William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary School

1. William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary School End of Year Reading Data 2012-2013 School Year

2. Preschool Education Program and PreK Ana Ahn Ko – Para Educator Milena Bartosiewicz – Physical Therapist Debbie Bonifant – Parent Educator Kristen Burke – Speech/Language Pathologist Kathy Clarke – Special Educator Terri D’Agnese– General Educator Mary Beth DeLuzio – Para Educator Kelli Hood – Occupational Therapist Lauren Jeffries – Speech/Language Pathologist Barbara Laudwein – Para Educator Beth Neff – Para Educator Jenn Schauberger – Para Educator Pam Shoaf – Para Educator Jaclyn Stevens – Special Educator Ilana Sushner – Special Educator Karyn Tolson – Special Educator Tammy Truland – Occupational Therapist Stephanie Yu – Para Educator

5. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • Instructional Strategies • SEFEL – Social and Emotional Foundation for Early Learning - creating an environment where every child feels good about coming to school - designing an environment that promotes child engagement - focusing on teaching children what to do ( expectations, routines, skills in place of challenging behaviors) • Wait time • Visual schedules/mini schedules • Check for understanding • Frequent or immediate feedback • Prompt hierarchy • Task analysis with high visual support • Repetition and practice • Multi-sensory Strategies • Use of music, use of a variety of textures (i.e. sand, shaving cream, play dough, wikki sticks) to facilitate attention and learning • Movement breaks • Manipulativesand props for all content presented • Multiple individualized Motivational Systems for children with challenging behaviors • FBA/BIP • Mini schedules – individualized • Variety of token or reward systems

6. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • Staff Training • Collaborative Instruction Design – Plan of common core and comprehensive curriculum • 21st Century Classroom • INC – TEACCH - Model for teaching children on the autism spectrum • Implement strategies such as: developing visual supports, structuring physical environment, developing an individualized person and family centered plan for each student (rather than using standard curriculum) • Schedule PEP/PreK Collaboration • Collaborate 10 hours weekly whole group and small group instruction, 2.5 hours weekly instruction provided separately (general education/special education) for literacy block – response to data collection • Data Collection • IEP – data on goals and objectives • Behavior • Organization – user friendly

7. Final Thoughts • This has been a particularly challenging year. We feel encouraged by the number of children who have made a year’s progress or more. This is critical in the early intervention years when we are trying to have our developmentally delayed students catch up with their peers.

8. Kindergarten Kindergarten Teachers Caitlin Walker Karen Anderson Natalie Benco Valerie Patel Janice Han ESOL Teachers Jessica Medeiros Kristen Hostler Sandi Garcy Speech Teacher Stephanie Souder

9. Reading Benchmarks Per Quarter • Quarter 1 - No text • Quarter 2 - Level 1 text • Quarter 3 - Level 3 text • Quarter 4 - Level 4 text • The Stretch Kindergarten Bench – Level 6 text

10. Percentage of student that have met End-of-Year Benchmarks

11. Percentage of students that have made a year’s worth of growth.

12. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • Targeted reading interventions • Daily reading group instruction • Guided reading planning sheets based on 2.0 • Weekly targeted word family and blends- targeted sound instruction • Later lunch allowed for longer, uninterrupted literacy instruction during peak K attention 

13. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • Consistent in class support during literacy center block! • Possible movement between classes to meet the needs of the higher readers at a grade level

14. Final Thoughts • Some students who did not meet a full year’s growth began the year reading at a high level- not yet developmentally ready for higher text and comprehension • Students who didn’t meet benchmark were all ESOL- some new to the country • Our lower class sizes helped reduce reading group numbers 

15. First Grade Amy Fletcher, Tiffany Wagner, Heather Miller, Kim Kiszka, Jennifer Freeland-Wieder, Jessica Medeiros, Stephanie Souder, and Traci Blumberg

16. Reading Benchmarks Per Quarter • Quarter 1: levels 5-7 • Quarter 2: levels 8-11 • Quarter 3: levels 12-15 • Quarter 4: levels 16-17 **First graders increase by an average of 10 levels in one year!

17. Percentage of student that have met End-of-Year Benchmarks

18. Percentage of students that have made a year’s worth of growth.

19. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • Using the Leveled Literacy and SIPPS intervention program for students identified as below quarter benchmarks • Daily small group instruction by the classroom teacher • Having an uninterrupted reading & language arts block • Using team planning meetings to brainstorm instructional strategies • Reorganizing the reading block to shorten the whole group lesson to allow for more small group instruction • Increased parent involvement and support by sending home leveled books and sample comprehension questions

20. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • Testing students in the fall prior to forming reading initiative groups • Allowing for flexible groupings across classes as we continuously analyze student needs

21. Final Thoughts • First grade has the largest range in reading levels from quarter 1 to quarter 4. • Students can often read fluently but their comprehension does not always match their decoding level. • Our data (percentages) was about the same as last year. • The team appreciated the opportunity to explore a different model of reading initiative (using the position as an intervention for both below and above benchmark students).

22. READINGSecond Grade TeachersMrs. Altuner, Mrs. Boyce, Mrs. Remson, Mrs. Gupta, Mrs. Johnson, & Mrs. JakiunESOL TeachersMrs. Stevenson Speech TeacherStephanie SouderSpecial EducatorTraci Blumberg

23. Reading Benchmarks Per Quarter • 1st Quarter- Level J • 2nd Quarter- Level K • 3rd Quarter- Level L • 4th Quarter- Level M

24. Percentage of Students That Have Met End-of-Year Benchmarks

25. Percentage of Students That Have Made a Year’s Worth of Growth

26. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • Using guided reading planning sheets to structure small group lessons • Grouping students in a variety of different ways • Team planning and collaboration • Engaging cooperative learning activities in which students are moving around • Mrs. Johnson’s model of flexible intervention and enrichment groups. • Used more discussion groups • More modeling of written response strategies and students giving each other feedback on those written responses. • Inclusion of more vocabulary instruction. • Time frames to meet with groups

27. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • We would like to see Jacob’s Ladder modeled. • Continue to share guided reading lessons, written follow-ups, comprehension strategies among the team. • Create a filing system to keep these materials readily available for teachers. • Reading assessments should align to 2.0 content and vocabulary. • Less interruptions pull-out/plug-in model. • More alike grouping and reduced class sizes with the use of reading initiative.

28. Final ThoughtsWhat Can You Do Over the Summer? • Write in a journal about vacations or summer activities • Ask your son/daughter questions about what they read • What would you do differently? • What character are you most like? • Name a character trait and use evidence to support it. • Identify story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution) • What lesson does the story teach? • What is the author’s purpose for writing this book? • What text features can you identify? What did you learn from them? • Plan trips over the summer to educational places (e.g. library, nature center, historical sights, etc.)

29. Third Grade Mrs. Heydon, Mrs. Herwood, Mrs. Stadtler, Mrs. Mayers, Ms. Futrovsky, Mrs. Medeiros, Ms. Frymark, Ms. Souder

30. Reading Benchmarks Per Quarter • End of first quarter- M • End of second quarter – N • End of third quarter- O • End of fourth quarter-P

31. Percentage of student that have met End-of-Year Benchmarks

32. Percentage of students that have made a year’s worth of growth.

33. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • ESOL pulling small groups to work on reading comprehension. • Double dip guided reading groups with para-educators. • One on one support with para-educators to support reading comprehension. • Incorporating critical thinking into whole/small group instruction.

34. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • Reevaluate special education scheduling. • Explore an effective co-teaching model with special educators and ESOL teachers. • Continue to revise interventions in order to meet student needs.

35. Final Thoughts • We are very proud of all the progress our students have made this year! • Third grade teachers encourage all students to continue reading “just-right” books over the summer. • We also encourage parents to have discussions with their children about the books they’re reading.

36. Fourth Grade Mr. Hinsvark, Mr. Delescavage Mr. Humphrey, Mr. Huston, Ms. Hudson, Ms. Frymark, Ms. Souder

37. Reading Benchmarks Per Quarter 1st & 2nd Quarter Benchmark = (Q – R) 3rd & 4th Quarter Benchmark = (S – T)

38. Percentage of student that have met End-of-Year Benchmarks

39. Percentage of Students That Have Made a Year’s Worth of Growth

40. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • Building critical thinking skills • Literature Circles • Adapted CAP Process • Junior Great Books • William and Mary curriculum • Red, Yellow, Green questions from Jan Richardson

41. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • Use Jacob’s Ladder more often • Use higher level core books for above grade level readers • Red, Yellow, Green questions should be more frequent and consistent

42. Final Thoughts • “So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” - Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

43. Fifth Grade Mrs. O’Neil, Ms. Mstowski, Mrs. Zacharda, Mrs. Hilbrecht, Mr. Moxley Mrs. Hostler, Mrs. Hudson GO GATORS!

44. Reading Benchmarks Per Quarter • 1st & 2nd quarter: T-U • 3rd & 4th quarter: V-W

45. Percentage of student that have met End-of-Year Benchmarks

46. Percentage of students that have made a year’s worth of growth

47. What strategies or practices do we feel have worked well this year? • Stop-Think-Paraphrase • Green/Yellow/Red level questioning • Using and analyzing new Kagan Cooperative Learning structures throughout the curriculum • ESOL and Special Ed. used the same strategies to support • Running literature circles and book clubs • Increased math intervention and support throughout the year • Using cross-curricular Jigsaw activities • Making lessons that are interactive, inquiry-based, and student-led • Using technology in classroom instruction (Promethean, videos, computer lab, etc.) • Corrective reading combined with Read Naturally for special education students with decoding and fluency needs • Reviewing and preparing for the MSA by embedding test taking skills throughout the year

48. What upgrades or adjustments do we want to make for next year instructionally? • We will be exploring curriculum 2.0 and the new standards based grading system. • We plan to brainstorm ways to provide multiple learning opportunities to explore concepts in depth.

49. Final Thoughts • Recommendations for parents as our 5th graders move on to middle school: Keep reading!! Keep a journal! Organize, organize, organize! Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own.And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.—Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!“ Congratulations 5th Graders!