Iowa lawmakers are looking at ways to help improve literacy in younger students.

Republican Senator Jerry Behn says they recently made a change that no longer requires school districts to implement a retention program for third graders who aren’t proficient in reading to advance onto the next grade level. However Behn says this past week, there was a presentation from the Iowa Reading Resource Center advocating that Direct Systematic Instruction is the best way to teach kids how to read.

Behn thinks Direct Systematic Instruction should be utilized by all school districts.

“I believe if we were using that more widespread, we would have much less of an issue by the time these children get to third grade. So I think it’s one of those things that would help all of the kids.”

Greene County School District Reading Specialist Julie Neal tells Raccoon Valley Radio that they utilize Direct Systematic Instruction in all grade levels, starting with pre-kindergarten students. Neal says essential standards and learning targets are established in each content area. Teachers then use the essential standards to guide them on when they need to intervene or what to reteach to help students move onto the next level.

Phonemic awareness skills are a key area with rhyming, letter sounds and sounds that make up words. Another area is phonics skills like: letter names, letter sounds and letter combinations. An assessment test with pre-k through fourth graders tells the teacher what explicitly needs to be addressed in a student’s reading skills.