Areas of Academic Concern

1. Areas of Academic Concern Characteristics Interventions/Progress Monitoring District Resources By Kimberly Patten May 2011

2. Basic Reading Skills

3. Basic Reading Skills Characteristics: Can the student…. • Understand letters and the sounds they represent. • Notice, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds-phonemes-in spoken words (Shaywitz, 2003, p.51). • Example- the word “cat” has 3 sounds (c/a/t). The student should be able to identify the 3 sounds and be able to blend them into a word.

4. Interventions/Progress MonitoringInterventions: • For older students, start at higher skill levels (fluency-running records) and move to more basic skills if needed. • If a student cannot decode sentences fluently, then word level should be assessed. • If student is unable to do this, then assess single syllable words, and then vowel sounds if necessary (SLD Guidelines, CDE, 2008, p. 87).

5. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Work samples should be examined as well. Do the students use less complex language in their writing vs. their oral language skills? • What are the students spelling patterns? • Teachers need to look for patterns to determine strengths and next steps!

6. Interventions/Progress Monitoring Instruction should be brief (10-15 minutes per day) and should have 2-3 focused activities. Progress Monitoring: • Should be at the student’s instructional level and should be specific to the skills being taught. • Periodic benchmark assessments should continue to compare the student’s performance to the performance of their peers.

7. Resources Include But Are Not Limited To: • General Ed and Special Ed teachers • Teacher/Coach • ELA Teacher Leader • MONDO Teacher Guides • Fountas and Pinnell Phonics and Word Study Teacher Guides • Word STUDY Vocabulary (Secondary Special Education Resource) • Readers/Writers Workshop Guidebook

8. Resources (continued) • Stages of a Reader, Pacing/Planning guides, Challenges in Text, etc: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/elementary/reading-block/ • Secondary Literacy: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/secondary/ • RtI Guidebook pages 67-73 http://assessment.aurorak12.org/files/2009/09/Final-RtI-Guidebook-2010-11-revision-7.18.2010-2.pdf

9. Resources (continued) • SLD Guidelines/Colorado Department of Education (2008), pages 86-93 • One Place Instructional Resources (\\U:dstdata\)

10. Reading Fluency

11. Reading Fluency Skill Is the bridge that links accurate word decoding to comprehension (Rasinski, 2004) Characteristics: Can the student… • Read accurately? • Read quickly? • Read with expression?

12. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • If students struggle with accuracy along with reading rate and reading with expression, you should look at basic reading skills. • Interventions should include frequent practice. • Instructional strategies include teacher modeling, buddy reading, explicitly teaching chunking and phrasing, oral reading, Reader’s Theater, and having student’s chart own fluency rates.

13. Interventions/Progress Monitoring In the article Fluency: Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension, J.J. Pikulski and D.J Chard indentify these nine steps when building fluency: • Develop the student’s foundation of phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and phonics. • Increase vocabulary and oral language skills. • Effectively teach high-frequency vocabulary and provide adequate practice.

14. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Teach common word-parts and spelling patterns. • Effectively teach decoding skills and provide adequate practice. • Provide students with appropriate text to assist in building fluent readers. • Use guided, oral repeated reading strategies for struggling readers. • Support, guide and encourage wide variety of reading genres.

15. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Implement appropriate screening and progress monitoring assessments. The key to progress monitoring fluency is to do frequent monitoring at the student’s instructional level (the student can read accurately with 95%-100% accuracy)

16. Resources Include But Are Not Limited To: • General Ed and Special Ed Teachers • Teacher/Coach • ELA Teacher Leader • MONDO Teacher Guides • One Place Instructional Resources (\\U:dstdata\)

17. Resources (continued) • Stages of a Reader, Pacing/Planning Guides, Challenges in Text, etc: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/elementary/reading-block/ • Secondary Literacy: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/secondary/ • RtI Guidebook- pages 67-73 • http://assessment.aurorak12.org/files/2009/09/Final-RtI-Guidebook-2010-11-revision-7.18.2010-2.pdf • SLD Guidelines/Colorado Department of Education (2008), pages 91-93

18. Reading Comprehension

19. Reading Comprehension Characteristics Can the student…. • Monitor their own reading? • Make Connections? • Ask Questions? • Visualize based on the text? • Make inferences? • Determine important ideas? • Synthesize information?

20. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Comprehension monitoring: readers learn how to be aware of their understanding of the material. • Cooperative learning: students learn reading comprehension strategies together. • Use of graphic and semantic organizers (including story maps): readers make graphic representation of the material.

21. Resources Include But Are Not Limited To: • Teacher/Coach • ELA Teacher Leader • General Ed and Special Ed teachers • MONDO Teacher Guides • CSI Materials (Secondary Special Education) • Reading Miscue Inventory • SLD Guidelines/Colorado Department of Education (2008) pages 95-97

22. Resources (continued) • Stages of a Reader, Pacing/Planning Guides, Challenges in Text, etc: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/elementary/reading-block/ • Secondary Literacy: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/secondary/ • RtI Guidebook pages 67-82 http://assessment.aurorak12.org/files/2009/09/Final-RtI-Guidebook-2010-11-revision-7.18.2010-2.pdf

23. Written Expression: Basic Writing Skills

24. Written ExpressionBasic Writing Skill • Write legibly and letter production is “automatic” • Spelling • Shows the student is making connections between letters and sounds. • Uses spelling conventions. • Uses prefixes, suffixes and root word knowledge as a support for spelling.

25. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Handwriting difficulties include: • Difficulty recalling how to form the letters • Slow, laborious, or illegible writing • Problems with spacing, alignment, letter size, and errors in formation of the letters • Improper pencil grip • Fatigue, cramping or tremor in writing hand

26. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Assessment includes looking at work samples, as well as process of how the student created the work sample • Review original student work • Review student’s ability to copy age-appropriate text • Instruction should focus on • Legible and automatic letter production • Building on explicit instruction of letter formation in isolation, and then writing words and sentences • Providing practice opportunities daily

27. Written Expression: Composition Skills

28. Written ExpressionComposition Characteristics: Can the student… • Write organized text at both the sentence and paragraph levels? • Revise and edit for spelling, punctuation, and grammar or to improve communication clarity?

29. Possible Areas of Concern Include: • Word Omissions • Word Order Errors • Incorrect Verb and Pronoun use • Subject/Verb Agreement • Simple vs. Complex Sentence Structures • Word Ending Errors • Lack of Punctuation and Capitalization

30. Possible Areas of Concern Include: • Discrepancy Between Oral and Written Language • Lack of Transition Words to Link Ideas • Poor Sentence Organization • Uses Vague or General Words ex: “things” “stuff” (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes 2007; Hooper et al., 1994; Wakely, Hooper, de Kruif, & Swartz, 2006)

31. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Based on the area of concern • Work samples should be evaluated for the above areas Progress monitoring • Could include timed writing using a grade-appropriate story starter • Could measure total words read; words spelled correctly; correct writing sequences; number of different words; number of nouns; verbs; adjectives; correct capitalization; punctuation, etc.

32. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Explicit comprehensive instruction based on the student’s need • May include instruction in: - mechanics - words (more complex word choices) - sentence construction - paragraph construction - multi-paragraph essays

33. Resources Include But Are Not Limited To: • APS Website http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/elementary/ http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/secondary/ • RtI Guidebook pages 66-82 http://assessment.aurorak12.org/files/2009/09/Final-RtI-Guidebook-2010-11-revision-7.18.2010-2.pdf

34. Resources (continued) • Stages of a Writer-http://instruction.aurorak12.org/files/2010/06/Stages-of-a-Writer-6-3-10.pdf • SLD Guidelines/Colorado Department of Education (2008) pages 81-85 • Literacy Teacher/Coach • ELA Teacher Leader • Colleagues (Both General Ed and Special Ed; content or grade level)

35. Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension

36. Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension Oral Expression Characteristics: Can the student… • Learn new vocabulary? • Create complete, semantically and grammatically correct sentences (orally and in writing)? • Explain word associations, antonyms/synonyms • Retell, make inferences and predictions?

37. Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension Listening Comprehension Characteristics: Can the student… • Follow directions for seatwork and projects? • Remember homework assignments? • Understand oral narratives and text? • Answer questions about the content of the information given? • Apply critical thinking and arrive at logical answers?

38. Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension Listening Comprehension Characteristics: Can the student… • Use word associations, antonyms/synonyms, categorizing and classifying correctly? • Correctly use note-taking or dictation skills?

39. Interventions/Progress MonitoringInclude But Are Not Limited To: • Provide structured opportunities for students to participate in social interactions • Oral rehearsal • Explicit instruction to improve listening comprehension • Determine success criteria and monitor for successful attempts

40. Interventions/Progress Monitoring (continued) • Answering questions by teacher • Generating questions about the text • Identifying and being able to discuss elements of a story • Summarizing • Synthesizing information from multiple texts

41. Resources Include But Are Not Limited To: • RtI Guidebook- ELL section • SLD guidelines/Colorado Department of Education pages 71-75 • Speech/Language Pathologist • ELA Teacher Leader • MONDO Teacher Guides (Oral Language Reading/Writing) • APS Website

42. Mathematical Calculation and Problem Solving

43. Mathematical Calculation and Problem Solving Characteristics Can the student… • Perform number sense and operations? • Consistently identify written numbers? • Associate written numbers with the concrete presentation of a quantity? • Understand calculations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing?

44. Mathematical Calculation and Problem Solving The federal and state statutes indentify two areas of Math disability: • Mathematical Calculation • Mathematical Problem Solving

45. Interventions/Progress Monitoring The CRA instructional strategy of progressing from concrete to representational to abstract is cited as being effective. (Fleischner and Manheimer, 1997) • Concrete - The teacher models each mathematical concept with concrete materials (manipulatives such as red and yellow chips, cubes, etc.).

46. Interventions/Progress Monitoring • Representational- the teacher transforms the concrete model into a representational (semi concrete) level, i.e.…drawing pictures, dots and tallies, using stamps to input pictures for counting. • Abstract- The teacher models the mathematics concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols (+,-,x,/) to indicate addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. SLD Guidelines/CDE 2008

47. Mathematical Problem Solving Characteristics Can the student… • Identify important information? • Filter out unimportant information? • Determine necessary steps in problem solving? • Evaluate their own work?

48. Intervention/Progress Monitoring • Practice opportunities include: • Mathematical concepts the student already has an initial understanding of • Match the students level of understanding • Match the students unique learning characteristics • A process for measuring individual performance

49. Resources Include But Are Not Limited To: • Math Teacher/Coach • District Instructional Coordinators for Math • Colleagues (Both General Ed and Special Ed) • APS RtI guidebook Math Intervention Resources P-12, p. 58-64 • Math Instructional Resources • What Works Clearinghouse • The Access Center • SLD Guidelines/Colorado Department of Education (2008) pages 99-104

50. References: • Works Cited • Aurora Public Schools. (2010). Instructional Resources- Secondary Literacy. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from Division of Instruction: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/secondary/ • Aurora Public Schools. (2010). Instructional Resources- Elementary Literacy. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from Division of Instruction: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/elementary/reading-block • Aurora Public Schools. (2010). Instructional Resources- Elementary Literacy. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from Division of Instruction: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/literacy/elementary/reading-block • Aurora Public Schools. (2010). Instructional Resources- Math. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from Division of Instruction: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/math/elementary/ • Aurora Public Schools. (2010). Instructional Resources- Secondary Math. Retrieved MAY 10, 2011, from Division of Instruction: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/instructional-resources/math/secondary/ • Aurora Public Schools. (2011, April 1). Response to Intervention Guidebook. Retrieved April 1, 2011, from Division of Accountability and Research: http://assessment.http://aurorak12.org/files/2009/09/Final-RtI-Guidebook-2010-11-revision-7.18.2010-2.pdf • Colorado Department of Education. (2008, October 7). Guidelines for Identifying Students with Specific Learning Disabilities. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from Colorado Department of Education: http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/SD-SLD.asp • Fletcher, J. L., & & Barnes, M. (2007). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention. New York: Guilford Press. • Moats, L. C. (2005). Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling Module 2 The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness. Longmont: Sopris West. • Moats, L. C. (2005). Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling: Module 7 Teaching Phonics, Word Study and the Alphabetic Principle. Longmont: Sopris West. • National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Bethesda: National Reading Panel, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. • Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming Dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level. New York: Vintage Books. • Shaywitz, S., Shaywitz, B. F., & Skudlarski, P. M. (2003). Neural systems for compensation and persistence: Young adult outcome of childhood reading disability. Biological Psychiatry , 25-33.