“I am going to write the word Zebra,” 5-year-old Dongho Keum said as he sat in his kindergarten class Tuesday.

Keum is one of several students in Lana Epley’s class at Woodson Kindergarten Center who are reading at the second-grade level.

“This is a phenomenon for me to see as a teacher — how much they have advanced,” said Epley, who has been teaching since the 1970s.

She was not just talking about the students in her class this year, but about the reading skills kindergarteners are now able to attain.

Epley said students are coming into kindergarten more advanced than they once were. She credits this to daycares, preschools and access to computers.

But, the most important thing parents can do to encourage their children’s learning has not changed.

“Read to your children. Read to your children. Read to your children,” Epley said.

Epley said teachers are helping by challenging students more than they used to, by teaching to each student’s unique level.

Dongho was working independently during reading intervention time Tuesday morning, at a table with a few other students.

They each had their heads in books about jungle animals, which they would read to themselves before copying some of the words onto a worksheet.

Epley explained that during reading time, which is about 45 minutes a day, students are split into groups according to their skill level.

Tuesday, some students practiced listening exercises, sitting on a carpet with headphones on. Others practiced guided reading with Epley. Students who are struggling worked on phonics with Epley’s para Wendy Schumacher, and students who are excelling worked with gifted and talented intervention specialist Stephanie Bisek.

Students rotate through a couple teaching stations during reading time, and change groups as their skills develop.

“I provide intervention, or instruction, to students who are at all different levels,” Bisek explained, who does the same for math lessons.

“We give them support on the low end and on the high end. We have some students working on recognizing letters, and others that can read at a fourth grade level,” she added.

“There is nothing more thrilling for a kindergarten teacher than to have them reading,” Epley said.

Epley sends her students home with their paper books after they have mastered reading them in school.

“This encourages kids because they go home and can read the books to their parents, and then receive that positive feedback,” she said.

This helps too, she said, because the schools send books into some homes that do not have many.

“Even if it is just a paper book, it does not matter,” Epley said.

“It is something to read.”

Epley said there is not a specified level she wants her students to reach by the end of the year. She just wants them to continue progressing.

“I want them to feel sure and confident. Once they feel good about reading, and enjoy it, they can really advance,” Epley said.

“Uh-oh, I put the wrong letter,” Dongho said before busily erasing an “r” that he accidentally wrote in place of the “b.”

“I can read and write though, you see,” he added a few seconds later, holding up his finished paper that said “Zebra.”