Reading Now Network - WKTV Journal

Kent ISD early literacy coach Katie Momber works with a Godfrey-Lee student (Photo courtesy of Kyle Mayer)

By Erin Albanese

In an effort to improve third-grade reading proficiency, the Godfrey Lee Public Schools district will receive $20,000 to implement instructional practices recommended by Reading Now Network over the next two-and-half years.

An instructional team of about a dozen literacy experts from all over the state recently visited classrooms to observe reading and writing instruction at Godfrey Elementary School, which houses third through fifth grades, and Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Education Center, which houses preschool through second grade.

The district was invited to receive help from RNN because of its demographics and low third-grade reading proficiency levels. The district has the second-highest English-language learner population in the state, at about 50 percent. About 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch and third-grade reading proficiency is about 27 percent.

“We are one of the lower-achieving schools,” said Godfrey Elementary Principal Andrew Steketee. “We don’t want our socioeconomic status to be an excuse for that. Knowing our students and staff, there is no reason we can’t be higher achieving. They are going to help us identify how to be more successful.”

Reading Now Network, a collaborative effort involving 100 districts, launched in 2014 to increase the proportion of third-graders reading proficiently to 80 percent.

It was started by examining best instructional practices at elementary schools with high reading success rates in order to implement them region-wide. High-achieving schools studied ranged from urban to rural, with varying levels of poverty.

Literacy expert Patti Konarska helps a student with letters (Photo courtesy of Kyle Mayer)

Help from the Experts

As a participant, the Godfrey-Lee district receives a day of instructional rounds from literacy experts. Steketee will work with a facilitator, a highly skilled literacy expert, to put into practice priorities identified in the classroom visits.

Western Michigan University, in partnership with RNN, received a $12.5 million federal grant known as the High Impact Leadership Project. This project will support 152 of the highest-poverty, lowest-achieving schools in 20 West and Southwest Michigan counties, including Kent and Ottawa.

In its first group of schools, which includes Godfrey-Lee, RNN will conduct Harvard Instructional Rounds in participating schools by March 1, said Kyle Mayer, Ottawa Area ISD assistant superintendent. Schools will receive $20,000 from the High Impact Leadership Project, and assistance to implement the resulting recommendations and to support early literacy practices of the General Education Leadership Network.

If work done over the next two-and-half years in those schools proves effective in boosting student literacy achievement, another cohort of schools will receive similar supports.

“We are optimistic that if we work together to support research-based practice in every classroom every day, student achievement gains will follow,” Mayer said. If data shows improvement, the grant will be extended.

Project Provides Focus

Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center Principal Pete Geerling said he looks forward to recommendations from RNN.

“Right now, there are so many good things out there, and we as a district try to make sure we are up to speed with best practice,” Geerling said. “But this is going to provide some focus — a couple things we can wrap our heads around and really try to attack.”

RNN has also worked in identified lab schools, helping them improve scores through effective instructional practices. Those schools included Parkview Elementary in Wyoming Public Schools; Moon Elementary in Muskegon Public Schools; Woodbridge Elementary in Zeeland Public Schools; and Big Jackson, a two-room schoolhouse in Newaygo County.

As a result, Moon Elementary boosted third-grade proficiency rates on the M-STEP from about 8 to 17 percent. The school has an almost 100 percent free and reduced lunch rate.

“They hosted this process of instructional rounds two years ago, identified some priorities and were supported by the Muskegon ISD in following through on those,” Mayer said. “They are kind of the shining star as a school that is really deeply committed to recommendations that were produced out of an instructional rounds day. They have results that show things are moving in the right direction.”

High-Performers Provide Good Models

School News Network - Reading — Practicing letters on a clear board is just one fun way to learn phonics

By: Erin Albanese — School News Network

Collaboration is the way forward, say leaders of West Michigan’s Reading Now Network. Teachers teaching other teachers, more staff with reading expertise, and learning from those whose students are excelling, are all actions the region’s schools are taking to change reading achievement numbers.

Dorothy VanderJagt, RNN field study member and director of Teaching & Learning at Kent ISD, said teachers presented best practices at the Fall Institute, share tips on the RNN Twitter feed and “are visiting other schools to dig deeper into those common traits of the high performers.”

Educators from the Field Study Team are working directly with schools that need to make big gains, with administrators who set a goal to meet or exceed their peers in two years.

The work of Reading Now Network, a collaborative effort to increase reading proficiency involving 100 districts in 13 counties, is well under way. It is paying off in districts like Kelloggsville, where additional staff and new techniques are helping students read in fun, new ways.

Kyle Mayer, an RNN field study member and Ottawa Area ISD assistant superintendent, said the project’s findings have prompted many schools to take action.
“Every day I come to work and I hear about something else happening because of Reading Now Network,” Mayer said.

The network was launched in the spring of 2014, examining best instructional practices at five West Michigan elementary schools with high reading success rates in order to implement them region-wide.

Schools studied ranged from urban to rural, with varying levels of poverty. They are: Brown Elementary in Byron Center, North Godwin, Lakeshore Elementary in Holland, Coit Creative Arts Academy in Grand Rapids, and Sunfield Elementary in Lakeview Community Schools.

Curriculum leaders visited the schools (all of which scored high on third-grade reading MEAP tests), over the course of an eight-month study to identify why they were high performers.

Students “arm spell,” a multi-sensory approach that helps them remembers sounds

One District’s Response

Tammy Savage, Kelloggsville Public Schools director of instruction, added two new reading instructional specialists this year, partly in response to information she learned at a spring RNN symposium.

Specialists Suzanne Schmier and Janna Schneider joined Sue Lathrop this fall to work full-time in the district’s three elementary schools. For the past few years, Lathrop was spread among all three schools, assisted by paraprofessionals.

The goal is to create a consistent, structured, very focused reading intervention program for students, Savage said. Teachers are using data to identify students’ needs.

Learning how to implement best practices is taking shape in different ways, said Mayer, the field study member. A sold-out event at Kent ISD in November brought together 200 area principals to learn from leaders of the schools originally studied for their reading practices.

“Principals can go back and start making immediate changes based on what they learned,” Mayer said.

Three schools where educators are not satisfied with reading results have been named “lab” schools. Field study members are working with them on instructional practices to help them improve their results, Mayer said. The schools represent three counties and have varying demographics, including differing income levels and locations.

A Peek Into a Classroom

In Kelloggsville, reading sessions are a multi-sensory experience. Students see, touch, hear, and even smell and taste the words — when letters double as licorice sticks.

During a recent class with Shmier, West Kelloggsville Elementary students acted out what they were reading. A sentence about a girl who hurt her lip had them pouting. Another about flying kites had them pretending to send them soaring.

“That’s fun!” said second-grader Alyssa VanVolkinburg. “It’s fun to make the motions.”
Students wrote letters on plastic tablets, velvet and laminate; they spelled out words with their fingers and while touching different spots on their arms. They talked vividly about what they read.

The coaches, all longtime Kelloggsville teachers, were also recently trained in Orton-Gillingham methodologies, which promote multi-sensory learning.

Tools Are Available

In-depth videos with interviews from administrators, teachers and students taken at the school, are available on the Reading Now Network web site.

One thing made clear from the field study was that high-performing schools are “data-driven,” meaning they constantly used test scores and other data to improve instruction – often on a daily basis. Teachers are being trained to easily access data through an Edify software system, which Kent ISD first developed.

Enadina Mencho-Vail acts out flying a kite after reading about it

Kent ISD received a state grant to develop an early literacy alert and intervention system. The intent is to equip teachers participating in RNN with lots of resources to help students reading below grade level. These resources will be offered free of charge to the schools and service agencies within the Reading Now Network.

CONNECT

SNN Article on Reading Now Network Symposium

Reading Now Network Resources

Reading Now Network Website

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