Hi friends! This blog is for teachers and families- all for the sheer joy of literacy. When we are enthusiastic about reading and writing our students and our own kids become excited to read and write. I hope that we all can be models for those in our care- how did you show your passion for reading, writing, learning, language, or words today?? It's in those small, daily moments that we teach kids to love literacy.
I have been holed up all day giving reading assessments. We're finishing Cycle 2 of our RtI Interventions, and after spring break we head into Cycle 3. I have 2 helpful interventionists Dibeling away, so I began DRAing my 30 intervention students. I'll join in with DIBELing as soon as I'm done DRAing (don't ya love these reading assessments turning into verbs!)
There was a lot of growth to be exciting about today! Some kiddos are working their tails off and made leaps and bounds. While a few, didn't make such stellar progress. It's interesting to think about the kids that aren't making progress- we will make an action plan to better support their learning going into Cycle 3.
Today I had a teacher remark, "This is the exciting thing about RtI!" One of her students moved from a DRA 4 (Kinder level) at the beginning of the year to a 16 (end of 1st grade level) mid-year. What awesome progress! And with the RtI model, he'll be exited from pull-out intervention and back into the class full-time (the goal!!). I'm glad to see folks positive about RtI- we had a lot of negative push back at for a while.
So for the next couple of weeks I'll be assessing away- wish me luck!
Hey Friends! Since I mentioned I am using this 100s grid for all of my running records each year, I'd thought I'd share it here. Take it, use it, share it, change it.
WOW this simple, stripped-down grid saves me a lot of time. Instead of taking the time to calculate a percentage for a student's reading accuracy (which you have to do when a child reads more/less than 100 words), I can use this sheet quickly to find an accuracy rate sans calculator. Brilliant time saver! This is especially important when you do 5-8 of these running records per day or when you're a busy teacher (hint: that's you!).
I use this exactly as I would a blank running record sheet. Don't know what a running record is? See my other post about running records here.
I also do miscue analysis on each of my running records, but I do this on the computer only, not by hand. I want to easily share the information about the student's reading with their classroom teacher. I can post the template I use for that soon.
I don't print out page two, but I use these comprehension prompts, to have consistency.
The boxes at the bottom of page one are a space for me to write notes about what the student is doing well (+) and what the students didn't do well (-), and needs more instruction on. I titled the boxes based off of what I tend to work with kids on- comprehension, fluency/accuracy, and the student's use (or lack thereof) of reading strategies.
I record the student % accuracy and circle if this is their independent, instructional, or frustrational level. For me, 97-100% is independent, 90-96% is instructional, and 89% or below is frustrational.
I have a space at the top for instructional focus. I like to give the student a focus before the begin reading- I use Running Records to coach/instruct my students, and not just to assess them.
I keep all my running records in a fat binder. I start a new binder at the beginning or each year. The running records are ordered alphabetically by students' first names.
Before I put the running records in the binder I analyze the miscues on a different template (using Microsoft's OneNote). I send an email to their classroom teacher with this analysis, so they can also use the information to also guide their instruction.
We're closing in on the end of first quarter, can you believe it!!?? This is my 4th year as a reading specialist, and I think I am hitting a groove with the students and with planning. Here are some things that are happening this year...
OLD
I have continued weekly read alouds with my intervention students. I began this last year. Research confirms time and time again the importance of reading aloud to students to build vocabulary, background knowledge, and to increase fluency. I also find that reading books aloud has increased my students motivation to read (really and truly). For most of my groups we're focusing the read alouds this year on non-fiction: animals from around the world. For my 4th-5th grade students the read alouds will focus on California history- they will all be fiction, as we will be discussing universal themes.
Intervention programs: I am teaching SIPPS and Seeing Stars to 1st and 2nd grade students that need sight word and phonics support. Both of these intervention programs have their merits; I recommend them. I'm also reading a Read 180 class to a group of 4th and 5th grade students. Many of the students have already completed the RBooks (reading anthology of sorts) last year, but we are using the software and the Read 180's leveled books for independent reading. I'm using leveled books and thematic articles with them in small group.
I have posted a vocabulary word wall for each group. Like last year, I have a small pocket chart for each group with the words we're learning. The charts are hung right next to our reading table.
NEW
Teaching reading to first graders (and K soon)! I have a couple of 1st grade sweeties I see three days a week. I have to tell you, this experience is stretching me. But two books have saved me: The Next Steps in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson and Beverly Tyner's Small-Group Reading Instruction.
RtI (Response to Intervention) weekly team meetings. It has been great to be a part of this dynamic team this year. I feel like we are finally starting to address students and teacher's needs proactively.
Lesson Planning. For the first time as a reading specialist I have had to submit lesson plans weekly. Even though it is time consuming, this has been really good for my teaching.
Students are borrowing books weekly. I reorganized my library with 4 levels for my intervention students (acorns, walking acorns, oak trees, oak trees with roots). Every Thursday the students use the IPICK system to pick 5-10 new books to bring home for the week. Our school library isn't leveled, many of my students can't find a lot of books at their reading level in their classrooms, and I want to make sure my students are reading books at their level at home. I hope it helps! They all seem to really enjoy getting new books weekly.
Daily Mantra. Me: Are you ready to Read? Students in unison: Yes, we're ready to Read. We start small group with short call and response. It gets the kids focused after transition to my room and lets them know it's "go" time. They look forward to this now.
BORROWED
Running Records with a 100s grid. Wow, does this save time!! A colleague sent me her template, and I am in love. I think not having to count the words a student reads save me 10 minutes a day! That's 50 saved minutes a week. If you want this grid, I'd be more than happy to pass it along.
Theme posters from Beth Newingham's Third Grade Class. See link. Love these posters. I aim to discuss theme throughout the year with my Read 180 class.
RESCUED
My new room! I moved from something that may have reminded you of Rapunzel's turret (a square cement room above the gym) to another odd room off the stage. The newer room is still cement and an unwelcoming peach color- but I love my new home. I have redecorated and it has become quite a calming space. They kids often comment how much they like my room now. Good, because I like it too! It has a couple couches, and that's always a plus!
Phew! That's a lot to chew on. As for me, I am excited the direction this year is taking, and here's hoping that my instructional decisions will positively impacts students' learning.
Today my colleague (thanks Sarah!) introduced me to these short videos available through the RtI Action Network.
I love these videos because Janette Klinger addresses many of the issues our school is currently dealing with. Our school is 95%+ ELL, so implementing RtI, teaching all students in the general ed classrooms, and qualifying and identifying ELL students for Special Ed look should be tweaked accordingly to support our population.
Klinger voices many of the concerns I had going into RtI implementation at our school. Like she mentions, many teachers have a hard time distinguishing between students in the process of language acquisition and students with learning disabilities. It takes training to be able to tease out the underlying issues that is affecting student performance.
Check out out these videos:
Janette Klingner: Realizing the Potential of RTI: Considerations When Implementing RTI with English Language Learners
Janette Klingner: Response to Intervention With English Language Learners
If you're a teacher, how do you differentiate your lessons to support your ELL students?
Our school started to tackle Response to Intervention (RtI) this year. As the RtI coordinator I started the year with a very basic understanding of RtI. Trying to find a way to make it work well at out school site has taken a lot of communication, trial and error, and some more communication...and we still have several kinks to work out. It seems like many schools are ahead of us in this figuring-it-out process, and it also seems like RtI looks completely different from school-to-school, district-to-district.
The teachers and staff have been more than gracious in this learning process, and have often given really constructive feedback on how RtI can work better for them, their students, and the school. At the beginning of the year, we added a whole lot of paperwork and meetings to teachers workload, and that wasn't sustainable (or even necessary). After looking at RtI models at other schools, we decided to weave RtI paperwork, meetings, and consultations, into our staff time weekly. This seems to work out well, but again, I think our RtI team needs to make sure we communicate more so teachers understand how to use this 30 minute time slot weekly. Teachers still seem a little unsure of the RtI process, and that is partly due to lack of communication. So that's the goal for next year- communicate! communicate! communicate!
Personally, I really like the idea of RtI and I think, once we have everything smoothed out, it will make us a lot more efficient and effective with our intervention services. I already see that teachers are responding to assessment and regrouping students or creating new groups, if necessary. Many of our teachers were doing this already, but now there is more of a process to recognize and track all the effort they were putting into differentiating work for their students. And having this support documented will help students and their teachers as they move from class to class, and grade to grade.
It also feels like student intervention placements are more meaningful now, we base placements on several data points, along with teacher/parent recommendations, rather than just using one data point at the beginning of the year. When students made progress in their reading, then can exit intervention. Before RtI, we didn't have intervention as systematized. Many students were unmotivated to make progress because regardless of their growth they remained in intervention for the entire year. Kids are now encouraged (especially 4th and 5th graders) to improve their reading- because they will be exited out of intervention when they reach their reading goals. Exiting intervention is the perfect incentive for many older readers.
One major component of RtI is progress monitoring- or assessing students' progress at frequent intervals. In addition to benchmark tests, the state test, and informal assessing, our teachers do the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessments) a couple of times a year on each of their students (a lot of assessing!!!). The DRA gives the teacher a complete picture of a student's reading abilities, and helps him/her to focus his/her instruction to meet each student's needs.
I really liked this video from Reading Rockets on progress monitoring. It explains how often students should be assessed. This video makes is quite clear on how often progress monitoring to be done. We still need to systematize progress monitoring at out school...that will be one more part of RtI that we need to hash out. Maybe next year? Maybe later down the road? We shall see...
I'd love to hear any of your insights into RtI. What makes RtI work well at your school/district? What would you change about RtI at your school?
I've learned the most about RtI through collaboration with other teachers that have tried RtI at their school sites. I'm eager to hear any of your thoughts and ideas, so that we can make this process even more meaningful for teacher, students, interventionists, and families at my school.
