By Cindy Adams

At enCircle's Minnick Schools, something has shifted. Students who once pushed back against reading are now reaching for their books. And nobody is more delighted than the teachers watching it happen. It's exactly what Instructional Coach Gracie Jennings was hoping for when she implemented a program called BookWorms in Minnick's classrooms.

In Wytheville, teacher Amy Farmer has watched the change happen in real time. One of her students, Kelso, came in with limited exposure to books. Today, he's a reader and he particularly likes nonfiction. The earth, the sun and the ocean have captured his attention. If it's in one of the BookWorms books, Kelso is all in!

"He's on top of it," Amy said. “He has tied in what he has read about the earth, the sun and the ocean with eclipses, something he is learning in science. He has made the connection.”

Kelso's transformation goes beyond test scores. He used to be disruptive and wouldn’t stay in the classroom. Now he's engaged, participatory, even enthusiastic. The books reached him in a way that changed his whole experience of school.

He isn't alone. Across Wytheville Minnick, pushback around reading has disappeared. Students are curious, motivated and, perhaps most surprisingly, passionate about nonfiction. A recent unit on frogs resulted in a full visual research project, with every fact drawn directly from their books.

BookWorms is a research-based curriculum rooted in the science of reading, built around high-interest trade-books and teacher-friendly lesson plans. Since the program was launched, one fourth grader’s test data has shown extraordinary results. This student’s 49-point gain on a reading scale represents far more progress than typical growth in a single year. It’s quite remarkable.

When Gracie was tasked with finding the best reading program for Minnick, she learned BookWorms inside and out and, in doing so, had an honest reckoning with her own past practice.

"I wasn't educated in systematic and explicit instruction," she said. "I realized I had done my previous students a disservice."

That realization didn't discourage her, though. It propelled her. Gracie is now pursuing a master’s degree in Literacy Education, graduating next spring, and she will be a certified reading specialist.

"I just can't get enough of this stuff," she said.

Neither, it turns out, can the students at Wytheville Minnick.