From TAAS to TAKS: Keys to Leaving No Learner Behind:

Research-Based Curriculum and Instruction

Presented by:

Quality Quinn

State of the Nation

• Annual testing in the US

• Backlash by certain states

• Texas: the tail that wags the dog

• Science and Social Studies Content

Recent Headlines and Quotes

• More than half of California 9th Graders Flunk Exit Exam, Education Week, June 2001

• “It will take at least ten years to reach proficiency for all learners” Sec. of Ed., PA

• “adequate yearly progress” Pres. Bush

• Still Leaving Children Behind Krista Kafta, Heritage Foundation

• Reading is the New Requisite for Math Education Week,January 2002

The Challenge

• 37% of all 8th graders scored below Basic on the NAEP

• After third grade, the achievement gaps with minority, second language, and low-income learners widens substantially

• The prospect of exit exams at the 9th grade yields an increase in drop-outs

Text Structures

Science

Social Studies

Language Arts

Math

How we can help?

• Prepare for early success

• Prevent learners from falling behind

• Intervene for below level learners

• Challenge above grade level learners

The Model

• Rigorous state Standards that raise the bar• Curriculum aligned to state standards • Quality, on-going professional development for

teachers • Resources to support new instructional strategies • Informal classroom diagnostic assessment• Maximize the variable of time (Title I) • STATE TEST ALIGNED to STANDARDS

Three Flavors of Assessment

• Formal = External Reporting

• Informal Diagnostic Assessment = Internal Reporting– Intervention

• Getting a Grade = Progress Monitoring Over Time

The goal of the teacher is to create an environment that allows every reader to

move as quickly as possible to grade level, regardless of content area.

Without selling-out and just attempting to teach to the test.

What other immediate steps will ensure growth… I’m looking for growth!

Let’s Demystify Reading

Three Muscles:

• Early Language Experience– Phonemic awareness and concept development– Vocabulary, academic language and alphabetic principle

• Decoding muscle– Three ways of getting meaning off the page

• (1)phonics…primary decoding strategy• (2)semantics and vocabulary • (3) syntax and structure

• Fluency muscle– Reads a lot of words fast w/ comprehension* – Class libraries of leveled or decodable text– Every day, every reader reading at a level of success of self-selected

quality literature

News Flash!!!!!

• 26 letters and 44 sounds• 17 reliable letters, (letters that always sound the

same) q,w,r,t,p,d,f,h,j,k,l,z,x,v,n,m,b,• 4 that are switch hitters... s,g,c,r• 3 that are pests ...a,o,u• 3 that will make you CRAZY!!!!…i,e,y• Double vowels: oa, oo, ee, ea, oi, ou, au• Blends: ch, sh, wh, pl, sl, fl, gl, cl, bl, kl,cr,scr

…an excerpt

• Draped for the formal unveiling May 31 – with only an insouciant topknot and Horton The Elephant’s trunk peeking out – the sculptures frolic on the wide green linking the city library and its four museums that gave wing to the author’s imagination.--

Grammar IS Syntax

• The power the lowly preposition

• The power of the subordinating conjunction

Definition of Comprehension

• Comprehension is defined as:– “intentional thinking during which meaning is

constructed through interactions between the text and the reader” (Harris & Hodges,1995)

Persuasive

• State opinion

• Support with clear evidence or examples

• Personalize

• Appeal to the emotions

• Graphic imagery

• Structured argument

• All to action

Reader Response

• Review the story

• Select a sentence or phrase that lingers

• Write down two reasons for selecting that

• Share your sentence and reasons w/others

• Come to consensus

• Be prepared to share to group

Struggling Older Reader

• Incomplete beginning reading instruction

• Lacks metacognitive strategies

• Limited prior knowledge

• Limited word study skills and spelling

• No text available at level of success

• No adults modeling reading

• No history of reading success

Phoneme Isolation

• Children recognize individual sounds in a word.

• Teacher:– What is the first sound in van?

• Children:– The first sound in van is /v/.

Phoneme Identity

• Children recognize the same sounds in different words.

• Teacher:– What sound is the same in fix, fall, and fun?

• Children:– The first sound, /f/, is the same.

Phoneme Categorization

• Children recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the “odd” sound.

• Teacher:– Which word doesn’t belong? Bus, bun, rug.

• Children:– Rug does not belong. It doesn’t begin with /b/.

Phoneme Blending

• Children listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the phonemes to form a word.

• Teacher:– What word is /b/ /i/ /g/?

• Children:– /b/ /i/ /g/ is big.

• Teacher:– Now let’s write the sounds in big: /b/ /i/ /g/. (Teacher

writes big.) Now we’re going to read the word big.

Phoneme Segmentation

• Children break a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as they tap out or count it.

• Teacher:– How many sounds are in grab?

• Children:– /g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.

• Teacher:– Now let’s write the sounds in grab: /g/ /r/ /a/ /b/.

(Teacher writes grab.) Now we’re going to read the word grab.

Phoneme Deletion

• Children recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word.

• Teacher:– What is smile without the /s/?

• Children:– Smile without the /s/ is mile.

Phoneme Addition

• Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.

• Teacher:– What word do you have if you add /s/ to the

beginning of park?

• Children:– Spark.

Phoneme Substitution

• Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.

• Teacher:– The word is bug. Change /g/ to /n/. What’s

the new word?

• Children:– Bun.

Five Keys to Leaving No Child

• Vertical team study of k-8 reading curriculum with evidence of student work

• Phonics training for 3rd through 8th grade teachers

• Vocabulary instruction training geared more toward “word harvest”

• Ready availability of compelling leveled text with conditional assessment

• Classroom management strategies that provide intensity and focus for below level readers

What should be done?

1. Dedicated developmental reading testing preparedness program 5th through 8th

2. Continued professional development for ALL teachers in reading intervention 5-12

3. Initiate on-going professional development in science, social studies, and math reading & writing

4. Integrate a “testwiseness” curriculum for state testing programs with strong emphasis on the content areas

What is being done?

• Mandatory summer school

• Same thing, but LOUDER

• Expensive intervention programs with uneven results

• Teacher training institutions changing reading requirements

Testwiseness: An Important Piece of a Comprehensive Intervention

Strategy

1. On-going, sustained test readiness and rehearsal, i.e. testwiseness

2. Phonics instruction for those who received “hit-or-miss” decoding during whole language approach

3. Build fluency with an “every day, every child reads at a level of success” approach

4. Use regular non-fiction writing events to teach science & soc. studies syntax

Process for LeadershipProcess for Leadership

Challenge the processChallenge the process search for opportunitiessearch for opportunities change status quochange status quo

Inspiring a shared visionInspiring a shared vision imagine the ideal situationimagine the ideal situation

Enabling others to actEnabling others to act foster cooperationfoster cooperation modeling the waymodeling the way

Encouraging the heart to begin the journeyEncouraging the heart to begin the journey

Five Steps to Two Years’ Growth for One Year of Instruction

• Vertical team study of k-8 reading curriculum with evidence of student work

• Phonics training for 3rd through 8th grade teachers • Vocabulary instruction training geared more

toward “word harvest”• Ready availability of compelling leveled text

with conditional assessment• Classroom management strategies that provide

intensity and focus for below level readers

The Goal: Show Improvement

• Growth triggers funding

• Data is the gatekeeper

• No improvement: no money

• Show enough growth to secure funding

• What will be considered growth?

E-mail for this presentation’s notes

q@qualityquinn.com

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