That would be nice except...our teachers of literacy have all had (or are
having) the opportunity to participate in a year-long literacy class
focusing on balanced instruction. Our teachers have unbelievable summer
training opportunities. We have coaching support available in all
buildings. Teachers are supported in opportunities to observe. These
opportunities are carefully undertaken, with an opportunity to visit
before
and after with the teacher they will observe. The visits are facilitated
by
our coaching staff. Lack of training is not the issue for most of our
staff.
I realize how gloom and doom these two posts sound, and I don't mean for
them to be so. We have a number of teachers, a significant number, who
are
simply doing amazing work with students. But after seeing Regie Routman
at
N CTE this year, I am pondering her comments. She said, basically, for an
underperforming school impacted by poverty to see systemic change, 90% of
staff members need to be 'on board' with changes in literacy instruction.
That remark hit so deeply home with me, as we are so far from that 90%
mark
in nearly all of our buildings.
This year, under new leadership at the district level, the district is
exploring that issue of who is responsible for implementation and for the
first time, that conversation is going beyond the teacher level. All of
this makes me potentially giddy and terrified--I know that under
different
circumstances, as in replace balanced literacy with a prescribed
same-page
literacy program, this could be my own idea of hell on earth as a
teacher.
Lori Jackson
District Literacy Coach and Mentor
Todd County School District
Box 87
Mission SD 5755
----- Original message -----
From: djchan <djc...@charter.net>
To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <
mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:50 AM
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI
> Lori,
>
> To me, that sounds like insufficient training in literacy. A teacher
> may
not
> need to be 'on board' with the program, but they should definitely be
using
> appropriate and research supported teaching methods for literacy. If
> they
> don't, then whose responsible for the training that they should have
> received to make them effective literacy teachers? I have seen this in
the
> school system I retired from and it was a lack of training. However,
> that
is
> not to say that there aren't teachers who will deliberately sabotage a
> schools program because it requires them to move from their comfort
> zone
and
> they don't want to. I think your key phrase was 'effective teachers'
> and
my
> question becomes how did they become effective teachers and the others
> didn't? And what needs to happen to help the other teachers become more
> effective in their literacy methods?
>
>
> Deidra Chandler, NC
> MA Early Childhood Ed
> MA Reading
> MultiSensory Structured Language Intervention Tutor
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ljackson" <ljack...@gwtc.net>
> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group"
> <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 8:23 AM
> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI
>
>
> > The 80% mentioned here probably refers to the RtI pyramid, in
> > which--ideally--80% of the student population have their needs met
within
> > the regular classroom and are performing within acceptable ranges in
terms
> > of grade level expectations. To me, this implies that the first step
> > in
> > beginning an RtI program is to carefully examine curricular practices
but
> > it does not follow that there is necessarily a prescribed or correct
> > single means of doing this. Like Kelly, our district feels that
balanced
> > literacy and a general pacing guide for unit study will support
teachers
> > in attaining this goal. I do see, however, a danger in my own
> > district
in
> > seeing this approach damned and dumped because we are not seeing the
kinds
> > of results one would hope to see. As much as I am nervous about the
> > bantying of the term fidelity, I think Kelly has hit the nail on the
head.
> > We have ample evidence to show that children in classrooms where
balanced
> > literacy practices are honored under the orchestration of effective
> > teachers, children are making excellent progress. The issue we have
> > to
> > grapple with is this. How do we begin to address the issue of
> > teachers
who
> > aren't, for lack of a better term, on board? I can say that the
majority
> > of these teachers are implementing their own brand of instruction
> > that
> > looks much more like traditional basal instruction than any direct
> > instruction program I have reviewed.
> >
> >
> >
> > Lori Jackson
> > District Literacy Coach and Mentor
> > Todd County School District
> > Box 87
> > Mission SD 5755
> >
> > ----- Original message -----
> > From: Kelly Andrews-Babcock <kandrews-babc...@killinglyschools.org>
> > To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group
> > <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
> > Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 6:56 AM
> > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI
> >
> >> Oh my, how scary! I'm not sure what you mean by 80% requirement for
RtI,
> >> are you talking about implementing RtI up to 80%? Anyway, we were
> >> told
> >> that if you do not have a "program" that whatever your core
> >> curriculum
is
> >> will be fine as long as it's being implemented with integrity and
> >> fidelity. Our core curriculum consists of guided reading, shared
reading
> >> and independent reading. However it does not look the same in every
> >> classroom nor the same at each grade level.
> >> As a coach my job has become interesting in assisting grade levels
> >> to
> >> meet expectations. We also formulated some pacing guides for reading
last
> >> year which has helped us stay on track. I'm not sure I'm answering
your
> >> question here...
> >> Kelly AB
> >>
> >> On 12/16/08 5:05 PM, "Beverlee Paul" <beverleep...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Help!! I've been told that the only way a district can meet the 80%
> >> requirement for RTI is to adopt a direct instruction program as its
core
> >> curriculum. Please--those of you out there that still use balanced
> >> literacy, how do you fulfill the RTI requirement? Thanks. BP
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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> >
>
>
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