On the white board behind Jasmine Dalton was a list of words that would show up often in the book of animal constellations she was about to read. Together, she and Girls Inc. of Chattanooga Bookworm Club participants made their way down the list, saying each word out loud.
At times, as Dalton read the book, girls jumped in, pointing out words they recognized. And after each page, Dalton gave them a chance to ask questions about the story or comment on the constellations they saw.
From there, the girls moved on to the activity portion of Tuesday afternoon. A video about birds played, and the girls squirted onto mini paper plates the colors they planned to use to either paint a sky or a wooden birdhouse.
The activities came from a tool kit created by Chattanooga 2.0, a collaborative education group, to help out-of-school providers give literacy supports. It’s part of an effort to help students attending after-school programs continue to develop their reading skills in fun, meaningful ways by building on the topics they are learning about at school.
(READ MORE: Literacy tutoring program expands to 12 Hamilton County elementary schools)
Hamilton County first graders are in a unit all about what’s in the sky.
“We don’t want kids to be learning about paleontology in school, but then in after-school all of the texts they’re reading are about planets,” said Brandon Hubbard-Heitz, Chattanooga 2.0’s director of literacy and student strategies. “We want to try to be intentional about making sure that we’re building kids’ knowledge and vocabulary regardless of the setting that they’re in.”
The program aims to help reinforce the work teachers are doing and get kids excited about reading, he said.
Hamilton County public elementary schools use an English language arts curriculum developed by EL Education. Teachers implement the curriculum in two blocks: instruction about phonics and phonemic awareness — the sounds each letter makes — and knowledge building, which increases students’ vocabulary and background understanding of topics.
The curriculum also provides labs that include a read aloud, followed by a hands-on activity, which schools don’t necessarily have the time to implement, Hubbard-Heitz said. But, he said, the labs are perfect for the after-school setting that, by nature, is a bit more unstructured and imaginative.
In late 2023, Chattanooga 2.0 adapted the labs portion of EL Education’s curriculum for kindergarten through second grades and packaged it as a tool kit for out-of-school time providers. The organization worked with the school system to align the resources with the sequence of Hamilton County Schools’ lessons, so that out-of-school time providers could reinforce the skills that students are learning in school, Hubbard-Heitz said.
When designing the tool kit, Chattanooga 2.0 was intentional about not trying to replicate school in the out-of-school space. For that reason, the tool kit was designed to accommodate the play-based nature of after-school programs, Executive Director Keri Randolph said.
Girls Inc. of Chattanooga was one of two after-school providers to pilot the program in the spring. Chattanooga 2.0 made some changes to the tool kit based on their feedback, and it is now being used by four providers.
At Girls Inc., Senior Director of Programming Fance Brannock said she’s seen the lightbulb come on for girls as they realize they’re learning about the same topics as at school.
“We always knew that spending extra time reading with the girls was important,” she said in an interview. “We always knew that teaching them these literacy skills early was important, but being able to actually connect with what they just did at their schools this week before they came here to us and being able to build on that has been phenomenal. We’ve been super excited to be a part of that process.”
The program is one piece of Chattanooga 2.0’s effort to build a robust and aligned system of literacy supports to ensure 70% of Hamilton County’s third through fifth graders are reading and writing at grade level by 2030.
“Schools play an absolutely essential role in teaching kids to read and write, but it can’t just be about schools,” Hubbard-Heitz said. “If we’re going to make the case that it can’t just be about schools, then we’ve got to be really intentional about making sure that parents and caregivers or out-of-school time providers have the knowledge and resources needed to support literacy in their particular settings.”
Chattanooga 2.0 provided the out-of-school providers with training on the tool kit, Hamilton County’s curriculum and the science of reading.
Brannock said the tool kit was set up in a way that allows the organization to choose the activities that staff knows will be most engaging and interesting for their girls and made the most sense for their particular program. It has also allowed staff to plan a lot easier and more efficiently, she said.
Girls Inc. uses the tool kit at all four of its bookworm club sites, serving about 60 girls in first through third grades. The sites typically use the first grade topics, Brannock said.
As the older girls recognize the content or vocabulary words, she said, they’ve stepped up to help the younger ones.
“They feel more engaged in it,” Brannock said. “They know that it’s something that they’re learning at school, too, and here, and so they just feel more invested in it.”
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.