APPENDIX - Supplemental Resources for Schools Supporting Ohio’s Learners and their Families

While the Ohio Department of Education’s report on Data Insights: Evidence of the Pandemic’s Impact on Student Experiences in 2020-2021 shows declines in performance trends, especially for vulnerable groups of students, the focus should be on how to best support students.
Math instruction, literacy instruction and intervention intensification may be needed for more children than in typical school years. While the district and school focus on ensuring each grade has a viable and guaranteed standards-aligned curriculum, teacher-based teams can plan for strong core instruction and intensified intervention. As in a typical year, intervention still occurs in addition to grade-level instruction. Teams may need to revisit core instruction, instructional materials and teaching strategies based on what district and building grade level data reveals. If large numbers of students are exhibiting difficulty in a skill (e.g., phonological awareness), core instruction, materials and strategies may need to be strengthened (see links below). Examining available interventions is also critical. Teams may want to use the Intervention Intensification Strategy Checklist from the National Center on Intensive Intervention.

Resources for literacy instruction within remote learning environments are available through the Department’s website. These resources include a white paper and videos describing evidence-based literacy instruction focused on teaching reading online, families as partners and new literacies (digital literacies), as well as a K-Grade 5 Remote Literacy Planning and Discussion Guide. This guide focuses on the components of effective K-5 literacy instruction, addressing learning gaps and accelerating progress, partnering with families and caregivers, delivering instruction through multiple methods and training and coaching educators. The Department also continues to provide educator meetups on Reading Interventions in a Digital Environment.

Resources on math instruction are available on the Department’s Mathematics website. Resources include Model Curriculum for Mathematics and Standards for Mathematical Practice by grade level. Additional Resources for Mathematics include information on instructional strategies for mathematics, grade-band specific activities and lessons, mathematics professional development opportunities and opportunities for Ohio’s math educators to connect and support one another through virtual meetups and Mathematics Pearltree.

Childcare providers play an important role in learning for younger children. Districts should consider reaching out to their communities to invite childcare providers to the discussion and planning table. To search by zip code, county or other factors, use the Ohio Child Care Search webpage to obtain contact information for nearby providers. Providers who work with young children have much to contribute about the experiences preschool children and their families have had during the pandemic. Multiple resources have been created to bridge the child care-school partnership, including a suite of resources from Head Start, the Pew Center on the States’ Pre-K Collaborations with Community-Based Partners and numerous resources for planning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Families and caregivers play a critical role in accelerating learning for their children. The National Center on Improving Literacy provides resources to support families as partners in literacy learning, beginning reading, screening, dyslexia, interventions and legislation. Parents and caregivers who may be interested in supplementing their children’s literacy instruction at home are encouraged to partner with their children’s teachers and consider using the activities from the Regional Educational Laboratory at Florida State University’s website, Supporting Your Child’s Reading at Home. This website provides family activities with easy-to-follow instructions to help children practice foundational reading skills including short videos and tips to help families use the activities to help their children grow as readers. This resource is for kindergarten-grade 3 but may be appropriate for children receiving intervention in grades 4-5.
 

Other Resources

There are many other resources to support learning recovery, including the following:

 

Data Use Support

  • Regional Data Leads are education professionals who help maximize the use of all available student performance data among educators regionally, both to strengthen professional practice and improve learning for all students. 
  • Student Readiness Toolkits are standards-based guides designed to help educators determine students’ levels of educational attainment when starting the new school year. The toolkits include curriculum and assessment materials, which may help identify instructional gaps and determine instructional priorities.
  • The REL Midwest Toolkit for Assessing Learning Changes a step-by-step guide for districts that want to learning where learning changes have occurred, understand how to use that knowledge to inform decision-making and identify next steps for future analysis and planning.
  • Secure Data Center reports provide district and school leaders access to the data they submit through EMIS, including information on enrollment, chronic absenteeism and student enrollment. Users access this tool through the OH ID account.  Once logged in, click on the “Report Portal” tile and then on the button that says, “Secure Data Center”. A recorded webinar on how to gain access to and use the Secure Data Center is available on the Department’s YouTube page and a voice-over PowerPoint is also available.

Literacy Resources


Math Resources

  • Achieve the Core - These guides will help educators understand and implement the mathematics standards. They can use the guides as they observe teachers giving instruction and provide them with feedback that supports their planning and reflection.
  • Arizona Progressions - These narrative documents describe the typical learning progression of a topic, informed by both research on children’s cognitive development and the logical structure of mathematics.
  • Equip – Provides educators with tools to identify high-quality materials for use in classrooms and national examples of high-quality materials aligned to the standards.
  • The Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) Rubric provides criteria to measure alignment and overall quality of lessons and units. 
  • Illuminations - This project by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics provides quality lessons and interactive resources for teaching and learning mathematics.  
  • Illustrative Mathematics – This site illustrates the range and types of mathematical work that students should experience as teachers use Ohio's Learning Standards in Mathematics. It also presents other tools supporting standards-based instruction.
  • Inside Mathematics - Educators can find exemplary standards-based lesson ideas on this site, as well as classroom videos. Teachers interested in the lessons can search under “performance task” for lesson ideas organized by grade and course.
  • K-2 Performance Level Descriptors -The K-2 Performance Level Descriptors (PLD) document by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a tool developed with input from Ohio educators. The K-2 PLDs serve as a tool that can help math educators identify student proficiency along a progression of learning during instruction. Therefore, when tasks are given to students, these performance level descriptors will help teachers make instructional decisions to help move their students’ learning forward. 
  • National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - The site contains manipulatives and concept tutorials across the grade bands.   
  • Teaching Channel - Provides guiding questions to use during planning and instruction. Classroom videos model best practices. Learning activities showcase rigorous problems that deepen conceptual understanding.  
  • YouCubed – Showcases research-based teaching methods, mathematics tasks, videos and ideas on how to bring about high levels of student engagement.
  • The following organizations also have resources for supporting math instruction:
Additional information, relevant data and resources will be added to this page as it becomes available.

Return to Back to School: Resources for Return

Last Modified: 9/2/2021 3:57:41 PM