1. Solutions to Advance Adolescent Literacy in West Virginia May 2008
AIM for Literacy
Solutions to Advance Adolescent Literacy in West Virginia
May 2008
Slide 1: Title Slide
Welcome to the second of a series of webinars designed to provide information about adolescent literacy. Welcome Literacy Leadership Teams!
This PowerPoint presentation will be available following the webinar on the WVDE RTI website at
As our title suggests, this afternoon we will be discussing important solutions to assist you in advancing adolescent literacy in West Virginia.
West Virginia Department of Education

2. As promised… Who: Literacy Leadership Teams (LLT) What: Webinar 2
LLT roles and responsibilities
Year 1 of multi-tiered literacy instruction
When: May 28, 2008-Wednesday
Where: Any convenient location
April 16th PowerPoint presentation is available at
Slide 2:
As I mentioned, this is the second webinar for adolescent literacy. We hope that several faculty members are present who represent a range of grades and the curriculum in your school.
You have been selected because your principal believes you are highly skilled, motivated and committed to improving literacy for all students. By serving on this team, you will influence the direction your school will travel as you make significant changes in the instructional program to support all learners in literacy.
If you would like to review the content of the first webinar, a Ppt presentation is available at the WVDE website listed on this slide.
West Virginia Department of Education

3. “The challenge for the Literacy Leadership Team, then, is to set goals that can be enacted by all stakeholders, measured for progress and revisited yearly for revision.”
JoAnne Allain (2008)
Slide 3:
The LLT must have a clear idea of what is necessary and what is attainable in your school. The Adolescent Instruction Model for Literacy, or AIM, is flexible. Since AIM is based on student needs, it may look different from school to school.
In West Virginia, six middle and high schools piloted the AIM framework during the school year and have followed this challenge of setting goals, measuring for progress, and periodically reviewing and revising their approaches to tiered instruction.

4. KNOW The components of AIM for Literacy
The LLT’s roles and responsibilities
Year 1 of multi-tiered literacy instruction
Slide 4:
As a result of this afternoon’s presentation, we want you to know the three concepts listed on this slide.
We’ll be discussing what the model looks like at the upper elementary and middle school levels, why it’s important to know the scientific-based reading research relevant to older students, and the vital role your Literacy Leadership Team will play in successfully implementing the tiered model at your school.
The success of your literacy work will depend upon having the support of the teaching staff from the very beginning. Instructional improvement is based on the idea that everyone clearly understands the magnitude of the change and values the significance of its effect on student achievement. Elmore (2000) describes this a “organizational coherence”. Your collaboration as the LLT will be vital to the success of tiered instruction in your school.
West Virginia Department of Education

5. DO Identify the levels of support for literacy in a multi-tiered model
Define your role on the LLT
Plan and organize for implementation of Year 1 of tiered instruction
Slide 5:
This slide lists the actions we’d like you to take during this presentation.
West Virginia Department of Education

6. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How does a multi-tiered instruction model of literacy support the needs of all students?
To what extent will your participation on the LLT encourage collaboration and shared decision-making among your faculty?
How will Year 1 create the atmosphere for the process of literacy improvement?
Slide 6:
So, here are the essential questions we will answer for you today.
We’ll talk about the components of the multi-tiered model, your important role as a LLT member as your school defines and redefines the application of adolescent literacy instruction and intervention. This is a crucial time when all the elements begin to fall into place.
West Virginia Department of Education

7. West Virginia Department of Education
Slide 7:
A note about Response to Intervention:
It is important to understand that Response to Intervention (RTI) is a process that includes the provision of high-quality instruction in general education that is matched to student needs. Tiered instruction is a framework within which individual student needs are met.
Data collected during such a process may eventually be used to determine or verify the presence of a specific learning disability. As the RTI logo on the screen states, RTI is about improving student achievement first.
Use as a special education identification process is an ancillary aspect of the process. For more information about RTI as it relates to special education, refer to WV Policy 2419: Regulations for the Education of Students with Exceptionalities or the WVDE RTI website.
As mentioned earlier, RTI is NOT a special education initiative. RTI is a process of providing what students need and is for all students at all programmatic levels. Early intervention and prevention are required by WV Policy 2510, Assuring Quality of Education: Regulations for Education Programs. The RTI framework is a systematic way to meet that requirement, and we are using AIM for Literacy to phase in the response to intervention process in your school.
West Virginia Department of Education

8. AIM for Literacy
Meeting the Needs of All Learners through Tiered Instruction
Slide 8:
Although there are no shortcuts to accelerating the literacy of older struggling readers, it is possible to close the literacy gap by providing a coherent and coordinated school-wide literacy acceleration program that systematically increases the amount of time, teaching and practice available to all readers.
Now we’ll provide an overview of the tiered instruction model for upper elementary and middle school students.

9. Professional Development
Levels of Support
Individual Students
Classroom Unit
Professional Development
Advanced
Tier
Students consistently exceed the targets and can handle advance materials; need challenge, extension and enrichment
Assessment: Assessment every 6-8 weeks
Materials: Standard plus reading 25 books per year; SREB recommends 100 pages of technical text to receive credit for one book
Students in the classroom are exceeding the benchmarks as demonstrated through assessment; teachers are models and resources for others; AP and Pre-AP trained teachers
Time: Policy 2510 RLA requirement
Advanced Placement training and material; Pre-AP instructional strategies and materials;
Differentiated Instruction training;
Training on adopted instructional materials;
Instructional guides and/or standards-based unit plans;
Assessments for and of learning
Slide 9:
This is the advanced tier. A way of identifying these students might be to think of the students that score above mastery or distinguished on the WESTEST (although this certainly should not be the only way to determine students for the advanced tier). These are the students who need extension or enrichment. However, if you look at the last column on Professional Development, teachers could differentiate their class work in the elementary or middle school so that the advanced students are receiving the enrichment they need. Also, these students should be reading at least 25 books per year (recommended by the Southern Regional Education Board-SREB).
West Virginia Department of Education

10. Professional Development
Levels of Support
Individual Students
Classroom Unit
Professional Development
Tier 1: Benchmark
Students generally can meet the standards; average learner
Intervention: Occasional in-class modifications; SBRR and SBRI in vocabulary and comprehension strategies
Assessment: Assessment every 6-8 weeks
Materials: Adopted grade level instructional materials plus reading 25 books per year; SREB recommends 100 pages of technical text to receive credit for one book
75-80% of students are making good progress;
teachers need praise and recognition and may serve as a resource to others; all teachers
Time: Policy 2510 RLA requirement
SBRR and SBRI in pre reading, during reading and post reading strategies and writing strategies
Differentiated Instruction training
Training on adopted grade level instructional materials
Instructional guides and/or standards-based unit plans
Assessments for and of learning
Slide 10:
Tier 1: Benchmark – This is the first level of intervention beginning with research-based instruction, progress monitoring, and support that is provided for all students. The basis for Tier 1 is high quality classroom instruction. Instruction focuses on fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing and motivation. Professional development for Tier 1 teachers emphasizes use of pre-reading, during reading, and after-reading strategies. Although reading strategies might be taught explicitly in RELA classes, students are unlikely to generalize these strategies unless teachers support and elaborate the strategies with content area texts.
For more information on research-based literacy instruction see “Reading Next” a document funded by the Carnegie Foundation. Access information is located on the Resource slide at the end of this presentation.
Remember, textbooks are not the complete curriculum. As you know, teachers in WV are guided by the 21st Century Content Standards and Objectives with Performance Descriptors that set the level of performance and expectations at each grade level.
There are many resources on the WVDE TEACH21 website such as standard-based units, instructional guides, research-based strategies for the RELA classroom. The units and guides are interdisciplinary, including reading and writing along with 21st century learning skills and technology tools. Assessments should be for and of learning-summative, benchmark, formative.
West Virginia Department of Education

11. Professional Development
Levels of Support
Individual Students
Classroom Unit
Professional Development
Tier 2:
Strategic
Students are typically between the 30th-49th percentile on normative measures; 1-2 years behind; gaps in skills and knowledge
Intervention: Direct instruction with teacher or one-on-one in the form of reteaching, preteaching, adjustments of pace and complexity; separate reading intervention; possible strategic tutoring program
Assessment: Assessment every 3-4 weeks to pinpoint problems and target interventions
Materials: Standard reading program with added support class and materials plus reading 25 books per year; SREB recommends 100 pages of technical text to receive credit for one book
Classrooms where about one-third of the students are not making benchmarks (25-30%); reading specialists/special education teachers/coaches/content area teachers labeled literacy intensive classes (i.e., social studies class is considered reading intensive)
Time: Policy 2510 requirements for RLA block with defined intervention component
Collaboration and co-teaching training
Training on adopted
grade level instructional materials
Differentiated Instruction training
Instructional guides and/or standards-based unit plans
Content area teacher training on instructional strategies in reading and writing
SBRR and SBRI: building background knowledge; vocabulary; fluency; comprehension strategies
Assessments for and of learning
Slide 11:
Tier 2: Strategic – This tier is for students who have gaps in skills and knowledge, need interventions and need to be assessed more frequently. These students are in the general RELA class but need separate (additional) interventions in literacy. Even though these students may be struggling, they should still read the suggested 25 books. HOW? Use the Lexile range of ability for each student Notice that the assessments are more frequent in order to pinpoint problems, target interventions and progress monitor.
This framework suggests that the additional time needed for interventions be provided in content area classes ( for example, a natural class for this would be social studies). The content area teachers classes would be considered as literacy intensive classes. These teachers would provide the interventions needed by students in providing scientific-based pre-, during- and post- reading and writing strategies. This takes professional development on literacy for content area teachers. The power of content-area strategies is magnified exponentially when a group of teachers, department, or interdisciplinary teams in a school all agree to consistently use a limited set of strategies that match the needs of the students and that augment the content areas they teach (for example, summary writing strategies across the team). Another possible separate intervention would be strategic tutoring (meaning short-termed focused help during the school day; this includes not only help to acquire curriculum knowledge, but they also need to be taught “how to learn” curricular information). The goal of strategic tutoring is to empower adolescents to complete similar tasks independently in the future.
West Virginia Department of Education

12. Professional Development
Levels of Support
Individual Students
Classroom Unit
Professional Development
Tier 3:
Intensive
Students test below the 30th percentile on normative measures; reading skills are limited
Intervention: Assessment every 2 weeks to pinpoint problems and target interventions
Materials: Intensive intervention to replace traditional ELA class; special supplementary materials and/or specialized program
Classrooms where about half of the students are not meeting benchmark indicators; teachers held accountable to teach the program as designed; reading specialist with assistance from special education/coach
Time: Extended time for literacy; usually are temporary replacement programs for grade-level ELA classes
Program specific training without exception
Training on adopted grade level instructional materials
DI training
SBRR and SBRI: building background knowledge; vocabulary; fluency; comprehension strategies; writing strategies
Assessments for and of learning
Slide 12:
Tier 3: Intensive – This tier is challenging for both teachers and students. Struggling older readers inevitably come to the intervention table with considerable attitudinal “baggage” from years of failure, frustration and negative experiences with school in general and reading in particular. Intervention teachers need to possess knowledge, compassion and passion if they are going to connect with adolescents who are in academic trouble. Class size is another critical issue. Most successful schools have found that by integrating special education, Title 1, EL support and general education, it is possible to lower class size for those students in greatest need. Designing and implementing high quality professional development is of the utmost importance. Key to such plans include hands-on training with the intervention curriculum. It also includes strong administrative support over the long term.
Tier 3 can be temporary replacement programs for grade-level language arts classes with added time for maximum impact. Assessment every two weeks minimum to pinpoint and target interventions.
West Virginia Department of Education

13. Roles and Responsibilities of the LLT
Slide 13:
In the next part of our presentation, we will discuss the roles and responsibilities of your Literacy Leadership Teams.

14. Provide resources and strategies to support change.
Identify and discuss the school’s strengths and challenges in literacy.
AIM Literacy Survey
Literacy Capacity Survey
Identify and prioritize literacy needs of the students and professional development needs of the teachers.
Information serves as the professional conversation about literacy
Supports school improvement
Provide resources and strategies to support change.
Assessments for and of learning
Slide 14:
There are three roles and responsibilities of the LLT listed. Members of the LLT analyze multiple forms of student, school and teacher data to identify the academic learning needs of the students and the professional learning needs of the teachers. After gathering the data, team members need to identify and prioritize a list of students to be targeted for intervention or support and plan for professional development of the staff. This information should be shared with the school staff. Hopefully, this will be the beginning for professional conversation on school improvement in regard to literacy.
The LLT assumes responsibility to guide the development and implementation of the school’s action plan that should be inclusive of all activities necessary to support and expand literacy learning for all students.
We will discuss the specifics of the three roles and responsibilities of the LLT in the next few slides.

15. Identifying Strengths and Challenges
Literacy Capacity Survey
Give the Literacy Capacity Survey.
Collect results.
Use as a planning guide for LLT.
Assess Student Needs
Which assessment(s) will we use?
Large group tests as a “first cut”
Assess all struggling students beyond the WESTEST to determine specific needs (Tier 2 and 3)
Place students in appropriate tier.
Determine movement in tiers.
Slide 15:
If schools are to meet the academic instructional needs of each student, there are several key components that must be in place. By using the Literacy Capacity Survey with your school faculty, the LLT will begin literacy improvement by discussing questions such as,
Do all your teachers view literacy as an integral part of the academic program?
Do teachers have access to school data and use it to guide their instructional practices?
Are your struggling students being taught by your most effective teachers?
These are the types of questions that will help provide the data needed for the LLT to plan literacy practices in the school.
It is the action around assessment-the discussion, meetings, revisions, arguments and opportunities to continually create new directions for teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment-that ultimately drive the consequences. As an LLT, you will establish a school culture that utilizes data to guide a literacy program designed to meet the needs of ALL learners.

16. What is the school-wide emphasis on adolescent literacy?
1. The administrator’s role in improving the school’s literacy opportunities is clearly evident.
2. School leaders encourage collegial decision making.
3. School leaders support integration of literacy instruction across the content areas.
4. School leaders and staff members believe the teaching of reading is their responsibility.
Slide 16:
This is an example of what your school would be discussing about such important questions as “what is the school-wide emphasis on adolescent literacy?” as they work on the Literacy Capacity Survey.

17. Literacy Capacity Survey and the World Café Process
Groups sit around tables and discuss guiding questions for a given amount of time. One person stays at the table the entire time to capture the conversation, then share with the next group.
When time is called, participants move to a new table with different individuals, hear about the previous conversation, then continue that group’s discussion.
At the end of several rounds, questions and ideas are recorded on a flip chart.
Slide 17:
This is a suggestion for administering the Literacy Capacity Survey.
The challenges of life in the 21st century require us to find new ways to access the wisdom and intelligence inherent in groups both small and large. The need for collaboration, insight and coordinated action has never been greater. A Café Conversation is a creative process for leading collaborative dialogue, sharing knowledge and creating possibilities for action in groups of all sizes.
World Café is a process designed to bring large groups of individuals together to share understandings about questions that matter. The process helps people recognize the possibilities for mutual insight, innovation, and action that are presently within the group.
You will find a more detailed explanation from the hyperlink.

18. Literacy Capacity Survey
Based on your individual and/or team results, what have you discovered?
What strengths and needs are suggested? What priorities emerge?
What potential roadblocks do you see and how will you overcome them?
What are your next steps in the advancing the process building literacy capacity at your school?
Slide 18:
These are the questions that might emerge as a consequence of the school’s discussion on literacy. The LLT has the responsibility of analyzing these and making plans based on the answers.

19. Determining Needs of Students
Most large-group assessments provide a “first cut.”
WESTEST
Schools need to collect further critical diagnostic information to begin to understand their students’ literacy problems.
Scholastic Reading Inventory -
Gates-MacGinitie, Degree of Reading Power (DRP)
Adopted text series test
Compile data and determine the number of classes needed for strategic and intensive students.
Strategic students need targeted literacy instruction.
Intensive students need comprehensive literacy instruction.
Communicate with parents.
Slide 19:
We are stressing establishing and overseeing an effective plan to collect and use student performance data to make instructional decisions in your school. The information data that you collect will guide overall planning and resource allocation and guide instruction for individual students.
The end of the year student performance can assist specific planning to meet needs for reading interventions in the following year. For struggling readers in particular, it is important to understand which aspects of reading may require special instruction and support. This is why further diagnostic information is critical for the struggling reader.
Using data effectively to make instructional decisions requires that it be available in a usable form to everyone who needs to see it-including the principal, the LLT, content-area team teachers and individual teachers. One of the first planning and discussion points for the LLT to consider is what type of data management system will provide effective and timely access to all the data necessary to plan instruction for students.
An effective LLT considers how parents will be informed of the tiered instruction process.

20. Identifying Resources
Tier 1 = Effective Instruction in ALL Classes
Standard based unit plans
Instructional guides
Research based vocabulary instruction
Research based comprehension strategies
Differentiated Instruction
Rubrics
Lexiles
Assessment for learning
Slide 20:
These are resources that the LLT can identify and provide embedded professional development for Tier 1 teachers. Many of the resources can be found on the TEACH 21 website.
As an LLT, you can use these resources when you plan for professional development.

21. Identifying Resources
Tier 2 – Strategic
All in Tier 1
Strategic tutoring
Content specific reading and writing strategies
Tier 3 – Intensive
Specialized training in specific programs (i.e., Wilson Reading)
Slide 21:
Notice that in Tier 2 and Tier 3 that all teachers need to know the effective way to deliver instruction, so all teachers are involved in professional development and have access to resources.
In Tier 2 and 3, the critical variables essential to reading interventions are time for interventions, teaching of standards based curricula and well-supported teachers, and practice with age-appropriate books students can read and want to read, and accountability for reading and responding to what has been read.

22. Year 1 Implementation Keys for Success Slide 22:
In this last section of the presentation, we will take a look at the variety of actions your LLT will take during the first year of implementing the adolescent literacy model.

23. Year 1: 2007/2008
Conduct awareness sessions to build a culture of literacy in your school
Agree on what Tier I instruction is at the upper elementary and middle school levels
Research best practices for Tier 1 instruction
Vocabulary, Comprehension, Fluency, Writing and Motivation
Analyze current Tier 1 instruction relative to best practices
Implement some new practices across the curriculum
Identify universal screening and progress monitoring assessments
Slide 23:
Agreement on Tier 1 – what is that best practice? The goal is to catch as many kids as we can. Implement strategies, for example, one semester.
All Teachers agree to work on specific skills/strategies.
Tiers 1 and 3 may be the easiest place to start.
Tier 3 students are most identifiable. There are excellent Tier 3 instructional materials available.
In the upcoming, you will investigate how Tier 2 will be implemented.
Take the time to phase in Tier 2 because you need time to build the capacity, especially of the teachers who will deliver the instruction.

24. Challenges from the AIM Pilot Schools
Changing teacher opinions about whose responsibility it is to teach reading skills
Convincing teachers to try new classroom strategies without making it seem like “extra” work
Movement among tiers
Differentiating instruction is more difficult than one size fits all
Teachers implementing strategies in isolation, rather than seeing the strategies as a part of their teaching philosophy
Assessing in more than one way
Slide 24:
The AIM pilot schools have worked with tiered instruction for one year now. These challenges were a reflection of the year’s work by the school’s LLT.

25. Successes from the AIM Pilot Schools
Students were given timely assessments FOR learning and modifications were made to enhance learning.
Content class literacy instruction
The following strategies have been implemented this year: K-W-L, Frayer, Reading for a Purpose, Semantic Map, Word Sort, Quick Sketch, Venn Diagram, Anticipation Guide, RAFT, NICK, Word Map, Think Aloud.
Increase use of small group instruction
Increased targeted instruction
Slide 25:
The AIM pilot schools reflected on their successes after the first year of implementation.

26. Additional Resources
National Association of Secondary School Principals
JoAnn Allain
Sopris West
Slide 26:
These are two excellent resources to help you establish a multi-tiered literacy model at your school. The book on the left, Creating a Culture of Literacy, can be downloaded at the National Association of Secondary School Principals website. It can also be purchased for $21 for non-members and $16.50 for members. It is written by principals for principals and provides step-by-step guidelines and practical tools for assessing your school’s “culture of literacy”.
The second book, The Logistics of Literacy Intervention, by Joann Allain, also provides very practical information for establishing and implementing a literacy support system at the secondary level. It includes forms, checklists, timelines as well as a host of helpful recommendations. Ms. Allain has consulted with the WVDE as we’ve developed the adolescent literacy model and has also provided training in several local districts and RESAs.
Both resources will assist you tremendously as you begin to think about and initiate your tiered instructional model for literacy.
Joann Allain
Sopris West
$34.49
West Virginia Department of Education

27. Douglas Fisher & Gay Ivey
Additional Resources
Slide 27:
Here are two additional resources.
Reading Next is a report that combines the best research currently available with well-crafted strategies for turning that research into practice. Informed by five of the nation's leading researchers, Reading Next charts an immediate route to improving adolescent literacy. The authors outline 15 key elements of an effective literacy intervention, and call on public and private stakeholders to invest in the literacy of middle and high school students today, while simultaneously building the knowledge base. The report may be downloaded from the website on the slide.
Creating Literacy-Rich School for Adolescents is available from ASCD fro $23.95 (non-members) or $18.95 for members. The book explains how teachers in any subject area can help their students comprehend informational texts and apply their understanding across the content areas. It also includes interventions that support struggling adolescent readers and useful assessments.
Douglas Fisher & Gay Ivey
ASCD

28. Additional Resources http://lexile.com/EntrancePageHtml.aspx?1
Slide 28:
The Lexile Framework for Reading is a tool that can be used to determine reading ability as well as text difficulty. The Lexile Framework for Reading is a scientific approach to reading measurement that matches readers to text. The Lexile Framework measures both reader ability and text difficulty on the same scale, called the Lexile scale. This approach allows educators to manage reading comprehension and encourage reader progress using Lexile measures and a broad range of Lexile products, tools and services.
Tens of thousands of books and tens of millions of articles have Lexile measures, hundreds of publishers Lexile their materials and all major standardized tests can report student reading scores in Lexiles. For more information, visit the website on the slide.

29. “Improving adolescent literacy requires that this goal be shared and central to the mission for a school staff. Buy-in is not a one time ‘event’ but rather an ongoing process.”
Don Deshler (2006)
Slide 29:
Providing a clear message about the importance of literacy is essential for successful school-wide literacy implementation.
In a competent system teachers and administrators are active participants in the continuous improvement journey because they believe that what is being asked of them is collectively challenging, possible and worthy of attempt.  (Transforming Schools Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement, by Allison Zmuda, Robert Kuklis & Everett Kline, ASCD, 2004)

30. Create a tentative LLT meeting calendar.
Next Steps
Create a tentative LLT meeting calendar.
Conduct the Literacy Capacity Survey.
Start building your culture of literacy at the beginning of the school year.
Slide 30:
As you begin to think about and plan for the upcoming school year, here are three things we’d like you to include. Creating a calendar of meeting times for the LLT will send the message of its importance. The Literacy Capacity Survey will provide needed information as you determine where and how to start to address your school’s literacy needs. Finally, building a culture of literacy is essential to successful, school-wide implementation.

31. Next Time Who: Literacy Leadership Teams (LLT) What: Webinar 3
Strengthening the Core Program
Universal Assessments
When: August 27, 2008
3:15-4:15 p.m.
Where: Any convenient location in your building
Slide 31:
The next time we meet will be August 27, 2008 from 3:15-4:15 p.m.

32. Contact Information
Linda Palenchar RTI Coordinator Office of Special Programs, Extended and Early Learning (304) Terry Reale Reading English Language Arts Coordinator Office of Instruction (304)
Slide 32:
Thank you for joining us this afternoon. Please don’t hesitate to contact Terry or me for more information or resources. If you have specific questions, you are invited to one or both of us. We hope the same LLT members will be able to join us next time. Have a great summer and we look forward to the work ahead in improving adolescent literacy in West Virginia. We are committed to “advancing” adolescent literacy in West Virginia and are anxious to help you in any way we can.
West Virginia Department of Education