Mineola’s Board of Education Report:
Literacy Update
April 16th, 2024
Tonight’s Report:
Clarifying, what is the Science of Reading again?
What is going on in Mineola to support structured literacy now, and what are out next steps?
The “Reading Wars”
1990s
Balanced Literacy
(Columbia University): Fostering a love of reading & supporting individual readers (“Guided Reading”, levelled readers, Fountas & Pinnell, Lucy Calkins)
2020s
Structured Literacy: explicit instruction based on the science of how people learn to read (Science of Reading) inclusive of:
1800s
Whole Language vs. Phonics
Horace Mann Nathaniel Webster
1960s
“Science of Reading” emerges:
Putting together advances in the fields of linguistics, psychology, neuroscience (MRIs) & education
ORAL LANGUAGE
The Science of Reading is…
The Science of Reading is NOT…
“Structured Literacy” = application of knowledge from the science of reading; weaves together the skills needed to read
This applies to learning ALL languages
What is “skilled reading”?
What is this passage about?
From Tolstoy’s War & Peace:
At eight o'clock Kutuzov rode to Pratz at the head of Miloradovich's fourth column, the one which was to take the place of the columns of Przebyszewski and Langeron, which had already gone down. He greeted the men of the head regiment and gave the order to move, thus showing that he intended to lead the column himself. Having ridden to the village of Pratz, he halted. Prince Andrei, one of the enormous number of persons constituting the commander in chief's suite, stood behind him. Prince Andrei felt excited, irritated, and at the same time restrainedly calm, as a man usually is when a long-desired moment comes. He was firmly convinced that this was the day of his Toulon or his bridge of Arcole.[1] How it would happen, he did not know, but he was firmly convinced that it would be so. The locality and position of our troops were known to him, as far as they could be known to anyone in our army. His own strategic plan, which there obviously could be no thought of carrying out now, was forgotten. Now, entering into Weyrother's plan, Prince Andrei pondered the possible happenstances and came up with new considerations, such as might call for his swiftness of reflection and decisiveness.
Successful readers ask questions!
Who? What? What does that mean? How do I find out? What might this “look” like? What is my mental model? … What is the time period? Who is the author? Etc
At eight o'clock Kutuzov rode to Pratz at the head of Miloradovich's fourth column, the one which was to take the place of the columns of Przebyszewski and Langeron, which had already gone down. He greeted the men of the head regiment and gave the order to move, thus showing that he intended to lead the column himself.
who?
What is a column in this context?
who?
where?
who?
who?
Active View of reading
Skills used by successful readers…
SOR teaches us we must:
Develop the Big 6 through High Impact, Structured Practices
https://www.nysed.gov/curriculum-instruction/literacy-briefs
The science supports the idea that PRIOR KNOWLEDGE has a huge impact on making meaning from text. Learners should see themselves (mirrors) in the text, and learn about the world through the text (windows).
Considerations:
What do you need to know to make an inference about this “text”?
Why are these characters smiling?
Use at least one detail from the scene or film to support your response.
Mineola’s Journey to Structured Literacy
Individual learning (articles, podcasts, media, books, webinars, etc)→
shared learning & understanding→
professional development→
more research (programs, approaches, trainings) → collaboration→ implementation
Professional Learning & Development (structured literacy focused)
Consultants, Courses & Conferences:
In-house Professional Learning 22-24:
Community Presentations:
March BOE: Structured Literacy
December BOE: Curriculum Website
| Literacy Curricula & Supports | Assessment Tools |
PreK | Heggerty & Fundations Creative Curriculum | DIAL, Writing Benchmarks & Badges |
K-2 | Heggerty Fundations/Lectoescritura Geodes & Spanish Readables & decodable texts Lexia Integrated Curriculum UFLI, Flyleaf, Sound Sensible & SPIRE (as needed) | Fundations/Lectoescritura unit assessments Fundations Probes (3x) mClass (DIBELs & Spanish language equivalent) (3x) NWEA (3x) Embedded unit assessments, Writing Benchmarks & Badges Additional assessment: EasyCBM, CORE Phonics (as needed) |
3-4 | Lexia Integrated Curriculum Advanced Word Study (based on Fundations*Fundations level 3 coming 24-25) Decodables/UFLI (as needed) SPIRE (as needed) | mClass (DIBELs & Spanish language equivalent) (3x) NWEA (3x) Fountas & Pinnell (phasing out & replacing with EasyCBM) Embedded unit assessments & Scales Additional assessment: EasyCBM, CORE Phonics (as needed) |
5-7 | Lexia Integrated Curriculum SPIRE (as needed) & Wilson (as needed) | NWEA (3x) Embedded unit assessments & Scales EasyCBM (as needed) Additional assessment: EasyCBM, CORE Phonics (as needed) |
8-12 | Lexia (as needed) SPIRE (as needed) & Wilson (as needed) | NWEA (3x) Embedded unit assessments EasyCBM (as needed) |
| Literacy Curricula & Supports | Assessment Tools |
PreK | Heggerty & Fundations Creative Curriculum | DIAL, Writing Benchmarks & Badges |
K-2 | Heggerty Fundations/Lectoescritura Geodes & Spanish Readables & decodable texts Lexia Integrated Curriculum UFLI, Flyleaf, Sound Sensible & SPIRE (as needed) | Fundations/Lectoescritura unit assessments Fundations Probes (3x) mClass (DIBELs & Spanish language equivalent) (3x) NWEA (3x) Embedded unit assessments, Writing Benchmarks & Badges Additional assessment: EasyCBM, CORE Phonics (as needed) |
3-4 | Lexia Integrated Curriculum Advanced Word Study (based on Fundations*Fundations level 3 coming 24-25) Decodables/UFLI (as needed) SPIRE (as needed) | mClass (DIBELs & Spanish language equivalent) (3x) NWEA (3x) Fountas & Pinnell (phasing out & replacing with EasyCBM) Embedded unit assessments & Scales Additional assessment: EasyCBM, CORE Phonics (as needed) |
5-7 | Lexia Integrated Curriculum SPIRE (as needed) & Wilson (as needed) | NWEA (3x) Embedded unit assessments & Scales EasyCBM (as needed) Additional assessment: EasyCBM, CORE Phonics (as needed) |
8-12 | Lexia (as needed) SPIRE (as needed) & Wilson (as needed) | NWEA (3x) Embedded unit assessments EasyCBM (as needed) |
Flagging issues with rhyme, phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, etc.
Probes/mClass assess for nonsense word fluency (gold standard for noticing decoding concerns), oral reading fluency & comprehension so we can target areas of need
Phonemic awareness programs in Pk-2 support encoding practice long term
Assessments are granular allowing for diagnostic differentiation
You cannot read what you cannot hear and you cannot read what you have never heard
Holistic assessments of reading (ie. F&P) do not tell us enough to make informed instructional decisions
Systematic phonics and morphology instruction is core to providing readers what they need to successful attack text.
The Science of Reading reminds us that the most effective practices and practitioners follow the data.
Assessment tools: mClass, Fundations Probes, EasyCBM, NWEA
with analysis and further diagnostic opportunities as needed
So, what books should I get for my child?
Topics they are interested in!
Texts that support the skill they are building (“decodables”)
If your child wants to read INDEPENDENTLY, find books your child:
Is interested in!
Understands on their own
Sounds “smooth” when reading aloud (rather than choppy/too slow)*
If your child wants to read a book (or a sentence or a word) but cannot access it yet, read to them
While children vary dramatically in what they know, they still share the same learning algorithms (brain function/ genome, etc), thus the pedagogical tricks that work best with all children, are also those that tend to be the most efficient for children with learning disabilities. They must be applied only with greater focus, patience, systematicity, and tolerance for [and effective correction of] error.”
Author of How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine…For Now
Supports by Intervention Need
Research based
Structured, sequential & explicit
Embedded assessment
Building Teacher capacity
Tier 1: (all learners)
Tier 3 and beyond:
(small groups, 1-9%)
Tier 2:
(small groups, 10-21%)
What is next?
Book choices & building more and more text sets → curricular connection, thinking about the texts through the lens of our learners
Professional learning (K-12)→ how to use the research to make effective instructional decisions
Literacy in Content (K-12) → strategies and understanding to support learners to successfully read any thing
MLL Institute→ continuing to support our Dual Language and teachers of MLLs to bridge languages in the context of literacy
Reading teacher meetings/IST→ building our expert groups to continue learning, growing and leading
Keys to Literacy trainer trainings→ more professional learning specifically around literacy in content areas and building strategies for meaning making
Continued opportunities for growth→ New Paltz, Keys to Literacy for faculty who want to delve deeper
Thank you!