Literacy Coach’s Kick-off: Goals for the Year Sharon Walpole Michael C. McKenna

Goals for the Day Present our overall plans to improve differentiation Guide you to examine your data from last year to see where differentiation is most needed Provide you a chance to see differentiation in action in each grade level

Key Features of this year’s PD Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 will be merged We will all be doing one comprehensive book study We will be focusing attention on coaches supporting teachers to plan and implement differentiated instruction

Here is our additive plan

Why focus on Tier 2? Our data indicate that we are very successful with the children who start out at least at benchmark achievement. Our data indicate that we are doing increasingly better with children who start out at intensive -- and we also know that implementation of intervention is varied. Our data indicate that our success rate for children who begin at strategic is relatively stable.

Benchmark to Benchmark

Effectiveness of Core Instruction In both Cohort 1 and Cohort 2, we are nearing our goal of 90% of beginning-of-year benchmark students maintaining that status at the end of the year Our basic program of whole-group and small-group instruction is working for them.

Intensive to Strategic or Benchmark

Effectiveness of Interventions For children who begin the year with intensive needs, Cohort 1 schools have made small improvements towards our goal of 50% moving out of that category. Cohort 2 schools will be able to focus more attention this year. Our basic program of whole-group, small-group, and intensive intervention instruction is beginning to work for them.

Strategic to Benchmark

Effectiveness of Differentiated Instruction For our students starting the year at the strategic level of achievement, we have had fairly stable results across years in Cohort 1 and in the first year of Cohort 2. We had hoped for 75% success for them. Our basic program of whole-group and small-group instruction is not yet working for enough of them.

Things for you to consider These data are aggregated across the grade levels. In your school, you will find grade-level scores that are very different from the state trends; use them to focus your attention. Remember that these data only include children who were present at both fall and spring; your own data will also include children there at any one time point.

This text will help to keep all of us focused on planning differentiated instruction.

Here are our strategies: Coaches deepen the concept of differentiation by presenting the module that your Regional Coordinator shared. Coaches spend more extended time planning and observing differentiated lessons with teachers.

Remember the Big Ideas Gather your resources Instructional materials Assessment toolkit Consider your children’s needs Phonemic awareness and phonics Phonics and fluency Fluency and vocabulary Vocabulary and comprehension Plan and implement three weeks of instruction

We have made templates for you These will be posted on the Architects’ site so that you can print them or adapt them. They are meant to target your thinking. Refer to your template as we explain them.

Generally, The first page reviews the needs of each group, identifies the group members, lists assessment data that will help in planning, and reminds you of the instructional strategies and materials you will need The second page reminds you to select the actual letters, words, patterns, and texts teachers will use each day for three weeks with that group

Remember our groups Phonemic Awareness and Phonics/Word Recognition Need letter names, sounds, full segmentation Phonics/Word Recognition and Fluency Can segment and blend, but need to work on decoding and automatic word recognition Fluency and Comprehension Few decoding problems, but weak automaticity Vocabulary and Comprehension At or above grade level in fluency measures

PA/Phonics/WR: Assessment Data PA Level ABC Level Unknown Letters Unknown Sounds HF Words Syllable Onset-Rime Phoneme Sing ABCs Say ABCs Track ABCs These data may be gathered from multiple sources. They are likely to be necessary for planning for this group.

Instructional Strategies for PA Initial Sound Sorting Segmenting/ Blending Say it and Move it Pictures Pictures or word lists Elkonin Boxes, markers, word lists Teachers can choose any one of these strategies. There are sections in the book to describe exactly how to use them.

Instructional Strategies for Phonics/Word Recognition Letter Names and Sounds Sounding and Blending Letter patterns High Frequency Words Letter cards or plastic letters Word lists Word lists, word cards Word cards, Elkonin boxes Teachers can choose any two of these strategies. There are sections in the book to describe exactly how to use them.

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics and Word Recognition Planning This chart reminds coaches and teachers to select the actual items for instruction in advance. All phonemic awareness strategies require lists of words or pictures. Word recognition strategies require letters or words. Manipulatives can make the lessons more interactive.

Phonics/WR/Fluency: Assessment Data Unknown Letters Unknown Sounds Unknown Patterns HF Words Text Reading Phonics-controlled Below Level Grade-Level?

Instructional Strategies for Phonics/Word Recognition Letter Names and Sounds Sounding and Blending Letter patterns High Frequency Words Decoding by Analogy Letter cards or plastic letters Word lists Word lists, word cards Word cards, Elkonin boxes Clue words, new words These strategies are the same as before, with the addition of decoding by analogy.

Instructional Strategies for Fluency Echo, Choral, Partner, Whisper Timed Repeated Reading Choral Partner Reading Fluency Develop-ment Lesson FORI Texts Texts, stop-watch, chart Basal Story The same text can be used more that one day, but we should consider ways to maximize the number of texts that children read.

Phonics/Word Recognition/Fluency Planning Again, select the words and texts in advance. This sort of comprehensive planning will allow teachers to really focus their instructional attention on repetitive strategies and to monitor student progress.

Fluency/Comprehension Assessment Data Unknown Patterns High Frequency Words Reading Rate Text level Below grade level On grade level These children may need a dash of word recognition work; it can be accomplished very quickly.

Phonics/Word Recognition/Fluency Strategies These are the same as those described for the previous group; the instructional strategies overlap.

Instructional Strategies for Comprehension Question Clusters QARs Story Map-ping Text Struc-ture Direct Explan-ation Summar-ization Texts Questions QAR Chart Stories Map Informa-tional Texts Graphic Organ-izers Strategy descrip-tions Summary procedure

For our final group, add vocabulary to comprehension! Tier Two Words ELL Storybook Concept of Definition Semantic Feature Analysis Concept Sorting Texts Words Script Texts, segmented Words, definitions, examples Texts, Words, Word Maps Texts, Related Words, Feature Chart Word Cards

Don’t panic! We will roll out each of these groupings gradually over the year; you don’t have to do all of them now. We will improve our planning templates as we hear from you and from your regional coaches. We are excited to work with you to improve differentiation!