Programmes for Students:

Accelerating Literacy Learning: ALL

Principal evaluation and self review day

Workshop 1

27th May 2014

Presenter –Leytia Leota Vision Education

leytia.leota@xtra.co.nz

What is programmes for students 2014?

Accelerating Literacy Learning (ALL) is part of Programmes for Students (PfS). ALL focuses on using the expertise within the school to evaluate the effectiveness of current practices that support accelerated literacy learning and to closely monitor the impact of a 15 week intervention for a small group of students in the first year.

An absence of common expectations for student outcomes

at every level in the system;

A culture of dependency on “second wave” interventions;

Uncertainty about how to respond to the numbers of

students that were not making progress;

A lack of capability at the classroom level to assess and

provide intensive explicit literacy instruction;

A confusing clutter of mismatched, sometimes

counterproductive interventions.

Borderfield’s Report (2008)

There is often confusion about how to respond to particular student needs

ERO Report – Accelerating the

progress of Priority Learners in

Primary Schools (May 2013)

‘A system–wide emphasis on the strategies

teachers can use to accelerated progress

is needed. All teachers have an ethical

responsibility to help those students that

need to catch up to their peers. This is

essential if we are to raise the achievement

of NZ students relative to their international

counterparts.’

(p.21)

What is acceleration?

Acceleration in this context has three dimensions:

Acceleration is the student’s learning progress showing a

noticeably faster, upward movement than might otherwise have

been expected by the trend of their own past learning.

Accelerated learning is learning at a rate faster than classmates

progressing at expected rates in order catch them up; and

Accelerated learning is learning at a rapid rate that brings the

student achievement level to that consistent with, or beyond, a set

of benchmarks or standards (NZ Curriculum Reading and Writing

Standards).

A shift in the trajectory of learning R

eadin

g L

evel

Weeks at School

Progress that is expected for allstudents

A supplementary programme identifies when an intervention takes place

e.g. students below expectation as shown here,

what it would be – based on evidence of impact,

monitoring during and after, plan b for the students who do not

accelerate learning, e.g. the students with “flat’’ progress

Achievement pathway for a particular student

(group of 5 Xs)

curr

icu

lum

leve

ls

Years at school

National priorities

Programmes for Students – ALL sits within the national priorities for

Improved student learning and accelerated improvement for all, and in particular

Maori, Pasifika, students with special needs and those achieving below curriculum

expectations

Culturally responsive pedagogy centred on the needs of students

Tätaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers - teachers’ relationships and

engagement with Mäori learners and with their whänau and iwi.

Maori Education plan

Pasifika Education plan

Success for all

Inquiry at the head of Professional learning and development, school practice,

classroom practice, student agency, family/whanau engagement

Embedding NZC and key competencies

Assessment FOR learning

Programmes for students aims

to:Work at the level of the individual student

Provide intensive learning opportunities for students

who are not achieving in literacy and numeracy at the

expected level (the National Standards for reading,

writing and mathematics)

Provide additional support over and above regular

classroom teaching

Focus squarely on the student,

Have accelerated success in learning

What are the critical factors in accelerating

literacy achievement● Knowing your learners and deliberately linking instructional content to learner’s prior knowledge – before, during and after instruction

● Student agency

Metacognitively rich instruction and experiences

Integration of formative assessment across the curriculum

● Deliberately instructing to know, select, use and control strategies employed by “skilled” readers and “skilled” writers – in literacy and transferred to meet the demands of all curriculum areas

● Selection of appropriate text, task and teaching approaches

● Active engagement of learners – student agency - motivation and engagement

What is a successful intervention?

What we know about effective interventions?

Supplementary NOT replacement – dose and density – still focuses

on the “instructional core” – the daily discourse of teaching and

learning

Data driven – multiple data sources including student and

parent/whanau voice

Targeted inquiry and targeted improvements focusing on literacy

and effective teaching that significantly improves student learning

Embedded with culturally responsive beliefs and practices

Success is not about teacher “mastery” of new practices – it is

about the impact of the new practices on improving student

achievement

Three tiers of intervention

Tier 1- effective classroom practice = effective teaching for all

Tier 2 – Short term intensive school based specific interventions - If effective teaching is happening then there will only be a small amount of students who should need this type of support.

Tier 3 – Additional Specialist support from outside of the school - this level of support should only be required for 2 to 5 % of the school population at some schools.

Identify the level of

support groups of

students will need to

access this learning

focus

Describe what students

know and do (describe the

rich resources students

can bring to the next

learning experiences)

Using “Teaching

as Inquiry”

to trigger

supplementary

supports for

some students

BES model for systematic improvement

Supplementary ‘NOT’ replacement.

Data driven.

Metacognition

Dose and Density.

Student agency.

School led and driven.

Pedagogically sound

Culturally responsive

Innovative – based on sound ideas.

Iterative inquiry

Implementing a system of support

Curriculum and Achievement Map

Key Messages

School leadership self review – monitoring long term impact, improving school curriculum and achievement map, transferring to new contexts, communicating with parents/whānau, BoT, community/iwi/hapū, MoE

Refocus

For students What do we

need to do differently for the students who didn’t accelerate progress?

What do classroom teachers need to do differently to support those who have accelerated?

For the supplementary

inquiry team What do we

embed and what do we improve?

Which teachers should try an acceleration programme next?

Implementation of supplementary

programme

Inquiry and knowledge building

cycles Monitors, reviews

and adjusts practices, and develops educationally powerful connections with community

Teaching as inquiry Highly effective and

culturally responsive teaching based on what works

Develops educationally powerful relationships with parents/whānau

Supplementary Inquiry Design

Iterative programme design Based on what

works Includes

monitoring and evaluation processes

Selection of students

Based on school and national targets

Particular focus on equity –Māori, Pasifika, SEN, and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds

Evaluation

OrganisationHow best do we resource this for: Powerful

connections with family/whānau

Classroom teaching

Supplementary inquiry team

Curriculum & AchievementWhat works in our school, for whom and why?What does the research say works

faster for whom and

why?

Outcomes

For teachers Improved pedagogy

and practice Agency

For supplementary inquiry team

Improved evaluative capabilities

Improved pedagogies Improved

educationally powerful relationships

For studentsAcceleration of progressKnowledge and skills to

engage with classroom curriculum

Self-directing learning strategies

Agency

•Figure 3: Intervention Logic

Curriculum and Achievement

What works in our school, for whom

and why?

What does the research say works

faster for whom and why?

Organisation

How best do we resource this for:

Powerful connections with

family/whānau?

Classroom teaching?

Supplementary inquiry team?

Selection of Students

What are our school and the national literacy

targets?

Is our focus on equity – Māori, Pasifika, SEN, ELL

and students from lower socio-economic

backgrounds?

Iterative programme design

Do we know what works faster?

How do we monitor and evaluate processes?

In determining the students who will be

the focus of your invention consider1. What is your data telling you?

2. What are you going to/have done with it?

3. What triggered the need to instigate a supplementary programme?

4. What do you know about the students who are showing no improvement? What is needed to accelerate their progress?

Who are you students in the following priority groups

1. Students who are ELLs

2. Students below expected curriculum achievement level

3. Maori students

4. Pasifika students

Responses to these questions should identify students for whom multiple sources of data and inquiry illustrate a need for planned and targeted intervention

Teacher inquiry at the heart of improved

learning outcomes for students

Inquiry Question: What is acceleration and how do we achieve

it?

School self review and professional learning as inquiryH

a

b

i

t

u

a

l

I

n

q

u

i

r

y

C

y

c

l

e

Continual inquiry in to the impact of change. On-gong explicit discussion of the challenges faced.

Using data to inform decision makingSchools will select to use data from

Running records, use of wedge graphs

AsTTle Reading

PAT Reading

asTTle writing

Observation Survey

STAR

Supported by

Strong formative assessment practices

A focus on student agency

Family/whanau involvement and voice

Literacy learning progressions and national standards

ELLP documentation

A key focus of successful intervention includes on-going close monitoring of students by using assessment data as part of inquiry to show improvement and acceleration.

Student agency

How do our students view their own literacy learning? Do they see themselves as successful readers and/or writers.

How do students know they are being supported to achieve?

How do students have access to high levels of support?

Can students talk about their self-directing strategies for literacy learning?

What does the teacher do to help you become a successful reader and/or writer? What would you like your teacher to do to more of, to help you with your reading and writing? What makes a good teacher of reading and writing?

Which subjects do you like or dislike – and why

Selection of a teacher to lead this programmeTeachers who have:

The ability to work as part of a supplementary inquiry team within your school in order to sustain and embed effective practices and support other classroom teachers to inquire in to the effectiveness of their own class programmes and transfer learnings from this work

• High expectations of students

• Strong literacy PCK and CK

• Open to learning and confident to try new things

• Notice, understand, reflect, respond

• Flexibility with a variety of appropriate teaching strategies

• Permanent staff member

• Approachable and patient

• Ability to encourage & connect to whanau, parents & students

• Able to inquire in to the effectiveness of their intervention to support student acceleration

In the teaching inquiry, teachers select teaching strategies that

will support their students to achieve desired outcomes. This

involves asking questions about how well current strategies are

working and whether others might be more successful.

The learning inquiry takes place both during and after

teaching as teachers monitor their students’ progress

towards the identified outcomes and reflect on what

this tells them.

Teachers use this new information to decide what to do next to

ensure continued improvement in student achievement and in their

own practice.

This focusing inquiry establishes a baseline and a direction. The

teacher uses all available information to determine what their

students have already learned and what they need to learn next.

Leadership commits to…

Attendance at ALL self review, planning and impact workshops by principal and ALL teacher (May, June, November)

Full leadership involvement in the project

Organisation that facilitates teacher involvement

Intense focus on the project that includes 15 weeks of daily instruction for target students

Developing school systems that will sustain the new way of operating beyond MOE funding

Provision of any additional teacher release costs not covered by MOE

Providing data and a full report to the MOE at the completion of the project.

What is collaborative inquiry?

Groups of teachers working together to address a shared issue or

concern

Teachers search their own and their colleagues’ past practice for

strategies that may be more effective, and they also look in the

research literature to see what has worked in other contexts. They

seek evidence that their selected strategies really have worked for

other students, and they set up processes for capturing evidence

about whether the strategies are working for their own students.

Reflection – time to make sense of the experiences we are having

and what we are learning

Ministry commits to…

Payment of get $6140 (GST exclusive) for teacher release time to

support attendance at compulsory workshops; planning, monitoring

and evaluation and 15 weeks of intensive teaching

Covering the costs for travel and accommodation for the

compulsory workshops

Mentoring support through contracted literacy suppliers

Guidance if needed and sought by schools.

Mentor support

Schools could expect approximately 4 contacts during the 15 week

period of the intervention, including:

Email contact

Phone conversations

Visits – school and/or cluster

Skype

Professional readings

Cluster meetings

All schools have mentor attached to them – CPL or Vision.

Moving forward – planning for success

Inquiry in to our own school practices and learning needs of our students

What is a successful intervention – rubric 6- Choices of Approaches and interventions

Accelerated learning – Rubric 9 – Accelerated progress for students achieving below curriculum expectations in literacy-Rubric 4-Consultation and Involvement of parents and whanau

Inquiry in to the needs of our students

What criteria will we use for the selection of students for ALL and why will we select these students?

What other information do you need to source?

Last years data – previous interventions - student voice – talking to family/whanau

Selecting personnel

Who will you choose to lead the intervention – what will you look for in this person and WHY will you choose them? What is YOUR schools’ criteria for selecting this teacher?

Establishing a team and levels of support

Not alone - Who will be in your supplementary inquiry team – support team in your school – RTLit, Literacy leader, RTLB, teachers within your school with Post graduate papers, TESOL

Preparing for Planning….

What are the needs of the students we have selected?

What will the intervention include and WHY?

How will we closely monitor and review the impact of our

intervention?

How will we develop student agency?