School Improvement Reading Initiative (SIRI) Grant and iZone Summer Literacy Program Overview Presented by: Dikettie Jordan, Dr. Lashanda Simmons Nevels, and Tondrea McWright

Purpose of Grant  $600,000 award to effect positive change on the apparent lag in literacy.  Identify the needs in reading in the early years of entering school to aid in increasing proficiency levels as students transition to the upper grades.

Schools Involved in Grant  Lucie E. Campbell Elementary  Magnolia Elementary  Fairley Elementary  Ford Road Elementary  Douglass K-8

Justification  Data from Grade 3 ELA TCAP, SAT 10, and percentages of K-5 students in Tier 2 and 3.  Feeder patterns and potential impact on iZone middle and high schools.  By increasing literacy of K-3 achievement in the selected schools, these strategies will help reduce the number of students in Tier 2 and Tier 3.

Impact  At the end of three years, over one thousand elementary school students should have received research-based Tier 1 Reading instruction from more than 50 Sopris- trained teachers. This will ensure students’ capacity to read and comprehend text; thereby, better equipping middle schools with students who enter as proficient readers.

Expectation for 3 Years  100% of iZone administrators, PLC coaches, and RLA teachers will be committed to the increased focus on Tier 1 reading instruction in the primary grades.  iZone will continue these research-based practices beyond the time frame of the grant to increase proficiency levels of all students in K-12.

Monitoring  iZone Literacy Coaches and Advisor will monitor over the next three years.  iZone Literacy Coaches will train new teachers on the Sopris Reading courses.  iZone Literacy Coaches will analyze common assessments, interim assessments, PARCC assessments, and the pre and post test screening will provide quantitative data.  School-based data chats with K-2 teachers.

School Improvement Reading Initiative (SIRI) iZone Summer Literacy Program Overview

The Plan  Program will be June 2-27, 2014  54 teachers will receive training for one week during the summer on the Sopris Year-Long Reading Course and other best practices in literacy from Literacy coaches. (June 2-6 from 8:00-4:00 daily)  Students in grades K-3 will participate in the summer program. (June 9-27 from 8:30-11:30 daily)  Sopris-trained teachers will teach three weeks of Tier 1 instruction & intervention to approximately 200 K-3 students. (1:10 ratio)  There will be one class per grade level (K-3) per school, for a total of 4 classes.  Teachers who have participated in the Sopris Reading Intervention classes will have the first right of refusal regarding teaching in the Summer program  Two additional K-2 literacy coaches for grades K-2 will monitor summer program sites.

Schools  Douglass Elementary  Fairley Elementary  Ford Road Elementary  Lucie E. Campbell Elementary  Magnolia Elementary  Cherokee Elementary  Treadwell Elementary Teachers can participate in the Sopris Yearlong Reading Course training June 2-6 8:00-4:00

Incentives  Teachers will receive a stipend for training and participating in the summer program, and instructional materials for support.  Students will receive materials and books to develop home libraries, coupons and vouchers to local attractions.  The week of June parents, students, teachers, and community will participate in a Literacy Fair at each iZone summer school site.  Please solicit the assistance of your school’s adopters for Literacy Fair incentive that cannot be funded from the SIRI grant (e.g., light snacks, volunteering time, etc.)

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