Alachua County Public Schools invites families to learn about new literacy program

The Alachua County Public School district is inviting families who have children in grades K-2 to attend a webinar where they can learn about the district's new literacy initiative, University of Florida Literacy Institute Foundations program.

The webinar will be held Monday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. In order to attend the webinar, families will have to register and they will then receive a link to the webinar.

The program was developed by the UF College of Education and has been implemented in all kindergarten through second grade classrooms across the district, according to a press release.

The program is a phonics-based curriculum that will incorporate multi-sensory teaching and verbal repetition. Students will learn about articulatory gestures and understanding their mouth movement as they form words.

"This partnership has aligned and strengthened the way we teach our students foundational literacy with a program that's based on the science of reading. We're being so well supported through this partnership with the University of Florida, that I'm very excited about the potential for this to be extremely impactful," said Jenny Wise, chief of teaching and learning.

In case you missed it: Young teachers, students catch wind in the SAIL Program

More: Alachua County Schools' third-grade reading scores down 4%

The literacy program was introduced about a year and a half ago at Ketterlinus Elementary School

The literacy program was introduced about a year and a half ago at Ketterlinus Elementary School in St. Johns County.

"The intention as we were developing it was if it worked out, we thought we would use it elsewhere. So in one school setting it worked really well, and this is our opportunity to see can it work across the whole district," said Holly Lane, director of the program.

The benefit of the program being used in all K-2 programs, it would help students who transition to a different school in Alachua County during the academic school year be on the same page as their peers.

Metcalfe Principal Christina Robbins said in the release that when a new student entered their school they would have to figure out how meet that child's educational needs, however with the program being district wide, everyone is learning the same material.

"Several principals have told me from the data that they're collecting at their schools... that they've already seen really positive results. So that's what's really selling the teachers on this. So the teachers have been very positive from the beginning, but their enthusiasm has actually increased over time as they're seeing how much kids are learning," Lane said.

Since the program has come to the district, representatives from the UF literacy institute check on the progress of the program regularly.

"Our goal is to close the achievement gap, and this one of the best shots we have at doing that," Lane said.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County Public Schools offer webinar on literacy effort