Read to Succeed Reading Plan
South Carolina Department of Education
Read to Succeed Elementary Exemplary Literacy Reflection Tool
LETRS Questions:
● How many eligible teachers in your school have completed Volume 1 ONLY of LETRS?: 15
● How many eligible teachers in your school have completed Volumes 1 and 2 of LETRS?: 18
● How many eligible teachers in your school are beginning Volume 1 of LETRS this year (or have not yet started or completed Volume 1)?: 22
Section A: Describe how reading assessment and instruction for all PreK-5th grade students in the school includes oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension to aid in the comprehension of texts to meet grade‑level English/Language Arts standards.
Reading assessment and instruction for all students in our school offers a comprehensive and systematic approach to teaching reading foundational skills. Instructional materials include developing students' oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. The core curriculum implemented at our school is aligned with the Science of Reading. The interactive read-alouds model complex language structures, expand students vocabulary, and engage students in rich text discussions and conversations.
Phonics lessons are taught daily using an explicit and systematic approach. Decodable texts are used to reinforce phonics patterns during daily instruction in both whole group lessons and small groups. Fluency is built by having students' use choral reading or through repeated readings of the same text. Phonics assessments include letter sound recognition, decoding tests, and sight word assessments. Phonemic Awareness activities are used to support students with blending and segmenting words. Teachers use activities that involve manipulating sounds through oral games. Teachers informally assess students’ ability to blend or segment sounds in words. Teachers can keep track of progress through observation and teacher created checklists.
Teachers teach students comprehension strategies like predicting, summarizing, and making inferences. Teachers are encouraged to use modeled think-alouds to demonstrate how to approach and analyze various text structures. Students make inferences to develop critical thinking skills. Comprehension is assessed through open ended questions, discussions, retelling or summarizing the text, and end of unit assessments. Standardized assessments are also used to measure students’ comprehension.
Section B: Document how Word Recognition assessment and instruction for PreK-5th grade students are further aligned to the science of reading, structured literacy and foundational literacy skills.
Word recognition instruction is carefully designed and sequenced to move from a less sophisticated to a more advanced and complex system. This allows students to master certain concepts and spelling patterns before moving on to the next. In addition to phonics-based word recognition, students are learning how to read high frequency words that do not follow a particular pattern. These words are necessary for fluent reading. Early literacy screeners and beginning of year assessments are used to assess students' knowledge of word recognition. Teachers use this data to plan for targeted instruction. At the end of a unit, assessment data can be used to monitor student learning and overall reading proficiency. Benchmark and end of year assessments, measure growth and progress in reading fluency.
Section C: Document how the school uses universal screener data and diagnostic assessment data to determine targeted pathways of intervention (word recognition or language comprehension) for students in PreK-5th grade who have failed to demonstrate grade‑level reading proficiency.
Universal screener data (CKLA beginning of the year assessments) and diagnostic data (IReady) is used to identify students who are not reading at grade level proficiency. Diagnostic data helps teachers determine their students who are “at risk”. Teachers participate in Fall data days to analyze data. Teachers group their students into a tiered system. Students who are “at risk” are given additional screeners by interventionists to drill down to their deficit area. Students are grouped based on their identified area of need. Students receiving pull out intervention are placed in a targeted intervention pathway. Goals are set and progress monitoring data is collected and analyzed monthly. Phase changes are implemented for students not responding to intervention.
Section D: Describe the system in place to help parents in your school understand how they can support the student as a reader and writer at home.
Teachers have Fall and Spring teacher - parent conferences to share with parents their child’s progress towards reading proficiency. Teachers provide parents with benchmark data points and ways to support their child at home. Literacy Night provides families with literacy resources and free books to help build students’ home libraries. During this event teachers share with parents simple games and activities students can do at home to support their students reading and writing skills. Our parent advocate also hosts several “lunch and learn” sessions with families to educate them on how to support their child’s development of literacy skills as well.
Section E: Document how the school provides for the monitoring of reading achievement and growth at the classroom and school level with decisions about PreK-5th grade intervention based on all available data to ensure grade-level proficiency in reading.
The school implements a structured system to monitor the progress of reading achievement and growth at the school and classroom level. At the school level, the MTSS team and Literacy Team ensure students have access to the appropriate interventions. At the Tier 1 level, teachers analyze formative and summative assessment data. At the Tier 2 level, teachers have identified who will receive extra support using universal screener data. At the Tier 3 level, intensive interventions are provided to students through alternative curriculums. Interventionists progress monitor students weekly, and the Literacy team meets monthly to analyze student progress and the effectiveness of the interventions.
The Literacy Coach and Leadership team, tracks school and teacher progress towards reading proficiency and student growth. Teachers analyze their own growth data after winter and spring benchmarks are completed. Reading achievement data is part of the school improvement plan, and goals are set to increase reading proficiency for all students.
Section F: Describe how the school provides teacher training based in the science of reading, structured literacy, and foundational literacy skills to support all students in PreK-5th grade.
Teachers are supported by the school and district to attend LETRS training. The coach will support teachers in modeling literacy and foundational reading skills based in the Science of Reading.
Section G: Analysis of Data
Strengths:
Weekly PLC and common planning allows for teachers to collaboratively plan for structured and foundational literacy instruction.
The school’s curriculum is aligned with the Read, Think, Talk, Write Cycle during structured Read Alouds.
Professional Learning opportunities are scheduled 3 - 4 times per year with IReady to support teachers with planning of targeted and differentiated small group instruction.
Implementation of Co-teaching in all Reading classrooms through ML or Clemson residency initiative.
Possibilities for Growth
Teachers will routinely use weekly progress monitoring data to plan for systematic and explicit instruction.
Teachers will analyze their IReady personalized learning data reports to have data chats with students and set weekly learning goals.
Teachers will routinely use Science of Reading instructional routines to teach foundational reading skills with an emphasis on blending and segmenting.
Teachers will routinely share student progress with parents and provide them with resources to support reading at home.
All K - 3 teachers will receive training in the Science of Reading.
Provide rigorous grade-level instruction and activities in all classrooms.
Section H: Previous School Year SMART Goals and Progress Toward Those Goals
● Please provide your school’s goals from last school year and the progress your school has made towards these goals. Utilize quantitative and qualitative data to determine progress toward the goal (s). As a reminder, all schools serving third grade were required to use Goal #1 (see below).
Goal #1 (Third Grade Goal):
Reduce the percentage of third graders scoring Does Not Meet in the spring of 2023 as determined by SC Ready from 59.3% to 53% in the spring of 2024
Progress:
The percentage of students scoring Does Not Meet on the Spring 2024, determined by SC Ready, increased from 59.3% to 65.2%. We did not meet our third grade SC Ready goal to decrease the number of students scoring does not meet
Goal #2: By Spring 2024, the percentage of students in Grade 1 scoring in the high-risk category in Fastbridge will decrease from 43% to 30%.
Progress: The percentage of Grade 1 students scoring in the high risk category on Fastbridge Early Reading increased from 43% to 78%. We did not meet our annual goal to decrease students scoring in the high-risk category on our Early Reading Fastbridge assessment.
Goal #3: By Spring 2024, the percentage of students scoring Tier 1 on their IReady benchmark will increase from 6% to 28%.
Progress: The percentage of students scoring Tier 1 on their IReady Spring benchmark increased from 6% to 25%. We increased our students scoring Tier 1 by 19%, but we did not meet our 2023 - 2024 annual goal.
Section I: Current SMART Goals and Action Steps Based on Analysis of Data
● All schools serving students in third grade MUST respond to the third-grade reading proficiency goal. Schools that do not serve third grade students may choose a different goal. Schools may continue to use the same SMART goals from previous years or choose new goals. Goals should be academically measurable. The Reflection Tool may be helpful in determining action steps to reach an academic goal. Schools are strongly encouraged to incorporate goals from the strategic plan.
Goal #1: By Spring of 2025, reduce the percentage of third graders scoring Does Not plan for instruction.
Meet in the spring of 2024 as determined by SC READY from 65.2 % to 58%
Action Steps:
1. Teachers will utilize PLC guiding questions and data driven instruction to plan for student learning.
2. Teachers will utilize progress monitoring data to determine the effectiveness of small group instruction.
3. Teachers will provide targeted Tier 2 intervention using Magnetic Reading or UFLI grounded in the Science of Reading.
4. Teachers will maintain a strong communication between Interventionists and Multilingual Learner Specialists to collaborate on student needs.
5. Teachers will utilize total participation techniques to increase student engagement.
Goal #2: By spring of 2025, first grade teachers will increase the number of students meeting their IReady typical growth goal in Reading from 26% to 40%.
Action Steps:
1. Teachers will use common assessment data from the curriculum and IReady data to identify trends and areas for improvement.
2. After the winter benchmark, teachers will identify students who are not on track to reach their goals and adjust instructional pathways.
3. Teachers will use interactive tutorial lessons from I-ready during differentiated small group instruction.
4. Teachers will use data conferences to set individualized IReady weekly goals. Teachers will offer student incentives to students who meet their goals.
Goal #3: By spring of 2025, all teachers will increase the number of students meeting their IReady stretch growth goal in Reading from 24% to 40%.
Action Steps:
1. Teachers will monitor students' personalized learning reports weekly and adjust learning pathways as needed.
2. Teachers will conference with students to set individualized learning goals.
3. Teachers will utilize PLC guiding questions and data driven instruction to plan for student learning.
4. Teachers will utilize total participation techniques to increase student engagement.
5. Reading coach will push out school-wide IReady challenges to accelerate learning.
6. The principal will celebrate the highest class growth average among each grade-level and set school-wide incentives for students meeting growth typical and growth goals.