RAISING BLENDED LEARNERS
LEADERSHIP CONVENING
Winter 2022
WELCOME!
As you come in, please
WHERE ARE YOU… Let’s hear it!!
ARLINGTON !!!
CAST !!!
DALLAS !!!
DEKALB !!!
DENTON !!!
EAST CENTRAL !!!
ECTOR COUNTY !!!
FLORESVILLE !!!
GARLAND !!!
HARLINGEN !!!
HUTTO !!!
LAMAR !!!
LEWISVILLE !!!
ROSCOE COLLEGIATE !!!
SOCORRO !!!
STEPHENVILLE !!!
TERRELL !!!
TOMBALL !!!
VENUS !!!
WESLACO !!!
RBL ANNUAL SURVEY DETAILS
BLENDED TEACHERS REPORTED
RBL Speaker Rotation Schedule
| Harlingen (Pavilion B) | Stephenville (206) | Weslaco (104) |
Rotation 1: 3:30-3:45 | Ector, Socorro, Weslaco | Floresville, Lewisville, Garland, Venus | Harlingen, Terrell, Tomball |
Transition: 3:45-3:50 | | | |
Rotation 2: 3:50-4:05 | Harlingen, Terrell, Tomball | Ector, Weslaco, Socorro | Floresville, Lewisville, Garland, Venus |
Transition: 4:05-4:10 | | | |
Rotation 3: 4:10-4:25 | Floresville, Lewisville, Garland, Venus | Harlingen, Terrell, Tomball | Ector, Socorro, Weslaco |
Transition: 4:25-4:30 | | | |
Rotation 4: 4:30-4:45 | *Please circle back to any room to ask questions! | ||
Transition: 4:45-4:50 | Return to Pavilion B for closing! | ||
RBL Speaker Rotation Schedule
| Harlingen (Pavilion B) | Stephenville (206) | Weslaco (104) |
Rotation 1: 3:30-3:45 | Arlington, CAST, Dallas, Denton | East Central, Hutto, Lamar | Dekalb, Roscoe, Stephenville |
Transition: 3:45-3:50 | | | |
Rotation 2: 3:50-4:05 | Dekalb, Roscoe, Stephenville | Arlington, CAST, Dallas, Denton | East Central, Hutto, Lamar |
Transition: 4:05-4:10 | | | |
Rotation 3: 4:10-4:25 | East Central, Hutto, Lamar | Dekalb, Roscoe, Stephenville | Arlington, CAST, Dallas, Denton |
Transition: 4:25-4:30 | | | |
Rotation 4: 4:30-4:45 | *Please circle back to any room to ask questions! | ||
Transition: 4:45-4:50 | Return to Pavilion B for closing! | ||
DAY 2
Session Breakdown
Blended Best Bets Session 104 | Reading Session Pavilion B |
Ector Lewisville Socorro Venus | Floresville Garland Harlingen Terrell Tomball Weslaco |
“Articulate a clear, research based vision for what students experience in excellent literacy classrooms.”
A CLEAR VISION FOR LITERACY
Source: Unlocking Acceleration: How Below Grade-Level Work is Holding Students Back in Literacy, TNTP, August 2022
Campus leader vision
Campus leader vision
C&I Department vision
Classroom teachers’ vision
Parent expectations
Other instructional materials
A FREQUENT PICTURE
Other instructional materials
District leader vision
Inertia - how we have always done things.
External curriculum coach
Curriculum product
A CLEAR VISION FOR LITERACY
“Articulate a clear, research based vision for what students experience in excellent literacy classrooms.”
C&I Department
PD Department
& Coaches
Elementary Supervisors
Campus Leaders & Coaches
Classroom Teachers
Source: Unlocking Acceleration: How Below Grade-Level Work is Holding Students Back in Literacy, TNTP, August 2022
A CLEAR VISION FOR LITERACY
“Articulate a clear, research based vision for what students experience in excellent literacy classrooms.”
C&I Department
PD Department
& Coaches
Elementary Supervisors
Campus Leaders & Coaches
Classroom Teachers
Classroom Practices aligned to vision
Teacher support, coaching, T-TESS accountability to vision
Principal goals, support, and accountability to vision
PD contractors, Coaching & T-TESS Protocols
C&I Frameworks & Instructional Materials
Source: Unlocking Acceleration: How Below Grade-Level Work is Holding Students Back in Literacy, TNTP, August 2022
Whole Language
Balanced Literacy
Science of Reading (STR)
VARIOUS LITERACY APPROACHES
➤ Relies on philosophy that learning to read is a natural process like learning to talk.
➤ Purports that exposure to books and instruction with leveled readers and related strategies develops all students as skilled readers.
➤ Whole language philosophy remains predominate mindset along with cueing practices.
➤ Adds phonics to whole language practices, but falls short of daily, explicit phonics instruction for all K-2 students.
➤ Leveled readers are central for reading practice; use of word lists and decodable texts are limited or not present.
➤ All 5 essential components of reading instruction are explicitly taught.
➤ Deliberate emphasis on explicit daily phonics with ample opportunities to practice decoding skills using word lists and decodable readers.
➤ Deliberate emphasis on explicit language instruction (i.e., oral language, vocabulary).
Whole Language
Balanced Literacy
Science of Reading (STR)
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
Offer direct phonemic awareness instruction - 20 hours/year in pre-K and K. Advanced instruction may extend beyond K.
Provide explicit, systematic phonics instruction, approximately 20-30 minutes per day in all K-2 classrooms.
Use decodable practice materials.
Deploy repeated oral reading .
Direct instruction → explicitly teach individual words and word-learning strategies.
Indirect opportunities (e.g., conversations with students, read aloud to students)
Explicitly teach text comprehension strategies (e.g., monitoring comprehension, asking and generating questions, summarizing)
Children read with efficiency and ease.
Children learn to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words (e.g., rhyming; blending, and segmenting sounds).
Children learn the relationships between the letters and individual sounds and use these relationships to read and write words.
Children know the meaning of words which allows them to communicate effectively.
Children understand, remember and can communicate about what they read.
BEST BET PRACTICES (STR) K-2
RAISING BLENDED LEARNERS
LEADERSHIP CONVENING
Winter 2022 - DAY 2
BLENDED BEST BETS
EMERGING HIGH IMPACT PRACTICES
We know that clearly understanding what is happening in our classrooms and in our innovation efforts allows us to make sure that what we want to scale is what we actually scale.
A CLEAR VISION FOR THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Research/Emerging Best Practices
Current SE & Outcomes
Changes to SE
Analyzing the Student Experience (SE)
BEST BETS
EMERGING HIGH IMPACT PRACTICES
Ensure students work with high quality instructional materials and complete lessons aligned to grade level standards.
Keep whole group lessons on schedule to preserve sufficient time for small group instruction and other more personalized learning activities.
Slow your pace or reduce the rigor of a lesson to meet the needs of all students during whole group instruction.
Do’s
High Impact Practices
Don'ts
Potential Pitfalls
Whole Group Instruction
Leverage small group instruction multiple times each week, even daily, to reap the research-backed benefits of this instructional modality.
Use current and reliable data to inform heterogeneous and homogeneous groupings, and differentiate lessons based on the groups’ learning needs.
Rely on benchmarks or other data that quickly becomes outdated.
Don'ts
Potential Pitfalls
Revise groupings regularly based on current data using granular measures (specific skills) to keep groupings fluid.
Use grouping strategies that consistently peg students as high, medium, or low performers.
Do’s
High Impact Practices
Small Group Instruction
Ensure station work is rigorous and includes grade level content.
Build a process for students to personalize practice activities based on what they most need and avoid content already mastered. This often allows students to work on content that is at, above or below grade level.
Offer too many stations or non-rigorous activities.
Don'ts
Potential Pitfalls
Provide several learning modalities (e.g., offline practice activities, adaptive digital tool) students select based on their mastery data.
Allow students to continue working on previously mastered content.
Blended Stations with Personalized Practice Activities
Do’s
High Impact Practices
Deploy student-facing data trackers to help students connect the “what” and “why” behind learning activities and monitor their progress.
Include too much data that risks students becoming overwhelmed and unable to clearly understand what they have learned and what they need to learn next.
Don'ts
Potential Pitfalls
Student Data Tracker and Goal Setting Cycle with Teacher
Do’s
High Impact Practices
Reinforce regular use of data trackers for student choice/decision making and reflection on their progress.
Establish a schedule and process to meet regularly with students to review progress data, reflect on goal attainment and identify specific next steps.
Fail to keep up with goal setting reflection meetings.
Allow students to write non-specific action steps.
Limit or prioritize digital content offerings to help ensure students meet usage requirements (fidelity of use).
Monitor student progress with online lessons, and provide motivational support and help when students are stuck.
Offer too many digital tools. This undermines students’ abilities to meet fidelity of use requirements and realize the full learning impact.
Don'ts
Potential Pitfalls
Expect students to work hard and stay motivated using digital content without acknowledging/celebrating their progress.
Leave students stuck on digital lessons with no strategy for seeking help.
Do’s
High Impact Practices
Digital Content
Meet regularly to review reliable data sources and plan instructional elements (small group, practice activities, etc).
Rely on infrequent assessments to drive weekly planning. Note: STAAR, and tri-annual benchmarks (e.g., NWEA MAP are more useful for deep dives and planning instructional responses during BOY and MOY data cycles.
Don'ts
Potential Pitfalls
Prioritize 1-2 data sources which are updated frequently (at least monthly) for weekly instructional planning.
Do’s
High Impact Practices
Data Informed Weekly Planning
Establish a clear connection between which data source will inform each instructional element (small group, blended stations, etc.)
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