Structured Literacy in Kindergarten: Meeting Every Learner Where They Are

Ms. Cruz, Ms. Guerra and Ms. Leonard are Kindergarten teachers in the Chicago Public Schools who received training through Classmates Literacy Foundation in early 2025.

We are part of a kindergarten team that works for the Chicago Public Schools.  We support students who are Diverse Learners and English Language Learners. Some students have attended preschool, while others are entering school for the very first time. We believe that equipping our students with the structured foundational literacy skills is essential to their academic success. 

Thanks to funding from Classmates Literacy Foundation, we were able to receive structured literacy training through the Slant System™—a program grounded in the Science of Reading and designed to meet the needs of diverse learners. Slant System™ training has reinforced the importance of explicit and systematic phonics instruction within the classroom. Learning how the brain processes information helped us better understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind teaching foundational skills. We as teachers have the ability to help struggling readers overcome reading obstacles. 

Slant System has been vital in our classrooms. Incorporating fun, engaging ways to teach new skills has been so helpful. Some strategies we have since incorporated into our classroom are:

• Nonsense words for fluency

• Use of blending board

• Kinesthetic activities for reversal letter confusion, as well as sentence writing

• Decodable stories

• Dialogue that increases memory retention

• Sound boxes for orthographic mapping

We’ve see the way our students have benefited from explicit instruction this year, and the tremendous growth each child has made. Knowing that we are teaching in ways that support all of our students is a priority for us.