1. Governor’s Teacher Network An initiative funded by North Carolina’s Race to the Top (RttT) grant, the GTN will provide a statewide platform for approximately 450 teachers from across our state to serve for one year as instructional & professional development experts and facilitators. GTN teachers remain in their current roles, but will also work to gain a deeper understanding of the State's RttT- funded work in one of two "pathways“, lesson planning and professional development.

2. To improve Exceptional Children (EC) student reading comprehension skills using explicit reading comprehension strategies Purpose of the Study

3. 4 th grade Exceptional Children (EC) students that are reading at least two grade levels below their peers Participants

4.  How can the use of explicit reading comprehension strategies be used to improve Exceptional Children (EC) student reading comprehension? ◦ Conduct explicit, direct reading comprehension strategy lessons in a small group sessions in the resource room 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week ◦ Reference “Strategies that Work” by Stephanie Harvey beginning with Chapter 6 ◦ Utilize Metacognition, Activating Prior Knowledge, and Questioning ◦ Develop a gradual release of responsibility Research Question

5.  Pre- and Post-reading interest survey  Weekly AIMSweb MAZE Progress Monitoring Probes  Reading Comprehension Tests  Anecdotal Notes Data Collection

6.  September ◦ Monitoring Comprehension  October and November ◦ Connecting to Background Knowledge  December and January ◦ Questioning  February ◦ Analyze and Interpret Data  March ◦ Write up Finding and Create an Action plan  April and May ◦ Disseminate findings Timeline

7.  Be able to describe the impact that writing has on reading comprehension and on the critical thinking and processing skills that are involved with reading  Examine how the use of small group/partner math interventions in the areas of number sense, rounding, mental math, and math fact fluency can be used with students in the third grade to improve foundational math skills  Examine the effects of student-led conferences using portfolios on parent involvement in my freshman English 1 classroom Regional Research

8.  Observe the effects of interactive read-alouds and their relationship to increased reading comprehension among third grade students who have been identified as struggling readers Regional Research (Cont’d)