Barkley Bridge Elementary School

The Alabama Reading Initiative is a K-12 comprehensive strategy to bring the best research on reading instruction and the best teaching practices to classrooms in Alabama. The primary method is intensive, research-based professional development for teachers. The Alabama Reading Initiative is targeted on three fronts:

1. Strengthening reading instruction in the early grades;
2. Continuously expanding all students’ reading power and comprehension levels
3. Intervening effectively with struggling readers.

ARI’s balanced approach to reading instruction requires a highly skilled teacher. It builds teachers’ capacities by giving them access to the latest research, many practical demonstration lessons, and ongoing support. Barkley Bridge is a part of the Alabama Reading Initiative. We have a full-time ARI funded Reading Coach on site who provides professional development and support to teachers, as well as students. 

To reach ALL students, many reading experts recommend a STRUCTURED literacy approach, which is an explicit and systematic way of helping students take apart the sounds of words. We use the NEW Saxon Phonics & Spelling Curriculum, in addition to authentic literature, to ensure ALL students receive this structured, systematic, and explicit instruction in grades K-3, which includes:

• Phonology: Study of the sound structure of spoken words, which includes rhyming.
• Sound-symbol association: Connecting sounds with letters or groups of letters. Often called phonics.
• Syllable instruction: Helping readers divide unfamiliar words.
• Morphology: Study of the smallest units of meaning, such as base words, roots, prefixes and suffixes.
• Syntax: Grammar, sentence variation and the mechanics of language.
• Semantics: Meaning of words and reading comprehension.