News

‘Every child deserves to learn how to read’: Inside one Montana school district’s revamped literacy programs

April 24, 2022 /

MATR Sponsor (view all)

The MDT Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program encourages and supports the participation of companies owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals in transportation contracts.

Sitting on an alphabet rug in a circle, the group of preschool students trace the arc of an imaginary diver with their right hand, until it lands in their left. Throughout their diver’s journey, they sound out the word “hot”, until they reach the end, where a chorus of children make the T sound around the rug.

For the next word – sun – the students start sounding out the word at the top of their diver’s arc until it lands in their left hand with the soft thud of the n sound.

Megan Roth, an early literacy teacher with Bozeman School District, leads the group of children at the Hawk’s Nest daycare through that exercise and others designed to introduce students to the phonics, or the sounds, of reading.