Ellendale Elementary 25-26

Ellendale Students Are Growing as Readers

At Ellendale Elementary, we are committed to fostering a love of reading while building the foundational literacy skills students need to become confident, successful learners. We believe that reading should be both meaningful and enjoyable. Through engaging literacy experiences, students are encouraged to discover books that spark their curiosity, explore new ideas, and develop a lifelong appreciation for reading.

Creating a culture where reading is celebrated is an important part of this work. Throughout the year, students participate in school-wide literacy experiences that bring our learning community together and promote a love of reading. During the winter, students enjoyed reading with hot chocolate under the stars alongside their reading buddies. In the spring, we hosted a whole-school Read-a-Thon. The excitement around reading was evident as participation grew from approximately 30 readers in 2025 to over 150 readers in 2026. These shared experiences help students see reading as enjoyable, meaningful, and connected to community while fostering enthusiasm for literacy both at school and at home

Kindergarten Cohort

A cohort of Kindergarten students was selected to represent the development of foundational literacy skills at Ellendale.

Our students’ learning goals include:

• Developing phonological awareness skills by isolating, blending, and segmenting sounds.
• Building foundational reading skills through letter-sound knowledge and decoding.
• Developing confidence and enjoyment as readers.
• Communicating their thinking by discussing, responding to, and making connections with texts.

Each day, students engaged in structured literacy lessons using the UFLI Foundations program alongside oral language experiences, shared reading, storytelling, and play-based learning opportunities. Through songs, rhymes, games, and explicit instruction, students explored the sounds within words and learned how letters and sounds work together to support reading.

Students strengthened their literacy skills by:

• Building Foundational Reading Skills: Students practiced identifying beginning and ending sounds, connecting letters to sounds, blending phonemes to read words, and segmenting words into individual sounds.
• Engaging with Meaningful Texts: Through daily read-alouds, classroom libraries, and shared reading experiences, students explored a variety of stories and informational texts, developing both comprehension and a love of reading.
• Developing Communication Skills: Students discussed stories, asked questions, shared ideas, and made connections between texts and their own experiences, strengthening the Core Competency of Communication.

What We Noticed

Student progress was monitored using the Early Literacy Phonemic Awareness Tool – Surrey (ELPATS) and Acadience Reading assessments. In September, many students were just beginning to develop foundational phonological awareness skills. By June, students demonstrated significant growth in their ability to isolate, segment, and blend sounds, as well as increased proficiency in foundational reading skills.

Students became more confident and engaged as readers. They demonstrated increased independence when working with sounds, letters, and simple texts. We also observed students taking greater risks, sharing their thinking more readily, and developing enthusiasm for books and reading.

At Ellendale, we are proud of the ways our students are growing as readers and communicators. Through daily opportunities to engage with language and text, students are developing the foundational skills, confidence, and curiosity that will support their literacy journey for years to come.

OUR NEXT STEPS

This year, our focus at Ellendale has been on helping students build strong foundational literacy skills while developing confidence and enjoyment as readers. We want students to see themselves as capable readers and communicators who can engage with texts, share their thinking, and make meaningful connections to the world around them.

To support this work, students participated in structured literacy lessons using the UFLI Foundations program alongside oral language experiences, shared reading, storytelling, and play-based learning opportunities. Through explicit instruction and daily opportunities to engage with language and text, students developed phonological awareness skills, strengthened letter-sound knowledge, and began building the foundational skills needed for future reading success.

Evidence gathered from our Kindergarten cohort demonstrates that our literacy focus is positively impacting student learning. Acadience Reading data shows substantial growth in foundational literacy skills from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year. Students also demonstrated significant growth in phonological awareness skills as measured through ELPATS, including their ability to isolate, blend, and segment sounds. Alongside this growth, we observed students becoming more confident and engaged as readers, taking greater risks, sharing their thinking more readily, and developing enthusiasm for books and reading.

The first chart illustrates growth in students' overall Acadience Composite Scores, reflecting gains in foundational literacy skills. The second chart highlights growth in key phonological awareness skills measured through ELPATS. Together, these data sources demonstrate that students are building the foundational skills necessary for future reading success.

Kindergarten Acadience Composite Score Growth

Average composite score growth from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year for the Kindergarten cohort.

The average Acadience Composite Score increased from approximately 18 at the beginning of the year to 84 by the middle of the year. This growth reflects significant gains in foundational literacy skills, including phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and early decoding skills.

ELPATS Growth

 By June, the majority of students demonstrated proficiency in foundational phonological awareness skills, including first phoneme isolation (82%), final phoneme isolation (68%), and two-phoneme blending (82%). Students also showed growth in more complex skills such as three- and four-phoneme segmentation and blending, providing evidence of strong development in the foundational skills necessary for future reading success.

As a next step, we will continue to provide explicit, systematic literacy instruction while strengthening opportunities for students to develop oral language and communication skills. We will continue to use assessment data to guide instruction and intervention, ensuring that students receive the support they need to be successful. We also plan to expand opportunities for students to engage with diverse and meaningful texts that foster curiosity, build background knowledge, and nurture a lifelong love of reading. By continuing this work, we aim to ensure that every student develops the confidence, competence, and enthusiasm needed to thrive as a reader and learner.