Tools for Success In Literacy

Nancy Hennessy M.Ed.

AZIDA 2/28/09

nhennessy@charter.net

Will…..

I saw a red surfbord laying on the rode. It look like my friend so I hid it in the bushis just in case. When I whent to the beach I saw my frend Spence he had his bord….

“I would rather have a root canal than read.”

-excitement and love for learning that “little bunnies” have as they enter school slowly dies-

-Significant numbers of struggling readers

-Special education not “closing gap”

-Increasing demands for literacy

“Statistically, more American children suffer long term life harm from the process of learning to read than from parental abuse, accidents and all other childhood diseases and disorders combined. In purely economic terms, reading related difficulties cost our nation more than the war on terrorism, crime, and drugs combined.”

Children of the Code www.childrenofthecode.org

National Institute for Family Literacy www.nifl.org

• Many educators lack knowledge of structure of language…..

• Foundational knowledge & methodology often not taught in preparation proems……

• Most licensure tests do not assess research-based reading knowledge………..

Analysis of 252 reading course syllabi from 72

institutions.

Coverage of 5 Essential Components

5/5 4/5 3/5 2/5 1/5none

State Level Requirements…

… “Only a handful of states has revised their teaching standards to insist that institutions train teachers in the science of reading instruction.”

Some states with revised standards for higher education:

Florida, Maryland, Colorado,

Virginia, Idaho, Michigan

Moats, 2008

Professional Development Practices

Meet my colleague (or perhaps, yours…)

Ursula the Uninformed

My story and others-true confessions

I , Ursula and perhaps, a few of you, were dysteachic!

Had the art but the science was pseudo at best!

Dysteachia still exists!

Ursula and others, in the absence of knowledge/understanding, have had to rely on:

– tradition– beliefs– superstition– anecdote– intuition

“Research is only defensible foundation for educational practice.”

Voice of Evidence, 2004

Isn’t it enough that I bought a new reading program?

Didn’t you learn how to teach reading in licensing program?

Is this (PD) really going to take more than an afternoon?

You want me to do what?

Voice of evidence

Data

Collaboration

Flexibility

Instruction

What we and our kids need is Ida the Informed……………..

She’s got her change shoes on!!!!

Disciplinary Knowledge

Attitudes

Leadership

Collaboration

Best Practices

Michael Fullan, 2008

• New materials• New behaviors/practices• New beliefs/understandings

-Michael Fullan

Using what we have learned to create:

Informed literacy instruction = Practices x Instructor x Environment

Informed Literacy Instruction=P x I x E

• Practices- aligned with evidence about effective literacy instruction

• Instructors-possess adequate knowledge, training, experience and support to deliver instructional programs with fidelity and intensity.

• Environments-that allocate resources and time so that all learners (educators & and students) have access to continuum of learning opportunities targeted at appropriate level, delivered with sufficient intensity, duration and support.

Adapted Emerson Dickman, 2007

What might we learn about practices, knowledge and environment if we could catch a ride on a few of Ida’s & Ike’s neural networks or yours?

• What do students need to know and be able to do (it)?

• How do we know if they have learned it?

• What will we do if they have not learned it?

• What will we do if they already know it?

“A well child model”

A tiered approach to instruction:

-Core reading program

-Small group supplemental

-Intensive strategic 1:1 or small group

Ongoing assessment process:

Benchmark, screening, progress monitoring. diagnostic & comprehensive…..

RTI……………………………….

“A framework, process, approach that has three primary purposes:-prevention-intervention

-a component of identification of students with LD.” A little bit of Hennessy & others..

“The practice of providing: -high-quality instruction/intervention - matched to student needs - using learning rate over time and level of performance to inform educational decisions.”

IDEA Partnerships, 2007

Systematic approach that calls for systems change………..

– Curriculum and instruction– Structure of support programs – School organization– Allocation of materials, resources, time– Professional development

New Roles in Response to InterventionCreating Success for Schools and Students

• ASHA

• CASE

• CEC

• CLD

• DLD

• IDA

• IRA

• LDA

• NASDE

• NASP

• NCLD

• NEA

• SSWA

• Speech Language Pathologist

• LD Teacher

• Reading Intervention Specialist

• Reading Specialist

• Parent & Family

• School Psychologist

• General Education Teacher

• School Social Worker

A Collaborative Project

November, 2006

www.interdys.org

Systematic instruction

• Logical sequence concepts/skills • Intentional v.s. incidental Instruction• Differentiated instruction• Mastery of prerequisite skills• Integration and generalization of

concepts/skills

(adapted Reid Lyon, 2008)

Assessment

• Who

• What

• When

• Why

Comprehensive Assessment

“ formal and informal measures designed to collect data on history, cognitive processes and academic achievement to be used for purposes of identifying/diagnosing learning disabilities.”

Comprehensive evaluation is conducted by a multidisciplinary team to determine eligibility for special education and related services. • Parents are informed……….

• Evaluation uses multiple sources of assessment data e.g. data from standardized and norm-referenced measures, observations made by parents, students, and teachers, and data collected in Tiers 1 and 2.

• Intensive, systematic, specialized instruction is provided and additional RTI data are collected, as needed, in accordance with special education timelines and other mandates.

• Procedural safeguards…………………….

NJCLD, 2005

Using what we have learned to create:

Informed literacy instruction = Practices x Instructor x Environment

Ursula and I used to think that if we knew how to use our teacher’s manual, we knew how to teach reading.

Ida is well aware she can only teach what she understands…

“The single most powerful and influential invention in the history of the world is right before and between your eyes.”

www.childrenofthecode.org

The reading brain……….

• Left inferior frontal gyrus

• Left temporo-parietal cortex

• Left infero-temporal cortex

neural basis of reading

Speech sounds

Alphabetic code

Visual word form

Brain Briefings, Society for Neuroscience

Dyslexia

Word Recognition x Language Comprehension= Reading Comprehension

Gough & Tunmer,

Dspt dcds f rfrm ffrts, crtn grps f yth—frcn-mrcns, Ltns, nglsh Lngg Lrnrs (LLs), nd this frm lw-ncm hms—cntn t ndrprrm n cmmn ndctrs f cdmc chvmnt. Th crrnt trnd twrd hgh-stks tstng mks the chvmnt gp bth mr glrng nd mr cnsqntl. n k rt f th gp s dsprts n ltrc chvmnt. lthgh rsrch hs tght s mch bt wht s ndd t lrn t rd wrds ff pg...

Carnegie Report, 2003

Despite decades of reform efforts, certain groups of youth—African-Americans, Latinos, English Language Learners (ELLs), and those from low-income homes—continue to underperform on common indicators of academic achievement. The current trend toward high-stakes testing makes the achievement gap both more glaring and more consequential. One key root of the gap is disparities in literacy achievement. Although research has taught us much about what is needed to learn to read words off a page, it has provided much less knowledge about effective means of helping students learn to read to learn.

Carnegie Report, 2003

Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001)

p. 54

● Background Knowledge● Vocabulary Knowledge● Language Structures● Verbal Reasoning● Literacy Knowledge

● Phonological Awareness● Decoding (and Spelling)● Sight Recognition

SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension.

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

WORD RECOGNITION

increasingly

automatic

increasingly

strategic

Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.

Four Processing Systems

““A model for thinking about A model for thinking about how reading develops”how reading develops”

Seidenberg and McClellan, 1989Seidenberg and McClellan, 1989Adams, 1990Adams, 1990

Four Processing Systems

Moats, 2005

Context Processor

Orthographic Processor

Phonological Processor

Meaning Processor

writing outputspeech output reading input

speechsound system

letter memory

Phonemic Awareness

Fluency

Phonics

Concept & Information;Sentence Context;

Text Structure

Vocabulary

p i t c h

/p/ /i/ /ch/

to throw, erect, propose, a tone, a playing field

The scouts will pitch their tents.

“Literacy is a secondary system, dependent on language as the primary system so effective teachers know a good deal about language.”

Snow, 2005

Including but not limited to….• Understanding:

– contributions and instructional implications of language systems and,

– as well as the complexity of skilled reading.

• Can you read this word?• What you know about this word?• Which language systems are you

tapping into?

Consider the language-literacy connection…

• Structure of language– Phonology– Morphology– Orthography– Semantics– Syntax– Discourse and pragmatics– Etymology

• Components of instruction– Phonemic awareness– Phonics (decoding

and spelling)– Fluency– Vocabulary– Comprehension– Writing– Assessment

Moats, LETRS Moats, LETRS 20052005

Reading Rope 2001

● Background Knowledge● Vocabulary Knowledge● Language Structures● Verbal Reasoning● Literacy Knowledge

● Phonological Awareness● Decoding (and Spelling)● Sight Recognition

SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension.

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

WORD RECOGNITION

increasingly

automatic

increasingly

strategic

Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.

What about kids like Will, Maria, Avi, Joseph????

Dyslexia is…..

a specific learning _________ that is___________ based and characterized bydifficulties with decoding and _______ that are the result of a deficit in the ________component of language and is often______ in relation to otherabilities__________and effective classroom Instruction, secondary consequences may include

problems in_________.

Research Definition-IDA, 2002

comprehensionphonological

disabilityencoding

unexpectedNeurologically

cognitive

“Most people think dyslexia is a reading disorder but it is also a spelling and writing problem.”

Berninger, 2006

“Students with dyslexia needed more than 20 times the amount of practice that students without dyslexia need to learn letter sequences.”

Berninger, 2000

Closing the gap…

“If a child is dyslexic early on in school, that child will continue to experience reading problems unless he is provided with scientifically based proven intervention.”

Shaywitz, 2003

Ida & Ike understand that:

“Teaching matters and good teaching can change the brain in a way that has potential to benefit struggling readers.”

Shaywitz, 2003

I think Ida & Ike know a thing or two about an informed environment.

How can I create a professional learning community in which……

• Support and guidance is provided for implementation of evidence-based instructional improvements.

• Everyone is responsible for student achievement.• Everyone commits to a norm of continuous

learning.• Resources are allocated for professional learning

and recognized as essential to student success in these cultures.

Skill Development Ladder

• Unconsciously Skilled/Talented

• Consciously Skilled

• Consciously Unskilled

• Unconsciously Unskilled

They know that if as an educator,

• I seek no feedback from my students, teachers;• I do not analyze and evaluate my work in a manner

that changes my own emphasis, repertoire or timing;

• I do not visit or observe othersas they teach, assess, coach, lead;

• I do not share the work of students with colleagues for feedback, suggestions and critique;

• I do not attend workshops, seminars, training courses and read professional literature on aspects of my teaching;

• I do not welcome visitors with experience and expertise to observe and provide feedback on practices in my classroom, school, district;

• I have no individualized professional development plan focused on classroom, school, district changes to improve student learning; and finally,

• I have no systematic evaluation of my practices tied to individual, grade/department, school and district wide goals,

THEN

I have absolutely no way to become better as a educator

Adapted Carl Glickman, 2002

“Tempered radicals inspire change …They inspire by having the courage to tell the truth even when it is difficult to do so, and by having the conviction to stay engaged in tough conversations…their leadership inspires-and matters-in big and small ways every day.”

Debra Myerson, 2005

Thank you!

Nancynhennessy@charter.net