Best Practice

Supporting Early Learners

Supporting Every Student

Working with Letters & Names

Working with Sounds

Working with Books

Interactive Writing

Becoming a… Mathematician

Writer

Characteristics of Effective PreK-5 ClassroomsCharacteristics of Effective PreK-5 Classrooms

An aligned curriculum with clear expectations for every grade level

Units of study that focus on big ideas and themes to encourage deep thinking and discussion

Build up of reading skills by engaging students with purposeful and explicit meaning based knowledge building ( vocab, comprehension, concepts) in combination with systematic and code-based skill instruction (letter knowledge, print concepts, word reading, phonics, etc)

There is a clear daily instructional model in place along with a clear plan for learning

There are consistent features in each unit of study

A classroom arrangement that has literacy rich centers and include access to wide variety of books

Activities encourage collaboration, interaction, inquiry and play

Materials support additional review, practice and enrichment for students

Program evaluations/ assessments are faithful to the contexts of teaching

Data protocols are established to foster collaboration, inquiry conversations and decision making of content

Assessments are a…..broad repertoire of behaviors involved in noticing, documenting, recording and

interpreting children’s behaviors and performances.

• Readiness

Piaget

Development precedes learning such as learning cannot take place unless the appropriate cognitive ability has taken place.

Brigance Readiness

Very risky to assume outcomes of intelligence tests for the very young

• Apprenticeship Vygotsky

Learning leads development. Children are socialized into a set of social practices, beliefs and values through apprenticeship

Clay’s CAP

Observational Notes

Explicitly dependent on a human expert- a sensitive observer

Teachers artistry- capacity to hold several ways of looking at things to support the flow of inquiry (Schon )

Best Practice: Using Data to Inform PracticeBest Practice: Using Data to Inform Practice

7 Core Principles of this Best Practice

Data Driven decision making is a best practice for improving instruction and students outcomes.

1. No one literacy assessment is sufficient. (Miesels & Piker, Salinger)3 types of Assessments should be in play: Formative, Progress Monitoring and Summative

2. Many skills encompass “literacy” we need measures across those areas to gauge students progress (different assessment tools have different capabilities and purposes).

3. Progress needs to be measured against an established norm i.e. relative to same aged peers outside a local norm.

4. Collect data and compare indicators against targeted outcomes.

5. Those data become part of an embedded routine of analysis and response.

6. Collecting data is not enough. Using the data for improvement is the goal.

7. A manageable set of metrics should be tracked and analyzed at the class, school and district level with clearly defined goals available to all involved.

Validity

When selecting assessments the most important questions are:

1. To what extent will the interpretation of ‘scores’ be appropriate, meaningful and useful for the intended application of the results? And

2. What are the consequences of the particular uses and interpretations that are made of the results ? And

3. Is the test reliable?

Reliability

Provides the consistency that makes validity possible

Reliability indicates the degree to which various kinds of generalizations are justifiable

With reliable instruments, educators can be sure that changes in test scores reflect changes in student

knowledge rather than any instability in the instrument itself.

Influencing Assessment Design

Best Practices SummaryBest Practices Summary

Frequent measurement of student achievement and growth, influencing instruction and intervention.

National Reading Panel

QSAC

“ There is specific content to be mastered for each grade and this includes clear grade level

benchmarks and interim assessments” Item 14 section: I&P

Beginning of Year : To informinstructionMidyear and as AppropriateTo communicate to parents and inform instructionEnd of Year: To document progress and to communicate toparents and next-gradeteacher

“The key to powerful formative assessment, whether school wide or class-specific, is for teachers to takeaction as soon as they have information about what students do and don't understand and thus teach with precision.” NCTE 2010

“We can prevent the majority of reading difficulties as early as Kindergarten. By neglecting to regularly evaluate our young children’s language and early reading skills we have done more harm than good…preventative approaches are really enrichment-they are good for all children.”

NCTE 2009

““There must be and there are no excuses that can be There must be and there are no excuses that can be made for not having multiple forms of assessments that made for not having multiple forms of assessments that mark individual progress towards expectations.”mark individual progress towards expectations.”

“ “Look for a change and improvement with each child, not in Look for a change and improvement with each child, not in

comparison status to others, but to an established norm.”comparison status to others, but to an established norm.” Dr. Samuel Meisels Ericson Institute 2010

What are the critical priority indicators in early What are the critical priority indicators in early elementary classrooms?elementary classrooms?

CodeCode

• Alphabetic Knowledge:Print directed activities for establishing children’s ability to recognize and print letters of the alphabet.

Alphabetic Principle:Recognize spoken words are made of phonemes captured by letters within text

• Concepts About Print:Reading and book exploration by children for developing print concepts and basic reading knowledge and processes

• Phonemic analysis activities for developing children’s phonological (syllables, onsets, rime, alliteration) and phonemic awareness (listening to first middle last sounds within words)

• Word activities to help children acquire basic sight vocab. and appreciate alphabetic principle that has a relation to phonics

MeaningMeaning

• Oral Language: Receptive and expressive verbal reasoning skills

• Comprehension:Understanding of text and literary language

• Fluency ( Smooth, automatic reading of text with attention focused on understanding the text read)

• Building Vocabulary (6-8 new words per day)

• Thematic activities to extend understanding

of story and knowledge

•"Recent studies conclude that 85% to 90% of even our poorest readers can be taught to read at grade level.“ Robert Slavin, Johns Hopkins University 2009

Self Reflection: Assessment and Children’s learningSelf Reflection: Assessment and Children’s learning

1. Assessments: Am I observing towards a standard of constructs that are clearly defined?

• What are children learning in my class?

2. Recording : Do I compare what is recorded to norms ?• How well are children doing in relation to learning goals and

expectations?

3. Evaluation: Are assessment based on clear standards versus the instructor’s preferences?

• What instructional decisions am I going to make that will result in valuable learning for students?

“All educators must be equipped to support and promote language development. We must take on a preventative approach and design higher quality day to day learning environments for children. And since some of our struggling students do not succeed after intensive intervention we will have to do a better job of getting it right first time.”

TruismsTruisms

Readiness and development cannot be assessed with a single tool as early development is episodic and uneven. Thus we should be using methods that enable teachers to observe record and evaluate children’s knowledge and skills while children perform skills that are part of the everyday experience.

Ongoing assessments should be commonplace

Evaluation cannot simply happen at the end of instruction; it must be an ongoing process occurring throughout the unit to support the turnaround or growth expected.

Performance on early assessments has a strong relationship with later outcomes.

Literacy data allows us to create targeted instruction for students.

Data driven decisions creates links for those students who need extra help by promoting a shared language among regular ed. and support service staff.

"We have learned that for 90% to 95% of poor readers, prevention and early intervention programs...can increase reading skills to average reading levels. We have also learned that if we delay intervention until nine years of age, approximately 75% of the children will continue to have difficulties learning to read throughout high school."

G. Reid Lyon, Director, National Institute of Child Health and

Human Development 2010

From NCTE 2010 Response to Common Core: Interventions such as those used by Reading Recovery which embeds the teaching of letter sounds and segmenting/blending word parts into continuous reading and writing while using texts that are predictable and contain natural language has a significantly positive impact on reading comprehension. In fact the approaches used in Reading Recovery have received the highest scores of positive effects for both comprehension and alphabetics, with “strong evidence of a positive effect with no over riding evidence” What Works Clearing House: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/Topic.aspx?tid=01#s=1