Learning Heights Elementary School

Learning Heights Elementary School is a K-5 School with 758 students. The percentage of the free/reduced lunch is 91%. The school is made up of 60% Hispanic, 25% black, 10% white, and 5% other. The school is located close to the orange groves outside of Belle Glade, Florida. Our school experiences a lot of mobility in attendance since a big part of our students belong to migrant families. The school is located in a farming community where the poverty level is extremely high. A big percentage of our families are made up of parents who depend on their children to translate English to Spanish, read and write for them and take care of siblings while parents work. Our children have a lot of responsibilities at home and they also carry the responsibility of helping out their family when they are expected to work in the fields. Learning Heights Elementary has been a C school since it opened its doors 5 years ago. Last year, the school dropped to a D. The teachers and staff and children were devastated since they saw that the students tried their best. There was no consistency throughout the school that year. A terrible winter caused a lot of the students to miss school every time a freeze warning was in effect. The students had to help their parents cover up the crop and try to save what they could. During that time, not only did the attendance drop,

there were a lot of behavior problems going on as well. The students were not getting enough rest and some were sleeping in class while others were acting out and getting themselves in trouble. Since farming is a big part of our community, there are some things that just cannot be prevented so a more structured and consistent approach is what is necessary throughout the school so if the students miss a day, they know exactly what to expect when they come back to school. As long as weather will be unpredictable, the attendance of our students will be unpredictable as well. Math is a weakness but not as much as reading. Reading is crucial for these students since the population of ESOL students are well over 50%.

Our mission in Learning Heights Elementary School is to provide a stimulating learning environment in order to prepare our students to meet challenges in education, work and life. Our students are expected to help their families all throughout their childhood as farmers but we would like to expose our students to the possibilities in the world outside this farming community. We would like to expose the students to different opportunities where they could go into other professions and venture the unknown with confidence that they can succeed. Our students need the foundational skills in order to become more fluent English speakers without losing their first language. We would make sure that their proficiency in English is a priority but retaining their native language is just as important. We work with different programs in the school to make sure that this concern is addressed. We provide the students with bilingual teachers and teachers who are already ESOL endorsed.

According to the 2010-2011 FCAT, 45% of the 3rd to 5th grade students met high standards in reading. In math, the same group of students had 39% meeting high standard. 90% of 4th graders met the high standards in writing and 20% of the 5th graders met the high standards in science. According to the Fall (AP1) Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading or FAIR results, it states that the students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade are also showing that there is a weakness in reading. The BS/PMT scores state that only 40% of the students scored an 85% or higher. The listening and comprehension section results stated that 32% of the K-2 students scored a 95% or higher. The fluency portion stated that only 33% could read 60+ wcpm (in 1 st grade) and 90+ wcpm (in 2nd grade). 19 % of the 1st and 2nd graders scored an average of 40-60% percentile in vocabulary. The data that was found in the Reading Running Record also showed that a large number of students are working below grade level (1 year or more). There is a sense of urgency to catch our students up especially in reading. Once the students gain more confidence in reading, this confidence will trickle down to the writing and the science and the math. Since this is a matter that we need to address as soon as possible, the reading coaches along with some members of the literacy team are going to get trained on a reading program called the National Literacy Coalition. This would be three day training. Once the coaches are trained, the teachers would have to be trained by the reading coach and the literacy team members preferably over the summer. The teachers who will not be able to attend the summer training would just have to go to training and would just have to implement this program into their classrooms as soon as they are done with the trainings.

In an article called How Proficient Readers Read it stated that there are six qualities those proficient readers exhibit. These strategies are 1) understanding the purpose for reading, 2) using prior knowledge, 3) having letter/sound correspondence, syntactic structures, and semantic associations, 4) using metacognition or thinking about thinking activities, 5) use reading strategies while reading, and 6) a love for reading. All these qualities are addressed in the National Literacy Coalition reading program on a weekly basis.

National Literacy Coalition focuses on the most effective way for a teacher to organize his/her 90 minute reading block. The program provides all the resources a teacher needs to reach all of his/her students in whole group instruction. The whole group instruction covers important tools in order to have an effective whole group lesson in reading. Using prior knowledge, making an inference, vocabulary, word analysis, comprehension, literary analysis and an exposure to so many different types of genres are the skills make up the whole group activity. As an added bonus, the program takes up one whole lesson to teach the students reading strategies to help with test taking strategies. This would help prepare our students especially for the 3 rd to 5th grade students for the FCAT. The lessons are 5 days long for 15-20 minutes each day. A 4560 minute differentiated lesson is also a component of the program. The differentiated instruction is where the teacher meets the needs of individual students. Resources for this component are available through NLC and are provided during the training. The program would provide the scripts for the lessons, the posters to guide the students on

some test taking strategies and a guide on how to implement the small group instructions effectively.

As each student becomes familiar with the routines that are embedded in this program, our Saturday tutorial which is ran by the Assistant Principal and teachers would start using this program as well. The Saturday tutorial teachers are expected to have an open communication with the students reading teacher so they could use the same forms to monitor each students progress. After school tutorial is also expected to follow this program as well. Learning Heights Elementary School also offers after school tutorials. This tutorial is intended for students in grades 3-5 who scored a level 1 and 2 in the previous FCAT. The teachers who teach after school tutorial are the K-2 teachers. These teachers are also expected to have an open communication with the students reading teacher and share the same progress monitoring sheet. Having consistency throughout all these interventions will help with a very transient population.

Although the NLC program seems to benefit all of our students, it really helps the teachers to stay focused on what to teach and to spend more time on what the students needs are. Often times, teachers get stuck on the lower level, recalling questioning strategies trying to gradually get to the higher level thinking but when we get to the critical thinking, theres not enough time. This program will briefly get the recalling questions out of the way and then move to the more critical thinking questions. This is how the scripts are written out to be. Through planning, teachers would make sure that all their questions are essential.

The NLC program is a valuable program but it comes with a hefty tag. The out of state training for the coaches and staff would cost $1,500. Creating a book room with a variety of books would cost around $12,500. Creating binders, copies of lesson plans and poster and laminating all the posters for each classroom would be around $700. The stipends for teachers to get paid to go to the training would be about and the substitutes to cover when teachers observe other classrooms would add up to about $9,000. The cost is high but once these costs are paid, it really doesnt cost any more to implement the program after that. Title 1 funds set aside $15,000 for NLC to be implemented. Our school received grants for literacy that added up to $7,000. The literacy committee hosted numerous fundraisings to assist with the costs as well. Our business partners also assisted to help pay for the out of state training that the coach and some literacy committee members would attend.

Implementing this program will take the whole schools cooperation. The whole school would have to make an effort in order for this program to succeed. There are a lot of responsibilities and prep work before the program could be pushed out to the classrooms. Posters would have to be created and laminated. Each teacher would need to have a binder for the demonstrated lesson scripts and another binder for the differentiated lessons scripts. The teachers would need to have an efficient support system where the turnaround time for assistance is within a day or two. The reading coach and the literacy committee members (who are not classroom teachers) would have to be available for assistance. It would take a lot of walkthrough to make sure that

the lessons are implemented correctly and effectively. A walkthrough sheet would have to be created and handed out to the teachers. This would allow for the observers and the teachers to know exactly what the expectations are. Administrators are responsible for seeing to it that feedbacks from the walkthroughs are immediate. A Parent Literacy Night would have to be organized to allow the parents to take a look at the new program. This way, the parents will be able to use the same strategies in real world settings and also when helping with their childrens homework. Not only will this night help the parents familiarize themselves with the curriculum but it gives importance on their role as a parent and their childs teacher outside of school. Implementing this program with fidelity is crucial to the success of our students.

Proposed Curriculum Area of Improvement

The area of improvement is in reading. In the recent years, Learning Heights Elementary School teachers had the option to go with the districts focus calendar when planning for their lessons. Some teachers followed it and some went with strictly the anthology. We believe that once we have a consistent curriculum in reading from Kindergarten to 5th grade, we will see improvement in science, math and writing. There are so many different areas where students need to be proficient in, in order for them to become good readers. Students will need to work on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The students will also need help with strategies to help with reading comprehension which will lend itself to test taking strategies to help with the FCAT. All students from grades K-5 will need a reading program that will meet the needs of all our students and focus on the foundational skills

in order to transform them to become better readers. According to an article on Readingrockets.com titled, What Principals Can Do to Help Students Become Good Readers principals need to create a school framework for success to help with student achievement.

Relationship of the proposal with the vision and mission statement of Learning Heights Elementary School
Our mission in Learning Heights Elementary School is to provide a stimulating learning environment in order to prepare our students to meet challenges in education, work and life. This proposal will allow the students to improve their reading scores. Reading is a foundational skill that is necessary in order for our students to succeed in life. Our vision is to have all our students leave Elementary School having the knowledge and independence that is necessary for them to succeed in Middle School, High School and in life. Student achievement is our number one goal. If we see the students are making those learning goals and their scores are creeping up to the rest of the students in the district, then mission accomplished.

Data used to select this program

There have been numerous studies that showed huge learning gains in schools that had the same socioeconomic make up at Learning Heights Elementary School. One of these schools is C.A. Moore in St. Lucie County, Florida.

These data showed how learning gains were seen during the first three years. We took a hard look at what the school did in order to show these kinds of results. We also looked at other schools that had the same make up we had and their growth progress. C.A. Moores success story got our attention and thats when we looked at their journey. We learned that a reading program called National Learning Coalition or NLC was implemented with fidelity in their schools since 2003. It was evident that there was a drastic change in the reading curriculum. The lowest 25th percentile had a 47%

proficiency in 2002. Once they switched to NLC, the lowest 25th percentile had a 51% proficiency in 2003. In 2004, the proficiency went up to 61% and in 2005, the number increased to 84%! This is a success story that Learning Heights Elementary School would like to one day be able to share with others as well.

We looked at our data to help us make accurate decisions.

1. The FCAT results. The FCAT results showed that 45% of the 3 to 5 grade
rd th

students met high standards in reading. In math, the same group of students had 39% meeting high standard. 90% of 4th graders met the high standards in writing and 20% of the 5th graders met the high standards in science.
2.

FAIR Diagnostics results for Spring- students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade are also showing that there is a weakness in reading. The BS/PMT scores state that only 40% of the students scored an 85% or higher. The listening and comprehension section results stated that 32% of the K-2 students scored a 95% or higher. The fluency portion stated that only 33% could read 60+ wcpm (in 1 st grade) and 90+ wcpm (in 2nd grade). 19 % of the 1st and 2nd graders scored an average of 40-60% percentile in vocabulary.

3. The Fall Diagnostics district wide test

4. Reading Running Records through Fountas and Pinnell.

5. The Diebels for Kindergarten students.

Improvement program with a name and describe the project

The program that will be implemented in Learning Heights Elementary School is the National Learning Coalition Model otherwise known as NLC. This is a reading program that gives students the whole group (demonstrated) and small group (differentiated skills) that they need in order to succeed. The students will learn how to inference, learn new vocabulary words and apply this to the real world, learn word analysis, literary analysis, test taking strategies and comprehension skills. The demonstrated component gives the students a chance to read one story or poem for a five day long lesson. Although this might sound tedious, research shows that students who used the method of repeated reading improved in their fluency and comprehension (Samuels, 403).

DEMONSTRATED LESSON: This program is what the 90 minute reading block is all about. The 90 minute reading block would start out with a 20 minute whole group demonstrated lesson. The Demonstrated lesson is a 5 day lesson. Each week, the whole class is exposed to a story or a poem. On day 1, the students would predict the story just by looking at the title and the illustration. Then, the poem is read by the teacher. The teacher models the correct way of reading. Then the students would be introduced to the vocabulary words that go with this story or poem. On day 2, the students would review the vocabulary words from the previous day and then the teacher would model the reading once again followed by the echo reading with the students. New vocabulary words will be introduced this day through context clues. The students would have a vocabulary target skill that day as well. On day 3, the review of the vocabulary from the previous

days would be reviewed once again. The review of the vocabulary words would be applied in real world situations. As soon as the vocabulary review is done, the teacher and students would echo read the poem or the story for the week. A comprehension target would be taught after chorally reading. On day 4, the students will start creating their own sentences or talk about things that they have experienced based on the vocabulary words that they have learned. Then the class chorally reads the story along with the teacher. An activity that talks about the elements of a story is introduced on this day. The students would also be introduced to a graphic organizer to help organize their thoughts and ideas. This is where the metacognition is encouraged for all the students. The 5th day is the cumulative day. The whole class would read the story on

their own without teacher assistance. The story or poem is read with accuracy, fluency and with expressions just like the teacher modeled all week. As a cumulating activity, the students would create a project to show their knowledge and interpretation on their poem or story. Lesson Plans are provided for the teachers in order for them to stay focused. The language used in the lessons carries on from one grade level to another so when the students move from one grade level to the other, there is consistency. The language do gradually becomes more complex as the student moves from grade level to grade level.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION: The Differentiated instruction will take up the bulk of the 90 minute reading block. The differentiated instruction would last around 60 minutes. Differentiated instruction will first and foremost start with leveling the students. A quick

phonics assessment would be administered to quickly get the students in groups according to their reading levels and needs. The teachers would need to set up a reading response journal for the students where they can input only activities done during small group instructions. Small group instructions will explicitly teach the students phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading comprehension and vocabulary words that they will come across while reading the story. The students are also introduced to many different types of genres such as narrative text, informational text, descriptive text, persuasive text and explanation text. The teachers are highly encouraged to meet their students in small group instruction on a daily basis. A blank template will be provided for the teachers in order to create their differentiated lessons. The process and the terminology are similar from one grade level to another so the students will become familiar to them. The teachers would start using the same terminology as well so the school is united in using a common language. Using a common language is very important since a big part of this program is consistency. The teacher would pick a book that the students would read for 2-3 days depending on the length of the book. The students are given a specific skill to master within the 2-3 days. Once the lesson comes to an end, the students would take their reading response journal and independently use that new skill with another text. This routine would have to be second nature for the students. When working with the students who have the most needs, peer mentoring would help these students accomplish this task.

Persons responsible for implementing the program

The Literacy Committee which is headed by the reading coach will be the responsible party for training the teachers on this program. The reading coach and literacy team members will get the training over the summer. The literacy team is divided into 2 groups: the non instructional team and the instructional team. The non instructional team is going to be assisting the reading coach with fidelity checks. The instructional team would see to it that they have the program fully implemented in their classrooms since these are the classrooms where the teachers would come and observe to see best practices. The whole committee would then train the teachers over the summer, around August. The teachers will be expected to implement NLC to their students while going over rules, routines and expectations in the beginning of the school year. The reading coach and the non instructional literacy team members will be observing and doing fidelity checks in the classrooms to make sure that the teachers are properly implementing the demonstrated and differentiated lessons and to give the support needed by the teachers.

Involvement of the student body in the program

Every student in the school will be using this program during their 90 minute uninterrupted reading block. Each student (after the quick phonics assessment) will be placed in their groups depending on their level. The lowest level would be the phonemic awareness level. After the students have mastered all the skills necessary for the phonemic awareness, the students will move up to the decoding 1 level. In decoding 1, the students will be able to decode 1st grade level text. In decoding 2, the students will be able to decode 2nd and 3rd grade level text. In decoding 3, the students

will be able to decode 3rd grade level text. After the students have mastered all the skills in the decoding level, the students will be able to move up to the comprehension level. Comprehension 1 is where the students will take a look at 2 nd and 3rd grade level comprehension skills. Comprehension 2 is where the students will work with 3rd and 4th grade level text and Comprehension 3 is where the students will work with 5 th and 6th grade level text. When a student does not master a certain skill by the end of a school year, the results in the small group instruction could be a universal tool used by all teachers to communicate to the next years teachers as far as what level the students need to be. Dealing with very transient students, it is important to have the consistency so the teachers could start where the students had their last instruction in.

Goals and/or objectives of the program

The goal of the program is for our students to become proficient readers. By the end of the first year of fully implementing the program, our goal is for our proficiency percentage of our 3rd to 5th grade students to increase from 45% to 55% in the reading FCAT.

How the goals and/or objectives were established

Once the data showed that the school dropped a letter grade, we had to come up with a plan to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our students. The literacy team, administration, team leaders and coaches all came together to come up with a plan. We contacted the reading department at the district level to see if they could share some resources that have been proven to be a good addition to the curriculum. Our

team narrowed down the reading programs that the district shared. We took a hard look at what all the different programs had to offer and because the NLC had a strong emphasis on repeated reading, differentiated instruction and consistency from one grade level to another. The NLC program also showed a lot of success stories with learning gains. This reading program was the only one that integrated all the qualities that good readers exhibit on a day to day basis. After looking at all these qualities, we decided that NLC was the best program for our school. This was the program that was going to meet the needs of our students.

Community involvement in the development of this plan

Our business partners helped out tremendously through funding for trainings and training expenses. Our business partners also helped with the costs of the binders for all the teachers. The community also supported our school with numerous fundraisers such as the sale of coupon books, candles and participation in our school garage sale. Through all these community involvement, we were able to pay for the remaining balance that was not funded through the title 1 funds. The parent volunteers also helped with the compilation of the binders along with the laminating of the posters. Parents are involved through the Parent Literacy Night so they could be aware of the new curriculum. At the Parents Literacy Night, our business partners would also help with a spaghetti dinner for all attendees.

Teaching techniques/strategies of the proposed program

Teachers would be utilizing numerous strategies when implementing the program in their classrooms. The teachers would have to start with good classroom management skills so the students know the expectations in every component. The teachers would have to set routines for both demonstrated and differentiated instructions. He/she would also have the scripts for each lesson in order for the topics to be focused and structured but still allowing for teachers to personalize the lessons depending on the students prior knowledge. During the demonstrated instruction, the teachers will be using a lot of

thinking maps and graphic organizers for the metacogniton part of the lesson. The teachers will be asking lower level to higher level thinking in every lesson which encourages critical thinking. The teachers will also be celebrating the students success because the day 5 comprehension project will be displayed in the hallway for all students and visitors and staff members to see. Some of the teaching strategies that are evident in the differentiated component are meeting the needs of each individual student through differentiated instruction, using prior knowledge, making inferences, and utilizing the gradual release of responsibility when students leave the teacher center to work on their individual reading response journal. The immediate feedback that the teacher gives the students is also a strategy that will be beneficial for all the students.

Timeline for the total project

The preplanning stages for this project will probably take about 3 months. The project will start off with the literacy committee attending the workshop. Once they are done with the workshop, books would have to be ordered. Once the books are in, each book would have to be labeled according to the format that NLC provides. The teachers would have to attend a 2 day training for the demonstrated component and 2 day training for the differentiated component. These trainings would take place over the summer. The teachers would then take a day to observe a teacher who went to the

training and watch the actual program implemented in the classroom preferably in the 2nd week of school. Once the 5 day training is completed by the teachers, he/she would be expected to start using it in their classrooms. A staff development would have to be scheduled two times throughout the school year for the demonstrated component and another staff development schedule would have to be created for the differentiated staff development which will be held once a trimester.

Funding for materials/supplies

The funding for this project came from several sources. The majority of the funding came from the Title 1 funds. $15,000 was set aside for NLC. A total of $7,000 came from grants through various foundations. $3,500 out of the $7,000 came from the Dollar General Back Literacy Foundation Back to School Grant. Even though the grant was intended for the media center, it funded the book room which is an extension of the media center for the teachers. Another grant was awarded to Learning Heights Elementary School through the Migrant Education Grants.

Involvement of schools personnel

The clerical staff would help compile the volunteers and getting the security clearance for the volunteers. They would also be laminating the posters that would be used by the teachers. The administrators and reading coaches are going to be taking some fidelity walk through just to see if the program is implemented correctly. They are also there to give support and to model the program for all the teachers. The literacy committee will be the key to using this program with fidelity. The teachers are expected to follow the guidelines and the lesson plans accordingly. The teachers are to display the objectives so the students know exactly what they are learning every day for both demonstrated and differentiated instruction.

Implementing schools vision of learning

Being that our schools mission is to provide all our students leave Elementary School having the knowledge and independence that is necessary for them to succeed in Middle School, High School and in life, we have to make sure that we remind the students every day in the morning announcement our schools expectations. The students would all recite their goals before they start their day.

Staff development components of the program

Twice a year, the teachers are going to be offered staff development on the demonstrated part. This is where the teaches will get an update on changes and just a reflection on what is working and what is not working in the classrooms as far as teaching strategies. The teachers will also be able to share their success stories and

bring products to show mastery on the skills. Aside from the demonstrated staff development, the teachers would also be given a differentiated instruction staff development. The teachers would be given a refresher on the differentiated piece on writing clear goals for the lesson plans that they would need to create. This is a staff development that would be available for the teachers in order for them to reflect on their strategies and get new ideas and new stories from the book room. The teachers would visit other classrooms and work on peer evaluation and then brainstorming and give feedback on what works and what doesnt work. This would be done at least once every trimester.

For accountability, explain the process that will be used to evaluate the success of the program
In order to find out that the program is making a difference in our students, fidelity walkthroughs are going to be administered by the reading coach and the non instructional literacy team. A pre conference would take place between the observer and the teacher. In this walkthrough, there would be a checklist that states all the expectations needed in order to make this program effective. In this walkthrough, it will show different categories that the teachers would have to exhibit and the subcategories in order for it to be more specific. A post conference would be where immediate feedback is given to the teachers. Walkthroughs are not the only way to evaluate the success on the program. Looking at the data trends in the future FCAT results, winter diagnostics, Fair results for the AP2 and AP3 will be a great indicator of progress. Comprehension activities from the day 5 demonstrated lessons posted in the hallways for all to see will be the most evident way to evaluate the success of NLC. The

students reading response journal will also be a good indicator of the success of the program. In these reading response journals, the progression or the lack of progression of thinking of the students will be evident

REFERENCES

Dollar General Literacy Grant Programs. Retrieved from: http://www2.dollargeneral.com/dgliteracy/Pages/grant_programs.aspx Endriss, N. & Nygren, T. How Proficient Readers Read. (1998) Retrieved from: http://www.dominican.edu/academics/education/about/madaliennepeters/proficiency.

Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading. Retrieved from: http://www.fcrr.org/FAIR/index.shtm

NLC Moore report. Retrieved form: http://www.nationalliteracycoalition.org/Docs/nlc_moore_report_06.pdf

Samuels, S.J., the Method of Repeated Reading. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/pss/20194790 What Principals can do to help Students Become Good Readers. Retrieved from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/379/