Early Literacy

Wisconsin Act 20, also known as Wisconsin's Right to Read Act, mandates that all Wisconsin schools must offer evidence-based early literacy education to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. This encompasses teaching phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, oral language development, vocabulary expansion, writing skills, comprehension, and reading fluency. Additionally, Act 20 directs school districts to transition from a "balanced literacy" approach to a "science of reading" approach, which prioritizes phonics instruction

Skills for Early Reading

These five skills are the building blocks of reading. They help students recognize, understand, and pronounce words correctly, which is essential for becoming a successful reader. Without these foundational skills, it’s difficult for students to read fluently and understand what they’re reading.

1. Phonemic Awareness: This skill involves recognizing and manipulating the individual sounds in words. Tasks might include identifying the first or last sound in a word or blending sounds together to make a word (e.g., /c/ + /a/ + /t/ = "cat").
2. Oral Vocabulary: Oral vocabulary refers to knowing the meanings of words when heard or spoken. Tasks might include learning new words through conversation, storytelling, or picture books and understanding these words in different contexts.
3. Alphabet Knowledge: This involves recognizing and naming letters, both uppercase and lowercase. Tasks usually include matching letters with pictures, or playing games that involve identifying letters.
4. Letter Sound Knowledge: This skill is about knowing the sounds that each letter or combination of letters makes. Tasks might include saying the sound when shown a letter, matching letters to their sounds, or practicing with flashcards.
5. Decoding Skills: Decoding is the ability to sound out and read words by connecting letters to their sounds. Tasks might include reading simple words, sounding out new words, and practicing reading short sentences.

These skills help students learn to read by teaching them how to hear, say, recognize, and understand words. For example, they learn the sounds that letters make, how to blend those sounds together to read words, and what those words mean when they hear or say them. By practicing these skills, students can become better readers.

Explicit and systematic instruction in these areas support text comprehension.

*Act 20 states that all Wisconsin schools are required to provide science-based early literacy instruction in both universal and intervention settings.

Act 20 requires that all K-3 classroom teachers, K-3 principals, and reading specialists must begin training in science-based literacy instruction by July 1, 2025. This training must come from an approved list of vendors determined by DPI. 

In the summer of 2024, all K-5 classroom educators were asked to complete the Keys to Beginning Literacy Training grounded in the science of reading by June 1st, 2025. Additionally, VASD's K-5 principals and reading specialists have started  “Impactful Early Literacy Practices Leadership Institute provided by CESA 6” and will complete the training in the 2024-2025 school year.  This is a 6-day Wisconsin Act 20-approved reading training for school districts and system leaders.  

Act 20 states that students in 4K must be evaluated on phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge. Act 20 also states that students in 5K through grade 3 must be evaluated on phonemic awareness, decoding skills, alphabet knowledge, letter sound knowledge, and oral vocabulary.

In the Verona Area School District, evaluation is done within the MLSS framework. Screening, diagnostic assessment and progress monitoring of students is conducted and evaluated by building MLSS teams. Based on criteria set out by Act 20, students in need of additional support are identified and given a Reading Plan that describes additional support needed. For additional information about VASD's reading screeners, diagnostic assessments, and reading plan information, please click here. 

Additional Information for At-Risk Students

If a diagnostic assessment shows a child is at risk, schools will provide information and details about:

• How to make a special education referral.
• Dyslexia and its characteristics.
• Interventions and accommodations for dyslexia.

If a learner enrolled in 5-year-old kindergarten to 3rd grade is identified as needing an additional instruction in the area of reading based on Screening and Diagnostic assessments, VASD will design a Personalized Reading Plan (PRP) within 10 days of the Universal Screening results and share it with the student’s family.

A personal reading plan for a student scoring below 25% on the AimsWeb+ screener will include all of the following:

• A statement of the student’s specific early literacy learning needs, as identified by skills that were evaluated on the applicable assessment.
• Goals and benchmarks for the student’s progress toward grade-level literacy skills.
• A description of the interventions and any additional instructional services that will be provided to the student to address the student’s learning needs and promote the growth of the student’s early literacy skills. 
• The programming using “science-based early reading instruction,” as defined in state law, that the student’s teacher will use to provide reading instruction to the student, addressing the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. 
• A description of how the student’s progress will be monitored. 
  • IMPORTANT: Monitoring activities must occur on at least a weekly basis. 
• Strategies and activities that the student’s parent is encouraged to use to help the student achieve grade-level literacy skills. 
• Multilingual students’ reading plans are developed to reflect their English proficiency level and Language Development Plans (LDP).
• Multilingual students who have arrived in the United States in the past twelve months, also called newcomer students, may be exempted from one administration of the required reading screener during their first year of enrollment. 
• Students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) will have their PRP integrated into their IEP. If an IEP does not include a reading goal, one will be developed as part of their PRP. These PRPs meet both the requirements set out by Act 20 and the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA)..  

For students receiving Personal Reading Plans (PRP), Parents/Caregivers will be notified and will have access to the plan online through NextPath. Educators will regularly review student growth (approximately every four to six weeks) and Parents/Caregivers will be notified of progress. Parents/Caregivers can also review student progress at any time online.  

• Families receive a copy of the student screening results within 15 days of Screening
• If the child scores below the 25 percentile a teacher will contact the family to inform them of further diagnostic testing and  that a PRP is being created to support their student.
• The PRP  is sent to the parents within 10 days of the screening results. Families acknowledge the receipt of the plan via NextPath.
• If there are questions about the plan, a consultation with the family and the interventionist is arranged.
• A 10 week follow up is sent to the families  to inform them of progress and any changes needed in the PRP.

Verona Area School District's Early Literacy Remediation Plan aligns with Act 20 and is designed to support and enhance reading instruction from the early grades. Our plan provides a framework that complements and strengthens our existing literacy practices to ensure that every child receives the support they need to succeed academically.

Act 20 requires that schools must have a policy for promotion from 3rd to 4th grade, based on a DPI model policy, by July 1st, 2025. This would go into effect September 1st, 2027. 

The Verona Area School District promotion policy will be reviewed/revised during the 2024-2025 school year.