1. PAYS FOR: Literacy Coach, Power Hour Aides, LTM's, Literacy Trainings, Kindergarten Teacher Training, Materials.

2.  Conduct weekly grade-level literacy team meetings where teachers work together to analyze student performance data and develop/refine Tier I, II, and III instruction and interventions.  Literacy coaches also facilitate focused observation opportunities teachers observe application of SBRR teaching in other classrooms.  Finally, coaches orchestrate the organization and implementation of diagnostic assessments and subsequent interventions.  Literacy coaches have expedited this process by creating an assessment flowchart, assessment binder (a collection of diagnostic assessment tools for each strand in the language arts core), and individual student progress monitoring/tracking sheets.  Does this fully describe the role of the coach, and teachers role at your school?

3.  DIBELS is used as a screening instrument three times annually to measure performance in relation to fall, winter, and spring benchmarks.  During monthly data discussions and weekly literacy team meetings with the building principal and literacy coach, grade- level teams analyze DIBELS data to identify Tier 2 and 3 students who may need additional diagnostic assessments.  Ongoing progress monitoring with DIBELS data helps teachers modify instruction and/or focused interventions to better meet the needs of individual students.  Does your school fully participate in monthly data discussions regarding literacy?  Does your school fully participate in weekly literacy meetings to discuss Tier II and Tier III strategies?

4.  Cohesive, sustained, and focused professional development was facilitated by principals and literacy coaches throughout the year. The content for professional development is organized around SBRR practices related to the Curriculum strands in the USOE Core (i.e. word knowledge, fluency, comprehension, and writing).  The professional development process provided focused, coordinated scaffolding of effective instructional practices across multiple contexts.  In monthly data discussions, principals facilitated analysis and discussion of a variety of assessment data to identify an instructional focus and monitor the effectiveness of interventions for each Tier 2 and 3 students.  During the professional development days for teachers, principals facilitated school-wide study and discussion of SBRR practices in comprehension.  This focus was determined by analysis of classroom observations and CRT data. In weekly literacy team meetings, coaches facilitated collaboration and learning across the stages of the Lyons and Pinnell professional development model, based on the on the needs and interests of teachers. They also prepared lesson plans and materials to implement the SBRR practices they had been studying.

5.  Literacy coaches provide ongoing training and coaching to paraprofessionals who served as STAR tutors. Students in the STAR program were selected because they were performing slightly below benchmark or because they were not consistently reading at home each night.  Classroom teachers established the focus and beginning reading level for each STAR student to ensure appropriate skills and strategies are practiced.  Literacy coaches modify the focus and/or reading level as they observe students and collect data during STAR lessons.

6.  Classroom teachers provide an hour of daily small group, differentiated reading instruction to Tier 1, 2, and 3 students for the purpose of  coaching them to apply previously taught skills and strategies across a variety of texts.  In addition to the small group instruction implemented by the classroom teacher, Tier 2 and 3 students served by ESL and SpEd receive additional targeted instructional interventions provided by those specialists.  Tier 1 and 2 students who need additional practice with skills or strategies previously taught by the classroom teacher might also work with a paraprofessional during this hour dedicated to differentiated instruction.  In addition to providing STAR tutoring,  Paraprofessionals are trained to use neurological impress method (NIM), partner reading, echo reading, and repeated timed readings to build fluency.  They also know a repertoire of practice activities to build automaticity with letter names/sounds, sight words, and phonics patterns.

7.  Our framework for literacy instruction and intervention is based on the State’s 3 Tier Model of Reading Instruction.  It provides a structure for: the identification, diagnostic assessment, progress-monitoring, and transitioning of Tier 1, 2, and 3 students;  a variety of instructional methods and routines reflecting SBRR within each tier; differentiated instruction and materials; identification of  teachers and support staff responsible for the instruction; recommended group sizes; and the approximate duration of the instruction.  Further, the  State’s 3 Tier Model of reading Instruction serves as the foundation for a district literacy framework.  This framework structures three hours of daily literacy instruction to include  30 minutes for each of the following elements: word knowledge, fluency, comprehension and writing, and  One hour daily for differentiated instruction.

8.  Grade level teams in our elementary schools collaborate to design and refine curriculum maps that align to the Utah Core Curriculum.  We selected a basal program that closely aligns to the Core and provides for recursive teaching and review of key concepts and strategies.  The leveled library in each school contains informational texts across a variety of reading levels that reflect Core topics in math, science, and social studies. Teachers use these text sets in their guided reading instruction to help students learn to apply reading strategies while building vocabulary and background knowledge on these Core topics.

9. 1. Analysis of kindergarten data resulted in increased pacing of the phonics instruction. 2. Differentiated small group reading instruction was also implemented in all kindergarten classrooms by the middle of the year to provid guided practice in applying knowledge of letters/sounds, sight words, and concepts of print to the task of reading simple, engaging texts.

10. 4. Literacy coaches assisted all classroom teachers in:  Utilizing both progress monitoring and diagnostic assessments to establish an instructional focus;  Planning and revising explicit lesson plans;  Modifying whole group instruction and small group interventions as indicated by ongoing assessment data.  The Lyons and Pinnell framework for professional development was sustained with the literacy coaches as a tool they could use in planning how to support teachers as they shift to implementing SBRR practices.  Coaches collaborated with principals to refine and focus their assigned coaching responsibilities to better support district, school, and professional goals.

11.  Summary: Literacy coaches facilitate professional study groups during weekly literacy team meetings.  Areas of study are determined by individual grade-level teams based on their analysis of student data, the coach’s observation of current instructional practices, and the teachers’ interests.