Welcome to Title I

1. Welcome to Title I Parent Orientation Meeting

2. What is Title I? • Title 1 provides supplemental federal funding for low achieving children, especially in high-poverty schools. • Title 1 is a program which provides extra academic support and learning opportunities for children farthest from meeting challenging state standards.

3. How Does the Money Get to My School District? • The money travels from the US Government to your school district then to your school building. • Census data is used to determine the amount of Title 1 money your district receives.

4. How Does a School Become a Title 1 School? • The number of students that get free and/or reduced lunch is used to determine the district-wide poverty and school poverty. • Title 1 can serve schools at or above the district-wide poverty average.

5. Will My Child Receive Title 1 Services? Services are given to students who are in need of academic help, according to the state standards and the collection of the school's data. This is NOT based on the poverty of the student's family.

6. How Does Title 1 Help Schools? Title 1 helps your school by SUPPLEMENTING and improving the regular education programs offered at your school to help students meet the State standards. • Small Group in Class Assistance • Supplemental Education Services • Title I Tutoring • Parent Involvement

7. What Types of Services are Offered? It is up to the individual schools to design a program to help students improve academic achievement to meet the challenging State standards, meet the needs of students, and provide professional development for teachers and parents. • Small Group in Class Assistance • Supplemental Education Services • Title I Tutoring • Parent Involvement

8. Title I Services Henry P. Fieler Elementary School

9. Gr. K: IRDA assessment, Pre-Kids Readiness Test, Peabody Vocabulary Test Gr. 1:  IRDA assessment, DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency Check Gr. 2-4:  IRDA assessment, Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) Lexile, DIBELS Fluency Check Gr. 3-4:  Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) Lexile, MacMillan Reading Series Placement results, DIBELS Fluency Check Student Selection Process Students are selected for Title I services based on data from three assessments:

10. Description & explanation of the curriculum to be used • Phonemic awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension. Working in small groups, students use the Macmillan and Rigby Reading Series, along with supplemental materials, to review the five areas of reading instruction. This includes: The goal of all instruction is to help students master the Indiana Academic Standards for Reading & Language Arts.

11. Phonemic Awareness • Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds in words. • Phonemic Awareness is important because it is the basis of spelling, word reading, and comprehension. • We work on Phonemic Awareness by making words with letter tiles and switching letters to make new words.

12. Phonics • Phonics helps children learn the relationships between letters and sounds. • Phonics is important because it enables children to decode words and helps them use predictable patterns in spelling. • We work on Phonics by sounding out nonsense words to see if students can apply the rules we’ve taught.

13. Fluency • Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. • Fluency is important because it frees students to understand what they read. • We work on Fluency by doing “Partner Reading”. We take turns reading aloud to show how read smoothly and how to change your voice when reading sentences with question marks or exclamation marks.

14. Vocabulary • Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. • Vocabulary Instruction is important because readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading. • We introduce new words and make connections with words we already know. For example, we talk about antonyms and synonyms for words.

15. Comprehension • Comprehension, or understanding what is read, is the reason for reading. • Comprehension instruction is important because readers need to learn strategies to help them make sense of what is being read. • We help students comprehend what they read by introducing strategies such as predicting before reading and summarizing after reading.

16. Forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress • Fluency – DIBELS (words per minute) screenings. • Comprehension - Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) 3 times a year. • Treasures & Rigby Reading Series Weekly and Unit Tests (80% Mastery)

17. Proficiency levels that students are expected to meet DIBELS Fluency Screening (Words Per Minute) • End of Gr. 1: 40 words/minute • End of Gr. 2:  90 words/minute • End of Gr. 3:  110 words/minute • End of Gr. 4: 118 words/minute

18. Proficiency levels that students are expected to meet Scholastic Reading Inventory Lexile Scores • End of Gr. 1: Lexile 300 • End of Gr. 2: Lexile 500 • End of Gr. 3: Lexile 600 • End of Gr. 4: Lexile 700

19. Proficiency levels that students are expected to meet Kindergarten Reading Skills • Knowledge of Letters & Sounds • Recognition of Basic Sight Words • Ability to read 3-4 Letter words and short sentences • Awareness of Vocabulary Concepts

20. Parent Involvement

21. Parents are an Important Part of Title 1! • Schools offer a variety of workshops, to parents, about many topics on how to help their child. • Parents are needed and encouraged to help plan/change Title 1 school's policy, participate in classroom visitations, attend informational meetings, attend Parent/Teacher conferences, and to help evaluate the overall program of the school. • Title 1 helps parents understand the laws of education.

22. Fieler School Parent Involvement Policy This document informs you of your rights to be involved in your child’s education. Parents of children enrolled in the Title I Reading program shall be invited to participate in the following events: • A Parent Orientation Meeting • Winter Parent and Child Workshop • A Scheduled Parent Teacher Conference • A Spring Parent Input Meeting

23. Merrillville Community School Corporation Parent Involvement Policy This document informs you that the school district, Merrillville Community School Corporation, will provide assistance to each school as it prepares for the parent meetings. The school district will also conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and the effectiveness of the district parent involvement policy.

24. Parent Concern Procedures • A complaint may be submitted by any individual or organization, and is defined as a written, signed allegation that a federal or state law, rule, or regulation has been violated by a Local Educational Agency (LEA) or the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). • A complaint may be filed by parents, teachers, administrators, or other concerned individuals or organizations. • An examples of complaints might be failure to host an annual meeting or failure to allow parent input into the Title I program.

25. Title 1 Parent Concern Form

26. Online Resources Merrillville Community School Corporation www.mvsc.k12.in.us Merrillville Community School Corporation Student Informationwww.mvsc.k12.in.us/k12datamine/Indiana Department of Education Title Iwww.doe.in.gov/TitleI/welcome.htmlThe Indiana Partnerships Center www.fscp.org/ISTEP+ Student Reports & Parent Network Information www.InParentNetwork.com

27. Elementary Websites Macmillan Reading Series treasures.macmillanmh.com/indiana/students Starfall learn-to-read website for Pre-K-2ndwww.starfall.com/ Clifford, the Big Red Dog for K and 1st grade teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/ Indiana Academic Standards K- 8 Activities www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help.htm Website listing for each area of the curriculum www.buddyproject.org/jfy/kids/links/default.asp

28. Questions?

29. Thank You for Attending!