Frequently Asked Questions October 19, 2011 Mary Jo Wegenke Literacy Consultant Ingham Intermediate School District

Let’s Celebrate 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District2

Reading Street Question & Answer Pacing Q.How do we fit everything into a single day? A. Make sure you are not spending too much time on Concept Talk and Amazing Words. See sample lesson plans. Q.How are we supposed to get to all of the practice worksheets? A. You do not have to use all of the practice worksheets. Some teachers are using them as warm-up activities, during center time, as an exit ticket at the end of the day, or with a volunteer. 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District3

Reading Street Question & Answer Q.How do we have time to do reading groups and do justice with the skills? A. Teachers can expect to feel like this as this is their first year of the programs and there is probably a gap with the expectations of RS from grade level to grade level. The first few units teachers will have to try a variety of rotations and communicate with each other to see what’s working and what’s not as well as feeding off of each other for suggestions on how to handle whole/small group instruction. Many of the teachers in the Ingham Co area stated they were not new to whole/small group instruction. I would suggest that they incorporate many of the strategies that worked in the past while reminding them that RS is their primary resource for ELA instruction. 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District4

Reading Street Question & Answers Pacing Q. Can we reorganize it? A.Yes, as long as you are teaching the non-negotiables and tested and targeted skills with fidelity. Teach the core! Q.Why do they ask students to look at the 2 nd, 3 rd, 4 th paragraph on weekly tests and then ask a comprehension question? A. This is a skill that must be taught, not only is this a weekly tested skill for our program but this is an expectation of MEAP as well as common core. I suggest doing these questions whole group and using it as an instructional moment every other assessment. This is also something they practice with the question in the student edition at the end of every main selection. 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District5

Reading Street Question & Answer Pacing Q. How are we expected to finish the writing portion along with everything else? A. Some schools are teaching the Language Arts Skills outside of the 90 minute block. Some teachers are doing a short writing mini-lesson and then using the Quick writes during center time. Q.Why does it skip around so much? A. Again, you can adjust the sequence of the lesson as long as you are teaching the Tested and Targeted Skills and teaching with fidelity. The program revisits skills and strategies 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District6

Reading Street Question & Answers Pacing Q. What are other districts doing to make it more engaging? A.Lots of movement breaks, white board lessons, using document cameras and incorporating as much technology as possible, and adjusting the sequence of the lesson. Q. Finding time to reteach is a challenge. A. Yes, it is. The goal is to work with your lowest students everyday. One teacher does a Power Talk with her highest students to check in with them and to get them started on any independent activities they have during center time, which give her more time with her other groups. See attached schedules for 90 minute block suggestions 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District7

Reading Street Question & Answers Materials Q.Do you need to do the sentence reads and weekly fluency with all students? A. No, the goal is to do this for each student once per unit. See Plan To Assess Fluency on Day 5 on the initial assessment page. Q.Are there black line masters for weekly tests? A. Yes, there is a student edition. Some schools have purchased one copy per grade level and are making copies. It is approximately $9.00. Q.Are there black line masters for the fluency and sentence reads that are on day 5 in the manual? A. Yes, in the assessment manual behind the Monitor Progress Page. In some of the younger grades teachers are alternating between weekly tests and fresh reads 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District8

Reading Street Question & Answers Materials Q.How are we supposed to do lessons when we have only 6 copies of decodable books? A. Some teachers are projecting the decodable books and then putting students into small groups with one copy of the book per group. Other teachers are pulling the decodable book practice out of large group instruction and using during small group instruction. They are available online to print. Q.What should we do about missing materials? A.Create a master list by grade level and then it to Jamie Rutter-Danely at 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District9

Reading Street Questions and Answers Materials Q.Is there a way to print decodable books from the skills buddy online? A.Yes, it should be the same process as printing decodable readers. A direction sheet to download the books is provided. Q.Should teachers do both the Weekly Reading Street assessments and AIMSweb progress monitoring? A.Yes, Weekly Reading Street assessments are curriculum dependent measures-checking for mastery of skills that are being taught. Progress monitoring measures how students are progressing compared to a national standard. Looks at growth over time. 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District10

When you teach you learn annonymous 10/19/2011Ingham Intermediate School District11