hutch1...@juno.com
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:54:43 -0800
Yeah Lisa, I did mean flex staffing. Which someone else mentioned Richard Allington's book on Struggling Readers. That's where I got the idea. We have 3 reading specialists in my building. One other and myself come in early 3 days a week (and leave early). We're doing fluency work with 3rd graders trying to alleviate some of the need before we get them. She does 5th and I do 4th currently. Obviously this is with only some of those who need help and is dependent on them getting rides. We did it for the 1st half of the year. 5 out of 11 moved out and now see the other reading specialist once a week and we're now seeing the rest of them and 5 new kids moved into the open slots. We just felt that if we could assist some that were good candidates for fluency intervention (which doesn't solve the problem for everyone) that hopefully our caseloads would eventually go down. A recent PD day in which the reading spec. from K-2, 3-5 and 6th grade met, we found out that 2nd grade were teaching things that kids are expected to learn in 3rd and 4th and other things are being left out. Hopefully going forward this will improve and we'll see less gaps. Based on Allington's book I've been trying to advocate since I got to this district a couple of years ago that all sped teachers, reading spec. and the music dept staff do flex hours. 1/2 come in early and leave early and the other 1/2 the opposite. Band is an hour for 5th graders once a week. It ends up being down time for the rest of the 5th graders. Then there's chorus and instrument lessons...... I in no way think this should go away, but rather think it could be done primarily before and after school. Some of my remedial reading students leave during reading for their instrument lesson. Duh! They're not only not getting extra instruction, they're not even getting the regular amt. If we could offer 30 min of intense phonics, or fluency or comprehension before and after school to all of those who are able to get there...... It just makes more sense. Then it would be additional reading instruction rather than supplanting which is what it's supposed to be. norma
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Lisa McGilloway <lisamcgill...@yahoo.com> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 13:32:37 -0800 (PST) Norma-     Thanks so much for your detailed response. It gave me some information and some more questions myself.     I am not familiar with Reading A-Z. We currently administer DRA's to all students at the beginning of the year. The kits that we use do have nonfiction as well as fiction to choose from. I don't feel it's a perfect assessment, but it is easy to administer and provides a look at all students' fluency, comprehension, use of reading strategies, and writing skills. Our SpEd and BSI (Basic Skills Instructors) administer other assessments on an as needed basis in response to students in their case loads.      I found the way you classify your students interesting - in our district, Resource Room students are a branch of SpEd. We also use mostly a push-in model though we do have some pull out for Math. Our BSI teachers teach what would probably be considered your 'remedial' students who are identified based on their below proficiency scores on our state assessment (NJ). They are not considered part of SpEd.      We are short staffed and find that our teachers are doing it all much as you described. They currently work with grade levels rather than specific areas. Although I am a certified Reading Specialist, I work primarily as a classroom teacher although I am generally given the Resource Room and below level students. We wish we could provide time to pull out students in those small targeted groups as you described but there seems to be not enough staff and not enough time. The before and after school model sounds interesting but would likely cost money which, again, we don't have. Are you talking about staff flexing their days so that they would come in earlier or stay later to provide these targeted groups? That sounds interesting.      Teachers feel that DIBELS won't meet the needs of the students as we move our RTI out of our primary buildings and into our intermediate (3-6). This was where the suggestion of using AIMS web came from. Some want to continue the DRA in K-2 then shift to AIMS web in grades 3 and up. I am currently trying to do some research about this idea.      Thanks again...Lisa --- On Sun, 2/7/10, hutch1...@juno.com <hutch1...@juno.com> wrote: From: hutch1...@juno.com <hutch1...@juno.com> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010, 1:05 PM Hi Lisa, Our K-2 does DIBELS and Reading a-z for comprehension. I work in the 3-5 building. We use a-z and will next year use DIBELS on those that perform poorly on that assessment. It is not an ideal assessment, but we still feel it was the best choice. DRA doesn't have a non-fiction component which is all we're using from a-z. Also the DRA takes much longer to use and is more expensive. The QRI doesn't give definitive levels - just are the students above, on or below grade level. What we're looking towards next year is to make less distinction between who is special ed. and who is remedial reading. Oftentimes there are sped students in the classes in which I work which are performing on a higher level than the RR students. I think it just depends on who they've had for teachers and whether their parents advocate for them. (I'm not talking about the low-end spec. ed students. Rather than reading specialists and special ed staff being dedicated to a particular grade we're looking to finding a schedule that would let them get pulled out for ADDITIONAL reading instruction. Currently, sped students are pulled out and RR students have us reading specialists pushing it. Much of our time is spent driving the classroom instruction and not being able to attend to our students on our caseload. So, going forward if we could find slots during the day in which, for example 5th grade students would receive services, we'd all work to provide them with phonics, fluency and/or comprehension small group instruction that would be in addition to their in class reading instruction. It would most likely involve shifting staff schedules to either come in early and leave early or the opposite in an attempt to provide much of the 5th grade support before and after school. We'd specialize in areas of reading rather than a grade level as we currently do. Has anyone tried this model? Has it been successful and what do we need to do Not sure if this is of any help. I ended up asking my own questions. Norma Baker, Reading specialist Grafton Elementary School Grafton, MA “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.â€� ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Lisa McGilloway <lisamcgill...@yahoo.com> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Subject: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 07:34:36 -0800 (PST) Hi to all-     I have been a 'voyeur' on the site for quite a while now and have found many of your comments and suggestions helpful.     I am a member of our district's RTI committee and we are currently looking at ways to 'roll out' our RTI from grades K-2 into grades 3 and up. We use DIBELS as one of our screening measures with this early population but are thinking it won't meet our needs as we move into the higher grades. Does anyone have any information on AIMS Web? It was suggested that we look into it as an alternative to DIBELS or to use starting in grades 3 and up?     Thanks so much for your help and suggestions.         Lisa         Grade 6 Teacher/RTI Committee     _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. 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