Rocky Point School District educator Mrs. Jennifer Meschi has been selected to receive a grant from the Long Island Language Arts Council.

Mrs. Meschi, who began her new role as the District’s K-5 instructional coach this year, applied for the grant for an Orthographic Paint Tray Phonics project to give students materials to promote orthographic mapping (the process of learning to read words by sight and spell words from memory) for a hands-on approach to mapping out words in alignment with the Science of Reading as well as providing a strong foundation of phonological awareness.

“My inspiration for this grant came from my research on the Science of Reading,” Mrs. Meschi said. “Having learned about orthographic mapping, I was able to implement this firsthand in my first grade classroom last school year and saw great success with my students. I am so excited at the opportunity through my role as an instructional coach to roll this out to more classrooms and grades through this grant.”

LILAC offers the annual $500 grant program to support their members’ efforts to provide superior literacy instruction and opportunities to all students.