Data, Differentiation and Delivery…Oh, My!!

Marianthi BrownStephanie Solis

Highland Park High SchoolHighland Park, Illinois

History of the English + Reading Program

• No Child Left Behind– Latino Population

– Special Ed Population

– Low-Income Population

• Freshman English + Reading (6th year)

• Sophomore English + Reading (4th year)

• Action Research Laboratory (3rd year) (17-18)

• Literacy Coaching (1st year)

Areas of Data Collection

1. Reading Comprehension

2. Fluency

3. Vocabulary

4. Sharing Across Departments

Data Collection 1Reading Comprehension

– EPASS

• EXPLORE Reading: Fall, Freshman year

• PLAN Reading: Fall, Sophomore year

– Measures of Academic Progress (MAP): 3 times a year

• Composite Score (1)

• Reading Strategies Sub-score

• Literature Sub-score

• Lexile: independent reading level

– Open Cloze Pre-Test before each whole-class text

Reading Comprehension: Differentiation

• SSR Individual Strategy Work (1)

– Choosing texts based on Lexile and ZPD

– Conferencing and Goal Setting (2, 3, 4)

– EPASS strategies (5, 6, 7)

• Pull-outs during SSR

- Progress monitoring

- Frustration level from open cloze (12)

• The House on Mango Street

– Reading Comp sub-score (8-11)

– Literature sub-score

Data Collection 2Fluency

“the ability to read smoothly and easily at a good pace with good phrasing and expression…accurate, smooth, expressive reading that allows for comprehension

of the text” (Beers, When Kids Can’t Read, 207-209)

– Formal Data (3 times a year)

• FORF (13)

• MAZE (14)

– Informal Data (on-going)

• Pull-outs to read aloud and monitor comprehension

• Reading aloud in class

Fluency: DifferentiationPull-outs during SSR time

– Direct instruction of high frequency words and sight words

– Echo reading – teacher then student (modeling, increase opportunities for hearing texts)

– Choral reading

– Reader’s Theatre

– Teach phrasing and intonation directly (You read the book)

– Reread, correcting previous miscues

• Teach students how to identify significant miscues

• Prompt, don’t correct (Can you divide it into syllables?)

– Keep anecdotal running records (Elizabeth)

Fluency: DifferentiationReading Aloud in Class

“Nonfluent readers are most often nonfluent because of a lack of practice with reading” (Beers 218)

• Vary opportunities for hearing texts (differentiation by difficulty/style of text and by ability groupings)

– Teacher reads aloud part of chapter (Mockingbird)

– Echo reading: student then student (mixed abilities)

– Echo reading: student then author then student (Mango); compare interpretations

– Choral reading: whole group together (Mango, poetry)

– Reader’s Theatre (Romeo and Juliet—parts by ability)

Data Collection 3Vocabulary

– MAP Sub-score (1)

– Pre-Test on each text

Vocabulary: Differentiation• SSR Strategies

– Vocabulary in Context (15)

– ABC Log

• Pull-outs with “What Do I Do with So Many Words?” (16)

– Parts of Speech

– Prefix/Root/Suffix

– Contexts

– Comparison/Contrast

– Synonyms/Antonyms

– Story

– Review

• Top 20 words per whole-class text / re-test / repeat

Data Collection 4“It Takes a Village”

– Summer School Collaboration to facilitate diag. movement

(Emily, Ruben, Tony)

– Social Studies (placements)

– Literacy Coaching

• Special Education (LS support, Fundamentals collaboration)

• ESL (ACCESS scores, TPI collaboration)

• American Studies Survey

– ARL

– Counseling

• Counselor attached to freshman English classes

Counselor StatementRoutinely visit freshman English classes and develop a positive rapport by

interacting with students within a classroom element.

Observe the students during class

Join in classroom discussions, and present to students on such topics as Developing a Four Year Plan, Understanding the EXPLORE Test, etc.

Develop relationships in a more authentic manner so that trust is central

Address various concerns with our freshman by stopping by our classes and know that most, if not all students, will be easily accessible.

Extend relationship building to the teachers so that they can relay concerns to us more readily and allow for us to observe a student without raising any concerns or alarms.

Delivery

• Skill-driven vs. content-driven instruction

• Frontload with intense reading skilldevelopment. Deconstruct “reading” before constructing their own ideas (writing)

• Scaffold to analytical thinking: instructional scaffolding must organically support the HOW TO understand (skill), not the WHAT to understand (content)

Delivery

• Lead the thinking process, not control it

• Needs to connect to all kids, needs to stem from the kids---constructivist learning---kids understand the purpose and then willingly work on the steps

Delivery• Some direct instruction (i.e. fluency: slow

down, don’t skip words, read with expression, pause at punctuation)

• Much modeling—multiple models (expert and peer)

• Constantly changing collaborative groupings

Students said…• I like it because everybody is different and has

different needs (Nemo)

• It is hard to work on my weaknesses but I know that at the end everything pays off (Ricardo)

• I think I’ve become stronger from learning my own individual weaknesses and working on them more (Amy)

• I like how I am learning new vocabulary words…. I really want to know more English words and not just the basic words (Eric)

Students said…• Being in DPE got me into reading. Last year I read

maybe a book and a half and this year I’ve read about 30 books. (Ilan)

• It feels like I’m learning. (Tito)

• My goals this year helped me become more fluent with reading. (Melanie)

• I like how we have the conferencing and I’m able to work on my weaknesses and not everyone else’s. (Jeremy)

• I feel as though this year I’ve really grown as a reader by finding my weaknesses and pinpointing them. It is a pure recipe for success. (Olivia)

Oh, My!!