Reading First in Georgia: A

professional development system

to improve differentiated

instructionGeorgia Reading

First Team

Overall Goals:

1. Share the vision for differentiated instruction that we’ve developed together

2. Introduce large-scale professional support initiatives to serve multiple stakeholders

3. Invite you to talk with a member of our team

StrategiesWe’ll do some theory building work

We’ll provide models of use of time in small groups

We’ll direct you to additional resources

Approaches to Differentiation

By instructional

level

By fluency level

By assessed needs

Approaches to Differentiation

By instructional

level

By fluency level

By assessed needs

• Informal reading inventories• Traditional basal instruction• Groups move at same pace• Groups are all but permanent• Differentiation is in all areas • Parallel skill “strands” used

Approaches to Differentiation

By instructional

level

By fluency level

By assessed needs

Approaches to Differentiation

By instructional

level

By fluency level

By assessed needs

• Differentiation by leveled books• Decoding skills not a target• Fountas & Pinnell

Approaches to Differentiation

By instructional

level

By fluency level

By assessed needs

Approaches to Differentiation

By instructional

level

By fluency level

By assessed needs

• Assess for differentiation• Screening + diagnostic• Groups are temporary• Groups are flexible• Target areas of greatest need• Goal is “upward mobility”

Differentiation is

“instruction that helps [children] accomplish challenging tasks that are just out of their reach”

“instruction that targets a particular group of children’s needs directly and temporarily”

“instruction that applies a developmental model”

Walpole, S., & McKenna, M. C. (2007). Differentiated reading instruction: Strategies for the primary grades. New York: Guilford Press.

A Basic Template

Whole-Group Instruction

Lowest Group Center or Intervention

Center

Center Middle Group Center

Center Center Highest Group

Whole-Group Instruction

The concept of three tiers of instructionThe 3-tier model (University of Texas System/Texas Education Agency, 2005) is a general framework — and just a framework — for explaining how any research-based program can be executed in a school.

(http://www.texasreading.org/utcrla/materials/3tier_letter.asp)

Tier I: Core Classroom Reading Instruction1.A core reading program grounded in scientifically based reading research

2.Benchmark testing of all kindergarten through third-grade students to determine instructional needs at least three times per year (fall, winter, and spring)

3.Ongoing professional development to provide teachers with the necessary tools to ensure every student receives quality reading instruction

Tier II: Supplemental Instruction

For some students, core classroom reading instruction is not enough.

Tier II is designed to meet the needs of these students by providing them with additional small-group reading instruction daily.

Tier III: Instruction for Intensive InterventionA small percentage of students require more support in acquiring vital reading skills than Tier II instruction can provide.

For these students, Tier III provides instruction that is more explicit, more intensive, and specifically designed to meet their individual needs.

Setting the stage for

differentiation requires careful analysis of the

curriculum.

Decide what to teach when.We are more likely to achieve improvements in vocabulary and comprehension for K and 1st grade during whole-group read-alouds, both from the core selection and from children’s literature.

We can introduce and practice phonemic awareness and phonics concepts during whole group, but we’re more likely to achieve mastery during small-group time.

Decide what to teach when.We are more likely to achieve improvements in fluency and comprehension in 2nd and 3rd grade if we introduce them in whole-group and practice in small-group time.

We can introduce word recognition concepts during whole-group time, but we will likely achieve mastery only during small-group time.

Make more time for small groups.Literacy coaches and grade-level teams must determine exactly how to use the core programSort core instructional components from extension and enrichment activities

Moderate and control instructional pacing so that early introductions and reviews are fast

Make a very simple centers rotationLook for materials already in the core.

Consider daily paired readings and re-readings.

Consider a daily activity linked directly to your read-aloud. Your children can write in response to that text every day.

Consider a daily activity linked directly to your small group instruction. Your children can practice the things you’ve introduced.

Now you have set the stage for differentiated reading instruction

It’s time to plan.

1. Gather your resources.

2. Consider your children’s needs.

3. Try it out.

Gather your instructional resourcesReview the state standards and the scope and sequence in your instructional materials

Review the state assessments, the district assessments, and any assessments that come with your core; fill in gaps with informal assessments

Consider your children’s needsGiven your screening data, you will know that some portion of children are likely at benchmark, some are just below grade level, and some are well below grade level

For children at benchmark, you can decide to focus small-group time on fluency and comprehension or on vocabulary and comprehension

Only the below-grade-level children need additional assessments

Consider your children’s needsUsing the Cognitive Model of Reading Assessment (McKenna and Stahl, 2003) choose your two-part focus for each group: Phonemic awareness and phonicsPhonics and fluencyFluency and comprehensionVocabulary and comprehension

PA and Word Recognition

Word Recognition and Fluency

Fluency and Comprehension

Vocabulary & Comprehension

A Stairway to Proficiency

These Assignments are Temporary!

Challenging

Instruction, not practice

Explicit Every item modeled; Clear instructional talk

Engaged Every pupil response strategies

Systematic Repetitive instructional strategies each day; New content each day;Cumulative review each day

Phonemic awareness and phonicsThese children still need to work on learning letter names and sounds, and they are not yet able to segment phonemes automatically

They will work on coordinated activities to manipulate phonemes, learn new letters and sounds and review letters previously taught

They will work with letters and words during small-group time

Every Day for 3 Weeks

Alphabet Review 3 Minutes

Initial Sound Sorting

3 Minutes

2 New Letter Sounds; Review

Old Letter Sounds3 Minutes

2 New HF Words;Review Old High Frequency Words

3 Minutes

Concept of Word 3 Minutes

Pho

nem

ic A

war

enes

s an

d W

ord

Rec

ogni

tion

Gro

up

Every Day for 3 Weeks

Oral Segmenting and Blending

3 Minutes

Short Vowel Patterns

6 Minutes

4 New HF Words;Review Old High Frequency Words

6 Minutes

Pho

nem

ic A

war

enes

s an

d W

ord

Rec

ogni

tion

Gro

up 2

Phonics and fluency

These children still need to work on decoding, but they can segment and blend phonemes to read some words

They will work on coordinated activities to learn new letter patterns and review patterns previously taught

They will work with words and with phonics-focused texts during small-group time

Every Day for 3 Weeks

Decodable text Whisper Reading

3 Minutes

Sounding and Blending

4 Minutes

New HF Words;Review Old High Frequency Words

4 Minutes

Decodable text Whisper Reading

4 Minutes

Wor

d R

ecog

nitio

n an

d F

luen

cy G

roup

1

Every Day for 3 Weeks

Teaching Letter Patterns

6 Minutes

New HF Words;Review Old High Frequency Words

3 Minutes

Decodable text Whisper Reading

6 Minutes

Wor

d R

ecog

nitio

n an

d F

luen

cy G

roup

2

Fluency and comprehensionThese children have relatively few decoding problems, but they lack automaticity

They will work in a guided reading format; they may review particularly challenging words (for their pronunciation or their meaning) but they will use most of their time reading and rereading challenging leveled texts and discussing text meaning

Every Day for 3 Weeks

Preteach Difficult Words

2 Minutes

Choral or Echo Read New Text

Portion5 Minutes

Partner or Whisper Read Same

Text Portion5 Minutes

Summary or Inference Questions

3 Minutes

Flu

ency

and

C

ompr

ehen

sion

Gro

up

Vocabulary and comprehensionThese children are at grade level in the areas of decoding and fluency

They will extend what they know into new texts and new text types; they will write in response to reading

Every Day

Preteach Vocabulary

3 Minutes

Review Comprehension

Strategy1 Minute

Teacher Read-Aloud or Children

Whisper Read7 Minutes

Comprehension Discussion

4 Minutes

Voc

abul

ary

and

Com

preh

ensi

on G

roup

Take a minute -- how does this differ from differentiated instruction in your school?

We will give you an overview of specific initiatives and invite you into conversation

Building Leadership Support

Julie Morrill, Reading First Program Manager

Building Coaching Expertise

Deborah Haney,Reading First Program Specialist

Building Statewide Infrastructure

Amanda Beaty,Reading First Program Specialist

Linking to Standards Dr. Sallie Mills,Reading First Program Specialist

Building Leadership Support

VisionLeaders see themselves as the catalyst of support for all educators in their project.

Leaders look upon assessment as the key to improvement.

Leaders understand the need for collegiality among staff in their building–and they participate.

Leaders take on the responsibility of student achievement and encourage project implementation and development.

StrategiesAdministration agreed to participate in professional learning as assured in the approved state grant application.

Administration and coaches worked with GARF staff to develop schedules that promote solid project implementation.

Principals and system leaders attend “Leadership Forums.”

Principals brief and debrief with state staff on their monthly visits.

Lessons LearnedEffective GARF programs have a dedicated, strong instructional leader.

Principals and APs need to attend professional learning in order to provide support for the coach.

State staff must view their role as the support to the administration.

Steps need to be in place to assist new leaders in taking over the “helm” of an existing project.

Building Coaching Expertise

VisionIn recognition of research on effective professional development

Literacy Coaches work directly with the teachers in implementation of a research-based literacy program in the school, including best practices in reading instruction, assessment and intervention for struggling students.

“The coach’s school day will be composed of staff development, meetings, and diagnostic testing of identified children…”(From Georgia’s Reading First Grant Proposal, 2003)

StrategiesLiteracy Coaches will receive training under direction of PD Architects, Regional Consultants and Georgia Reading First project manager

Literacy Coaches form Cohort Teams to provide instruction in SBRR to teachers in Georgia through Teacher Academies

Literacy Coaches will provide continued support for SBRI in their schools through study groups, explanation, demonstrating and modeling best practices

Literacy Coaches will facilitate monthly assessment meeting identify instructional needs of students.

Lessons LearnedChange is difficult!

Literacy Coach success depends on administrative support and/or consistency;

Professional development is not always re-delivered to coaches and/or teachers consistently;

Literacy Coach must become an expert in curriculum and professional development;

It takes many repetitions and revisits to really implement the strategies suggested by the professional development;

Building Statewide Infrastructure

Nonfunded Schools1224 Elementary Schools in Georgia

-150 Funded Schools over the life of the project

1074 Elementary Unfunded Schools in Georgia

51

Vision

Director

Architects

•Coordinators•Regional Reading First Consultants•State Reading First Consultants

52

Statewide Reading First

Purpose:To build capacity throughout the state for reading instruction grounded in scientifically based reading research (SBRR) by disseminating the information available to RF schools throughout the state.

Plan:To provide monthly or quarterly training through the Regional Education Support Agencies (RESAs) to personnel from non-RF systems and schools.

53VISION:

Provided GARF with a series of day-long workshops teaching scientific principles of reading instruction

State RF Consultants deliver this series of workshops throughout the state

Over 1000 educators have participated in this series of workshops

54Strategy

Professional Learning Architects

Strategy

Statewide Professional Learning

During Year 1 of GARF implementation, the PL Architects provided Regional Consultants with seven workshops and book studies:Assessment and Curriculum: Assessment for Reading Instruction, McKenna & Stahl; The Literacy Coach’s Handbook, Walpole & McKenna

Phonemic Awareness: The Phonological Awareness Handbook for Kindergarten and Primary Teachers, Ericson & Juliebö

Phonics: Word Identification Strategies, Fox. Fluency: The Fluent Reader, Rasinski.Vocabulary: Bringing Words to Life, Beck et al.Comprehension: Explaining Reading, Duffy.Summary: Reading Instruction that Works, Pressley.

55

Challenges and Responses

Challenge: Initially, schools were unaware of the opportunity.

Response:Consultants approached RESAs, described the training and offered services

Workshops are provided free of chargeAll materials are free as wellParticipants at each workshop receive a professional book and frequently also receive books for teachers to read-aloud to students

Over time, word of mouth convinced increasing numbers of schools and systems that they needed this training.

56

Challenges and Responses

Challenge: Schools were not convinced of the need for this information

Response: The new Georgia Performance Standards were mapped from the five dimensions outlined by the National Reading Panel

Response to Intervention (RtI) has given new impetus to the need for documentation of initial status of student achievement along with a means of obtaining formative data to document progress

57

Challenges and ResponsesChallenge: Sheer numbers of

teachers who need this professional learning (1000 have participated in the entire series—may leave 20,000 more)

Response: Some systems have elected to participate in a train-the-trainer model

GARF has trained personnel from the systems who then redeliver the information to personnel in their schools

Many systems are availing themselves of the online academy

58

Unmet Challenges

Challenges: Documenting change as a result of this training

Participation in these workshops is often sporadic within a school or system; it is therefore difficult to track data

Little follow-up in the school setting because the administrators are frequently unaware of what the participants are learning

59

Linking to Standards

VisionTo revise Georgia’s Curriculum after an audit determined that it did not meet national standards and could not be covered in a reasonable amount of time

To provide a usable and effective curriculum that would drive both instruction and assessment in Georgia’s schools

To move from content standards to performance standards for greater depth and understanding

To make the five dimensions of reading the cornerstone for the K-3 Georgia Performance Standards

Strategy: The PlanReview and reorganize original K-3 Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) draft using a variety of resources Comments from national experts Legal advice Reading staff comments Original committee draft National Reading Panel Report Put Reading First Standards from other states

Post revised K-3 GPS for comments from teachers, national reading experts, and other stakeholders

K-3 GPS adopted by State Board

Strategy: Statewide GPS

Training

Implementation Year OneDay 1: Become familiar with the standards

Days 2-5: Work on Best Practices and Assessment,

Instruction, and Curriculum Mapping

Implementation Year TwoThree additional days of training to work on extension and enrichment

Lessons Learned

Train-the-trainer model was not the best way to train the teachers

Administrators’ and Literacy Coaches’ attendance at the GPS training was crucial to the successful implementation of the K-3 Georgia Performance Standards and Reading First

The importance of teachers seeing the connection between GPS and Reading First became evident

Time to Talk

Please join one of our team members for an in-depth look at our work

How to find out more

http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ci_services.aspx?PageReq=CIServReading

http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/reading/projects/garf/