Programmes for Students: Accelerating Literacy Learning: ALL

1. Programmes for Students: Accelerating Literacy Learning: ALL Principal evaluation and self review day Workshop 1 March 2014 Presenter – Alison Davis Vision Education davis.vision@xtra.co.nz

2. What is programmes for students 2014? • Accelerating Literacy Learning (ALL) is part of Programmes for Students (PfS). ALL focuses on using the expertise within the school to evaluate the effectiveness of current practices that support accelerated literacy learning and to closely monitor the impact of a 10 -15 week intervention for a small group of students in the first year.

3. Borderfield’s Report (2008) • There is often confusion about how to respond to particular student needs • An absence of common expectations for student outcomes at every level in the system; • A culture of dependency on “second wave” interventions; • Uncertainty about how to respond to the numbers of students that were not making progress; • A lack of capability at the classroom level to assess and provide intensive explicit literacy instruction; • A confusing clutter of mismatched, sometimes counterproductive interventions.

4. ERO Report – Accelerating the progress of Priority Learners in Primary Schools (May 2013) ‘A system–wide emphasis on the strategies teachers can use to accelerated progress is needed. All teachers have an ethical responsibility to help those students that need to catch up to their peers. This is essential if we are to raise the achievement of NZ students relative to their international counterparts.’ (p.21)

5. What is acceleration? • Acceleration in this context has three dimensions: • Acceleration is the student’s learning progress showing a noticeably faster, upward movement than might otherwise have been expected by the trend of their own past learning. • Accelerated learning is learning at a rate faster than classmates progressing at expected rates in order catch them up; and • Accelerated learning is learning at a rapid rate that brings the student achievement level to that consistent with, or beyond, a set of benchmarks or standards (NZ Curriculum Reading and Writing Standards).

6. Ashift in the trajectory of learning

7. Progress that is expected for all students . curriculum levels • A supplementary programme identifies • when an intervention takes place e.g. students below expectation as shown here, • what it would be – based on evidence of impact, • monitoring during and after, • plan b for the students who do not accelerate learning, e.g. the students with “flat’’ progress Years at school Achievement pathway for a particular student (group of 5 Xs)

8. National priorities Programmes for Students – ALL sits within the national priorities for • Improved student learning and accelerated improvement for all, and in particular Maori, Pasifika, students with special needs and those achieving below curriculum expectations • Culturally responsive pedagogy centred on the needs of students • Tätaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers - teachers’ relationships and engagement with Mäori learners and with their whänau and iwi. • Maori Education plan • Pasifika Education plan • Success for all • Inquiry at the head of Professional learning and development, school practice, classroom practice, student agency, family/whanau engagement • Embedding NZC and key competencies • Assessment FOR learning

9. Programmes for students aims to: • Work at the level of the individual student • Provide intensive learning opportunities for students who are not achieving in literacy and numeracy at the expected level (the National Standards for reading, writing and mathematics) • Provide additional support over and above regular classroom teaching • Focus squarely on the student, • Have accelerated success in learning

10. Three tiers of intervention • Tier 1- effective classroom practice = effective teaching for all • Tier 2 – Short term intensive school based specific interventions - If effective teaching is happening then there will only be a small amount of students who should need this type of support. • Tier 3 – Additional Specialist support from outside of the school - this level of support should only be required for 2 to 5 % of the school population at some schools.

11. What we know about effective interventions? • Supplementary NOT replacement – dose and density – still focuses on the “instructional core” – the daily discourse of teaching and learning • Data driven – multiple data sources including student and parent/whanau voice • Targeted inquiry and targeted improvements focusing on literacy and effective teaching that significantly improves student learning • Embedded with culturally responsive beliefs and practices • Success is not about teacher “mastery” of new practices – it is about the impact of the new practices on improving student achievement

12. What are the critical factors in accelerating literacy achievement • ●Knowing your learners and deliberately linking instructional content to learner’s prior knowledge – before, during and after instruction • ●Student agency • Metacognitively rich instruction and experiences • Integration of formative assessment across the curriculum • ●Deliberately instructing to know, select, use and control strategies employed by “skilled” readers and “skilled” writers – in literacy and transferred to meet the demands of all curriculum areas • ●Selection of appropriate text, task and teaching approach • ●Active engagement of learners – student agency - motivation and engagement

14. Implementing a system of support

15. Identify the level of support groups of students will need to access this learning focus A very small group of students may need long-term support A small group of students may need short, intensive support A small group of students may need Short, intensive support Using “Teaching as Inquiry” to trigger supplementary supports for some students • Most students need only effective • classroom teaching and • intellectually stimulating learning • experiences with peers • Describe what students know and do (describe the rich resources students can bring to the next learning experiences)

16. Intervention Logic for ALL and ALiM 2014

17. BES model for systematic improvement

18. Teacher inquiry at the heart of improved learning outcomes for students Inquiry :The key question for the focusing inquiry is: What is important (and therefore worth spending time on), given where my students are at?

19. Habitual Inquiry Cycle School self review and professional learning as inquiry Continual inquiry in to the impact of change. On-gong explicit discussion of the challenges faced.

20. Teaching as inquiry – ALL • In the teaching inquiry, teachers select teaching strategies that will support their students to achieve desired outcomes. This involves asking questions about how well current strategies are working and whether others might be more successful. • The learning inquiry takes place both during and after teaching as teachers monitor their students’ progress towards the identified outcomes and reflect on what this tells them. • Teachers use this new information to decide what to do next to ensure continued improvement in student achievement and in their own practice. • This focusing inquiry establishes a baseline and a direction. The teacher uses all available information to determine what their students have already learned and what they need to learn next.

21. What is collaborative inquiry? • Groups of teachers working together to address a shared issue or concern • Teachers search their own and their colleagues’ past practice for strategies that may be more effective, and they also look in the research literature to see what has worked in other contexts. They seek evidence that their selected strategies really have worked for other students, and they set up processes for capturing evidence about whether the strategies are working for their own students. • Reflection – time to make sense of the experiences we are having and what we are learning

22. Using data to inform decision making • Schools will select to use data from • Running records, use of wedge graphs • AsTTle Reading • PAT Reading • asTTle writing • Supported by • Strong formative assessment practices • A focus on student agency • Family/whanau involvement and voice • Literacy learning progressions and national standards • ELLP documentation • A key focus of successful intervention includes on-going close monitoring of students by using assessment data as part of inquiry to show improvement and acceleration.

23. Student agency • How do our students view their own literacy learning? Do they see themselves as successful readers and/or writers. • How do students know they are being supported to achieve? • How do students have access to high levels of support? • Can students talk about their self-directing strategies for literacy learning? • What does the teacher do to help you become a successful reader and/or writer? What would you like your teacher to do to more of, to help you with your reading and writing? What makes a good teacher of reading and writing? • Which subjects do you like or dislike – and why

24. A thought to consider…. • “We need to understand that teaching happens outside the head, but learning occurs inside the head- the teacher is the one outside the head!”

25. What are you committing to?

26. Leadership commits to… • Attendance at ALL self review, planning and impact workshops by principal and ALL teacher (Marchand August) • Full leadership involvement in the project • Organisation that facilitates teacher involvement • Intense focus on the project that includes at least 10 weeks of daily instruction for target students • Developing school systems that will sustain the new way of operating beyond MOE funding • Provision of any additional teacher release costs not covered by MOE • Providing data and a full report to the MOE at the completion of the project.

27. Ministry commits to… • Payment of get $6140 (GST exclusive) for teacher release time to support attendance at compulsory workshops; planning, monitoring and evaluation and a minimum of 10 weeks of intensive teaching • Covering the costs for travel and accommodation for the compulsory workshops • Mentoring support through contracted literacy suppliers • Guidance if needed and sought by schools.

28. Mentor support Schools could expect approximately 4contacts during the 15 week period of the intervention, including: • Email contact • Phone conversations • Visits – school and/or cluster • Skype • Professional readings • Cluster meetings All schools have mentor attached to them – CPL or Vision.

29. Moving forward – planning for success • Inquiry in to our own school practices and learning needs of our students • What is a successful intervention – rubric 6- Choices of Approaches and interventions • Accelerated learning – Rubric 9 – Accelerated progress for students achieving below curriculum expectations in literacy • Inquiry in to the needs of our students • What criteria will we use for the selection of students for ALL and why will we select these students? • What other information do you need to source? • Last years data – previous interventions - student voice – talking to family/whanau • Selecting personnel • Who will you choose to lead the intervention – what will you look for in this person and WHY will you choose them? What is YOUR schools’ criteria for selecting this teacher? • Establishing a team and levels of support • Not alone - Who will be in your supplementary inquiry team – support team in your school – RTLit, Literacy leader, RTLB, teachers within your school with Post graduate papers, TESOL

30. In determining the students who will be the focus of your invention consider • What is your data telling you? • What are you going to/have done with it? • What triggered the need to instigate a supplementary programme? • What do you know about the students who are showing no improvement? What is needed to accelerate their progress? Who are you students in the following priority groups • Students who are ELLs • Students below expected curriculum achievement level • Maori students • Pasifika students Responses to these questions should identify students for whom multiple sources of data and inquiry illustrate a need for planned and targeted intervention

31. Selection of a teacher to lead this programme Teachers who have: • The ability to work as part of a supplementary inquiry team within your school in order to sustain and embed effective practices and support other classroom teachers to inquire in to the effectiveness of their own class programmes and transfer learnings from this work • High expectations of students • Strong literacy PCK and CK • Open to learning and confident to try new things • Notice, understand, reflect, respond • Flexibility with a variety of appropriate teaching strategies • Permanent staff member • Approachable and patient • Ability to encourage & connect to whanau, parents & students • Able to inquire in to the effectiveness of their intervention to support student acceleration

32. Preparing for Planning…. • What are the needs of the students we have selected? • What will the intervention include and WHY? • How will we closely monitor and review the impact of our intervention? • How will we develop student agency?