AMITY TWP., Pa. \u2014Inside the Daniel Boone Area Middle School library, the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee came together to talk about one question: How do we help people read better in a world that’s changing fast?<\/p>\n
The focus in schools is on something called \u201cstructured literacy,\u201d a phonics-based approach that helps students understand how language works.<\/p>\n
\u201cStructured literacy, or sometimes individuals will talk about phonics-based learning, is really helping the students to understand their letters, understand the sounds, understand fluency,\u201d said Ashley Chambers, senior vice president of community impact at the United Way of Berks County. \u201cSo then that can help build onto comprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chambers said the state is trying to look beyond test scores and understand what\u2019s really happening in classrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo here in Berks County, if you’re just looking at the PSSA scores, we know that many of the children are not reading proficiently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But literacy doesn\u2019t stop at eighth grade.<\/p>\n
Ryan Breisch, executive director of the Literacy Council of Reading\u2013Berks, said his organization works with adults, many of whom are trying to improve their reading skills so they can work, support their families, and function in daily life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been helping them improve their reading skills, not only to be able to read to their children, but more importantly, to be able to get jobs,\u201d Breisch said.<\/p>\n
And today, he said, literacy also means understanding technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything in our world is becoming digital, and a lot of people don’t know how to use those,\u201d Breisch said.<\/p>\n
The people walking into literacy classrooms have changed, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow most of the individuals coming, it’s probably almost 70% are English as a second language,\u201d Breisch said.<\/p>\n
People, educators say, are trying to catch up with a fast-moving world, where reading, writing and navigating technology all matter more than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMITY TWP., Pa. \u2014Inside the Daniel Boone Area Middle School library, the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,7317,42523,42524,28,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-85361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-daniel-boone","tag-daniel-boone-area-middle-school","tag-literacy-council-of-reading-berks","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}