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Students, teachers demonstrate 'Sounds First' early-literacy routine at Lebanon board meeting
Summary
The board heard a teaching-and-learning presentation featuring Mandy Pittman and kindergarten teacher Rachel Denton demonstrating 'Sounds First' phonemic activities (rhyming, sound deletion, scripted lessons) intended to improve reading readiness through grade 3.
The Lebanon school board meeting included a classroom demonstration of the district’s early-literacy approach as staff urged consistent, brief daily practice to build phonemic awareness.
Miss Samson introduced Mandy Pittman, who leads prekindergarten programming, and kindergarten teacher Rachel Denton led students through a short "Sounds First" routine of rhyming and sound-manipulation exercises. Pittman said the activities are "systematic and explicit" and that the classroom routines "only take about 10 to 15 minutes of the day," allowing teachers to integrate them into transitions. She said the approach is used from pre-K through second grade to give students a head start in reading.
Dr. Robertson and other administrators framed the work as part of the district’s strategic goal of strengthening family and community engagement to support literacy. Dr. Robertson said the district aims to have students reading by third grade and emphasized the importance of scripted, research-based lessons: "Research based information that's come out, it shows us they have to hear it first," she said, noting that oral language and repeated practice help children attach sounds to letters and words.
Why this matters: Early, explicit phonics and phonemic awareness instruction is widely used to support foundational reading skills; the district is using short, regular classroom routines and coaching to scale that practice across elementary grades. The demonstration showed classroom application (rhyming and sound-deletion exercises) and illustrated how the district is pairing teacher training with scripted lessons to support consistency.
What’s next: Staff will continue to implement the Sounds First routines across participating schools and will report progress as part of the strategic-plan goal monitoring; the board discussed expanding family engagement programs (PTOs, All Pro Dads, hallway volunteers) alongside classroom efforts to boost student outcomes.
