A kindergarten teacher at Waterford Elementary School successfully teaches her students to read by using hand signs for the sounds of the letters. The teacher is using a program called Tucker Signing Strategies to successfully help teach her students to read. The program is an additional strategy that teachers have found very useful.

“They use this on their own,” Keri Shepard said of her students. “They’ll be writing in their journals and their hands will be going…It’s exciting.”

The Tucker Signing Strategies and other programs were implemented this year and they are seeing significant results in improved math and language arts scores.

Principal Mike Springer attributes that success to programs like Tucker’s, Bridges Out of Poverty and after school tutoring. Many of the teachers have taken advantage of workshops where they have learned how to better connect with students from impoverished backgrounds.