Professional Development Video for Guided Reading

My year long professional development plan focuses on the guided reading needs that became apparent after administering the Needs Assessment.  The three goals for my professional development are:

1. The first goal is for teachers to be trained in the Fountas and Pinnell BAS test. This will allow teachers to better group students for guided reading and identify those reading below grade level.
2. The second goal is to create and model a framework/structure of what guided reading looks like for all students.
3. The third goal is to provide specific instruction and professional development around how to best support struggling readers.

I found a few videos that highlight the guided reading components of before reading, during reading, and after reading.  This is one video that I will use in my professional development plan.  This is a video of a primary teacher on day 1 of guided reading.  Notice the roles of the teacher and students during the 3 parts of the lesson.

A Bad Case of the “Whatifs…”

I am pleased to type Blog 12 as a choice posting.  This way I can post about what is currently on my mind.  Tomorrow I will be headed to the Minneapolis Education Career Fair.  I visited this fair five years ago after graduation.  I remember the LLLLOOONNNGGGG lines, 30 second elevator speech, and many other anxious teacher candidates hoping to make a great first impression.

The job search is full of anxiety for me because there is so much unknown.  At the end of this school year, I will be relocating to the St. Cloud area and have begun the process of seeking out teaching opportunities in the area.  I have updated my resume and references, received letters of recommendation, and poured over the posting on EDPOST as part of my nightly routine.  This time around, I am more experienced and more confident but nonetheless nervous just the same.

I wonder where I will end up…. Will I be at a charter school?  Will I be teaching or coaching other teachers?  What will my new colleagues be like and how will they measure up to my amazing coworkers in Mounds View?  Will I get to continue using my Spanish or co-teaching EL?  What if I don’t get a job?

All of these “what ifs” fill my head and I’m reminded of the author who came to visit our school last year.  Michelle Nelson – Schmidt is the author of Jonathan James and the Whatif Monster and many other children’s books.  She came to our school last year and read one of her books to our students.  She also talked to the students about her dream of becoming an author and illustrator and encouraged them to follow their dreams.  She is a fabulous children’s author and presenter; I highly recommend having her visit your school.  Here’s a video of her reading her Whatif book…

So, even as adults we still have the “whatifs” but if there are uncertain and scary “whatifs” there should be good “whatifs” too.  So… What if I find a job that I love?!  What if I get an offer tomorrow?!  What if my new colleagues are just as great as the ones I have now?!  What if my 30 second elevator speech is amazing?!  What if my resume blows employers away?!  What if I end up somewhere way better than I could have ever imagined?!

Top Ten Books for the Literacy Classroom

The Comprehension Toolkit by: Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey

This is a type of kit or series of books that provide detailed Reader’s Workshop lessons around developing important reading habits and strategies.  Each lesson builds upon the last and provides a mentor text and script for the teacher to use as a resource when planning the literacy lesson.  Each lesson is structured in the Reader’s Workshop format including an I do (direct/explicit instruction), We do, (guided practice), and you do (independent practice).   These lessons will help improve readers of all levels by reinforcing important reading strategies in fiction and non-fiction.

Fountas and Pinnell BAS Kits

This is another type of kit but has a lot of books in it.  The kit and books are used to help determine student reading levels.  I have used mainly kits M-Z since I teach fourth grade.  There is a fiction and non-fiction book at each level.  Students are asked to choose the book they want to read.  The teacher takes a running record and asks comprehension questions following the reading.  I think this kit is an important tool to have in order to help students choose their good fit book throughout the year.  I like that students have the option to choose between reading a fiction or non-fiction text.

Strategies That Work (second edition) by: Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey

This is an awesome book the focuses on teaching comprehension in engaging and understanding ways.  This book is really like the nuts and bolts of reading comprehension.  It is full of research on best teaching practices, engaging activities, and real-life examples. The comprehension activities can be modified for any grade, reading level, or book.  The best way to describe it is as a blueprint for teaching comprehension.

The Reading Strategies Book by: Jennifer Serravallo

This book is filled cover to cover with comprehension activities.  The activities are organized by reading level (Fountas and Pinnell) and based on what a student at that level needs to master.  This being said, there are multiple activities on making inferences but the activity for level Q is much more rigorous than the making inferences activity for level J.  The pages of this book are pleasing to look at, full of color and examples!

Igniting a Passion for Reading by: Steven L. Layne

This is a great book that focuses less on the standards and skills and more on motivating students to read and how to help students develop into life-long
readers.  The book shares ideas and practical strategies on how to get students excited about reading! It even got me more excited about teaching a love for reading with my students!

The Book Whisperer by: Donalyn Miller

This book is full of practical applications for the reading teacher in the literacy classroom. This is another great book for inspiring literacy teachers to help students develop and foster a love for reading! I read this book along with the one above and developed a stronger passion for teaching literacy!

Wonder by: R.J. Palacio

This is my absolute FAVORITE chapter book!  I read this at the beginning of every school year.  It is a wonderful story about a boy who looks different than everybody else.  The story follows his journey from being home schooled his whole life to finally going to a public school as a fifth grader.  He has a disease that results in a disordered face.  The story talks about his daily challenges, interactions, and successes told from multiple character points of view.  This is an amazing story with a strong theme.  It not only engages the students in a higher level of literacy; it lends itself to a great mentor text to refer back to while you teach reading skills throughout the year.  This is a fabulous book for teaching theme, belonging, and bullying!

Salt in His Shoes by: Deloris Jordan

This is great picture book that I use with my students at the beginning of the year.  It is the Michael Jordan’s story of perseverance.  This book is a great tool for helping students set goals at the beginning of the year and teaching perseverance.  This is a favorite book for many of my boys, especially my African American boys!

The Golden Rule:

This is another great picture book that I like to use at the beginning of the year.  It helps set the rules and ground work for expectations throughout the year.  The book goes through various cultures and religions and shows how the golden rule is apparent in all of the world’s religions.

Nice Bike by: Mark Scharenbroich

This is a book that I read for professional development a few years ago and I still think back to it.  This book is all about highlighting the positives and pushing students to reaching their full potential.  The book provides a great mindset on classroom expectations and behavior management.  It can redefine how you act and what you say to students, colleagues, and everyone in your life!

Ten Literacy Websites

Here are some teacher, literacy leader, and student specific websites that do amazing things with literacy!

Teacher/Literacy Leader Must See Sites!

www.readwritethink.org

This website provides great ideas, lesson plans, and student interactive practice in all areas of reading sorted by skill and grade.  It also has information on professional development and family resources.

www.edutopia.org

This is a fun website with a ton of information.  This website hosts information from all areas of education (not just literacy).  I enjoy browsing this website to see what is going on in the area of education and what is currently happening.  The website provides videos and articles posted by various teachers and researchers.

www.goodreads.com

This website was introduced to me by a (non-teaching, literacy loving) friend. Good Reads allows you to create an online library, wish lists of books you want to read, see books others are reading, and categorize books by genre, topic, and interest.  After reading, you can rank books and post comments.  You can also record the books that you have completed.  This is a great tool to help readers (yourself included) find new books to read.   The site allows you to create your own page and library and then follow other people and see what they are reading.

www.warsaw.k12.in.us/information/document-library/all-documents/guided-reading-lesson-plans-1

This is a website geared towards guided reading.  It is organized by reading level.  Within each level, you will find many guided reading book units.  Each unit breaks down the book into lessons.  The lessons feature ideas to activate background knowledge, foreseeable challenge spots and teaching points, purpose for reading, and discussion questions.

www.readworks.org

This site allows teachers to search by grade level, skills, and grade.  There are a variety of passages from many genres.  In addition to reading passages the site provides lesson plans, guided questions, and activities that are standards based.  Passages are organized by grade, skill, genre, and lexile.

Favorite Student Sites!

tweentribune.com/

Tween Tribune provides current high interest news articles for student to read.  This website allows students to change the lexile level and language of each article helping to customize learning for individual student needs.  After reading, students can take a short comprehensive quiz and post or respond to comments on the discussion board.  Teachers have access to student comments and quiz scores.  The site also ranks students according to the number of articles read and quiz scores making students motivated to read more articles and score higher on quizzes.  Students are also highly engaged in posting and responding to comments of their peers.

www.google.com/edu/classroom/

Google Classroom is an app that teachers can use to create an online learning platform for students.  Google classroom allows teachers to post assignments, videos, and links for student access.  Google Classroom is similar to moodle and blackboard.  Students are able to submit assignments, post comments, and receive feedback from the teacher.  This allows for differentiation as students can work through assignments at their own pace and teachers can view assignments in progress and correct assignments once they have been turned in.

newsela.com/about/

This is a great non-fiction reading site! Students and teachers can use Newsela to find non-fiction articles.  Each article can be adjusted by lexile level to differentiate reading for below, average, and high readers.  Students with varying reading levels can be reading the same article at their instructional level.  After reading students can post comments and take quizzes.

Storylineonline.net

This site is a fun option when students want a text read-aloud to them.  Students can click on a book and have it read to them by a famous celebrity.  The picture books are fun and high interest.  We like to end our day by listening to one of the stories while we wait to be called for the busses!

www.razzkids.com

Razz Kids or Reading A to Z is an online reading resource that provides students with access to a large variety of ebooks.  Teachers can create digital book bins for students based on their reading level.  Students can have books read to them or read the books on their own.  After reading, students can take a short comprehension quiz. Reading A to Z provides teachers with a reading progress report for each student.

“Conducting” High Quality PD

The first and most important step in high quality PD is understanding that adult learners are different than student learners.

7 Characteristics of Adult Learners

• Adults bring vast amounts of background knowledge, experiences, and skills
• Adults have strong ideas, beliefs, values, and passions based on experiences
• Adults are goal oriented (and the goals are usually fast paced)
• Adults are more flexible learners
• Adults have high expectations
• Adults have many commitments and many demands on their time
• Adults are generally motivated to learn

These 7 characteristics can be both beneficial and create challenges in professional development.  The best ways to engage adult learners and their characteristics positively in PD are to draw on teachers’ knowledge and validate their experiences, manage the group effectively, and observe dynamics, strengths, limitations, and needs.  High quality PD is not controlling or lecture based.  High quality PD is composed of the Constructivist Principles of Teaching.

Constructivist Principles of Teaching	Why this is important	How this is achieved
Encourage active participation	Learning is an active process and learners need to “buy – in”	Not through lectures but more collaborative/ discussion based
Organize small- group discussions around common concerns	Encourages active learning and oral language leads to better understanding	Asking open ended/ reflective questions Allowing for Small-group discussions/ turn and talks
Introduce new concepts in context	Make the learning/ goals relevant and clear	Live or videotaped demonstrations of the skill
Create a safe environment	Teachers need to feel supported and confident in trying something new in order to be successful	Positively encourage and respond to teachers! Allow teachers to reflect on how it went with a supportive small group. Never require/make someone share whole group, respect that teachers might be uncertain and afraid. Don’t rush the process.
Develop teachers’ conceptual knowledge through conversation around shared experiences	Allows teachers to make sense of new/ expanded information and construct meaning and how it relates to their classrooms, students, and experiences	Teachers discuss, converse, and listen to colleagues about shared experiences.
Provide opportunities for teachers to use what they know to construct new knowledge.	We develop a better understanding when we connect new knowledge with prior knowledge	Ask questions that prompt teachers to connect what they know and believe to their practice.  Keep discussion specific to student work or observations of student behavior. (Don’t talk abstract)
Look for shifts in teachers’ understanding over time	Learning something new takes time and each person learns at their own rate.	Look for evidence that teachers have shifted their understanding or how they think about and apply a concept. Acknowledge these shifts in thinking.
Provide additional experiences for teachers who have not yet developed needed conceptual understanding	Adults must construct their own understanding. You cannot do it for them!	Provide clear demonstrations by experts, discuss demonstrations, ask questions, allow teachers to try it (video tape if comfortable), analyze how it went privately, guide the teacher in reflecting on their own strengths and weakness/changes they could make

In theory, these principles look and sound great but then why is so much of teacher PD seen as boring and ineffective?  I found an additional article that put an interesting spin on PD.  The article encourages educators to practice what they preach and differentiate professional development.  We are encouraged and expected to differentiate for our students’ learning why no teachers’ learning too?  Pauline Zdonek, math coach and author of the article, provides some simple strategies to improve PD sessions through differentiation.

The first strategy is to gauge teachers’ readiness. This is like pre-assessing students’ knowledge about a topic or skill before teaching it.  We gauge what the students already know about the topic in order to identify what background knowledge they bring.  This can allow us to modify our instruction based on the needs of our audience and flexibly group to instruct learners at their varying readiness levels.  Lyons and Pinnell may identify this in their Spiral of Learning as assessing the context.

The second strategy is to utilize teachers’ interest.  Some PD comes as a requirement from the district office but highly effective PD comes from what teachers WANT to learn.  This can be achieved through the needs based assessment, through observations, and teacher conversations.

The third strategy is to get teachers involved. This looks like allowing teachers with skills or experience in the area to run small group sessions.  This creates a sense of ownership and most times teachers are more open to listening to another teacher or someone “in the trenches.”  This relates to the importance of an expert demonstrating the skill (Lyons & Pinnell).  Just remember, this doesn’t mean going out and finding an expert.  Look for expertise in different areas right in your own school!

The fourth strategy is to provide opportunities for continual assessment. Lyons and Pinnell would also agree with this idea.  It’s not a one-time PD.  Provide time for teachers to discuss and reflect on how they are incorporating the concept over a period of time.  “20 The number, on average, of separate instances of practice it takes a teacher to master a new skill, and this number may increase if a skill is exceptionally complex” (Gulamhussein).

The idea of differentiating PD is intriguing.  Could we gauge teachers’ prior levels of understanding and experiences prior to PD and allow teachers to attend different sessions of PD based on what they already know?  Can we differentiate PD by allowing expert peers to lead breakout sessions? When I reflect on my experiences with PD, it looks like the entire staff sitting in one room doing the same thing at the same time.  We are all watching the same video, we are all listening to the same speaker, we are all asked to turn and talk at the same time, it is pretty much the “old school” approach of direct instruction.  What if instead, PD looked more like our classrooms and teachers rotated through different stations?  Teachers watched their own video on a concept and discussed their learnings?  Teachers who were ready for the next step or more knowledgeable in the skill could move on to the next step of professional learning while those who weren’t ready or needed more time and practice could get it?

To view the article on differentiating PD follow the link: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-dont-we-differentiate-pd-pauline-zdonek

High quality PD is an ongoing process.  Teachers must continually feel supported throughout and data should be analyzed often to determine progress and effectiveness of PD.  When thinking of highly effective PD, those leading it should resemble conductors of an orchestra.  “A good conductor simultaneously hears, evaluates, coaches, and leads every individual player, the sections, and the group as a whole” (Lyons and Pinnell, 2001, p 45).

In summary, we need to provide more opportunities to differentiate PD for teachers.  The workshop model is ineffective.  We need to provide CONTINUOUS SUPPORT and TIME for teachers to implement their new learnings in a positive and supportive environment.

For more information on PD visit: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Teaching-the-Teachers-Effective-Professional-Development-in-an-Era-of-High-Stakes-Accountability/Teaching-the-Teachers-Full-Report.pdf

Resources:

Gulamhussein, A. Teaching the Teachers Effective professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. The Center for Public Education. Retrieved from: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Teaching-the-Teachers-Effective-Professional-Development-in-an-Era-of-High-Stakes-Accountability/Teaching-the-Teachers-Full-Report.pdf

Lyons, C. & Pinnell, G. (2001) Systems For Change In Literacy Education A Guide to Professional Development.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Zdonek, P. (2016) Why Don’t We Differentiate Professional Development. Edutopia. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-dont-we-differentiate-pd-pauline-zdonek

 

 

Let Them Eat Cake…..errr… Read!

This blog post is coming out of a conversation that I had with the literacy coach at my school (and a little about cake).  I asked if she would meet with me and share our school and district’s plan for Read Well by 3^rd Grade and the reading interventions we have in place.  As the outstanding literacy coach she is, she agreed! Here are some of the things we discussed and major take-aways I had.

Read Well by 3^rd Grade

Did you know that each school gets to pick their own assessment for this measure?  I was surprised to hear this too!  So there is a law that each school needs to identify students below grade or not on track to meet proficiency by grade 3.  This law also tells us that we need to communicate the information to families and create a plan to intervene and get these kids on track.  However, each school chooses their own assessment to assess whether students are on track or not.  My district chooses to use AIMSWeb to measure this.  Since schools are able to choose their own assessment, there is no set target score.  Target or proficiency scores might be different depending on the district and the assessment they choose to use.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

Response to intervention was and still is a major “buzz” word.  Forget to mention this in an interview and don’t be surprised when you don’t get called back. But, do we really know what it means?  I’m sure you have seen the RTI triangle but how boring is a triangle, let’s think of it as cake (yum, and now I have your attention)!

The first layer of cake – Tier 1

• All students receive this
• 80% of students respond to it (needing nothing more)
• It happens in the classroom whole group & small group instruction led by the teacher

The second layer of cake – Tier 2

• 15% of students receive this
• And 10% respond to it (needing nothing more)
• Happens in ADDITION to Tier 1
• Small group (5 students per group/ there is research around this 5 kid ratio thing)
• Could look like a reading intervention (at my school we use Guided Reading Plus)

The third layer of cake – Tier 3

• 5% of students receive this (you know who they are)
• Students should receive this in ADDITION to layers 1 and 2
• Extremely small group, we are talking 1 on 1
• Could look like Reading Recovery

 

So what you are saying is that some kids are getting MORE cake than others….?  Yup, that’s why the other “buzz” word is EQUITY not equality.

Now, if you know all of that… impressive!  What you also need to know is that these tiers or layers are in place to see if students can respond to targeted and intense interventions.  It requires us to reflect when what we are doing and teaching isn’t being understood and how to re-teach and provide re-learning opportunities for students. This all happens before any special ed referrals.  My school had a history of high special ed referrals, once we beefed up our RTI in literacy we saw this number go down.  My literacy coach shared with me that actually only 3-5% of students need special ed.

Reading Recovery

Prior to our conversation, I knew nothing about this! We don’t have this at my school but our literacy coach use to be a Reading Recovery teacher in another district. I learned that it is an INTENSE Tier 3 intervention.  Reading Recovery only occurs in 1^st grade where a teacher works one on one with a student for a half hour each day.  To become a reading recovery teacher you must train for a year.   Things that make up reading recovery include familiar reads, running records, word work, writing about a story, introducing new books, and other literacy elements (I cannot list them all because I haven’t been to the yearlong training. If I had, this post would be way to long).

To find more information on Reading Intervention programs check out what works clearinghouse. This site provides a detailed report on tons of reading (and math) programs that are out there and which are most effective.  Reading Recovery proves to be highly effective in fluency, achievement, alphabetic, and comprehension.

More info at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Publications_Reviews.aspx?f=All+Publication+and+Product+Types%2c1%3b

Guided Reading Plus

This is our Tier 2 intervention!  A teacher at each grade level was trained in Guided Reading Plus this year.  It is not a program but more of a structure that adjusts based on kids’ needs.  It is too student centered and flexible to be a program or script.  With that being said, the overall structure (varying by group and student needs) consists of 2 day lessons.  On day 1, students work on high frequency words, word work, book intro, read, conference, and receive a mini lesson or teaching point (related to what they read that day or challenges the teacher noticed during the lesson).  On day 2, students use the book from yesterday to do a running record, discuss the book, write about it, and have writing conferences.  I plan to observe a second and fourth grade Guided Reading Plus lesson after Spring Break to learn more about it and see this work in action!  We have had a large number of 4^th grade students who started the year reading at levels K-M  now reading at level Q!

I hope that this post informs you and helps you better understand RTI and literacy interventions.  I would love to hear about the literacy interventions at your school.

District-Wide Literacy Plans

What makes a high quality school-wide or district-wide literacy program?  What must be included?  What is most important?

According to our text, there are certain vital pieces involved in creating a literacy program or making changes to a current program.  These key pieces include involving stake-holders, setting goals, and providing ongoing professional development (Vogt & Shearer, 2011).  Judith Irvin highlights a few other key components to literacy programs.  Her components include strengthening literacy across the content areas, interventions for struggling readers and writers, school policies structures and culture for supporting literacy, building leadership, and supporting teachers to improve instruction.

Both sources highlight involving stake-holders, teachers, is one of the first and most important steps in developing a literacy program.  This ensures that you get buy in from the people, teachers or staff, who are going to be the ones carrying out the plan.   One way to involve the stake-holders early on is by creating and administering a Needs Assessment.  Out of this assessment, you gain valuable insight toward creating goals for the literacy program and involve stake-holders from the get go.

Many literacy programs create a two or three year plan.  This allows specific goals to be focused and worked on each year as part of the final literacy program.  My school recently rolled out a 3 year literacy plan.  The end goal is to have a more balanced reading and writing program along the lines of a Reader’s Workshop format.  Each year there are different goals and focus to the program.  The main components of my school’s literacy plan include whole group instruction, small group instruction, independent work, classroom libraries, and intervention programs.  Year one’s focus is on whole group instruction and intervention.  Year two and three professional development focus on small group, independent practice, and building/organizing classroom libraries.

Ongoing professional development is needed to ensure that teachers are equipped with the skills, understandings, and resources to implement and meet the literacy goals.  The PD should be ongoing and broken down into small obtainable chunks. Much of the PD around our new literacy program is done by our literacy coach.

In elementary literacy programs Vogt and Shearer, 2011, highlight the importance of the 5 Pillars (phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension).  In middle and high school, the literacy plans usually refer to reading instruction being incorporated into the various content areas but still require buy in from stake-holders, goals, ongoing professional development, and assessments (Vogt & Shearer, 2011).  Irvin refers to this too when she emphasizes strengthening literacy across the content areas.

After a plan has been developed and implemented, school leaders must collect data to monitor its success, including the effectiveness of specific literacy interventions.  Irvin’s book, Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy, provides a figure or table for each goal of the literacy plan.  Within each goal, she acknowledges the goal, sets a time line, provides action steps, lists the people responsible, identifies resources, and evidence of success.  These are all integral pieces to consider and have planned when implementing a literacy program school-wide or district-wide.

I was unable to find my school district’s literacy plan and think this is a little strange.  I did find a report by the DMC when they studied my district’s literacy program last year and our plan for Read Well by 3^rd grade but no luck finding a district-wide literacy plan.  I’m sure that it is out there but it is unusual that it wouldn’t be easy to access since many other school districts are just a google search away. I was able to locate my school’s literacy plan because it was shared with me electronically.  I also checked out Minnetonka’s Literacy plan.  I appreciate how clear and straight forward the plan is.  It is quick to see the components they view as most important because these are the headings of the chapters i.e. communication, intervention, instruction etc.  I also looked at Proctor’s literacy plan and found it to talk mostly about their Read Well by 3^rd grade program.  Are all districts in Minnesota required to have a district-wide literacy plan?  Read Well programs for districts are easy to find but like Proctor and my district, Mounds View, these were the only things I found available online.

Unleash Your Inner Voice

My 4th grade team and I are taking a step back from the standards and going back to “good ol’ reading.”  We have noticed that many of our students can find the main idea, theme, and use context clues to determine the meaning of words but struggle when asked to pull all these skills together.  Students who perform well on tests related to specific standards demonstrate low overall comprehension.

It has been difficult this year not having a reading curriculum.  We have developed our own assessments, mapped out our instruction based on the standards and followed the plan, do, study, act cycle for our PLC around our district’s reading priority standards.  We have been teaching parts of reading but somewhere along the way lost the true meaning of reading.  Enter, The Reading Comprehension Toolkit.

As part of my Master’s Project I am focusing on explicitly teaching reading comprehension strategies and the effectiveness on EL and former EL learners.  My amazing literacy coach introduced me to this toolkit as a resource.  My team and I have fully embraced this toolkit and the way that it approaches reading instruction.  I always knew that think-alouds were powerful tools but struggled to use them accurately and consistently.  The toolkit really breaks down purposeful teacher talk and models powerful think-alouds.  As readers, we are constantly having an inner conversation.  Our inner voices ask questions, make connections (helpful and distracting ones), use fix-up strategies, and many other things.  It can be difficult to model this inner voice for our students but after teaching a few lessons I can say modeling your inner voice while reading is powerful, important, and fun!

Modeling my inner reader voice has been so much fun!  Sometimes I do this with adult level text to model how I use fix-up strategies when I get stuck. My students have been captivated by these lessons.  My students are motivated to read and share what their inner voices are saying.  Some are even doing this during free time!  After a few lessons from the toolkit, I feel more confident with my own inner voice and have strayed from the scripted lessons and now choose some of my own texts.  The past few weeks have been some of the most fun and effective reading lessons I have ever taught!

Although finding the main idea, theme, and answering question about the text is important.  Our purpose for reading has taken on a whole new role.  We are reading to comprehend, to enjoy, and to improve as readers.  These are the strategies, lessons, and conversations that build life-long readers.  I encourage you to let your students see you as a reader, flaws, questions, inner conversation and all.  Just be careful, once you turn on your inner voice it can be difficult to turn off.  I have found myself reading before bed lately and stopping to add something to my non-existent anchor chart. 🙂

 

 

Federal & State Legislation Analysis

Federal Legislation Analysis: Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Who: All of America’s Students

What: It is a commitment to equal opportunity for all students. This is a bipartisan bill to fix No Child Left Behind (NCLB, signed by Bush).  It is said to be a better law that focuses on the clear goal of fully preparing all students for success in college and careers regardless of race, income, background, disability, and home language.

When: The ESSA was signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015

Why: NCLB was up for revision in 2007.  NCLB’s prescriptive requirements became increasingly unworkable for schools and educators.  It put in place measures that exposed achievement gaps (many traditionally underserved students and schools) but did not effectively implement its goal of providing additional and effective support in these areas.

What this means: Ensuring equal opportunities for all of America’s students in the following ways…

• All students held to high academic standards
• All students prepared for success in college & career
• More kids access to high-quality preschools
• Guaranteed steps to help students and schools improve
• Reduces burden of testing while maintaining annual info for parents & students
• Promotes local innovation & invests in what works

Literacy Connection:

• We will have to look at literacy data by subgroups to that student performance is not indicated by the subgroup in which they fall (race, FRP, SPED, EL etc.)
• An increase in access and quality preschools will provide students with more literacy experiences earlier.

More Info: http://www.ed.gov/essa?src=policy

State Legislation Analysis: Minnesota Statutes: 120B.12 READING PROFICIENTLY NO LATER THAN THE END OF GRADE 3. (Read Well by Third Grade)

Who: Students grades K-3

What: An initiative to have every child reading at or above grade level no later than the end of 3^rd grade.

When: Students will be tested at the end of the school year in  grades K-2.

Why: This initiative requires schools to identify students who are reading blow grade level at the end of K, 1^st, and 2^nd grade. Districts will be responsible for reporting these scores to the state and parents.  They will use this information to design scientific based reading support for students, monitor progress, and provide reading instruction interventions.

Literacy Connection:

• More students reading at or above grade level by 3^rd grade should decrease the amount of reading interventions needed for students in later grades.
• Students will enter grades as more confident and skilled readers.
• This initiative involves a teamwork approach involving teachers, literacy coaches, and parents in working together to improve literacy for struggling readers.

More info: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=120b.12, http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/EdExc/ReadWell/BestPractReadK3/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Data, data, & more data

Data, data, data… Too often data is the end all be all when it comes to literacy assessment and instruction.  Data has become a big and scary word for teachers, parents, and students.  It is a word that people outside of the classroom like to use (often inaccurately) over and over again.  Education has become extremely data driven and although data driven instruction can be extremely effective it completely depends on the data being used and the lenses used to view it. Unfortunately, the data that everyone is talking about is the end of year standardized assessments, MCA and NWEA.  These two data points are often used as the sole measure for student and teacher growth, proficiency, and overall understanding. What about all the data in between?

Teachers are gaining data on their students every day and every minute.  Data does not have to be a single test score but come in the forms of observations, notes, student interviews, classroom work, partner conversations, exit slips, reading response logs, etc.  Teachers should use formative assessments to continuously monitor and adjust instruction to best meet the needs of students.  “Instructional improvement is the primary purpose for assessments” (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p.104).   We are never testing just to test.  As educators, we are testing so that we can learn more about our students.  We must also be careful not to rely too heavily on discrete testing of skills.  Although this can be beneficial in some cases, the act of literacy is rarely divided into discrete, isolated, skills but instead requires readers to apply multiple skills and strategies simultaneously while reading.  Vogt and Shearer, 2011, refer to the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) as a valuable reading assessment.  The DRA assess students as they read from leveled texts and gives a more holistic and naturalistic view of the reader.  Unfortunately this assessment can be very time consuming to administer. (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p. 102)

I am unfamiliar with the DRA but have experience using the Fountas and Pinnell BAS.  I did a little digging and found an awesome blog by a reading teacher and specialist who compared the two assessments.  According to her comparison, students are unable to look back in the text when retelling what they read in the DRA.  In the BAS students can look back in the text and the BAS encourages more of a text discussion.  It is ok to prompt students with questions for further discussion, in the DRA further prompts would result in lower test scores. (theclasscouple.com)

In addition to formative assessments teachers are often times asked to use summative assessments and other authentic assessments to help make predictions on how students will perform on end of year standardized testing.  It is highly important to remember that these types of assessments involves assessing and reporting findings from a variety of classroom assessments and teachers need to be provided with professional development related to assessment (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p. 90).

In addition to testing students on their progress in literacy we are also testing them on home, community, identity, and school influences.  Whether we intend them to or not, all of these things influence student performance.  Knowing this, we must include all stakeholders (teachers, families, administrators, and students) when it comes to testing.  We need to be transparent about what test we are administering, their purpose and what the results tell us.  Assessing students in reading programs is a confusing and challenging area but by allowing all stakeholders to be open and honest in communication is a step in the right direction.   We also need to think about how we can gain data and insight from parents.  Communication around literacy should be an ongoing and open conversation for everyone involved.

 

This visual does an awesome job debunking  some of the major myths on data in education.

Vogt, MaryEllen & Shearer, Brenda A. (2011) Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches in the Real World. (3^rd  ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

http://www.theclasscouple.com/

http://www.insight.com/insighton/education/big-data-can-help-schools-improve-performance/