REWARDS In the Trenches

Sycamore Elementary School K-5 School Enrollment: 335 and growing Free and Reduced Lunch Percentage: 27% 98% Caucasian

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Current 4 th Grade: Very large classroom size “Challenging Group”  Entered the 4 th grade significantly behind in reading. Difficult to motivate Large discrepancies in maturity levels Need constant teacher supervision

MEAP Data

Current 4 th Grade: Beginning of the Year DIBELS Benchmark: 38% (n=22) Some Risk: 22% (n=13) At Risk: 40% (n=23)

4 th Grade Language Arts Block 90 Minutes Intensive: Language! Strategic: Core Curriculum Benchmark: Core Curriculum Accelerated: Core +

Upper Elementary Language Arts : Began Tier 3 intervention of Language! = 90 minutes of instruction for students that are significantly behind in reading.

Why choose REWARDS Packaged Program  Less set-up time  Scaffolding of the skills  Research-based Saw the Need  Program hit on the phonics area that the kids were lacking  We know our Scholastic reading program does not strongly hit on phonics Availability Good Price

Plugged Our Nose… and

What did we give up to run the program? Nothing! Replaced general curriculum instruction for a period of time Will still get through the entire reading series This program will take the place of some other projects that we typically would have time for at the end of the school year

Who Is This Program For? Students who:  Read at about a 2.5 to 5.0 grade level.  Read about 60 to 120 words correct per minute.  Need to increase reading fluency.

REWARDS can improve: Decoding Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension Test-taking abilities Content-area reading Sentence and content-area writing

Florida Center for Reading Research: Program does have one component of phonemic awareness practice Program does focus on decoding words more quickly using better decoding strategies – but does not directly teach phonics Helps students determine the accurate pronunciation using decoding along with context clues Focus is on increasing fluency of decoding skills Does address Vocabulary and Comprehension slightly, but these areas are not directly taught

Studies about REWARDS: 34 students 4 groups – 3 treatment, 1 control group Students receiving REWARDS intervention showed significantly higher scores than the control group on Word Identification and Word Attack subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests Oregon Reading First Review of the program showed that it included 65% of the essential components of teaching phonics

How Does REWARDS work? Purpose: Designed to teach upper elementary students (4th-6 th grades) strategies for decoding long words and to increase reading fluency. Set Up: 15 Pre-Skills Lessons (1-15), 10 Lessons to introduce the application strategies (16-25)

Sequence of Lesson Activities: From Sound to Text Lessons 1-15 Oral Activity Vowel Combinations Vowel Conversions Reading Parts of Real Words Underlining Vowels in Words Oral Activity – Correcting Close Approximations Using Context Prefixes and Suffixes Circling Prefixes and Suffixes Vocabulary Spelling Dictation Lessons Vowel Combination Review Vowel Conversion Review Prefixes and Suffixes Review Strategy Instruction Strategy Practice Independent Strategy Practice Word Families Spelling Vocabulary Sentence and Passage Reading Passage Reading - Fluency

Notice this in the video Routine Use the script – but be sure to use your judgment to determine when to deviate May need to be prepared to answer questions about the words they are decoding.  Find and use the Teachable Moments!

Video

Notice this in the video Routine Use the script – but be sure to use your judgment to determine when to deviate May need to be prepared to answer questions about the words they are decoding.  Find the Teachable Moments!

Our Results We saw gains in DIBELS We saw gains in Pre/Post test Students are able to use the strategies when guided  May need more instruction for generalization to happen

Beginning of the Year Data Benchmark: 38% (n=22) Some Risk: 22% (n=13) At Risk: 40% (n=23) Benchmark: 56% (n=30) Some Risk: 26% (n=15) At Risk: 22% (n=13) Middle of the Year Data

Effectiveness Graph

Individual Students

What We Learned Seemed a bit boring at times  Teacher can add a little enthusiasm and excitement It’s ok to make mistakes It took all 90 minutes Be prepared for new activities – look ahead!

Next Steps for Next Year Start at the beginning of the year May do a refresher after Christmas Break Use the provided chart  A teacher made some additional charts to enhance the program Continue to reinforce the strategies throughout the school year – carry over to other content areas Use this with ALL Tier-1 and Tier-2 kids Use more of the Pre/Post tests to have more information on student progress

You don’t need to be a Superhero REWARDS is a part of a system Sycamore is setting up for students. Tiers of instruction based on student need, skill deficits, and curriculum deficits have been developed With these interventions: we are seeing gains in students! You need to find ways to be a SuperTeacher