Core Strength Training: Tier I for All!
Dean RichardsJon Potter
Northwest PBIS ConferenceMarch 9, 2010
Targets• Universal Screening• Core Instruction delivered with
Fidelity• Tier 1 Data-Based Decision Making
Universal Screening“Screening involves brief assessments
that are valid, reliable, and evidence-based. They are conducted with all students or targeted groups of students to identify students who are at risk of academic failure and, therefore, likely to need additional or alternative forms of instruction to supplement the conventional general education approach.”
– National Center on Response to Intervention
Screening Tools are designed to:– Compare all students to
the same grade-level standard
– Accurately identify those who are on track to meet grade level expectations, and those who will need more support
– Evaluate the quality of your schoolwide instructional system
– Be efficient, standardized, reliable, and valid
Screening tools are NOT designed to:– Identify specific
instructional levels for individual students
– Identify WHY some students will need more support
– Evaluate individual teachers
– Take a large amount of instructional time and vary between classrooms
Good Screening Tools
• Maze• EasyCBM• AIMSweb ORF• DIBELS• Math Computation• Math Applications• Math Tests of Early
Numeracy• Writing (Total Words
Written)• Writing (Correct Word
Sequences)
• Quick Phonics assessment
• QRI-IV• CORE Multiple
Measures Assessment• DRA2• Fountas and Pinnell• Report cards• Meeting OAKS
standards• Read Well Unit Tests,
core curriculum weekly tests on skills that are learned
Screeners Not Screeners
What is CBM?Curriculum Based Measures are usually composed of a set of standard directions, a timing device, set of materials, scoring rules, standards for judging performance, and record form or charts.
These are also called General Outcome Measures (GOM)
Essential Features of CBM Tools
• Robust indicator of academic health • Brief and easy to administer• Can be administered frequently• Must have multiple, equivalent forms
– (If the metric isn’t the same, the data are meaningless)
• Must be sensitive to growth
Why use a Universal Screener to Track Progress?
Good, R.H., Simmons, D.C., & Smith, S.B. (1998). Effective academic interventions in the United States: Evaluating and enhancing the acquisition of early reading skills. School Psychology Review, 27, 45-56
Children who are poor readers in 1st grade are highly likely to fall further and further behind
•Overtly teaching each step through teacher modeling and many examples (Gradual Release Model).
• Explicit• Systematic• Practice and
Mastery• Application
and Feedback
Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction
•Breaking lessons and activities into sequential, manageable steps that progress from simple to more complex concepts and skills. i.e. scope and sequence of program
• Explicit• Systematic• Practice and
Mastery• Application
and Feedback
Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction
•Providing many opportunities for students to respond and demonstrate what they are learning, which may include teacher modeling, rehearsal, and feedback.
• Explicit• Systematic• Practice and
Mastery• Application
and Feedback
Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction
• Generalize what is learned in different contexts. We want students to apply the lessons to the next text they read.
• Explicit• Systematic• Practice and
Mastery• Application
and Feedback
Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction
Fidelity to the core
•The BIG 5•The scope and sequence•State standards
What we teach…
•Phonemic Awareness •Phonics•Fluency•Vocabulary•Comprehension
How we teach it…
•Classroom Organization•Matching students to text•Access to interesting text with choice and collaboration•Writing and Reading•Expert Tutoring
Big 5 + 5
Fidelity to the core
•The BIG 5•The scope and sequence•State standards
Scope and sequence
• We want to be sure that we know what has and what will be taught. This relieves pressure.
• Mastery of skills looks different at all levels
• Repeated opportunities to learn
Summarize
• K Unit 4Week 1, U4W2, U4W3, U7W1, U7W2, U7W3• 1 U1W1, U1W2, U1W3, U4W4, U4W5, U6W4, U6W5• 2 U1W3, U1W4, U1W5, U2W1, U2W2, U2W3,
U5W1, U5W3, U5W4, U5W5• 3 U1W3, U1W4, U2W3, U2W5, U5W1, U5W5• 4 U1W2, U1W3, U3W3, U3W4• 5 U2W2, U2W3, U2W4, U6W1, U6W5• 6 U2W4, U2W5, U6W3, U6W5
• (Example from one Oregon approved core)
Fidelity to the core
•The BIG 5•The scope and sequence•State standards
Why is fidelity important?
• Comprehensive program that incorporates all components of reading• Students have the opportunity to make
connections• Students read text that supports vocabulary,
phonics, and comprehension lessons• The whole school has a common
language, common goal, and common tools
Fidelity to the core
Worksheets Fidelity
The core program provides the answer to what we teach. . . . we must bring our best instruction to answer “how we teach.”
--Amy Petti, PSU
Fidelity to the core
Evaluating your Core Program
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
--Winston Churchill,
British prime minister
Strong data analysis guides decisions
Tier 1 Meetings: Purpose
• To determine the effectiveness of the core, supplemental and intensive programming
AND• Make necessary adjustments to
these programs if they are not meeting the needs of most students
General Features
When: 2-3 times per year (following collection of your schoolwide screening data)
Who: Principal, Literacy Specialist/Title I, Counselor, Grade level team (could include Special Education teacher, ELL teacher, School Psychologist, Paraprofessionals)
General Features
What: Use schoolwide data to answer questions about core instruction and supplemental and intensive instruction
Outcomes: Identify prioritized areas of need for the core curriculum and develop a plan (with a goal) for improving schoolwide achievement
Do not get stuck in problem admiring
How do you help staff understand and use data?
1. Focus on data – What do the data tell you?
2. Define the problem– Develop hypotheses
3. Link to instruction
Use an agenda or guiding questions to guide staff through the process
Guiding Questions• Based on districtwide screening data,
is our core program sufficient for most students?– Review and analyze benchmark screening
data. • Determine percentage of students at low risk, some
risk and at-risk levels• Determine percentages compared to previous years
and earlier in the year• Determine percentages of student movement
amongst levels– Review annual OAKS testing data.
• Determine percentage of students meeting minimum proficiency standards as set by the district
– For example, Proficiency > 35%ile
Determine percentage of students at low risk, some risk and at-risk levels
68%
17%
15%
Determine percentages compared to previous years and earlier in the year
63%
15%
23%
68%
17%
15%
Determine percentages of student movement amongst
levels
13
10 3
16
121 3
66
6 6000
Intensive at Beginning of the year Strategic at Beginning of the year Benchmark at Beginning of the year
Data Walls
Determine percentage of students meeting minimum OAKS proficiency standards…
As set by your district
OAKS• Passing OAKS 3rd grade
(204) places a child in the 17th percentile
• Passing 3rd grade is not enough.
• By 5th grade, if these students stay at the same percentile they will fail OAKS
• By 10th grade, if these students stay at the same percentile they will fail OAKS
• This student will score a 236 and pass at the 37th percentileBased on 2008-2009 ODE percentiles
What now?
Instructional needs
a) What are the common instructional needs of the students this grade level?
Phonemic Awareness • Phoneme deletion and manipulation• Blending and segmenting individual
phonemes• Onset-rime blending and segmentation• Syllable segmentation and blending• Sentence segmentation• Rhyming• Word comparison
Instructional needs
Phonics•Letter sounds •VC and CVC•Consonant Digraphs•CVCC and CCVC•Silent E•R-control vowels•Advanced consonants (i.e.,-tch, kn, soft c &g)•Vowel Teams•Multi-syllable words•Prefixes and suffixes
Instructional needs
95% 98% 99%
The Secret Life of Bees
18.5 7.4 3.6
My Brother Sam is Dead
15 6 3
The Magic School Bus
6 2.4 1.2
Fluency•Accuracy•Prosody
– Expression – Emphasis– Phrasing– Volume– Smoothness
•Rate–CWPM
The old man the vegetable garden.
Instructional needs
Vocabulary• Contextual Analysis: A strategy readers use to infer
or predict a word from the context in which it appears.• Morphemic Analysis: A strategy in which the
meanings of words can be determined or inferred by examining their meaningful parts (i.e., prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc.)
• Expressive Vocabulary: Requires a speaker or writer to produce a specific label for a particular meaning.
• Receptive Vocabulary: Requires a reader to associate a specific meaning with a given label as in reading or listening.
Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Oregon
Instructional needs
Comprehension• Text Structure• Make Inferences and Analyze• Evaluate• Story Structure• Generate Questions• Summarize• Monitor Comprehension
Keep in mind:Reading OAKS strand information is more related to the difficulty of the passage than the ability for the student to use the skill
Instructional needs
Identify and celebrate what works
i) What has worked?
• Examine the data• Which teachers/grade
levels/buildings have people heard are successful?
• Opportunities for peer observation? – Coach or administrator cover class for
20 minutes
Identify and celebrate what works
Instructional adjustments
ii) What agreements can the grade level make on common instructional strategies?
(1) How are you going to make the instruction more explicit?
(2) How are you going to provide extra guided practice when needed?
(3) How are you going to provide more corrective feedback to students?
(4) How and when are you going to have students practice skills independently?
Instructional adjustments
How are you going to make the instruction more EXPLICIT?
Sets the purpose for the instruction• Identifies the important details of the
concept being taught• Provides instructions that have only one
interpretation• Makes connection to previously learned
material
Instructional adjustments
How are you going to provide extra GUIDED PRACTICE when needed?
• Provides more than one opportunity to practice each new skill
• Provides opportunities for practice after each step in instruction
• Elicits group response when feasible• Provides structured partner talk time• Provides extra practice based on accuracy of
student responsesI do, we do, ya’ll do, you do
Instructional adjustments
How are you going to provide more CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK to students?
• Provides affirmations for correct responses• Promptly corrects errors with provision of
correct model• Limits corrective feedback language to the
task at hand• Ensures mastery of all students before
moving on
How and when are you going to have student PRACTICE SKILLS INDEPENDENTLY?
• Independent work routines and procedures taught• Models tasks before allowing students to work
independently • Students use previously learned strategies or
routines when they come to a task they don’t understand
• Independent work is completed with high level of accuracy
Instructional adjustments
iii) What agreements can the grade level make on common active engagement strategies? How will you increase active engagement to increase the effectiveness of the instruction?
Active engagement
How many times it takes to learn something new
• Average Learner• Everybody else• Truly disabled student
Jo Robinson (2008)
4-14 times14-250 times
250-350 times
Active engagement
Teacher Behavior• Gains student attention before
initiating instruction• Paces lesson to maintain attention• Maintains close proximity to students• Transitions quickly between tasks• Intervenes with off-task students to
maintain their focus
Active engagement
• Think/pair/share• Think/write/share• Choral response• Jobs/roles of students• Graphic organizer in
use as a response to instruction
• Physical gestures; hand signals
• White board responses
• Manipulatives• Students are meaningfully
engaged in reading, writing or talking about the content of the lesson
• Cooperative groups are productively engaged in dialogue, discourse or learning activities
• Guided practice is evident• Student self assessment
Active engagement
Amy Petti & Tara Black. Adapted from LBUSD
Lesson activities
Fidelity
iv) What can you do to improve your teaching of the core to fidelity? How is your team using fidelity checklists to improve the instruction within the core?
• 5 minute walk through• Core program fidelity check• Intervention fidelity checks
Fidelity
• Come agreements around a fidelity checklist
• Does a grade level need to create their own?– Systematic way for the administrator
and coach to agree on outcomes
Fidelity
• Is the whole team at the same place in the curriculum?
• Pacing guides provide consistency about the amount of time that will be spent on each essential learning.
• To be used to guide the pacing of the instruction, not a military march toward a goal.
Fidelity
North Clackamas Schools
• What are the most essential outcomes for the upcoming units?– Endurance: Are students expected to retain
the skills or knowledge long after the unit is completed?
– Leverage: Is this skill or knowledge applicable to many academic disciplines?
– Readiness for the next level of learning: Is this skill or knowledge preparing the student for success in the next unit/grade?
Reeves (2002)
Fidelity
v) What are your professional development needs and goals?
Professional development
High quality professional development. . . • Focuses on teachers but includes all of the school
community• Focuses on individual, collegial and organizational
improvement• Nurtures leadership capacity of school community• Reflects best available research and practice• Promotes continuous inquiry and improvement • Is planned collaboratively by those who will participate in
and facilitate the development • Requires time and resources• Driven by a long-term plan• Is evaluated on the impact on student learning
Adapted from Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 6/98
Professional development
• Model lessons by coach• Peer lesson observation• Substitute time for team planning• Visit high performing schools within
the district• Parent communication• Schedule change
Professional development
Set fresh goals
c) Establish an end of the year goal to work toward for the percentage of student you would like to see in each tier based on assessment data.
• Look at your current reality. • What is an ambitious and attainable
goal?• Pick a goal for each tier
– Tier 1 to 80% ?– Tier 2 to 15% ?– Tier 3 at 5% ?
Set fresh goals
What is the current reality
65%
98 Total 3rd graders
22%
12%
64 students
22 students
12 students
What is the current reality
65%
98 Total 3rd graders
22%
12%
64 students
22 students
12 students
18 students
12 students
What is the current reality
53%
98 Total 3rd graders
16%
30%
52 students
16 students
30 students
18 students
12 students
Sharing this information with teachers
• Celebrate!!!– 65% are doing well– Over 50% of the students have met the
end of the year benchmark• Keep the focus
– 12% of the Benchmark students are on the edge
– 18% of the Strategic are on the edge
What is an ambitious and attainable goal?
January Spring Goal
Benchmark 65%
Strategic 22%
Intensive 12%
What is an ambitious and attainable goal?
January Spring Goal
Benchmark 65% 75%
Strategic 22%
Intensive 12%
What is an ambitious and attainable goal?
January Spring Goal
Benchmark 65% 75%
Strategic 22% 18%
Intensive 12%
Establish an end of the year goal of percentages in each tier
January Spring Goal
Benchmark 65% 75%
Strategic 22% 18%
Intensive 12% 7%