ARI Literacy Leadership
September 2022
Our Mission
Have you heard the saying, "just what the doctor ordered....?" We often think of doctors as the professionals who diagnose and prescribe medication to help us get better. In reality, teachers should do the same. Teachers don't prescribe medicine, but teachers can in fact become DIAGNOSTIC and PRESCRIPTIVE. Diagnostic and prescriptive teaching methods focus on diagnosing students' strengths and weaknesses. Like a doctor trying to decide the correct pill dosage for a patient, the diagnostic, prescriptive teacher needs to understand the individual needs of the student and cater instruction to meet those needs. Similar to a doctor's follow up appointments, a teacher must take his or her students' temperature every so often to ensure that the prescription is working. If it is working, the student will continue the prescription. If the student is not making progress (the prescription is not working) the teacher will make adjustments to the prescription (instruction).
Many of you are preparing to gather baseline data on your students. The Alabama Reading Initiative encourages you to take this data and use it to become diagnostic and prescriptive with each individual student.
Initial Data Meetings
How do you plan to use your early literacy assessment data?
- ANALYZE the data with your local reading specialist
- PREPARE to lead the data meeting discussion
- PLAN the data meeting with your local reading specialist
- USE the data to make informed decisions with teachers
- SET short and long term goals with teachers
- DETERMINE instructional areas of focus with teachers
- REFLECT on the effectiveness of Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III with local reading specialists and teachers
- DEVELOP a plan of action for using the data to coach K-3 teachers with the local reading specialist
Throughout your data meeting, always reflect by asking the following questions:
Click on the image to enlarge.
Our goal is STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. In order to reach this goal, we must keep all of the PLATES SPINNING. As you plan for your initial data meetings, consider the following plates-
Collaborative Leadership: Collaborate with LEA/school administration/LRS/school staff to plan for initial data meetings.
Assessment: Collect, analyze, and utilize universal screening data along with formative assessments to plan for instruction. If you have students who are not on grade level, drill down using subtests to identify the interferences and PRESCRIBE appropriate interventions.
Standards and Curriculum: Remember that our goal is to teach standards to mastery. This year is the implementation of the new 2021 ELA COS. If you are implementing a new program, remind teachers to be mindful of standards being taught.
Instruction and Intervention: One thing that the Science of Reading has taught us is to become proactive. Knowledge is power! Once we DIAGNOSE interferences, PRESCRIBE the right multisensory strategy. We no longer wait and see if our students are going to catch on. We instruct and intervene from the beginning. We have the tools in our bag. Let's use them!
Professional Learning: We are always learning. Remember that we should continue to participate in ongoing professional learning relating to what focuses on the science of reading. Don't forget your new staff who may need training on new programs etc.
We must work TOGETHER on this JOURNEY to SUCCESS: Don't lose sight of the goal, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT.
Quarterly Monitoring of ALA
Great news! Much of the Comprehensive Reporting will be pulled straight from Power School!
We are excited to share that much of the information required for the Comprehensive Report has been reduced and will be accessed directly from PowerSchool! With this reduction, only two simple Google Forms will be used to collect the necessary data that can't be retrieved from PowerSchool or data you have previously submitted, such as your summer reading camp data. The ARI District Contact will send these forms to Principals. One form will be just for Principals to complete; the other form will be for ALL full-time Faculty Members/Teachers who taught at your school both last year and this school year (even retired teachers).
Guidance for Reduced Reporting
As an option, Principals are welcome to complete the original document for the Comprehensive Report linked in the July 8th memo. Once complete, the document should be emailed to his/her RLLS.
*Your RLLS is available to help you with the Google Forms and any questions you may have about the Comprehensive Report.
*IMPORTANT CAVEAT: All information asked on these two Google Forms will be from the 2021-2022 school year.
If you go to the doctor with an issue, they will run tests and utilize those reports in order to diagnose a problem and determine the treatment. Similarly, teachers and coaches assess students, analyze the data, diagnose the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps, then prescribe the next steps. As you are coaching your teachers with a student-centered model, it is important to keep data as a central focus. Beginning of the year data allows you to jumpstart your year and define your role as a coach. A big pillar of our role is to help teachers use data to create student goals, utilize appropriate teaching strategies and tools to help all students grow, and reflect on what is working and what is not. This means we should:
- Help teachers analyze and respond to student data. Support teachers in analyzing data by looking for trends and student gaps to serve as implications for instruction and coaching.
- Use data-driven goals to center student learning. Facilitate data-driven instruction by using student goals as touchstones. Consider using a goal setting and reflection strategy.
- Support teachers in reflecting on their practice, identifying what's successful, and pivot to best support all students. Teachers need to develop a routine of assessment both formal and informal that works for them so they are able to consistently gage student progress and alter their instruction to meet the needs.
Ways to Organize and Interact with Data
Data Folders
Digital Data Board
Data Walls
Analyzed the Data??? Next up....Coaching Cycles!
Strong Leader, Strong Reader - Quarterly Professional Learning for all K-3 Principals
"To better support administrators and knowing that administrative knowledge and support are essential for building success, we are partnering with the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) to provide one-day leadership collaboratives. Each building level principal serving any combination of kindergarten through third grade should attend these quarterly meetings, which are intended to be face-to-face. ARI district contacts are welcome to attend. These meetings will feature a half-day training sponsored by ARI and a half-day training sponsored by AMSTI in the same location in your region. This will replace our “Lunch and Learn” sessions previously provided virtually as administrators navigated COVID."
All principals of a kindergarten, first, second, or third grade school should attend these meetings. Assistant principals and central office staff members are welcome to attend if space is available.
*Please see your RLLS for specific dates, times, and locations for these meetings. PLU information is forthcoming.
Coaching Communities for Local Reading Specialists
All Local Reading Specialists (LRSs) should attend each of the Coaching Community dates for the full day as part of their commitment for the Local Reading Specialist MOA/MOU. This is a space that is specifically for Local Reading Specialists. Individuals outside of this role are asked not to attend, as we want this to be a job-alike opportunity where Local Reading Specialists can be vulnerable and build relationships with those in the same role.
*Please see your RLS for specific dates, times, and locations for these meetings.
LETRS PLATFORM
Principals, please encourage teachers to update their LETRS platform with their T-CERT number. Click on this link to look up your T-CERT number. TCERT - Search Certificates (alsde.edu)
You may search by ALSDE ID or by entering data in multiple search fields. If the search results do not provide the correct individual, enter additional information in the search fields and click “Search” again.
Alabama Literacy Association
Conference Date: November 3-4, 2022
Fall Dyslexia Conference
Oral Language Module in Schoology
Register Today!
Register in PowerSchool (course # 278101) for the course. It will load in your My Learning Opportunities account in Schoology. It is self-paced and earns 6 hours of credit.
https://alsde.truenorthlogic.com/ia/empari/learning2/registration/presentRegistrationDetails/427925
The information included in this document is done from the perspective of improving LITERACY instruction for students and is only intended to outline support that directly relates to literacy instruction. Please use any resource links with discretion, as their position statements are their own and not necessarily representative of ARI and the ALSDE. Usage of any materials should be with adherence to rules and regulations of the Alabama State Department of Education.