Structures, Processes and Strategies
Staff at Riverside Elementary School identified the following structures, processes and strategies as key to their improvement:
- Curriculum and intervention adoption
- Scheduling
- Teaming and collaboration including District, Building and Teacher-Based Teams
- Assessment and data analysis connected to intervention decisions
Teachers in grades Pre-K through three utilize research-based instructional strategies supporting vocabulary, comprehension, phonics, phonological awareness, fluency, and writing.
Students in Pre-K through second grade have phonological awareness instruction daily using a structured phonological awareness curriculum during core instruction. Based on assessment data, students in Pre-K through third grade who are identified as needing intervention in phonological awareness receive additional instruction. Students in kindergarten through third grade have phonics instruction daily using a targeted phonics curriculum during core instruction. Based on assessment data, students in kindergarten through fourth grade who are identified as needing intervention in phonics will receive additional instruction.
Riverside Elementary School uses standardized, valid, and reliable universal screening and progress monitoring measures to assess and monitor the progress of each student. During Teacher Based Team meetings, teachers share and discuss student data and growth scores to monitor students’ progress. Teachers raise concerns, share accomplishments, and discuss teaching strategies. They can also report the effective strategies they use on the school online professional learning platform. Taken together, this process ensures that teachers can jointly determine the appropriate tiers of student learning, from those students needing the most intensive support to those needing enrichment.
Riverside emphasizes the role of data in decision-making on their teams. Previously, any data would come from administration. Now, all educators regularly collect, use and share student data. In this video, educators discuss data use on their teams in more detail.
Tools for Improving Literacy
Riverside uses several tools to document and organize their work. Some examples of these include:
- Assessment and Intervention Decision Rules Flowchart: These Decision Rules provide a helpful example of how Riverside structured their assessments and interventions. Decision rules ensure that all students are screened for potential reading difficulties and diagnostic assessments are used to identify the specific reading difficulty for each student. Decision rules also ensure that the assessments and interventions provided to students are equitable, leaving no children without support.
- Intervention Schedule: It is one thing to know which interventions to provide to students and how to provide them. Ensuring that there is enough time to provide interventions is an equally difficult challenge. Riverside committed itself to providing adequate time for intervention by restructuring the daily schedule. This Intervention Schedule provides an example of what this might look like.
- Intervention Log: Riverside's Intervention Log allows them to carefully track each student's access to interventions. The intervention log helps track information on the individual student, literacy focus areas, date and time of intervention, along with notes from the teacher.
- Teacher Based Team Notes Sheet: This TBT Notes Sheet helps to guide Teacher Based Team meetings. Note the expectation that educator's appropriate data is uploaded and reviewed before the meeting. This document guides the team through a discussion about how students are doing, how to assign support, a review of current strategies, and next steps.
Reflection Questions:
- What new structures, processes and strategies might you need in your district and building?
- What current structures, processes, and strategies can be leveraged in your district and building?
- What structures, processes, and strategies might need to be removed in your district and building?
Resources to Learn More:
Last Modified: 10/25/2024 2:02:25 PM