Nystrom Elementary has made remarkable gains in student reading proficiency implementing the “Walk to Read” model, a dedicated block of time each day during which students receive targeted foundational skills instruction.
Collaborative Classroom’s Andreia Simon recently moderated a webinar about “Walk to Read” with Nystrom educators and principal Jamie Allardice.
In this blog we share video highlights from the webinar and learn exactly what “Walk to Read” is and how it can be effectively implemented.
Andreia Simon, Regional Director, Collaborative Classroom
Thank you all for taking the time to meet with us today. Principal Jamie Allardice, would you give us a brief overview of Nystrom Elementary and the way that you’ve approached the “Walk to Read” model?
Jamie Allardice, Principal, Nystrom Elementary
Nystrom is a TK through sixth-grade elementary school in Richmond, California. About two-thirds of our students are English learners.
We’re focusing today on foundational skills, which is one part of the students’ day in terms of learning to read. Accordingly, other parts of the day they’re getting language comprehension instruction and a focus on more of their language needs.
It should be noted that all of our students, regardless of where they are in terms of English learners, are in this “Walk to Read” model.
To give a little context, this is my ninth year at Nystrom. I certainly would not — we would not — be able to jump into the work that we are doing now back in my first year. We’ve done a lot of work over the years in terms of culture and climate, both for adults and for students.
Collaboration has been a big key on our campus for many years. You’ll hear throughout this [webinar] how our adults collaborate, and how we’ve set up structures to allow that to be a school-wide priority.
Before we adopted SIPPS and the “Walk to Read” model, we spent a lot of time working on our vision for literacy and getting our team on board.
Before we adopted SIPPS® and the “Walk to Read” model, we spent a lot of time working on our vision for literacy and getting our team on board. The curriculum piece followed.
I mentioned our vision for literacy. The power in it for me comes in these two sentences: “We know that reading is not a natural process, and given all this, it is our job to explicitly and systematically teach students how to read.”
We know that reading is not a natural process, and given all this, it is our job to explicitly and systematically teach students how to read.
from Nystrom Elementary’s Vision Statement on Literacy
Oftentimes, that last sentence is really what draws people into this whole vision statement. It’s a powerful moral imperative to improve our literacy instruction.
But the sentence before it is really the “How we’re going to do it”!
Before we launched the Walk to Read model and before we got going with SIPPS, we had this vision statement in place. That allowed us to look for a curriculum that was explicit and systematic. We had built the understanding that reading was not a natural process.
Watch a Video of Principal Jamie Allardice Explaining Nystrom’s Walk to Read Model
I’m going to give a brief description of “Walk to Read” and then you can hear some of the details from our teachers.
Essentially, it is grouping some of our grade levels together.
- For kindergarten, the kindergarten team is self-contained.
- First and second-grade group their students for foundational skills together.
- Third and fourth group their students together.
- Fifth and sixth do the same.
You can see what it looks like in our building in terms of the number of students.
If you follow along for a moment, think of yourself as a first-grade teacher and you’re teaching SIPPS. You know, most lessons are 30 to 45 minutes. Realistically, teachers can only work with two different groups per day. So, if I’m a first-grade teacher with a class of 20-something kids, I really only have two options for grouping students.
However, in our school, we knew the range of skill levels was much broader than that. The “Walk to Read” model allows us to have six teachers in our first and second-grade hallway. So, if each teacher works with two groups, that gives us 12 different group placements for our first-grade students.
The “Walk to Read” model allows us to have six teachers in our first and second-grade hallway. So, if each teacher works with two groups, that gives us 12 different group placements for our first-grade students.
That really opens up the door for much more targeted, differentiated instruction. And that’s really at the core of what the “Walk to Read” model is all about.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
Darissa Phipps, I learned that you first came to the school as an outsider to observe this “Walk to Read” model. Then you chose to join the Nystrom team.
I’m curious about what you saw at Nystrom that compelled you to want to join the team as an interventionist.
Darissa Phipps, Reading Interventionist
I was really impressed by the level of collaboration and trust among the staff.
For example, in the “Walk to Read” model, the teachers are sharing kids across classrooms and grade levels, and they’re all sharing the responsibility for making sure that every student is learning to read. That’s a big shift away from teaching in a more isolated way where my kids, or my classroom, are my sole focus.
In the “Walk to Read” model, the teachers are sharing kids across classrooms and grade levels, and they’re all sharing the responsibility for making sure that every student is learning to read.
I was also excited about this cohesive school-wide focus on literacy instruction and how we’re always asking, “Is it high quality? Is it effective? Do we need to make adjustments to what we’re doing?”
There’s a sustained and systematic effort at Nystrom to teach foundational skills. Everyone is on board with it and we don’t accept that some students just aren’t reading at grade level.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
I’m wondering for all of you, how did you approach organizing this shift to a new model, because this Walk-to-Read model was a shift and that requires buy-in.
So how did you approach that?
Dylan Fairweather, Third Grade Teacher
A lot of times students are expected to know how to read by the time they reach third grade but a huge majority of my kids weren’t at grade level yet. We didn’t have a direct phonics instruction model that I was able to use.
A lot of the buy-in just came from understanding that what we had in place wasn’t working and that the whole school’s DIBELS® data in 2021 wasn’t reflecting what we wanted to see.
We knew our students were capable so we really wanted something that was going to get them to the place we knew that they could be.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
This was a big shift. What kind of professional learning or coaching did you have to provide your staff to implement this mode?
Jamie Allardice, Principal
The year we were on distance learning we developed a literacy action plan. Our original plan was for first grade to pilot SIPPS in 2021–2022.
We planned to build some momentum, get first grade going, and the following year build out from there. A lot of professional development focused on how students learn to read. We did DIBELS school-wide, kindergarten through sixth, and we gave students the SIPPS placement test. As part of that, we had a ton of momentum in our building.
Consequently, what ended up happening is by October of that year, everyone in our building was using the Walk to Read model. It looked different in first grade than it did in our upper grades, but it really became a school-wide approach.
Undoubtedly, part of the buy-in came from the vision that we had; we had really good data, people saw that the need was there, and we needed to do something.
The other thing I would note is within our PDs, there was a lot of needed practice time. You can’t just jump in, sit through a PD, and then go implement it. There’s a lot of practice time and in-class coaching for teachers.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
What kind of challenges have you all encountered? How have you addressed those challenges?
Liz Franco, First Grade Teacher
In the beginning, there was a big learning curve for SIPPS… But as we started to learn it and how to implement it, we started to see really cool growth and the potential for more.
We knew that students didn’t know how to read. When we started to get a clear sense of what was happening and pinpointing exactly what to do, along with lots of collaboration, we came together and said, “Okay, I see this, I see that. This is what we can do to adjust instruction.”
Jamie Allardice, Principal
I think the adult learning has looked different each year in their building.
So year one there was a lot of focus on what we were doing, like how to teach the program.
Our second year was more about how to respond and how to adjust our instruction based on what we’re seeing in the data.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
How do you currently support teachers and the team? It sounds like you have a lot of structures in place and I would love to hear more about those structures.
Dylan Fairweather, Third Grade Teacher
As Jamie mentioned, It’s definitely shifted every year as far as what students are receiving. Generally, the amount of minutes in which students are getting their instruction time is based on need.
For example, once they understood how to sound outwards and recognize more high-frequency words, they needed more time practicing that fluency and getting minutes spent reading.
Liz Franco, First Grade Teacher
In year one, we learned the curriculum and got all the teachers and administrators on the same page. We realized quickly that trust was really, really important.
Then, by year two, things started to change in terms of how it became all about the students.
Dylan Fairweather, Third Grade Teacher
In year two we really refined our practice by fine-tuning little differences and sounds and getting the routines tighter.
Most of us have two groups in our classroom at a time. So, while I’m teaching one group, I have another group of students who are working independently. Since we focused on implementation and understanding of the curriculum in the first year we were able to pay more attention to independent time and making sure it supported the instruction of the SIPPS lesson in year two.
I don’t think we would have been able to focus on both in that first year. Now in year 3, we have been able to build on a lot more layers of support.
To illustrate, we have Darissa, our reading interventionist, and we have reading tutors supporting that independent work and holding kids accountable to make sure they’re doing the independent work.
We’ve learned that when the independent work is super aligned with the instruction, their gains are increased in fluency as well.
Everyone is super committed to the Walk to Read model in the school. We all have to be to see this kind of growth. We have so much investment from Jamie, our principal. If a teacher is out, he’ll step in. We have a really great reading coach as well.
We make it a focus to never skip SIPPS because consistency is key.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
Along those lines, when you’re seeing growth and collecting data, how do you use that data to collaborate and then drive your instructional decisions?
What kinds of data do you collect and how does that impact how you do the work that you’re doing?
Jamie Allardice, Principal
DIBELS is our benchmark assessment that we use three times a year. It’s really curriculum agnostic and a way for us to gauge the efficacy of the curriculum and our implementation.
The ongoing assessments that we use are the mastery tests that are built into SIPPS every 5 to 10 lessons. Our teachers are able to use those to make instructional decisions, and they’ve created protocols to analyze that student data.
That really drives their collaboration.
Dylan Fairweather, Third Grade Teacher
Weekly or monthly meetings change based on the needs of our students.
Right now we usually have monthly collaborations amongst a year-group band. Because I’m a third grade teacher I meet with the third and the fourth grade team.
We all bring in data that we’ve collected, such as DIBELS data or those mastery tests.
Additionally, we really analyze that data; we don’t just quickly pass through it. We brainstorm ideas. First question we ask is: do they need to change groupings? Do students need to have more time spent working on their sight words?
We really analyze that data; we don’t just quickly pass through it.
Also, we share best practices and challenges, because we have to also be on top of classroom management and make sure that independent time is really useful and impactful for students.
We will regroup students when necessary, so nothing is ever set in stone here. We are always changing based on the data we collect.
Liz Franco, First Grade Teacher
We are constantly collaborating. We’re talking to each other during lunch. We’re adjusting instruction at all times of the day.
I really love the way we work together.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
Jamie, I heard someone say that you jump in and teach SIPPS groups as needed.
I’m curious about the role of the literacy coach or interventionist in this type of model, at least in the way that you all have it come to life at your school.
Jamie Allardice, Principal
We have a fantastic literacy coach who holds the big picture of this model. When shifts need to be made she’s often the architect of those changes.
I think what we’ve also learned is that the need never goes away, it just changes. What the work looked like several years ago is very different from what it looks like now and is different from what it’ll look like in another year or two. You look at our data and we know that there’s still a lot of work to do.
So I think that our literacy coach can hold that big picture and kind of figure out what are the next shifts that we need to make.
We’re constantly evolving. The need is always there, and our literacy coach is in the classrooms coaching teachers daily.
When there are absences, usually it’s our coach or myself jumping in and teaching the lesson because if the teacher is out, it still needs to carry on. And like the others said, we don’t skip SIPPS! That’s been a big role of our coach.
Darissa Phipps, Reading Interventionist
Our approach to intervention provided an intensified version of Tier I instruction, through smaller groups or additional minutes: repeating lessons, slowing down the pace, and reiterating certain parts of lessons that students need to spend more time reviewing.
I think that gives a lot of consistency and reinforcement and gives students more opportunities to be successful. That’s how we’re approaching intervention.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
What other kinds of surprises have you all encountered in using the “Walk to Read” model — either challenging or positive? What things have come up that you didn’t anticipate?
Jamie Allardice, Principal
I would say for myself — and I guess I’ll just speak to any administrators out there or anyone that’s in charge of adopting curriculum — you gotta get in there and get a little messy with it yourself. I’ve definitely made some missteps in the past, I think, but being able to jump in and learn alongside the teachers allows me to be a better instructional leader.
If I can learn SIPPS, anybody can learn SIPPS. Let me tell you: three or four years ago I did not know the difference between a long and a short vowel! I was a product of the whole language approach.
I’ve learned I can jump in and teach SIPPS Beginning and SIPPS Extension. If I can do it, anybody can do it, but I think that it really starts with getting in there and learning alongside your teachers.
So I’ve learned I can jump in and teach SIPPS Beginning and SIPPS Extension. If I can do it, anybody can do it, but I think that it really starts with getting in there and learning alongside your teachers. I think that is often overlooked in our position [as leaders].
Darissa Phipps, Reading Interventionist
I would say that to me what’s happening at Nystrom is the perfect example of how having high expectations for all students and having high-quality instruction and collaboration and leadership going on to support them can just create so much growth.
What’s happening at Nystrom is the perfect example of how having high expectations for all students and having high-quality instruction and collaboration and leadership going on to support them can just create so much growth.
We’re showing that when you’re working together doing the right things, you can really see a lot of progress. And that’s exciting.
Jamie Allardice, Principal
I would echo what Dylan was saying about the buy-in and the idea that this is just part of what we do now.
Early on it felt like, “What if we don’t get everyone to buy in?” And now, it’s just what we do, in large part because of the progress we’ve seen.
Early on it felt like, “What if we don’t get everyone to buy in?” And now, it’s just what we do, in large part because of the progress we’ve seen. I couldn’t be more proud of our teachers.
I couldn’t be more proud of our teachers. After all, they’re the ones doing it day in and day out. And to see their focus and dedication–that’s pretty exciting, too.
Andreia Simon, Collaborative Classroom
We appreciate your honesty and your vulnerability in coming here and sharing the work that you do with us. It’s made an impact on us today.
Your students at Nystrom are so fortunate to have you. Thank you for what you do.
About the Panelists
Jamie Allardice has been principal at Nystrom Elementary School for nine years and has worked with West Contra Costa Unified since 2007.
Darissa Phipps taught second grade in Oakland Unified School District for many years before becoming a reading interventionist at Nystrom Elementary. Her first year at Nystrom was 2023–2024.
Dylan Fairweather has been teaching third grade at Nystrom Elementary for over five years.
Liz Franco has taught for over eight years and is currently teaches first grade at Nystrom Elementary.
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Related Webinars and Interviews about the “Walk to Read” Model
On-Demand Webinar: A “Walk to Read” Case Study: Breaking Free of Whole-Class Foundational Skills Instruction
Educator Interview: Clearwater, Kansas, Schools Win With SIPPS
Educator Interview: In Arizona, Closing Foundational Skills Gaps with SIPPS and “Walk to Read”