Differentiated Reading Block

MiBLSi State Conference 2008

Margie McGlinchey

Session Goals

• What is differentiation?

• Why should we do it?

• Steps involved in differentiation

• Guidelines for establishing differentiated instruction in your classroom

• Evaluating your plan

What is differentiation?

• Classroom based literacy instruction for all students

• Instruction that targets a particular group of children directly and temporarily

• Instruction that applies a developmental model and assumes that children have needs in word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension

• Instruction that supplements high quality core instruction (Walpole and McKenna, 2007)

Characteristics of the Reading Block

• High Quality Instruction

• Minimum of 90 minutes of uninterrupted instruction– Whole Group Instruction– Small Group Instruction and Practice

• Teacher-Led Instruction– Flexible– Differentiated– homogeneous

• Independent Student Centers– Differentiated

Classroom Organization: Learning Classroom Organization: Learning Centers for differentiated groupsCenters for differentiated groups

• Teacher-Led CenterTeacher-Led Center- Small group instructionSmall group instruction• Teaching “on purpose”Teaching “on purpose”• Careful observation of individual studentsCareful observation of individual students• Addresses particular individual needsAddresses particular individual needs• Opportunities for responsive scaffoldingOpportunities for responsive scaffolding

• Student CentersStudent Centers

-- Academically engagedAcademically engaged

- Accountability- Accountability

- Group, Pair, Cooperative, Individual- Group, Pair, Cooperative, Individual

The Reading Block

Whole Group Instruction

Teacher-Led Instruction Independent Student Centers

Homogeneous

Flexible

Differentiated

Differentiated (Cooperative, Independent, Pairs)

• 40 minutes will be devoted to whole class ii using core curriculum

• 50 minutes will be devoted to small group instruction:

Classroom Organization for this Kindergarten Class: Teacher Led-

Center

  M T W TH F

G1HR 25minutes

25 25 25 25

G2MR 15 10 15 10 15

G3LR 10 15 10 15 10

Small group instruction for 50 minutes:• Group 1: Implement an intervention program --25

min. daily• Group 2: Implement phonemic awareness and

phonics activities that will provide students extra practice with the content that was previously taught--10-15 min. daily

• Group 3: Use the decodable & leveled books from my core reading program to practice the decoding process and fluency--10-15 min. daily

Classroom Organization for this Kindergarten Class: Teacher-Led Center

Why should we do it?• NAEP- reading problems affect about 4

out of 10 students

• Reading failure as high as 70% in some districts

• This failure affects them for life

• Children enter school with significantly different levels of language and exposure to print

When a teacher tries to teach something to the entire class at the same time, chances are, one-third of the kids already know it;

one-third will get it, and the remaining third won’t. So two-thirds of the children are

wasting their time.

Lillian Katz

“The grade-progression model is a factory assembly-line model of schooling that assumes

equal readiness to learn and equal rates of learning. The model persists despite

overwhelming evidence that by grade 3, the achievement gap within a single grade may span five or more years of schooling. The model makes assessment of students to

establish starting points irrelevant because the starting points are dictated by the curriculum, not by the readiness of students to learn. It denies individual differences. However the

differences remain and define the nub of the problem, the age-old problem of personalizing

instruction.” (Fullen, Hill, Crevola, 2006)

Best-evidence Syntheses

• Thousands of studies on effective teaching-three factors:– Motivation to learn and high expectations– Time on task and opportunity to learn– Focused teaching

Focused Teaching

1. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each student through formative assessment

2. Knowing the appropriate instructional response and when and how to use strategies and resources

3. Having classrooms routines structures and tools to deliver differentiated instruction (Fullen, Hill, Crevola, 2006)

Steps for Differentiation

1. Establish instructional priorities

2. Conduct appropriate assessment

3. Analyze assessment results

4. Make a plan

5. Try it out for 3 weeks

6. Evaluate the plan

1. Establish Instructional Priorities

• Focus on the 5 Big Ideas of a comprehensive reading program:– Phonemic Awareness– Alphabetic Principle– Fluency– Vocabulary– Comprehension

5 Big Ideas

• Equally Important but…Not at the same time

• Curriculum Maps provide guidance as to instructional priority depending on where in the developmental sequence a student is performing

• You also must evaluate your curriculum in connection with the Big Ideas

How to Read Curriculum MapsMapping of Instruction to Achieve Instructional Priorities

Second Grade

Table Time

• Curriculum Maps– What are the focus skills for first grade

alphabetic principle/– When should sound segmenting be

introduced in Phonemic Awareness?– How much time should be spent on fluency

in second grade?

Changing Emphasis of Big Ideas

A Model for Instructional Time

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension

K 30% 15% 10% 30% 15%

1 10% 30% 20% 25% 15%

2 30% 25% 25% 20%

3 20% 25% 25% 30%

4-6 15% 20% 30% 35%

2. Conduct Appropriate Assessments-Four Purposes

Screening

Diagnostic

Progress Monitoring

Outcome

The first three are involved in Differentiated Instruction

Screening: DIBELS

• Benchmark Screening

• Reliable and Valid

• Identify which students are likely to meet the next benchmark

• Identify which students are likely to have difficulty

Validate student data• Do the assessment results match what you

know or suspect about each student?• If it doesn’t match up, retest• Set aside protocols of students at or above

benchmarks with no reading concerns. (Celebrate!!), and plan to provide enrichment when relevant

• Fluency and accuracy are not a problem, but there are still concerns? Check vocabulary and/or comprehension.

• For students who performed below expectations, is it a “can’t do” or “won’t do” problem?

“Can’t do” vs. “Won’t do”• “When a child does not perform well,

there are only two reasons: either a child can’t do the work or the child won’t do the work.”

• The next step for the child where you are unsure is to conduct a “can’t do / won’t do” assessment individually with the student.

“Functional Assessments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Solving Academic and Behavior Problems”, Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000.

Can’t do / Won’t doIndividual Assessment Steps

1. Use same form of assessment.2. Offer the child an incentive for bettering his/her

performance either accuracy or fluency .3. Incentive should be readily available to you and

desired by the child.“Our work with this type of individual-child assessment has

indicated that at least 25% of children who do not perform up to par in the classroom can actually do the work but simply prefer not to …”

“Functional Assessments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Solving Academic and Behavior Problems”, Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000.

Diagnostic Assessment

• For those not at benchmark

• Purpose: to identify instructional strengths and needs.

• Observations, IRI, Error Analyses, more formal assessments.

Error analysisPurpose• Looking for error patterns in a student’s reading• Error patterns will give us more information on

teaching points • Use the error patterns to remediate skill deficits• Error patterns may be difficult to identify with the

number of errors on the three passages, but worth exploring

What type of errors?

• Is it a single error pattern or does it cut across multiple word attack skills?

• Can you address the errors informally or do you need a more formal intervention program?

Survey Level Assessment

• Assessing students in successive levels of the general education curricula for the purpose of making several decisions: eligibility, determining instructional placement, set goals, identify strengths and needs, progress toward goal.

Specific Level Assessment

• Involves collecting and analyzing additional assessment data

• The results of the analysis are used to develop instructional strategies

• This process can get very detailed and complicated, but there is some first line questioning that can be very helpful without being overwhelming

Conducting Specific Level: Error Analysis

• Errors are examined in maximum knowledge conditions (un-timed and in isolation) Use a passage sample of about 250 words, a good error sample is about 40-50 errors

• Word lists with similar word types to test hypothesis

• Comprehension questions

Connected Text error patterns:

• Missing prefixes, suffixes or endings• Trouble decoding larger and/or multi-syllable

words• Difficulty with articles (a, the, an)• Confusion of the “wh” or “th” words.• Skipping words• Adding words• Substituting words• Hesitations• Letter-sound correspondence errors• Blending errors

Qualitative Features of Good Reading (Shinn)

Fluency (accuracy + speed)

Uses effective strategies to decode words (word attack strategies uses context for confirmation)

Adjusts pace according to level of text difficulty (words, syntax-word order, semantics-word meaning)

Attends to prosodic features (reads with expression, inflection, punctuation, predicts level of expression according to syntax)

Possesses prediction-orientation (looks ahead when reading, reads at sentence or paragraph level-not word-by-word)

Self-monitors reading (self-corrects when error distorts meaning of sentence/paragraph)

Errors made: Meaning preservation (MP) (“home” for “house”)

Meaning distortion (MD) (“mouse” for “house”)

Automaticity on reread words (words that reappear become “sight” words)

It was a pretty good composition. I felt proud knowing 10it was the best one at my school. After I’d read it five times, 24I was impatient to start reading it out loud. 33

I followed the book’s directions again. First I read the 43composition out loud without trying to sound impressive, just 58to hear what the words sounded like. I did that a couple of 65times. Then I moved over to my full-length mirror and read the 78composition out loud in front of it a few times. At first I just 92read it. Then I practiced looking up and making eye contact. 103Of course I was making eye contact with myself, and that felt 115pretty silly, but that was what the book said to do. 126

Then I went on to reading the composition to an audience. 137this consisted of my favorite teddy bear and Amanda, my best 148doll, the only one I couldn’t bear to give up. 158

Accuracy: _______________49/51=96.1%

Example 1: High Accuracy/Low Rate

It was a pretty good composition. I felt proud knowing 10it was the best one at my school. After I’d read it five times, 24I was impatient to start reading it out loud. 33

I followed the book’s directions again. First I read the 43composition out loud without trying to sound impressive, just 52to hear what the words sounded like. I did that a couple of. 65times. Then I moved over to my full-length mirror and read the 78composition out loud in front of it a few times. At first I just 92read it. Then I practiced looking up and making eye contact. 103Of course I was making eye contact with myself, and that felt 115pretty silly, but that was what the book said to do. 126

Accuracy: ________________41/57 = 71.9%

Example 2: Low Accuracy/Low Rate

How well is Terry reading?– Accurate but slow

How accurately can he perform the skill?– 92%! (would like to see 95%)

Readiness for fluency instruction?– Fluency building and sight

word instruction may be appropriate

– Assess accuracy further with another probe

Assessing Fluency: Terry

How well is Dan reading?– Making many word reading errors.– Reads at a slow pace.

How accurately can he perform the skill? 70%

How easily can he perform the skill?– Labored approach

Readiness for fluency instruction?– Intensive instruction in decoding,

irregular word reading, and advanced word reading.

– Check alphabetic principle skills with NWF. Automaticity instruction may be appropriate but with reading materials he can read accurately.

Assessing Fluency: Dan

Team Time

• Take a few minutes to review the informal assessment in your packet. – Are there students who would benefit from

this assessment in terms of helping you decide the next instructional steps?

– Sometimes we are able to develop a hypothesis about the needs of the student without the phonics survey, but not always

Progress Monitoring

• To evaluate effectiveness of plan

• To provide information regarding how plan should be revised

• To determine if a particular skill is established

3. Analyze Assessment Results

• What are the needs at this time of year?

• Which students have similar needs?

• Which students have more intensive needs?

• How will students be grouped and what will be the instructional priority?

If we don’t analyze

• It’s like a dentist doing an exam taking an x-ray, then just drilling until…

• Out of time?• It feels right?

Grouping – when should it occur?

The 60% RuleThe 60% Rule

• If 60% of the class needs a particular skill or concept, whole group instruction is appropriate.

• If less than 60% is struggling with that skill or concept, small group instruction is most effective and efficient.

Develop Plan

• For Teacher led small group instruction

• For Student Center activities• “If it takes longer to make something

than it does for children to use it instructionally, then don’t bother making it” (Diller, 2003)

A Model for Instructional TimePhonemic Awareness

Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension

Whole Group

30%

15 min

15%

10 min

10%

5 min

30%

20 min

15%

10 min

Teacher Led Phonemic Awareness

Alphabetic Principle

20 minutes Group 1-Onset Rhyme

Group 3 Group 2-sound blending fluency

15 minutes Group 2-Blending

Group 1 Group 3-Blending, Wd rdg

10 minutes Group 3-Segmenting

Group 2 Group 1-Sound blending fluency

Team Time

• With your partner review the case study on page 6

• What are the instructional needs. Create a plan for differentiation

Implementing and Managing

Student Centers in the Classroom (p. 17-30)

I. Form Flexible Groups Based on AssessmentII. Identify Appropriate Center Activities Based

on AssessmentIII. Design Center Management SystemIV. Implement a Behavior Management SystemV. Give Explicit Center DirectionsVI. Organize the ClassroomVII. Manage TransitionsVIII.Establish Accountability

I. Form Flexible Groups Based on Assessment (p. 18-25)

• Teacher-Led Groups– Group size (from 3-8 students)– Keep high-risk group sizes small (3-5

students)– Work with each small group differently based

on instructional need as determined by results of the various reading assessments.

I. Form Flexible Groups Based on Assessment (p. 18-25)

• Monitor progress of those most at-risk students more frequently for making instructional changes to accelerate learning:– Size of the small group– Group members– Level of explicitness– Amount of scaffolding– Length of time for targeted instruction

II. Identify Appropriate Center Activities (p. 25-26)

• Choose Activities that target each group’s instructional need.

• Plan with the learning objective in mind, not the product.

III. Design Center Management System (p. 26-27)

• Establish time efficient routines and protect instructional time– Group Formation– Activities– Center location/areas– Systematic movement of student groups– Scheduling of center time

III. Design Center Management System (p. 26-27)

• Center management boards are graphic organizers that answer Where? When? and What?– Large– Matching words/icons– Student should know how to read it

independently

IV. Implement Behavior Management System (p. 28)

• Students need to know– What to do when something does not work– What to do when they do not understand

the Activity at a Center– What to do when they complete an Activity

at a Center– How to clean up– How to decide who goes first

IV. Implement Behavior Management System (p. 28)

• Questions to ask yourself– Did I introduce too many Centers at once?– Did I do an effective job explicitly teaching the

activity?– Have the students mastered the skill and need to

move on?– Is the activity interesting to the student?– Do students 3 and 6 work well together?– Is this Activity to difficult for students to do

independently?

V. Give Explicit Directions (p. 29)

• Teacher Models and Explains Activity

• Teacher Provides Guided Practice

• Teacher Provides Supported Application

• Students Engage in Independent Practice

VI. Organize the Classroom (p. 29)

• Allows students to– Easily locate materials– Focus on academics– Use Center time productively

VII. Manage Transitions (p. 29)

• Protects and maximizes valuable instructional time– Routines– Expectations– Use the time instructionally

VIII. Establish Accountability (p. 30)

• Prevents students from making the same errors

• Provides opportunity for teachers to instill the importance of quality work

• Conveys the importance of each academic task

Interpretation of Activity Plans (p. 31-36)

• Activity Plans– Used by the teacher to plan and teach an activity– Sequenced by concept in a logical order within each

component

• Activity Masters– Used by the students– May need to be copied– Can be laminated and stored for future use

• Student Sheets– Used by students (consumable)– Need to be copied for each student

Implementation of Activity Plans (p. 37-39)

• Preparing and Organizing Materials• Setting Up Centers• Computer-Based Centers• Selecting Quality Computer Software

and Technology-Based Curricula Materials

• Materials Needed for all Student Center Activities

Summary

1. Establish instructional priorities

2. Conduct appropriate assessment

3. Analyze assessment results

4. Make a plan

5. Try it out for 3 weeks

6. Evaluate the plan