In an effort to share best practices and enrich teachers’ understanding of new educational strategies, Port Jefferson’s Edna Louise Spear Elementary School’s pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade teachers recently took part in a Fundations training workshop with Kerry Leo from Da Vinci Education and Research Center.

Fundations helps to lay the groundwork for lifelong literacy as students learn to gain enjoyment from reading. The program emphasizes phonemic awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension among other strategies. Pre-K through second-graders at the school are engaged in Fundations activities and lessons within their classrooms daily. During the workshop, the teachers shared their ideas on the diagnostic-prescriptive instructional approach, which focuses directly on the student and helps to establish a teaching method for each child.