Poughkeepsie City School District

Instruction in Action is a new video series hosted by Director of Teaching and Learning Patrice Woods. Each installment will look at the creative ways Poughkeepsie City School District faculty teach students, and the professional development offered to the staff to help them find those creative routes. Check back often for new installments.

Fundations

As Poughkeepsie City School District students learn to read and write, they aren’t simply sitting at a desk with a pencil and tri-lined paper.

They’re standing and stretching out their arms to write letters in the air. They’re tapping out the letters of a word using their fingers. They’re mapping out sentences using magnet tiles. They’re being verbal and active, interacting with their teachers and the letters they are learning before ever sitting at their desk.

Fundations, the K-3 phonics program that has been utilized in the district for the past four school years, is pioneering modern pathways to teaching students the science of reading. To aid teachers in using those tools, training specialists from Wilson Language Training, the group behind Fundations, visit with district primary schools throughout each year. Last week, trainers visited Truth and Krieger elementary schools with a focus on teaching kindergarten and first grade techniques.

“Fundations is a structured literacy approach to teaching kids to read and write,” Jordan Paxhia-Marion, a Wilson Language literacy specialist, explained. “The practices found within Fundations are based in decades of research have really converged and agree on how we can do that the best way.”

Paxhia-Marion led lessons for several classes, providing both expert instruction to students and modeling to the teachers. She also met with a group of teachers and building leaders before and after those sessions to discuss concepts and how she could help further.

“It’s important for teachers to receive that coaching because it demystifies what their understanding is of, first, the research and then how to put that into practice in a way that teaches with integrity,” she said.

Read the World

The 2025 Read the World motivational reading program wrapped up with a Jeopardy-style competition in which students showed off their reading comprehension and retention skills.

The second-year program aims to enhance students' reading abilities, strengthen comprehension skills and ignite excitement for reading. The fourth grades from both Clinton and Warring elementary schools took part.

The students all read the same book, “Amari and the Despicable Wonders,” over the course of roughly three months. Through the program, the students’ reading comprehension was monitored through weekly quizzes and teachers assessed areas of strengths and improvement.

Five students from each school were then selected to take part in the competition held at Clinton. The host school ended up winning on a final tiebreaking question; Alani Oliver, who answered the winning question, earned the highest individual score of any competitor and earned the grand prize, an iPad and a gift card. Two other students, one from each school, also won gift cards.

Prior to the competition, program lead and co-founder Sheba Abrahaim welcomed both schools and spoke to the students, as did Bill Duke, the Poughkeepsie-born actor, director, humanitarian and author. A conversation between Duke and Abrahaim was the inspiration for the program. Poughkeepsie City School District Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education Gregory Mott, who will take the reins as superintendent July 1, also spoke to the students, as did Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson.

The program this year was supported by Mayor Yvonne Flowers, Jacobson, Councilwoman Ondie James, Heritage Federal Credit Union, the City of Poughkeepsie PBA and Marist University.

Communicating Math

On an early release day, teachers at Morse Elementary took part in a powerful professional development session focused on mathematical discourse. They explored strategies to help students and teachers work together, share ideas, and solve problems — building deeper understanding of math in the classroom.