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.

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

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

 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

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

 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

 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

 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)