South Fayette Township School District Literacy Proficiency for All Students Partnership with the Avonworth School District
Partner Leaders South Fayette Township School District Dr. Bille Rondinelli, Superintendent Dr. Michael Loughead, Assistant Superintendent Laurie Gray, Elementary School Principal Avonworth School District Dr. Tom Ralston, Superintendent Dr. Darlene Tartaglione, Elementary School Principal
Demographics – South Fayette • Located about 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh in Southwestern PA • Growing school district • One elementary school K-2 with an enrollment of 699 students • One intermediate school 3-5 with an enrollment of 749 students • District on one campus • Free-reduced lunch – 13.6% in the elementary • Free-reduced lunch – 12% in the intermediate
Research Indicates If a child is not reading on level by grade 3, and there is no intervention, the child has only a 1 in 8 chance of ever becoming a proficient reader!
Board Resolution In 2002, the South Fayette Board of School Directors passed a resolution that by age 10, all students would be reading on grade level.
Brutal Facts of 2002! • In elementary school, we spent the most instructional time in reading (about ½ of the day) • We spent the most money on reading each year including all Title I funds • We had the most support staff for reading • Most referrals were because of a child’s lack of reading achievement
Reading PSSA 2003 • 78% of the 3 rd grade students scored proficient or advanced on the reading PSSA
Goal - Increase Student Achievement – HOW? • All faculty members who teach reading will implement explicit, research based reading instruction • Focus on the grade level eligible content • Use data to drive instruction • Meet weekly in grade level teams to focus on reading achievement
K-3 Reading Initiative 2002-2003 School Year Building a Foundation • 80 hours on-line modules that taught research based reading strategies • Teachers did this before and after school • 20 elementary teachers and the building principal participated
Time and Money Commitment 2003-2007 • Reading Specialists received intensive reading training through the AIU Reading Achievement Center (RAC) • Focused on research based techniques for teaching reading • Reading Specialists became our trainers
Time and Money Commitment 2003-2007 (continued) • Monthly two hour delay days for staff development with a focus on reading instruction • Weekly team meetings • Ongoing assessment and progress monitoring of all students
Improved Our Language Arts Program • Revised language arts curriculum • Adopted new materials • Changed the sequence of skills • Rewrote assessments • Ongoing, focused training for faculty • Implemented Reading Achievement • Classrooms
2008 Reading PSSA Significant Growth! • 95% of 3 rd grade students scored proficient or advanced on the reading PSSA • 96% of 4 th grade students scored proficient or advanced on the reading PSSA. • 4 th grade 1 st in reading in the state and Allegheny County. • * 5 th grade was part of the • middle school
Best Practice - Reading Instruction • Move students to independence as soon as possible • Engage kindergarten students in academic activities that facilitate early reading • Decoding instruction is essential
Best Practice – Reading Instruction ( continued) • Comprehension should be addressed along with decoding • Students should have opportunities to read a lot of meaningful texts in rich, literate classrooms
Phonemic Awareness • Understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. • Ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in words. • Can be done in the dark (auditory not visual)
A Phonics Program Should Include: • Explicit instruction – Sounds are produced in isolation and connected with printed letters – Teach the rules • Systematic instruction – Research shows that letters and sounds should be introduced according to a definite sequence
A Phonics Program Should Include: (continued) • Strategies that require decoding from the beginning through the end of the word • Use of decodable texts to reinforce decoding
Purpose of Word Building • Supports decoding • Students attend to letter – sound correspondence and focus attention on every letter • Students cumulative blend words • Sequences are developed to discriminate between vowels
Word Building Activity • Build and read the words (decoding) • Speed round (decoding) • Silly questions (decoding) • Dictation (encoding) • Reinforce by reading decodable text
Vocabulary • Vocabulary knowledge refers to the range and depth of word meanings known and recognized in print • Vocabulary knowledge is highly correlated with reading comprehension
The Goal of Vocabulary Instruction • Expose students to words that: – Are sophisticated and otherwise unknown – Are vigorously expressive – Are conceptually universal – Enhance the thematic and conceptual understanding of the text
Vocabulary Instruction • Choose words that are above, not below the students • Use imagery • Give multiple examples • Provide many different contexts • Model enthusiasm and passion for rich words
Fluency • Ability to read smoothly, easily, and readily with freedom from word recognition problems. • Decoding print accurately and effortlessly enables students to read for meaning.
Fluency (continued) • Fluent readers focus their attention on making connections among ideas in text. • Less fluent readers must focus their attention on decoding and assessing the meaning of individual words.
Ways to Develop Fluency • Model fluent reading • Choral reading • Echo reading • Repeated readings of text • Tracking • Fluency builders and fluency phrases
Fluency Benchmarks Fluency rates at the end of the year • First grade 70 wpm • Second grade 90 wpm • Third Grade 120 wpm • Fourth Grade 150 wpm
Comprehension • There is a high correlation between words known and comprehension success • Children must be fluent readers to comprehend • Many students have difficulty constructing meaning from text
Understanding Involves • Making connections between and among ideas • Deciding what is important and what isn’t • Infer what the author is doing and why • Paraphrase and summarize • Reconciling prior knowledge to what is newly learned
Better Questioning • What’s the author trying to say? • What’s this all about? • How does that connect to what we already know? • What does the author want us to know from this? • What do we know about the character, place, time, etc.?
Curriculum • Phonemic Awareness (K-2) • Decoding (K-5) • Spelling (K-5) • Vocabulary (K-5) • Fluency (1-5) • Comprehension (K-5)
Resources & Strategies
• HM Harcourt Journeys • Created word building sequences • Created syllaseach sequences • Wrote additional decodable text • Robust vocabulary PowerPoints implementing Isabel Beck’s strategies • Text Talk • Questioning the Author
• Scrolling • Leveled readers • Accelerated Reader Program • Read Naturally & fluency builders • Literature circles • Think Aloud • Reading response journals • Text-based writing & process writing
Assessments • Selection tests & theme tests • Cold reads • Weekly progress monitoring • Study Island Benchmark Tests • Text dependents analysis • Spelling tests
Interventions
Kindergarten Express – 2 classes of 15 children (AM and PM) – Reading Specialist and paraeducator – Students receive intensive literacy instruction in groups of 5 students – Incorporates RAC strategies with a focus on word building, Text Talk, robust vocabulary, writing, and phonemic awareness activities
Reading Achievement Classrooms 1 st Grade – 5 th Grade
Structure of the Reading Achievement Classrooms • 18 students divided into three groups of 6 students • 40 minute rotations • Receive intensive reading instruction for the entire language arts block • Same curriculum and pacing as the grade level
Instruction • Phonics – word lines, word building & syllasearch • Fluency – HM Harcourt fluency builders, Intervention Readers, and Read Naturally • Vocabulary – HM Harcourt Journeys, skills PowerPoint, & tier 2 words
Instruction (continued) • Comprehension – students are taught comprehension strategies through various fiction and nonfiction text • Grammar • Writing – reading prompts, text dependent analysis, informational, personal narratives, and expository
Three Groups • Classroom teacher – vocabulary, comprehension, leveled readers, writing, & grammar • Reading Specialist – phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, spelling, & fluency • Independent Group or Paraeducator – independent practice, decodable text, fluency, spelling, vocabulary, and Study Island • Whole Group – writing and grammar
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