how his reader doesn't speak much English, but Omar is certain that "I'm going to teach him to read in English by helping him recognize the words." Danye writes that her reader is "so beautiful and smart; she always pays attention and makes comments about the book. I like to read for her. The children get excited and they are interested in listening and seeing the book."

With all the help our CVIS middle school students are providing to our little readers, none of us will be surprised to see our kinders become skilled and joyful readers!