Educational years Essay

School’s Reading Goal: * All students improve a grade level or more on Individual Reading Inventories Professional Development (PD) Focus: *All strategies presented in PD are geared towards reaching this goal. Individual Teacher Approaches: *The third grade teachers have used second grade test scores to identify that their students are weak in the area of comprehension Dawn has presented a strategy called Question Answer Relationships to help improve comprehension in students. The strategy helps students to learn to identify what kind of question is being asked to assist them in strategically finding the answer. Angie Heppner is a first year teacher who participates in the mandatory district teacher induction program. The induction program includes meeting with her mentor teacher, who is released from the classroom full time. The mentor teacher and Angie use data collected from classroom observation to set goals to work on in the classroom. The Participants Literacy Coach Dawn Benke works with 2nd and 3rd grade teachers as a literacy coach at a K-6 Teacher #1 Lillian Kurz has 31 students in her class, with five of her students falling far below in reading as identified through test data, 10 students approaching, 11 students meeting and four students exceeding. My comments: I totally understand the reasoning for Lilian not being offered the coach’s position. Based on her class data, it is evident that she is an effective teacher, and is very much valued in her grade level. She is working with a rather large class, which is difficult to consistently provide meaningful instructional activities as she would like to (particularly if she is dealing with behavioral issues). Teacher #2 Duane Keller has 29 students, with seven of his students falling far below in reading, seven approaching, 14 students meeting, and one student exceeding. My comments: I think the Duane seems to know what he is doing, based on the reading distribution data for his class. In addition, if it is not already being done, I think that a reading intervention time should be included in the daily schedule. The interventionist should be Duane, as those are his students and he would be better able to keep up with their progress and make connections with other grade level work being done in the classroom. Teacher #3 Jesse Vree’s class consists of 20 her students. She has three students who are falling far below, three students who are approaching, 19 students who are meeting and five students who are exceeding. My comments: WWOW! Jesse’s students are doing great! Based on her data, I think that Dawn should encourage her to share what works for her. Those three students, who are falling below, may have issues that need to be addressed by someone other than the classroom teacher. In some cases learning disabilities become clearing apparent as instruction intensifies. Teacher #4 Angie Heppner has 28 students; six of whom are falling far below, 10 who are approaching, 10 who are meeting, and two are exceeding. My comments: Angie is one lucky first-year teacher. It is great that she has a full-time mentor teacher. I know that she will amass a great deal of knowledge and avoid many failures. Collaboration with someone who has taught for many years is a windfall. DAWN’S CURRENT PLAN OF ACTION Weekly professional development by grade level one day in the week during PD time 1. Presents a piece of the literacy strategy they are working with. My comments: Dawn’s response to intervention is certainly on the right track, and will definitely assist her teachers in making some progress. Modeling the lesson will definitely assist her teachers in instruction. In my personal experience, I have found that the true effectiveness of a lesson is most accurately note when it is performed for the students in their own learning setting, by the coach, with the teacher as an â€Å"involved onlooker† In this way the teacher can take notes on how the coach interacts with the students in regards to class-work as well as classroom management. It gives the teacher the opportunity to observe and reflect while teaching is going on. Thus after teaching the lesson, both the coach and the teacher can discuss and reflect on whether or not the students had fully understood what had been taught. 2. Models a lesson using the strategy My comments: Yes! Yes! Yes! I totally agree. However that’s not where it stops. In order to get those students to improve one grade level or more, lots more need to be done. That’s where differentiated instruction comes into play. Dawn needs to make her teachers aware that their Struggling students are indeed at risk or failure, for possibly the lack fundamental skills necessary s to work or read on their grade level. She should encourage her teachers to use any diagnostic reading data that they have available or otherwise perform their own. Although time-consuming, conducting a QR1 (qualitative reading inventory), saves a lot of headache- â€Å"when little Johnny just doesn’t seem to get it†- a QRI will let you know on exactly which reading level he/she is: struggling, instructional or independent. The findings of this type of assessment supports instruction and provides concrete data that teachers could share with the literacy coach, to support the need for proposed intervention various areas, such as phonics instruction, vocabulary and comprehension and adapting curriculum. A teacher knows his/her students and is the best advocate. Ultimately success is accomplished through collaborative efforts of the literacy coach, the classroom teachers and definitely the students. Literacy coaches don’t know it all, and neither do teachers. However, the data provided in the case study is indicative of a strong team, supportive of each other, despite their previous varied teaching assignments. Effective communication is fundamental in planning for effective reading instruction. Knowledge of each student’s instructional and independent levels is beneficial in planning center activities and teacher directed instruction i.e. small groups. 3. Leads a discussion amongst the teachers about the strategy and how it applies to their own classrooms My comments: I like the fact that Dawn elicits teacher response, as to whether or not the modeled strategy would work in their classroom. She is giving them the opportunity to make adjustments and possible adaptations to the instructional delivery. In this forum the can be immediate feedback for clear expectations on both the literacy coach’s par and the teachers’ part. Dawn shows awareness of the diverse learning styles that are contained within a classroom. Here she identifies challenges and allows opportunity to address them. 4. Offers time for teachers to plan to use the strategy in their classroom. Requires teachers to implement the strategy in the upcoming week Bring student work samples to the next session, where they evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy. My comments Dawn makes her teachers accountable, not only for theirs students learning gains, but their own as well. When her teachers can effectively deliver lessons, it will certainly reflect in the reading performance of their students. Through their collaborative efforts dawn and her third grade team are well on their way to achieving their school goal. My Activity/Skills Recommendation Developing a Love for Reading As literacy coach Dawn can provide her teachers with a compile list of reading approaches that they may use to promote reading interest in their classroom, through interaction and involvement with text, thus improve overall reading performance. Instructional procedures will be intensive and include: (i)Purposeful explicit & implicit teaching of concepts (ii)Teacher- student interaction that targets understanding of various text structures-cause & effect, chronological order, (iii)Use differentiated instruction – student will participate in independent as well as teacher-led activities (iv)Student selection of leveled text for home reading. (v)Providing student with clear meaningful explanations and expectations of all tasks Targeting Comprehension Sequence activities will provide â€Å"At Risk† students with opportunity to practice and strengthen their ability to recall specific events as well as retelling text in a more cohesive manner. Vocabulary instruction will focus on words selected from the word lists and selected instructional text to provide instruction in the areas of synonyms, antonyms, affixes, words in c.