Over the summer program staff dug into learning about the Science of Reading,  an approach to teaching reading based on decades of research and evidence from the fields of education, neuroscience, cognitive psychology and developmental psychology. We have applied researched best practices for reading instruction to SitStayRead's new curricula for second-grade, Tail Blazers.  The new program, which exists in English and bilingual Spanish/English iterations, focuses on five core areas of instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The program builds on our foundation of social-emotional learning and more recent work done to choose titles that center protagonists that mirror and affirm the identities of our students. Volunteers who have worked in second-grade classrooms will notice the use of decoder books rather than worksheets, and some new approaches to classroom management and stations to maximize time with Book Buddies and Dog Teams. We continue to value the opportunities for kids to practice speaking, listening, and critical thinking that goes on in these intimate, confidence-building interactions provided by our volunteers.

The new second-grade Tail Blazers program debuts at the end of September at Acero Carlos Fuentes School, a committed school partner that has been engaged and encouraging as we evolved our post-pandemic programs, including our bilingual iterations of revised kindergarten and first-grade curricula. In 2024-25 SitStayRead will now be present in kindergarten, first grade and second grade at Carlos Fuentes, establishing itself as a beloved tradition during key years for emergent readers. Year-over-year partnerships like this allow us to begin evaluating our impact in a collaborative environment. Thank you Principal Fink, Assistant Principal Reimer, and our classroom teachers for being SitStayRead champions.  We can't wait to be back with your wonderful students in just a few weeks.