District 300 teacher of year gives kids freedom through reading

In 2002, the School District 300 Foundation for Educational Excellence was established as a not-for-profit corporation in order to, according to its mission statement, seek and make available resources that enhance and extend learning opportunities for all of its students.

This year it announced the inauguration of the Distinguished Educator of the Year Award to honor a professional in the district whose work reflects that mission.

Nancy Hatcher, literacy teacher at Liberty Elementary School in Carpentersville, is the first recipient of the award. Hatcher has been a teacher for 30 years, 19 of which have been in Community Unit District 300. She has been at Liberty since the school opened six years ago.

The literacy program for District 300 is partially funded by a grant from the state of Illinois, and serves kindergarten, first, and second grades. Hatcher not only teaches these students, but is also involved in staff development.

Hatcher says that early on she does assessing, such as letter recognition, with students to target who needs some extra help. Once those students are identified, she works with them in small groups.

"We work with phonemic awareness, music, rhyme, and guided reading in small groups," Hatcher said. "They are pulled out of their classroom for 25 to 30 minutes four days a week. They are also reading in their classrooms. Basically, it's extra -- beyond what's going on in their regular class."

According to Hatcher, early intervention can make all the difference, especially for those who are having a harder time getting started.

"There's a statistic out right now that says people feel that learning how to read is a really natural process -- like learning how to speak. But actually it's very difficult," she said.

"In a classroom of 25, for at least five students in that classroom it's really hard work to learn how to read. That's for a lot of different reasons."

She went on to explain that our brains work differently. Some students are visual learners, while some are more auditory.

"The process of learning how to read is not as easy as some people think," she said.

"Some students need a little extra push or a little extra reinforcement in specific areas. In small groups we can look at kids a little closer, and see what they need next. It's a little bit easier than in a classroom of 28. That's one of the reasons that working in a small group is good."

One of her most successful and popular literacy programs at Liberty is the Buddy Day Program. Once a week, every fifth-grader is paired with a first-grader and they read to each other. The older students are trained to teach their buddies language arts skills.

"It's a cross-age program that I've been interested and involved in pretty much my whole career. It's something I've brought from place to place, whatever grade level I've been in. I try to create some sort of peering of students.

"We have a big group time where we do songs or rhymes or poems. The rest of the time, the fifth-grader reads their buddy a picture book, which helps them build their fluency. The first-grader also has books in their book box, and they practice reading to the fifth-grader. It's pretty simple, that part of it," Hatcher explained.

"But I also have a component where if we're doing, say, a comprehension strategy, I spend about a half-hour a week before Buddy Day with all the fifth-graders talking to them about the lesson plan -- how we look at students individually in first grade, and how every little first-grader is different, and how they were, too -- and that no one learns at the same pace."

Using rhythm, music, and poetry is an important tool in Liberty's literacy program. Hatcher says it helps them read fluently, with intonation, and that little kids really feel like they are reading when actually they're remembering. It's important to the process, she says, and helps with letter and word recognition.

Hatcher says her other passion is mentoring the younger people joining the district. She also teaches reading and language arts courses at both National-Louis and Judson universities.

Upon learning of her award, she said "I was absolutely shocked, to put it mildly. The Liberty staff nominated me, and the people in my building are fabulous teachers, so it was really an honor."

Hatcher feels that the results of the literacy program at Liberty are good, but that there is always room for improvement.

She finds inspiration in the name Liberty.

"I love our school's name. To me it's powerful, it means freedom. And you know -- being able to read and write is freedom.

If you have any news about your club, school, church, business, neighbor, or even yourself, contact Kirstin Finneran by cell at (312) 518-4993 or e-mail at kirstinfinneran@comcast.net.