PROVO, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Kindergarteners at Edgemont Elementary are graduating this week with honors. They are all, 100%, reading at grade level. Teachers at the school report the numbers are usually around 80% at this time of the year. They say what makes this year different is a pilot literacy program called SEEL. It stands for Systematic, Engaging, Early, and Literacy.
SEEL was developed by Dr. Barbara Culatta at BYU’s McKay School of Education. She says initially she was looking for a way to help children with communication disabilities learn to read. The program has now been expanded to all early readers. She says what makes SEEL unique, is the integration of age appropriate activities into the learning experience. Through the use of sensory experiences teachers are able to create emotion and memory. “It’s their heightened level of engagement that gets it stored in long-term memory.”
Diane Amesse, used the SEEL program in her class this year. She says she has never seen anything as effective at teaching reading. “Nothing compares with this. It’s so developmentally appropriate for them for the age group. This is what they do naturally. They play.”
Amesse says the program comes at the right time, as more pressure it put on kindergarten students to perform at the same level once expected of first graders. “We’ve gone to 30 sight words this year. They have to be little readers. There is so much expectation and isn’t it wonderful we can still keep the fun and play in reading?”
Amesse says she now has a classroom full of little readers and writers as well. All of her class is writing at grade level, but more than half are writing above grade level.
The SEEL program is available to anyone interested at no cost. The link is
http://education.byu.edu/projectseel.
