At a school named for a 19th century literary giant, young students are now learning to read through technology made convenient and accessible only in the 21st century.

Ivonne Granda says her kindergarten class at PS 46, the Edgar Allan Poe Literacy Development School in North Fordham, has developed a love for reading through the Award Reading Program, which combines the use of interactive computer software with group and individual reading practices.

Granda and others at the school are hoping the new program improves the school’s underwhelming performance on last year’s state exams. Just 30 percent of PS 46 students read at or above their grade reading level, according to Department of Education statistics. The scores contributed to the school receiving a “D” grade for performance and an overall “C” grade in the city’s latest annual progress report.Award Reading, which targets early readers (kindergarten through second grade), was created by Wendy Pye.  It builds on basic skills like sentence structure, visual cues and sight words by getting students to put those skills into use through various computer games and activities that accompany actual books.
Students follow the Award characters, like Letter Getter, a cartoon green book worm, through various adventures.

“They enjoy seeing the same characters go through different adventures,” said Granda, in an e-mail. “I try to talk about the characters of the books in different context throughout the day to fully engage the children in the reading program. The kids also enjoy the use of technology within the program as it serves to further engage them.”

In promotional materials touting its effectiveness, Award cites a recent study the Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention did on visual phonics (one of the tactics it uses) and the increase in literacy it gives to kindergarten students at risk, including English Language Learners (ELLs, students who did not grow up speaking or learning English).

Granda said much of PS 46, like many other northwest Bronx schools, is made up of ELL students.

“The Award program had a lot of structure and repetition that helped the ELLs develop early reading skills,” Granda said. “The books always have a pattern that eventually the ELLs learn to find and follow in other non-Award books. The visual technology provided with the print books also help the kids learn hard vocabulary prior to actually reading the book.”

The reading skills learned through Award, which is being used in 91 public schools in New York City, 42 of them in the Bronx, translates into other subjects as well, Granda says.

“I have used the books (both in cd and print), games, activity books and centers in various parts of the curriculum to better support my learners not only in the act of reading itself, but other areas like science and social studies.”

More than anything, Granda says, the students gain confidence through the program. “It’s wonderful to hear a child read the story on their own and take pride in fully understanding the story on their own.”