The in-person 2023 Alaska SoR Symposium is FULL.
Registered in-person participants can find UPDATED agenda and other information at: AKSORSYMPOSIUM.ORG.
DEED has opened up a virtual attendance option that nearly 500 other Alaska Educators have signed up for! It's not too late!
Register for the Virtual Consortium
before the April 27th deadline!
 Calling all Alaskans!
Help us recognize educators and advocates across the state who are moving the needle in student reading. Nominations are OPEN until 11:59 pm April 17th for the first cohort of AK Reads Ambassadors!
Visit https://bit.ly/akreads-ambassador for details.
Looking for LETRS?
Alaska’s LETRS Journey:
Just one short year ago, the launch of Alaska’s first Lexia LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) cohort was announced at the 2022 Science of Reading Symposium, and the initial training cohorts filled within days. Since that time, the demand for this intensive, high-quality professional learning opportunity has continued to grow – and Region 16 Comprehensive Center (R16CC) has been honored to support Alaska DEED in providing LETRS training at no-cost for Alaska’s educators. By the time the 2023 symposium kicks off on April 28, 2023, R16CC and DEED will have engaged nearly 240 educators from 33 districts across Alaska in six separate cohorts of LETRS learning – with four additional training cohorts on the horizon for launch in the summer and fall of 2023.
What is LETRS?
It is important to note that Lexia LETRS is not a literacy curriculum. Rather, the training provides knowledge and tools that teachers can use with any good reading program. LETRS training focuses on:
- In-depth knowledge based on the most current research regarding what, when, and how language skills need to be taught;
- Intensive focus on the skills needed to master the foundational and fundamentals of reading and writing instruction—phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and written language;
- Ways to assess student language development for prevention and intervention;
- Guidance on how to plan and balance word recognition and comprehension instruction; and
- Information on how to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students (and YES, all means ALL!).
Why LETRS?
Many have asked what makes LETRS training for teachers different from other reading-focused professional learning opportunities. First and foremost, the depth of study in the LETRS for Classroom Educators course cannot be beat! The training is considered to be the “gold standard” – and for good reason. In addition to cohort-based, participatory “live” training sessions (delivered virtually via Zoom), LETRS provides a dynamic online learning platform that includes activities to reinforce concepts, videos of expert teaching, and practical ways to apply learning to the classroom every day. In addition, LETRS for Classroom Educators, which takes from one to two academic years to complete, results in 12 graduate credits. Obviously, this training is no “sit and get” PD!
Leadership Matters
Unlike other states with large LETRS training programs, Alaska chose to open registration on a voluntary basis. This approach has resulted in the development of a grassroots movement among LETRS participants. Word of mouth continues to be the greatest way educators hear about LETRS training. As interest has grown, we have seen a recent influx of educators applying to participate in LETRS as school- and district-based teams.
For example, Cohort 5 has several small groups of teachers from the same schools learning together. Breakout sessions during our live training sessions allow these teachers to engage in school-specific conversations about their schools and their students. What a powerful way to put the learning into practice!
Cohort 6 is a shining example of what happens when leadership supports LETRS for educators across a district. Lower Yukon School District has more than 30 educators from nine of the district’s schools registered and ready to develop their skills as teachers of reading by learning together in Cohort 6. Kudos to Shanna Johnson, LYSD’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction, for encouraging and supporting this intensive professional learning as a priority for the coming year.
Interested in becoming one of Alaska’s LETRS learners?
R16CC and Alaska DEED are currently recruiting for upcoming LETRS learning cohorts for classroom educators, early childhood educators, and administrators. For more more information or to add your name to the waitlist, please visit https://AKLearns.org. Want to learn more about the complete LETRS training suite? Visit https://www.lexialearning.com/letrs. Questions about LETRS in Alaska, in particular? Please contact Tammy Van Wyhe, R16CC AK State Director, at tamarav@serrc.org.
Submitted by Tamara Van Wyhe, AK State Director
Region 16 Comprehensive Center
Alaska PLC at Work Institute!
Just announced, and near full!
This conference will come to Alaska Nov. 1-2, 2023.
The Alaska Professional Learning Communities Network cohort has been learning and growing together as a team. Throughout the summer 70 educators across the state met in Sacramento, CA, or in Seattle, WA for a summer institute. The 35 educators currently in the cohort meet with a Solution Tree trainer throughout this year to go deeper and to improve practice. Solution Tree's Professional Learning Communities at Work® process is increasingly recognized as the most powerful strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement. Connections and meaningful conversations around student learning and the four questions are transpiring. An Alaska-based PLC Institute from Solution Tree will take place in Anchorage on November 1st and 2nd. This institute provides the knowledge, tools, and encouragement to implement this powerful process. If you would like to know more about the Professional Learning Communities at Work event please check out the link here.
Alaska Reads Act Webinars/Info
The Alaska Reads Act Implementation Webinar series will conclude on May 11th. Please access the schedule here: https://education.alaska.gov/akreads/webinar-schedules. You can access recordings of past webinars and resource materials presented in each webinar too
NOTE:
The April 13 and 20 Virtual Education webinar was combined to be presented on April 13, so the April 20 webinar will now cover the K-3 MTSS Plan. There is also an added webinar on May 4 for K-3 MTSS Plans specific to World and Native Language Programs and on May 11 covering use of federal funding for supporting reading. All webinars begin at 3:15.
The following one-page step-by-step supports were created with the intent to further support districts as they begin planning for next school year:
Alaska Reads Act regulations public comment has closed and regulations are being reviewed for changes. The State of Alaska School Board will hold a special meeting on April 19th regarding the Alaska Reads Act regulations.
If you have Alaska Reads Act questions or your District would like to request an in-person presentation on the Alaska Reads Act, reach out to us at: akreads@alaska.gov
School Spotlight
This month DEED is highlighting Yukon Flats School District (YFSD). Their dedication to school improvement has included inservice training from The Reading League, attending the Alaska RTI/MTSS Conference as a whole staff, and putting PLC's to work.
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Yukon Flats School District (YFSD) is on a journey of school improvement. This year has been strategic and intentional in looking at curriculum and professional development with some very exciting results. To kick off a great new school year YFSD was proud to host Dr. Heidi Beverine-Curry for 2 days in August at the district 2022 Pre-Service held in Fairbanks. Dr. Heidi Beverine-Curry is a Co-founder and Vice President of Professional Development for The Reading League, where she designs, supervises, and delivers educator learning opportunities and is a champion for evidence-aligned literacy instruction. Last spring, she presented a keynote at "The Science of Reading: A Defining Movement” at the 2022 Alaska Science of Reading Symposium.
As a result of Dr. Heidi Beverine's presentation to all YFSD educators, Jimmie O'Quinn, a primary teacher at Fort Yukon School, and Darlene Christian, a paraprofessional from John Fredson School, are completing the extensive LETRS training that started at the beginning of the year. Both will teach summer school in their respective locations. Yukon Flats has been working to be creative with time and resources by using school space and volunteers to implement out of school programming. Their cook, Marlayna Ransom, and cook assistant, Tamia Galvin, have volunteered to create an after-school program to help students with their work. There are also teachers and paras throughout the district who tutor at least two afternoons each week. Saturday tutoring is also available at each location. WOW!
In January, Yukon Flats’ educators (superintendent, principals, teachers, paraprofessionals) ALL attended the 2023 Alaska RTI Conference. This numbered about 30 participants, showing great commitment to school improvement. In speaking with Yukon Flats educators at the RTI Conference, their excitement and passion for their students’ education and success was evident. They attended many sessions and provided feedback to their Superintendent about their take aways and implementations.
Leader Tamika Galvin worked to compile information from colleagues across the Yukon Flats School District, as well as describe their experience taking their district educators to the 2023 RTI Conference.
“Yukon Flats School District is excited to share what’s happening in our district and how we are progressing. With great leadership throughout our district, we are driven to continue our learning so that we may stay abreast of best practices and always do what is best for our scholars. Our district is growing and dedicated to the success of every scholar. So much so, we took around 30 staff members (nearly 100% of staff) to the 2023 RTI/MTSS conference to enhance our practice and learn additional concepts that have been researched, particularly in math and reading. Amongst the learning that occurred, there were some identified changes that were immediately modified so that implementation and growth could begin. Some areas that were identified or reviewed were attendance, math, reading, and collaboration.
After returning from the conference, district leaders and their teams discussed what they learned and the takeaways. Throughout the district, attendance was one of the identified areas that needed to improve. It has been said and notably true that if children are not at school, learning is not as impactful or happening. During our heaviest COVID season, one of our principals noticed a significant academic drop in first and second graders. This increased the chances of the scholars having low performance on the standardized third-grade test. With practices in place and the use of the curriculum with fidelity, situations like this have been reduced now, as the conference confirmed that some of the practices that our district has in place are directly in line with student growth and success.
While attendance is vital to students’ academic success, many of our staff found credible information in the “Come one, come all: Building a Culture of Attendance” session with Tricia Skyles. This session was reflective for school leaders and staff which gave an urgent push to create a culture of attendance in each school after their return from the conference. This was a huge win for our district because attendance has been one of our top priorities. With our district being together and hearing the same message, our immediate actions have helped to start resolving some of our attendance issues as we move forward in the mindset of supporting scholars and families as well as identifying obstacles that could be the reason for attendance issues. To say it best, our attendance is receiving the attention and correction it needs to move our district forward as a whole.
In the same manner, we also gathered a collective vision for our math and reading curriculum, HMH. With a heavy focus on implementation and support, the conference provided resources, knowledge, and other supports that could help us ensure all scholars are on track or above. Some of the changes that were readily implemented included having better use of Paras (teacher assistants) and how their role can be better served. The conference made recommendations that many of our staff have already begun to do. Some of the takeaways were from the Alaska Reads Act, which caused a huge focus in our PLC groups. The two priorities that are key following the conference are attendance and developing scholars’ reading and math skills. Although these three areas are not unique to schools alike, they are areas that our district has strived to improve in, hence why we felt strongly about bringing our district to gain additional skills.
Now that we have settled back into our schools, we have taken a unique approach to elevate our scholars. Our scholars can feel successful by being placed in intervention classes that will support them where they are in math and reading. The recommended benchmark assessment time frame will allow staff to review the student’s data and make effective changes as necessary. Like most schools, there is always a need or want for more staff; however, when we identified key people we have in our buildings that help take on the challenge of providing additional support in math and reading, or become a part of the attendance committee, we began to produce scholars that are performing on their academic level, more importantly, able to become change agents in their community, as well as globally.
We are still on fire from attending the RTI/MTSS conference and will continue to modify and enhance our practice so that all scholars can receive equitable and high-level learning. Our children are our future! The conference helped us to sharpen our tools, keep our scholars as the focus, and remember that “Together we can do all things” here at Yukon Flats School District.”
As a component of the work toward school improvement, Yukon Flats School District has also been intentional about working toward understanding of, and compliance with, the Alaska Reads Act. Here is what District Reading Specialist, Matthew Stark, explained about this work.
“The first step in becoming compliant in the Alaska Reads Act was to make sure our core curriculum aligned with the Science of Reading. We needed to make sure we had intervention programs that were aligned to the Science of Reading and the Alaska Reading Playbook. Making sure we had a program for Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Fluency. These two steps helped us to make sure we follow this part of the Reads Act and District Reading Plan. I used the District Reading Plan Template provided by DEED as guidance to create the needed documents and steps for our MTSS programs to meet the requirements of the Alaska Reads Act. The first step was to outline a flowchart for the MTSS process. This allows us to make sure to hit all the timelines for testing and meeting with parents as required in the Reads Act. Next, I created all the parent letters and the Individual Reading Intervention Plan to be used next year. I filled out the District Read Plan Template. I also meet with Susan McKenzie and Kristi Graber at DEED to go over the documents/processes and get feedback. Then the documents and process were revised. We currently have the documents out for comments by our Elementary Teachers. We chose to use mCLASS by Amplify as district screener and notified them of training dates.”
Dr. Debbe Lancaster, Superintendent of YFSD, adds that using the HMH curriculum with fidelity has been a game changer for Tier 1 core instruction. Mr. Stark also added that UFLI Foundations, Six Mix Solution, Vocabulary Surge, and Heggerty are utilized for Tier 2 interventions. Tier 3 uses 180/System 44 and Sylvian for after school tutoring.
Leader Mr. Mark B. Green, Sr. of Arctic Village School provides us a snapshot of challenges and solutions.
“On becoming the instructional leader for Arctic Village School 4 years ago, we faced several issues affecting student achievement. Faculty turnover/lack of teachers, poor student attendance, lack of parent involvement and not having a set reading and math program were major issues. These issues clearly affected student achievement across the board. Seeking qualified, motivated, and dedicated teachers that will stay a while is a challenge in Arctic Village, as well as in other village schools in Alaska. This was the first thing the District and I had to solve. We hired some incredible teachers over the initial 2 years of my tenure, who have stayed and are diligently and positively affecting student growth. Teacher stability is key in the success of students’ growth and achievement.
The next thing we tackled was our overall attendance percentage which was below 65% 4 years ago and we completed last year around 86%. As a team we informed the community, parents and students about our poor attendance rate and we challenged them to raise this percentage to 90%. Hence the Show Up! Part of our motto came into being.
We provide in school activities, after school activities, even ½ day of tutorial service on Saturday, parent quarterly dinners, holiday activities etc. These activities helped in getting students and parents back involved and engaged in the academic process.
Finally, we adopted HMH reading and math program throughout the district. This program helped teachers to focus on student needs and it engages. As icing on the cake, we were fortunate to be awarded a grant as a district, which we purchased a vehicle to be used as a bus to pick students up daily and the use of the SYLVAN program, which is used as our supplemental academic program during and after school.
Daily, we have a focused meeting before classes start to motivate and inform students and teachers concerning events of the day and week. This is our “Show Out!” portion of our motto kicking in. Students and teachers challenge each other to be present and do their best daily. Learning and teaching are taking place. As a result of our efforts, for the first time we had 15 students to show major growth from low average growth to exceed average growth and some even moved to high growth on the MAP assessment. We are proud of our students and staff! Moving students to be on and exceed grade level is our focus, we are heading in the right direction. Who are we? Warriors What do we do? Show Up! Show Out!”
Thank you to YFSD for sharing about all of this hard work, and congratulations on your amazing journey toward reading proficiency and school success for all students! DEED appreciates you sharing your story!
Have you had great success increasing student reading proficiency with an initiative or strategy in your school? Do you have something you are really excited about as an outcome of a shift to Science of Reading best practices? We are interested in hearing what amazing things are happening in your school to positively impact student reading proficiency and achievement. Please submit your story to the e-mail below. You may be chosen as the next school spotlight in a future edition of the Alaska Reading Newsletter!
Please e-mail your submissions to: Jenn.Miller@alaska.gov
DEED sponsored
Science of Reading Courses
Great news! The Alaska Keys to Literacy SoR Course for Teachers and the Alaska NWEA SoR Course for Leaders will be offered again! Information went out at the end of March regarding an April-June cohort that has been filled. Additional courses are in the process of being set up.
You can check back on the DEED reading resources professional development page for any updates regarding the addition of the new courses.
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K-12 Math
Professional Learning Catalog
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This semester DEED is hosting several professional learning opportunities which are available to Alaska educators at no cost to the educator.
You can find more information and a complete list of opportunities is available in the Professional Learning Opportunities Catalog.
Questions? Please contact Joy Abbott at 907-269-6578 or email Joy.Abbott@alaska.gov
Data Literacy PD
The DEED Assessment Literacy sessions resumed on January 17 and are targeted at deepening educator understanding of assessment data. Courses are offered remotely during after school hours. Attend a series of courses and work with the Professional Learning Coordinator to earn UA credit for your commitment. If you attended sessions in the fall, you can still earn credit. Reach out to Athena Hill at Athena.Hill@nwea.org for more information on credit.
Visit the course catalog to learn about more upcoming offerings: https://dpdol.nwea.org/pl/sa/AK/AK_StatewidePL_Catalog_FY23.pdf
Contact Kelly Manning at Kelly.Manning@alaska.gov for more information about these Professional Learning opportunities.
Alaska Reading Playbook
The Spring Alaska Reading Playbook professional development series is underway and wrapping up soon. Missed it this go around? No problem! There are recorded training sessions that can be used asynchronously along with facilitator guides and slide decks available for free at aklearns.org. These would be a great option for districts to use for paraprofessional or substitute training. They are also suggested for homeschool teachers and for use at community family nights.
You can click Alaska Reading Playbook for your own FREE downloadable or digital copy!
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