Pershing students demonstrate early-literacy routines at board meeting

Pershing Elementary students and staff presented classroom demonstrations to the West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board on Nov. 25, showing phonemic awareness activities and phonics routines used in kindergarten and first grade.

Principal Alyssa Johnson and Nicole Almond, Pershing's deeper-learning coach, said the demonstration reflected a schoolwide focus on early literacy, structured lessons and peer observation among teachers. "We are really proud of the hard work our students and our staff have accomplished already this school year, especially in the area of early literacy," Almond said as the kindergarten and first-grade students took turns demonstrating manipulatives, magnetic letters and puppets to segment sounds.

Why it matters: Board members and the superintendent praised the classroom display as a concrete example of the districtscience-of-reading emphasis and building-level literacy strategies. The district said Pershing's approach includes professional development, use of core instructional resources and peer feedback to reach a three-year action goal of reducing the number of students scoring in the 20th percentile or below in reading and math.

Student participation Several kindergarten and first-grade students led short, classroom-style activities in the boardroom. Students explained learning targets such as, "I can use knowledge of letters, letter sounds, and common words to read and write," and modeled blending and the effect of a silent "e" on vowel sounds.

Board response and next steps Board members thanked the students, families and staff for presenting and said the display helped illustrate the districtinstructional priorities discussed later in the meeting. Superintendent Dr. Robinson also praised the demonstration and tied it to districtwide literacy initiatives.