Here is what the reading intervention team at Edison Elementary wants you to know: if your third, fourth, or fifth grader is struggling with reading, they are not going to wait for things to get worse.

Marcy Lantz and Lindsey Tedrow are two-thirds of a three-person team — the third is Kelly Zarello, who was out sick the day of this interview — that works with students across Edison's three grade levels, doing what's formally called RTI, Response to Intervention. In practice, it looks like this: small groups, targeted instruction, and a close read of each student's STAR assessment scores and phonics screeners to figure out exactly where the gaps are. "We pull our kids into small groups and do more individualized reading instruction," Lantz said. "We look at their STAR scores, phonics screeners, and things like that to try to target the skills with which they have deficits."

The instruction itself is grade-responsive. Tedrow, who moved up from third to fourth grade this year — staying with the same cohort of students — described the shift: last year she was working predominantly in phonics; this year it's more about breaking apart multi-syllabic words and building comprehension. The approach changes as the kids change. All three specialists are trained in Orton-Gillingham, which Lantz described as "a structured multi-sensory approach to teaching reading, writing, and spelling."

The team's caseload is formally defined — they serve students scoring in the 1st through 24th percentile on STAR — but they've found ways to cast a wider net. Students hovering just above that threshold, in what the team calls "bubble groups," get support when the schedule allows. They're also running enrichment groups for high-performing readers in the 85th to 99th percentile. "From a teaching perspective, I'm getting the best of both worlds," Lantz said, "because I'm helping those kids that I feel like need the most help, but then I'm also getting to challenge those students that need to be pushed beyond."

And here’s the quiet headline hidden in the data: it’s working. Early interventions at Lincoln, combined with an inclusive approach that supports not only qualifying students but also our “bubble” students, are leading to measurable gains in both student achievement and confidence.

The team moves well beyond pull-out sessions. They've built a small ecosystem of community-facing initiatives designed to make reading feel like something that happens everywhere, not just in school. The Masonic Lodge sponsors Bikes for Books — from January through early March, every book a student reads earns a raffle ticket for a bicycle and helmet; this year, a gift card was added for the student who reads the most. Come summer, Wendy's sponsors Reading is Cool: three books read earns a free Frosty. Zarello wrote a grant through the Macomb Educational Foundation so that, during Read Across America Week, every student in the building receives a book to keep.

Family Math and Reading Night marked its fourth year with a lively “Family Game Night” theme. Families rotated through a variety of interactive stations, including a giant Boggle game, domino challenges, classic card games, and hands‑on activities such as constructing polyhedrons from straws. The annual event features a new theme each year and consistently draws strong participation from students, parents, and community members.

Still in development: First Chapter Friday. The idea is to give every grade level a different book each month, organized by genre, and have teachers read the first chapter aloud on Fridays — leaving kids in a cliffhanger, hoping they'll go find the rest. About half the books are purchased; the team is working on funding to launch it fully next fall. The goal is to get kids out of the genres they've already claimed and curious about ones they haven't tried. Tedrow put it simply: her own son, a fourth grader, came into this year only wanting to read graphic novels. His teacher's enthusiasm changed that. "I've seen him this year get excited about different books," she said.

That, in miniature, is what the whole operation is after.