1. Assessment & Remediation Guide from Core Knowledge Language Arts©
July 30, 2014
Jennifer Gondek
Instructional specialist for Inclusive education
TST BOCES

2. Welcome: Welcome to the Workshop. Overview of Agenda (posted on easel)
Icebreaker: Introductions – Name, School, Grade(s), and what you are hoping is in this massive guide.

3. Session Objectives: Participants will:
Understand the NYS 3 Pillar Model for Literacy Instruction in K-2 classrooms.
Be familiar with the Core Knowledge Foundation and approach to Literacy Instruction.
Be able to utilize the materials in the Grade 2 A&R Guide to identify student needs through assessment, design appropriate lessons that target needs, and progress monitor skills.
Go over the Session Objectives. Consider adding any additional objectives from the needs of the participants in previous slide.

4. “The Three Pillars”
Components of Comprehensive Literacy Program Core Knowledge Language Arts New York Edition Program for CCSS Grades P-2
Foundational Skills and Small Group Instruction =
CKLA NY Skill Sequence with
student readers
Read Aloud and Shared Interactive Reading
Listening and Learning Strand
Additional Book Time, Independent Reading
Guided Reading and
Accountable Independent Reading
(GRAIR)
Addresses needs of all students by providing:
Systematic exposure and reinforcement of reading skills differentially
Engages through: student- friendly, largely contemporary literature at various reading levels
Builds community of readers
Provides lively, content rich read-aloud with opportunity to question, discuss, and share ideas
Focuses on academic language
Develops background knowledge in science, social studies and the Arts
Provides diverse text
Builds community of readers and learners
Occurs outside and in addition to CKLA NY block
Allows for student and teacher choice from existing leveled libraries based on interest, availability and readability
Builds reading volume
Develops reading stamina and persistence
Strengthens community of readers and learners
Look at this graphic (handout)
The response to the K-2 Modules was to clarify what NYS (and NYS educators) felt was strong literacy instruction. Regardless of programs, these 3 pillars need to be in place for a balanced literacy instructional approach to the CCLS.

5. The Core Knowledge Foundation
Since 1986, Core Knowledge has been the leading national voice for content-rich literacy.
Core Knowledge Founder E.D. Hirsch, Jr. provided the “intellectual DNA” of CCSS.
Core Knowledge Foundation served as a consultant to the authors of CCSS ELA standards.
Successful Pilot of K-2 Literacy Program in NYC Schools.
SAY:
Core Knowledge is all about language development and background knowledge. So here’s a bit of background knowledge about us.
Founded in 1986 by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
The fundamental proposition behind CK is that literacy requires knowledge. Broad general language competence correlates with broad general knowledge. So if we want kids to read, write, speak and listen with understanding, we need to focus on building knowledge coherently and systematically from the first days of school. As teachers we often remind young readers to “activate your prior knowledge.” The Core Knowledge approach to literacy seeks to ensure there is prior knowledge to be activated.
This insight was revolutionary and controversial when Hirsch proposed it in Cultural Literacy. It is now so commonly accepted that it is a linchpin of CCSS. In fact, Hirsch was this week given the ECS James Bryant Conant Award. ECS noted “Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts rest on the intellectual underpinnings of his work.”
CKF served as consultants to the drafters of CCSS ELA Standards.
Most recently, CK piloted an ELA curriculum in 10 New York City schools from , which strongly outperformed 10 control schools in an independent study conducted by the NYCDOE. That work, which was covered in a major NYTs article earlier this year, formed the basis of CK’s successful RFP proposal. The CK K-2 program anticipated the CCSS: foundations of the CK program and CSSS are based on the same research and theoretical underpinnings.
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

6. A New Approach to ELA Instruction: Two Keys to Reading
Two instructional strands:
“Skills” Strand (Phonics)
“Listening and Learning” Strand (Interactive Read Aloud)
R=D x C
Decoding (Skills) + Language Comprehension (Listening and Learning through Read-Alouds) provides students with the two keys needed to translate letters into words AND make sense of what they decode.
TIME:
SAY:
Let’s start with the New York Language Arts general approach to pedagogy. There are Two Essential Keys to Literacy: One without the other is ineffective: students must be able to read or decode the written symbols (letters) AND they must understand and make sense of what they decode.
The New York Language Arts program addresses both keys in two separate instructional strands, each of which represent 1 hour of instruction daily.
The Skills Strand teaches the mechanics of reading – students are taught systematic and explicit phonics instruction as their primary tool for decoding written English. By the end of grade 2, students have learned all of the letter- sound correspondences in the English language and are able to decode just about any written material they encounter. In addition to phonics, students also are taught spelling, grammar, and writing during the Skills Strand.
Remember that full literacy requires not just decoding skills but also knowledge of words, concepts, persons, places, and ideas that writers tend to take for granted and not explain. To achieve reading comprehension, a person needs to be able to decode the words on the page and then make sense of those words. The first task is made possible by decoding skills and the second by language comprehension ability.
Thus, the Listening and Learning Strand consists of a series of read-alouds organized by topics/domains, many of which are informational in nature. The goal in L & L is for students to acquire language competence through listening, specifically building a rich vocabulary, as well as acquire specific knowledge in history and science by being exposed to carefully selected, sequenced and coherent read-alouds.
Reading comprehension depends crucially on both decoding skills and language comprehension ability;
Again each strand of the program represents about one hour of instructional time. Thus, the program is designed to be implemented in a two hour language arts block common to the early grades of school.
TRANSITION: Let’s take a high-level look at each of these strands. Throughout the week, we will be taking a deeper dive to learn more about each component.
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

7. Decoding Skills
These are taught in the Skills Strand of Core Knowledge Language Arts:
Focus on systematic, explicit instruction in synthetic phonics
Sound to letter instruction
Reading and writing taught in tandem, as inverse procedures
Repeated oral reading of 100% decodable text to build fluency
TIME:
SAY:
As I said, the Skills strand is aimed at teaching children to decode the words on the page. The approach of New York Language Arts leverages the structure of language to do this. So, as the day continues, we will spend more time on language development and the Listening and Learning Strand. We will address the Skills strand on Day 4, but I want you to have a general overview of the strand now.
The skills strand provides explicit and intentionally sequenced instruction in phonics.
Please Note: This approach may be quite different from the current practices of many teachers who address phonics randomly, as opportunities arise, or not at all.
Another key difference in the program is that sounds are taught before letters that represent them. The program teaches sound to letter correspondences, rather than letter to sound correspondences.
ASK: Why do you think this might be? Turn and talk at your table for a minute about why this might be. Give participants 2 minutes to talk. Then take a few responses.
There are several reasons to begin with sounds first. Some of these are related to how language develops – and we will look at language development shortly. But another key reason is that when children decode words, they are using the sounds of the letters, not the names of the letters.
The skills strand also teaches reading and writing in tandem, as inverse procedures.
Finally, a really unique aspect of the program is that decodable readers are comprised of words that only contain phoneme, or sounds, that children have been explicitly taught. They are 100% decodable.
Please Note: This is another aspect of the program that may require refinement on the part of teachers. Leveled readers, which are widely used, do not take into account what children have been explicitly taught. As children learn to read, it is helpful that they be given opportunities to practice what they are and have learned, rather than struggling to practice what they might not yet taught.
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

8. Purpose of A & R Guide CKLA online* tool to help with:
4/5/2017
Purpose of A & R Guide
CKLA online* tool to help with:
Determining students skills needs through placement assessments
Re-teaching explicit skills lessons
Supplementary resources
Reinforcement of skills
Progress monitoring
Key Points:
The Assessment and Remediation Guide can be used effectively for different entry models
Say:
The Assessment and Remediation Guide is a comprehensive resource that provides tools to reteach, review, reinforce or remediate.
Teachers can use placement assessments to determines students skills levels
Guidance is provided on how to use CKLA Skills aligned data to plan targeted lessons to tailor instruction to students individual specific instructional needs and or for small group instruction
Supplementary resources, such as word lists, activities and worksheets are also provided to differentiate instruction
Guidance and materials are included to monitor students progress
EngageNY.org
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

9. “While there are many competencies required to be a successful reader able to comprehend, analyze, and synthesize what one reads, one of the key prerequisite components is the ability to automatically apply knowledge of the English letter- sound correspondences when reading unfamiliar text.”
Page 1, Grade 2 A&R Guide

10. Stop to look at overlap. Describe the Grade 2 guide as covering most of the K-2 skills. Describe the CKLA philosophy that all kids can decode by leaving grade 2. Think of a kid with skills gaps. On a post it note some phonics skills that kid needed. Notice how you might be running to 3 different grade levels. This guide is all-in-one.
EngageNY.org
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11. Targeted Instruction
Catch students up.

12. Structure of the A & R Guide
4/5/2017
Structure of the A & R Guide
Key Points:
The Assessment and Remediation Guide is a large resource and is different for each grade.
Learning about the structure of the guide will be the best starting point or orientation to it’s effective use
Say:
1. Let’s spend some time unpacking the Assessment and Remediation Guide for each grade. Familiarity with it’s purpose, structure and resources, can help teachers implement it properly and effectively to meet the needs of their students at a high level.
EngageNY.org
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

13. Skills Addressed in the A&R Guide: Grade by Grade
Kindergarten –All K Skills
Phonological Awareness
Understanding Directionality
Phonics
Fluency and Comprehension
Writing (Letter Formation)
Grade 1 –All 1st grade skills except writing composition.
Phonics
Fluency and Comprehension
Grade 2 –Phonics Only.
Comprehensive review of phonics K-2
Key Points:
The Assessment and Remediation Guides can look differently for each one of the grades
Differences in the skills addressed at each grade level reflect the priorities for remediation accordingly.
Say:
1. The Assessment and Remediation Guide can look differently for each one of the grades. The differences in Skills addressed at each grade level are specific to the instruction that is covered and reflect the priorities for remediation.
2. In Kindergarten, phonological awareness covers awareness of environmental sounds through manipulating three to five phonemes. Understanding directionality is only in Unit 1, and the writing sections address letter formation for handwriting.
3. In all grades, the phonics sections address reading and spelling words with the code taught up to that point.
4. Fluency and Comprehension sections address reading connected text with ease, expression, purpose, and understanding. In Grade 1 grammar concepts are included in this section.
5. Grade 2 is a comprehensive review of phonics taught in grades K-2.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation

14. Unit-by Unit Alignment K and 1st
Key Points:
The kindergarten and first grade A&R Guides directly parallel the sequence of instruction from the Teacher Guides.
Work at any given step of the sequence assumes Code Knowledge leading up to that point
There are no A & R guides for the final unit because of overlap of last unit in one grade and first unit in next
Say:
1. In K and 1st, this an A&R Guide for almost every unit of the grade’s sequence (K : 1-9; 1st 1-6).
2. No final A&R Guide because there is such overlap between last unit of a grade and first unit of next.
Not an exact replica of the Lesson by Lesson in the Skills Strand. The A&R Guide is designed to be flexible. They will not need the WHOLE lesson again. They will need deep emphasis in certain areas.
Find the area of difficulty (phonics, chaining– go to that) Find the materials and activities you needed. Sounds and spellings are the same as the regular unit. You will find sample lessons of how you might go about remedial support. The template is next to it. A bare bones you can follow to design your lesson.

15. Grade 2 A&R Guide: All in One
Phonics Only
Key Points:
The Grade 2 A&R Guide is one complete resource, as opposed to the K & Grade 1 A&R Guides which are provided in separate units.
Say:
1. The Grade 2 A & R Guide is designed for targeted remediation of specific gaps of code knowledge.
2. Students who are significantly below grade level will need intensive instruction utilizing resources from previous grade levels.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation

16. What will I find in the A&R Guide: 1. SAMPLE LESSON & TEMPLATES
Key Points:
The A&R Guide will be designed with tools and articles to support instruction
Samples of lessons are provided as well as lesson templates to guide the planning to build lessons that fit the specific needs of individual students or small groups
Say:
1. In the sample lessons as well as other spots, such as the Dimensions of Difficulty Charts and Tricky Word Teaching Tips, you will find information to support instruction. For example, an explanation of why /j/, /ch/, and /tr/ are commonly confused.

17. Models of Instruction Three Model Types: Guided Reinforcement
4/5/2017
Models of Instruction
Three Model Types:
Guided Reinforcement
Explicit Reteaching
Comprehensive Reteaching
Key Points:
There are three model types for using the A & R guide. They include guided reinforcement, explicit reteaching, and comprehensive reteaching
Say:
Guided Reinforcement is the level of instructional need for students who are overall on pace, but demonstrate some gaps in knowledge.
Explicit Reteaching should be used when students require explicit instruction in a specific component area of literacy such as phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency or writing
Comprehensive reteaching happens when students require instruction over multiple components areas of literacy.
EngageNY.org
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

18. What will I find in the A&R Guide: 2. Word Lists & Word Cards
Key Points:
The A&R guide will include words lists and chaining lists that teachers can plan into a lesson for students to use for practicing the mastery of the letter sound correspondences identified as weaknesses.
Say:
1. Word lists and Chaining lists are provided and will include words that are aligned to the specific letter-sound correspondences taught up to the specified unit
2. So for Unit 3 in K, our phonics/chaining focus are individual single syllable words.

19. What will I find in the A&R Guide: 3. Activities for re-teaching
Key Points:
The A&R guide includes activities to be used for reteaching.
The expectation is to have these activities facilitated by the teacher to help strengthen and support instruction.
Some activities are familiar to the students from the teacher guides, others have been adapted or are new.
Say:
1. All of these activities are engaging and designed to be teacher facilitated- involving back and forth. Though there are worksheets for some activities to support structuring the instruction, the focus in any remediation is ongoing support by an adult- to really strengthen the success and feedback students are getting.
2. Some activities are carried over from the Teacher Guides (e.g., Chaining), some are adapted (e.g., applying the Baseball Game to varied content), and some are new to allow for fresh instruction (e.g., working with Sound Boxes).
These are not generally individual activity= worksheet time. These are designed to be activities done with a teacher guidance- really interactive with the children. Teaching tools to facilitate the instruction, not independent. They sometimes do carryover, but may also have adaptations to the original. Some are new.

20. What will I find in the A&R Guide: 4. Games for Reinforcement
Key Points:
The A&R guide also includes games for reinforcement. The games are designed to help students apply and practice the targeted skills
This is great for volunteers, aides, etc. Options for a lower dose, repetition. Centers or small group work. Most of the materials are made for you. Just copy and cut. In the pausing point activities, you get suggestions but you have to create the cards, etc.
Say:
Skills aligned games are included to provide engaging and differentiated opportunities for students to practice targeted skills in small group instruction or in center work.
Teachers will need to make the games in advance. Templates and instructions are provided.

21. What will I find in the A&R Guide: 5. Assessments
Key Points:
Resources for progress monitoring are included at the end of each unit. The data generated by these assessments can guide and inform instruction for individual student progress.
Say:
Placement and Student Performance assessments are provided in the Teacher Guides. To supplement these, the A&R Guide provides progress monitoring assessments specific to each skill you may be targeting for remediation.
These assessments can be used diagnostically to inform instruction and systematically to contribute to a record of student progress.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation

22. CKLA Must-Knows

23. Basic vs. Advanced Code
Spelling Tree

24. Chunking: Multi-syllable Words
pic·nic
Closed Syllables
Magic E Syllables (VcE)
Vowel Digraph Syllables
R-Controlled Syllables
Open Syllables
Consonant-LE syllables
Schwa Syllables
es·cape
ig·loo
for·get
vi·rus
tur·tle
a·bout

25. Tricky Words Section 1-H (pg. 317)
Remedial Lesson Template to target 3-5 words
Complete Dolch Word List provided
Pre/Post test (pg. 386)

26. Questions:

27. Assessment

28. Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade
(Group based on trend of data across first 5 Units)
First Grade
(Group based on Formal Placement Assessment)
Second Grade
Letter Name/Letter Sound
Unit 2
Optional Pretest
Unit 1 Placement Assessment
For those children who fall below benchmarks on all other Unit 1 Assessments NA
Writing Strokes Test
End of Unit 2
Given to all students
Word Recognition/Word Reading
Unit 3, 4, 5
Given to all students; Expands to Word Reading if child doesn’t pass benchmark on Recognition
Word Recognition given to all students; no Word Reading
Word Reading for students who fall below benchmarks on story reading assessments
Story Comprehension
NA for initial test battery
Unit 1 Placement Assessment 
Only for those children who score AT OR ABOVE benchmark on Word Recognition
All Students
Pseudo Word Reading
 OPTIONAL assessment from Unit 8
For probing placement of incoming K students with very strong contextual reading skills
 Only given for those who score BELOW benchmark on Word Recognition
Unit 1 Assessment
Only given to those who score BELOW benchmark on Word Recognition
Code Diagnostic Test
 NA for initial test battery
 Unit 1 Placement Assessment
Only for those falling below benchmark on Word Recognition and Pseudoword reading
 NA
EngageNY.org
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29. Grade 2 Placement Assessments
Identify students with similar code knowledge gaps
Create lessons for 1:1 or small group instruction using materials
Most effective 1:1 or small group
Important students have multiple opportunities to practice reading words ith the targeted skill correctly
Practice reading should be done orally for immediate correction and feedback.
Lessons are incremental (assume knowledge from previous sections)- look at skill sequence in table of contents

30. Managing Initial Assessments First & Second Grade
Class Summary Form
Sample from Assessment Flowchart
Interpretation Guidelines
EngageNY.org
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31. Story Comprehension Assessment
Second Grade Story Samples
EngageNY.org
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32. Story Comprehension Assessment
Second Grade Sample Scoring
EngageNY.org
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33. Word Reading Assessment
EngageNY.org
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34. Word Reading Assessment
Scoring/ Interpretation, Grade 2 placement
EngageNY.org
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35. Pseudoword Assessment
First Grade
EngageNY.org
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36. Fluency Assessments Read page 95. Look at 96 for norms.
Discuss strategies used for increasing fluency. Make notes to share with participant
Section 3- p621 look at fluency assessment.

37. Your Cases Key Points: May work individually or in pairs .
Hints to support participants are in the Facilitator’s Guides, as are the ‘answers.’
EngageNY.org
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38. Models of Instruction Three Model Types: Guided Reinforcement
4/5/2017
Models of Instruction
Three Model Types:
Guided Reinforcement
Explicit Reteaching
Comprehensive Reteaching
Key Points:
There are three model types for using the A & R guide. They include guided reinforcement, explicit reteaching, and comprehensive reteaching
Say:
Guided Reinforcement is the level of instructional need for students who are overall on pace, but demonstrate some gaps in knowledge.
Explicit Reteaching should be used when students require explicit instruction in a specific component area of literacy such as phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency or writing
Comprehensive reteaching happens when students require instruction over multiple components areas of literacy.
EngageNY.org
©2012 Core Knowledge Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

39. Guided Reinforcement 1. Guided Reinforcement
Key Points:
Guided Reinforcement is the level of instructional need for students who are overall on pace, but demonstrate some gaps in knowledge.
15 minutes or so.
Say:
Guided Reinforcement should be used when students demonstrate incomplete mastery of specific skills.
Remediation requires a relatively short sequence of specific instruction in addition to the core classroom literacy instruction.
Remediation may be provided during temporary individual or small group time, often within differentiated classroom instruction times.
Mostly teacher doing it, during GRAIR time. Some small gaps.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation

40. Explicit Reteaching 2. Explicit Re-teaching
Key Points:
Explicit Reteaching is the level of instructional need for students who require high levels of support with core classroom literacy instruction and are off pace in specific component areas (e.g., code knowledge or fluency).
Suggested minutes: 30 minutes or so.
Say:
Remediation requires committed time for explicit instruction above and beyond the classroom instruction.
This level of need is often met by intervention instruction.
Do make-up time with consistent extra help. Constant pull in during GRAIR. Already a “plan” in place for them. Moregaps than you wanted.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation

41. Comprehensive Reteaching
Key Points:
Comprehensive Reteaching is the level of instructional need for students who are significantly below grade level and require explicit instruction across multiple or all component areas (i.e., phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency, and writing).
45 minutes total (filling an entire literacy block, you will have more going on during this block in addition to this lesson)
Say:
1.Remediation requires significant committed time for comprehensive instruction.
2. This level of need may be met by intensive intervention instruction or individualized education plans serviced through Special Education.
All encompassing reteaching. This might be kids getting a true double dose from core classroom plus the extensive reteaching during another literacy block time. Some kids that are literally off=pace and get comprehensive literacy instruction in a totally different setting from the A&R guide. Threre is an opportunity to tailor for the kids as they are ready. How you accelerate and “catch” them up.
There are 3 kids that are legitimately more than 6 months behind. We “DON’T” keep them at grade level instruction to be nimble.
The template you use focuses on the exact things they need.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation

42. Planning Remediation
When assessment data and instructional performance signals a need for remediation, go to the corresponding instructional point in the A&R Guide.
Consider the students’ level of instructional need and plan with the lesson structures accordingly.
Select exercises and prepare associated materials from the appropriate section(s) of the A&R Guide.
Use progress monitoring assessments to inform decisions about student progress and/or ongoing remediation needs.
Key Points:
Based on the instructional needs of your students, the Assessment and Remediation Guide will provide a path for how to plan remediation.
Say:
1. K and Grade 1 A&R Guides correspond unit by unit and the Table of Contents for the Grade 2 A&R Guide will guide you to the section(s) you need.
2. In the K and Grade 1 A&R Guides, Determining Student Need charts will help you confirm you are in the right place.
3. ALWAYS cross-check with the Scope and Sequence to ensure remediation is starting at the earliest point of need. A Scope and Sequence is provided in the Introduction for the K and Grade 1 A&R Guide and the Table of Contents serves as a Scope and Sequence for the Grade 2 A&R Guide.
4. In K standard lesson templates and samples are provided throughout the A&R Guide sections. Guidance is provided in the Introduction for adapting the templates for either more abbreviated or more comprehensive instruction.
5. In Grade 1 lesson templates and samples are provided for all three instructional levels throughout the units and sections.
6. In Grade 2 standard lesson templates and samples are provided. These may be adapted for more abbreviated instruction (reference the K Introduction if guidance is needed). If more comprehensive instruction is required, resources from prior grade levels are recommended.
© 2013 Core Knowledge® Foundation