Our Mission
The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) is a statewide K-3 initiative committed to supporting the development of high-quality instruction that will prepare all students with the literacy skills needed to meet or exceed grade-level standards. The goal of the ARI is to significantly improve reading instruction and ultimately achieve literacy among all public-school students.
Some Areas to Consider Celebrating:
- Student Reading Improvement Plans (SRIPs): What growth can you celebrate? Have any students mastered their lowest deficit skills and no longer require a SRIP?
- Literacy Act Portfolios: Are 3rd graders meeting the 70% mastery? Are teachers reflecting regularly on the data gathered in portfolios?
- Student Centered Coaching: How many coaching cycles has your specialist completed this semester? How does the pre-data compare to the post data?
- Principal-Coach Meetings: Has your meeting with your specialist become more focused since our SLSR session? In what ways can you continue to build on your weekly meetings?
December is a busy and short month for educators and learners.
It is important that we help our teachers and students stay focused until the end of the semester. There’s still plenty of important and worthwhile work to complete so that we can return in January to begin the new year with a BANG! So, what do we need to ensure that we are doing in December?
‘Tis the season....
'Tis the season to celebrate student progress!
‘Tis the season to reflect on your first semester’s successes and celebrate your staff’s hard work!
‘Tis the season to complete mid-year assessments!
‘Tis the season to set goals for implementation in January!
‘Tis the season to facilitate meetings full of meaningful and thought-provoking data discussions!
‘Tis the season to use data to make any intervention changes with groups and in schedules! It is all about ACTION!
‘Tis the season to plan forward with instruction that addresses our school, class, and small group data!
‘Tis the season to look ahead at pacing and ensure that all our standards will be taught!
‘Tis the season to rest, relax, and return to work after the holidays with a renewed purpose!
‘Tis the season....
The Circles of Influence should continue to guide your work and serve as a great tool to guide you as your school team reflects on the effectiveness of your literacy goals. We encourage all district leaders and school leaders to collaborate with your leadership teams this month to intentionally reflect on each Circle of Influence and what shape your school is in as it relates to each circle. Remember, leaders light the way to literacy success. Therefore, be purposeful in your personal reflection to light the way for others on your team to reflect on your literacy implementation.
Collaborative Leadership: Is everyone on the same page? Are you all working together for the same goal, the students? Remember that the local reading specialist and administrator should meet at least weekly. Also, reflect on your problem-solving team. Is the team collaborating with teachers and parents to ensure that Student Reading Improvement Plans (SRIP) are updated and meeting the needs of the student?
Standards and Curriculum: Mid-year is a great time to take a look at pacing. What standards were taught to mastery? Do we have standards that need to be revisited based on data? Also, if you are implementing a new reading curriculum, take a look at the standards that are being taught and ensure that they are aligned with the 2021 ELA COS. No program is perfect. Teach the standards to mastery.
Instruction and Intervention: Discuss how instruction and intervention are improving. If data indicates a need for adjusting and regrouping, make the time to make it happen. Strategies for one grade level might look different in another grade level.
Assessment: Whether your universal screener has just been given or you plan to administer this assessment when you return from the holidays, you should be thinking about how you plan to use this data as we move forward. Ask yourselves these two questions: Are students making progress? What adjustments need to be made?
On-going Professional Learning: How is your staff moving forward in learning about the science of reading? What can you do to support this professional learning? As you reflect on classroom visits, are you observing the transfer to practice in classrooms? If not, collaborate with your team to discuss ways this can be supported.
December Leadership Tasks:
Analyze progress monitoring data with your leadership team and grade level teams.
Collaborate with your Local Reading Specialist weekly to analyze data, reflect on tiered instruction, collaborative planning, and to plan next steps.
Schedule and conduct classroom walk-throughs using the Science of Reading walkthrough tool.
Facilitate strength-based dialogue by giving teachers feedback on classroom observations.
Schedule your MOY benchmark assessment.
Plan your mid-year data meeting with your Local Reading Specialist.
‘Tis the season…to make your next season your best! Starting today!
Mid-Year Data Meetings
Mid-Year Sample Data Tool: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FmYMRy00e_pYWpZoTDkH46WPPi0fpI6G/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107563275250874283080&rtpof=true&sd=true
Using Phonics Assessments to Inform Instruction: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rdlj147NsQ3M0peTrEGd2riQ8FJqmO3u/view?usp=sharing
Cold weather keeping you indoors? What a perfect time to increase your knowledge on the body of research that drives how we teach students read.
What is the Science of Reading?
The science of reading is a research-based approach to understanding how individuals learn to read and how reading difficulties can be addressed. It draws on findings from cognitive science, linguistics, and educational research to identify effective methods for teaching reading. Key components include phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Emphasizing the importance of explicit instruction in decoding skills and understanding the structure of language, the science of reading aims to improve literacy outcomes for all learners, with a focus on evidence-based practices in reading instruction.
Take some time to check out the following podcasts and websites to learn more about the Science of Reading.
Science of Reading Podcasts:
- Science of Reading: The Podcast delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Each episode takes a conversational approach and explores a timely topic related to the Science of Reading.
- EdView 360 Podcast: Hosted by Pam Austin and Greg Hullett, these discussions will feature dialogues with experienced educators, inspiring thought leaders, social media influencers, and leading education innovators.
- Teaching Reading and Learning: The Reading League Podcast: elevates important contributions to the educational community, with the goal of inspiring teachers, informing practice, and celebrating people in the community who have influenced teaching and literacy to the betterment of children. The podcast features people whose life stories are compelling and rich in ways that are instructive to us all. The podcast will focus on literacy as we know it (reading and writing) but will also connect to other “literacies” that impact children’s learning; for example, emotional, physical, and social literacies as they apply to teachers and children.
Websites:
1. International Dyslexia Association (IDA) - dyslexiaida.org
2. Reading Rockets - readingrockets.org
3. Florida Center for Reading Research - fcrr.org
We know that oral language is often considered the "bedrock" of reading and writing. Development of these skills are essential to becoming a skilled reader and start when children are very young. Oral language skills include learning how spoken words sound, what words and sentences mean, and how to communicate ideas. Strong oral language skills will make it easier for students to learn to read. Students come to school at varying levels in their oral language development, so it is our responsibility to provide them with intentional opportunities to strengthen these skills. "The sheer number of words young children hear can predict their academic performance years later in intermediate grades" (LETRS EC pg. 67). With this in mind, we must create classrooms full of rich opportunities to develop and hone these skills. This may be counter intuitive, but simply put, the more "student talk opportunities" provided, the better!
LETRS Early Childhood provides us with a great list of child-directed language and stimulation strategies that can be used to facilitate oral language in your classroom.
- Show and Tell (LETRS EC pg. 71) - During this activity, use language-modeling techniques to help children in using correct oral language structures and word pronunciations. Ask, or allow peers to ask thoughtful questions of the student sharing.
- When questioning students during a lesson, read-aloud, brainstorming activity, ask fewer literal questions and move to more inferential questions. Always plan ahead for questioning to provide the oral language needs of all of the students in your class. (LETRS EC pg. 72)
- Have read-aloud routines in place in daily instruction. Choose books carefully that provide for language, vocabulary, and discussion opportunities. (LETRS EC pg. 77)
- Have a vocabulary teaching routine in place. A huge piece of oral language development is vocabulary. Be sure that you include high utility tier 2 words, provide the meaning in multiple contexts, make connections to the word, and allow the students to talk about the definition and use the word in their own speech. LETRS has a wonderful routine for teaching new vocabulary words. (LETRS EC pg. 77-78)
- When planning read-aloud lessons, be intentional about planning for multiple reads. This allows opportunities for varying levels of discussions and questioning. Again, LETRS provides a wonderful routine for multiple reads. (LETRS EC pg. 80-84)
- Think through your daily schedule and look to see where you can build in more opportunities for student talk. Help your students build independence so they can lead some of these discussions. The more talk, the better! (LETRS EC pg. 85)
It is the time of year that we reflect on our first semester of coaching and begin planning for our second semester. What went well? What practices has the greatest impact on student learning? What helped you in getting into classrooms? Did your schedule consist of 60% coaching? What new approaches/strategies have you learned that you want to try out?
As you are considering your next steps, take a deep dive in Diane Sweeney's book, The Essential Guide for Student-Centered Coaching. Chapter 4 is all about having strong student-centered coaching conversations. She gives us a great list of ingredients that will create strong, impactful coaching conversations. See the list below and reflect on areas that are a strength for you, and areas that you would like to grow in this upcoming semester. To learn more about these areas, dive into chapter 4!
