"If you can't read, you can't do anything else," said Jennie Kemp, a teacher at Edisto Primary School in South Carolina. "In teaching first grade, I am constantly trying to figure out how kids learn to read and write." Charlene Gleaton, who also teaches first grade at Edisto, says that all children don't necessarily learn this vital foundation of their education in the same way. Some learn to read more easily through the use of phonics, but vocabulary and knowing the letter sounds are also important. "Regardless of where the child is, we want to focus on what to do help them," Gleaton said.
Kemp and Gleaton are two of some 80 teachers in Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four taking the first of five 15-week classes on literacy. The district is requiring all English teachers to take the course, said Shirlan Jenkins, OCSD Four's assistant superintendent of Instruction and Educational Programs. Approximately one-third of all students have difficulty learning to read, Jenkins said. And research shows literacy to be the key to achievement in every academic area. "If they can't read, they can't do anything else," she said. "That's why all teachers should be reading teachers." Read more in The Times and Democrat online.