Popcorn and a Movie

Would you like to learn more about formative assessment? Grab some popcorn, a cold soda, a digital device, and take a learning break! 

Higher Order Questions: A Path to Deeper Learning 

Assessments of Learning and Assessments for Learning- Rick Stiggins

Formative and Summative Assessment- Rick Wormeli 

Understanding Formative Assessment

Important Upcoming Dates

Mark your calendars! Our fourth 2014-2015 CCRS quarterly meeting is approaching. Our fourth CCRS meetings are scheduled for Wednesday, April 15th and Thursday, April 16th. We will be meeting at the UA/UWA Regional In-service Center. The UA Regional In-Service Center is located in the Tom Barnes Education Center on Bryce Campus of The University of Alabama. The address is 260 Kilgore Lane, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401. We look forward to seeing you. More information will be forthcoming. Should you have any questions, please contact your ARI representative. 

Day 1 Wednesday, April 15, 2015	Day 2 Thursday, April 16, 2015
District	District
Demopolis City	Choctaw County
Fayette County	Greene County
Hale County	Lamar County
Pickens County	Linden City
Tuscaloosa City	Marengo County
	Sumter County
	Tuscaloosa County

Do you want to know more about how the Laying the Foundation (LTF) Project is going?

The Laying the Foundation (LTF) Pilot Teachers are so excited about this opportunity! Here are some of their reflections based on beginning this project with their students in the classrooms!

LTF Planning and Collaboration in Action

Teachers’ responses on LTF lesson planning and implementing the lessons: 

I thought the co-planning and co-teaching of LTF lessons were wonderful. As a new teacher, it gave me great insight into how to effectively teach the lessons.  The greatest part for me is that the students actually had fun learning from the lessons. I look forward to more co-teaching in the future.

The session was so beneficial because it modeled how to keep a class moving.

Keeping the students engaged is my biggest obstacle. Also, the anchor charts and learning the difference between instructional and reading strategies cleared up so much confusion.

Time management is another problem I have. When we were able to put so many different activities in one lesson, I was amazed. Time management is a real issue because so many factors come into play in an actual classroom. I keep repeating "keep it moving".

I was really encouraged by what I gained, especially when the other teacher and I were able to replicate the lesson's success on our own.

I am truly enjoying the experience. I am slowly transitioning to the facilitator! The students are enjoying the lessons due to the scaffolding of each lesson. I am following the scope for the lessons as diligently as possible.

A district's perspective on the LTF lesson planning and lessons:

This was the most powerful professional development that I have ever witnessed! I watched as the light bulbs went off for the teachers. Over the course of the two days I also noticed that their confidence and motivation to implement their learning seemed to ignite. It is one thing to tell someone what to do, but learning takes on a whole new meaning when you show them and work side-by-side with them to make it happen. Thank you for all that you do!

Welcome 2015 and Happy New Year!

As educators, we feel like our yearly clock begins in August and we celebrate mid-year rather than a new year. Currently, we have around five months to make our end of the year count. So what does that mean for you? For us as ARI regional staff that means we continue supporting and guiding teachers, districts, and students toward college and career readiness. 


With that being said, ARI regional staff attended Foundations for Beginning Reading training in December of 2014. The original ARI Beginning Reading modules have been updated and revised with some additional research, videos, and connections to the college and career ready standards. While in the training, I could not help myself  thinking about how all educators could benefit from retooling their own learning with these new and improved modules. 


                     

Recently, I had the opportunity to learn alongside four great educators in our region, specifically Tuscaloosa County. We only had time to do an in-depth dive to the Phonics module. This is an area of focus for them and we thought this would give us our biggest bang for our buck with the time we had together. It was a wonderful learning opportunity. We wrapped up our morning of learning with a 3-2-1 strategy. Participants were asked to share 3 pieces of new learning and 2 phonics instructional practices they would take back to their classroom. I wanted to share some of their ideas to inspire others about the importance of explicit and systematic phonics instruction. 

Quotes from participants:

"I learned how to better create a balanced literacy program to promote reading." 

"I learned it takes struggling readers 40 exposures to learn a new word." 

"I learned how to explicitly teach a phonics lesson especially in kindergarten."

"I learned exactly how the phonics progression works." 



The following are some of the ideas from today's learning that teachers will take back to their classrooms: 

"I will incorporate the letter tiles in small group instruction." 

"I will try and always give them a chance to connect their learning with a writing activity."

"I will begin using the letter blocks for sounds." 

"I would like to purchase a white board for my small group instruction." 

If any of you think you could benefit from a retooling of any of these components: the conceptual framework, intervention, assessment, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, oral language and vocabulary, and comprehension please let your ARI contact know and we can set up a time with your school. Thanks again to the participants for a great session of learning! 

Laying the Foundation + Alabama Reading Initiative + Alabama State Department of Education = Increased Student Achievement

Laying the Foundation Implementation Pilot

ARI has been given the gift of supporting a pilot program that has been offered to our region.  A key goal of PLAN 2020 is for schools in Alabama to increase the number of students who meet college readiness benchmarks in core subject areas.  To support this vision, a partnership between the Alabama State Department of Education, Alabama Reading Initiative, and A+ College Ready has been formed to support a pilot program with 8^th grade English teachers across the state.  The assumption of the pilot is that when Laying the Foundation infused courses, designed by teams of Alabama teachers, are aligned with a scope and sequence and implemented faithfully by teachers who are supported by ARI and given the resources they need to be successful, the number of students who increase their college readiness score in the subject area taught will increase significantly in one year. 

To test this assumption, the number of students in each 8^th grade English class achieving the college readiness benchmark score on ASPIRE 2014 administration while they were in grade 7 will be compared to the number of students achieving the college readiness benchmark score on the Aspire test given to the same cohort of students in 8th grade in the Spring of 2015.  Changes in the number of students reaching the college readiness benchmark in the 8^th grade class will be tracked, as well as overall student score increases.  We are excited to have the opportunity to support as many as four schools in region 4!

What is the common yardstick for education?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

NAEP, or the National Assessment of Educational Progress, produces the Nation’s Report Card, to inform the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States. NAEP has two major goals: to compare student achievement in states and other jurisdictions and to track changes in achievement of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-graders over time in mathematics, reading, writing, science, and other content domains.  Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of test booklets across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for all states and selected urban districts. The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time.

 

NAEP assessments are approaching schools soon.  It may be important to note NAEP reading, math, and science are given every two years and our next administration will be Spring 2015. As you are thinking of things to consider to prepare for NAEP, please do not hesitate to contact ARI.