Teaching
to High Standards:
Establishing Standards, Targets and Exemplary
Literacy Practice
- This TDSB Project involves the following
initiatives:
literacy standards and targets at each grade level
- classroom teaching modeled on successful practices
- professional development for teachers on assessment
strategies
- information to help improve data collection
to monitor students’ achievement in reading
The following three sets of standards have been
established:
Standards and Targets for Student Performance (K – Grade
3)
Standards for Professional Classroom Practice in Literacy (Primary)
Standards for Classroom Resources for Literacy (Primary)
The development of standards, targets, and exemplary
literacy practices for grades 4-8 and grades 9-12 is in progress.
One of the resources for the above project is the Developmental
Reading Assessment (DRA), which
is being implemented board-wide. In-service has been provided
to most primary teachers on using levelled texts, running records,
and observation guides. Workshops have been provided to 3600
primary teachers linking instruction with assessment. A CD
has also been produced that shows students reading at each
level. The DRA is being used to collect data to monitor reading
skills of students in grades 1 to 3.
At the heart of the assessment is a one-on-one
reading conference that the teacher arranges with each student
who reads specially selected levelled texts. This reading conference
gives teachers a chance to observe students individually and
record their responses and behaviour while they read aloud. While
listening to the student read, the teacher makes note of the
student’s reading speed, phrasing, expression, attention
to punctuation, and any changes made to the text, such as, substitutions
or omissions (miscues). The nature of these miscues lets the
teacher know whether the student is having difficulty with a
particular reading strategy, for example, sounding out words,
grammar, or comprehension.
After reading aloud the student is asked to retell
the story in his or her own words. By looking at how complete
and how well-organized the retelling is, the teacher can decide
how well the student understood the story. Using the information
collected during the assessment, the teacher identifies what
the student needs to learn next and what areas to focus on during
instruction.
Early Years Literacy Project
The Early Years Literacy Project builds
capacity in all learners in the school. The intent is that all
students in the primary years will read and write at grade level.
The ninety-three schools participating are provided with a literacy
expert who is in the school to provide support to teachers and
manage literacy resources. The project provides each school with
a full implementation of Reading Recovery™ such that one to
one intervention for at risk readers in grade one is available.
These resources give schools the basis to have the various resources
needed to run balanced literacy programs. As well a number of resources
are provided to schools for professional development. All schools
in the project assess students with the DRA assessment tool in
the fall and in the spring. Training to administer these assessments
is provided annually.
The project has been well received with it doubling
in schools participating (47 schools last year and 93 schools
this year) and many more schools wanting to be included. It is
anticipated that over the four years the number of students able
to read and write at grade level in the primary grades will be
over 80% with a number of schools reaching closer to 90%. The
goal is 100%.
Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery™ is a one to one
intervention program for students in grade one who are at risk
readers and writers. Teachers are intensively trained in their
first year of teaching Reading Recovery and are continuously trained
throughout the time they are teaching Reading Recovery™. A
trained teacher will teach from 10 to 15 students per year. A Reading
Recovery™ teacher only teaches Reading Recovery for half a
day, preferably in the morning. Students receive a 30-minute lesson,
one on one, for a maximum of twenty weeks. Selected students who
received Reading Recovery have been assessed and are the lowest
achievers in reading and writing in the classroom. Our experience
reflects a 60-80% success rate for students returning to the regular
classroom and achieving at level three in the classroom in grades
two and three. The success stories of the students in Reading Recovery™ are
told by school staff and parents alike. The results are celebrated
and highly valued. The success of this program is well established.
Reading Clinics
Reading Clinic is a literacy intervention
program that provides supplementary instruction to students in
Grades 2 through 8, who are experiencing significant difficulty
achieving the expected provincial standards in reading, spelling,
and written language. They are, however, able to meet expectations
across the other areas of the curriculum. The goal of Reading Clinic
is to give daily small-group, withdrawal support to these students
in their English curriculum so that they can remain in their regular
class placement for the rest of their academic program. An intensive
literacy assessment is conducted with each potential candidate
referred by the School Support Team, and students receive placement
on the basis of the results. Reading Clinic teachers are allocated
according to the number of students who have been designated for
admission. There are currently two clinicians, who do the evaluations
in a service area that covers 110 schools, and 15 teachers, who
are assigned to do programming with 191 students in 37 Reading
Clinic sites that include children from 58 home schools.
LEAP/UP/BOOSTER Programs
The Literacy Enrichment Academic Program
(LEAP) and the ESL Upgrading Program (ESL Up) are intensive upgrading
programs for students who have recently arrived in Ontario schools
with limited prior schooling. Some have not had opportunity to
attend school at all before arriving in Canada. As a result, these
students are significantly behind their peers in literacy and numeracy;
and would not achieve level 1 if assessed according to grade level
expectations. LEAP and ESL Up programs help students to make significant
gains (equivalent to at least grade two levels in one
academic year) in second language development, literacy and numeracy
skills, and academic skills and knowledge, so that they can eventually
be successfully integrated into the mainstream program. Because
the number of students requiring LEAP or ESL Up is relatively small
in individual schools, the programs are offered as "congregated" programs
in designated schools serving local clusters of schools. LEAP and
ESL Up programs are provided for newcomers in grades 6-9. At this
time there is no special support available for newcomers in earlier
grades.
The Middle
Years/Adolescent Literacy Project is
a comprehensive, school-wide approach to cross-curricular literacy
instruction in grades 6 - 8 that is being launched in approximately
20 schools with special needs. The project involves the later
literacy intervention for at-risk students, and a school-wide
focus on literacy to deliver effective literacy programs.
Later Literacy ™ provides
intensive intervention for struggling readers and writers in
grades 6-8. Selected teachers receive three days of training
in effective reading and writing strategies and cross-curricular
literacy resources, which they then use to support at-risk students
in their schools.
The Supports
for Higher Achievement in Literacy initiative
provides in-service, ongoing support, and exemplary materials
on instructional and assessment strategies to help schools
design effective literacy programs for at risk-students in
grades 6-9.
A Mentoring
for Literacy Project has been initiated
to help new teachers in the TDSB to develop exemplary literacy
programs. Participating families of schools receive training
to link new teachers with experienced mentors who offer support
in goal-setting, professional dialogue, and best practices
in literacy.
Approximately one hundred classroom
teachers from all families of schools have been trained as First
Steps Trained Tutors. These Tutors
will provide school-based workshops and support in the assessment
and instruction components of the First Steps Writing
Strand across the TDSB. |
