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In this edition of the Alaska Reading Newsletter:
- DEED's Monthly Coffee and Content *Mark your calendar
- Alaska School Spotlight - Mountain Village School (LYSD)
- Happenings and Highlights in Schools
- Alaska Reads Act Educator Qualifications *Infographic UPDATED
- Notes from DEED's Early Learning Team *Webinar Series Oct. 26 start
- ARI Updates
- Reads Act Newest Resources
- DEED/R16CC Professional Development *UPDATED
- 2024 SoR Symposium Save the Date
- AKLearns and Quick Links *UPDATED
DEED's Monthly "Coffee and Content" Event
Register now. See you there.
 Alaska Science of Reading all year? Yes, PLEASE. Each reading leader will share for about 15 - 20 minutes. After some content, stay for some educator chat.
Here are some comments the participants so far have shared:
"These resources are GREAT!"
"Thank you for the opportunity to get questions answered."
"I appreciate the consistent access to training and information available from the State."
"It was great to hear what Districts are doing to inform parents about the Reads Act."
"I like exchanging ideas about implementing interventions with few staff available, and looking at different literacy blocks from other schools."
Visit our newly launched Coffee and Content webpage dedicated to these events. RECORDINGS will be available at the site. Listen at your leisure if you missed it, or it's there if you want to hear all of the information again. The webpage also houses a printable copy of the Coffee and Content Calendar. Thanks to all of our speakers for this opportunity.
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Mountain Village School
School Spotlight
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This month DEED is highlighting Mountain Village School of the Lower Yukon School District. Their educators are taking advantage of DEED Professional Development, implementing new ELA curriculum and interventions, and working hard on family engagement.
In remote, rural Alaska, opportunities often arise to stop what one had been doing in order to do something better that just came up! A lazy Sunday afternoon nap may be put aside to take advantage of the offer to go by boat to pick the last berries of the season. Household cleaning is skipped in order to join a group of friends headed out by snow machine to go ice fishing. Ineffective teaching habits and practices are discarded to move toward Science of Reading best practices as know better, do better knowledge spreads across Alaska on the heels of the Alaska Reads Act passing. Mountain Village School in the Lower Yukon School District has the right mindset.
Over the last year, the Lower Yukon School District has begun making significant changes to meet the needs of students, families, and schools as they seek to increase reading success. At Mountain Village School, they work to make their school stand out as one that is focused on bringing sustainable change around reading. Principal Jeremy Miller shared, “While we acknowledge that we have a long journey ahead of us, DEED’s encouragement means a great deal to all of us at Mountain Village School. Historically, we have faced challenges in achieving desirable reading proficiency scores, but we remain optimistic that the groundwork we are laying now will yield significant benefits for our students, their parents, and our wider community." Leadership matters, and there are not more true words spoken than recognizing challenges and rising to the occasion of removing barriers.
Mountain Village School’s staff has been busy taking advantage of the many free offerings from DEED to support the work of improving reading proficiency. Teachers participated in DEED's ELA Curriculum Grant, they are taking the Keys to Beginning Reading course, as well as the LETRS course. Mountain Village educators Amanda Queenie and Hanna Rosales have been approved to be participants of DEED's new, rigorous Alaska K-12 Reading Specialist Endorsement Program. Mountain Village is implementing new ELA curriculum Amplify's CKLA, along with mCLASS DIBELS and mCLASS Interventions.
"3rd Annual Under 5 Fair in Mountain Village"
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One way that Mountain Village School is working hard to stand out from the rest is with monthly parent engagement activities. Their “Under 5 Fair” is a favorite, and their largest, parent engagement event to date. Please read this news report written just after the event in September:
3rd Annual “Under 5 Fair” in Mountain Village was a success
The many, many hours of behind-the-scenes preparations over summer break came into fruition this weekend as we hosted our 3rd Annual “Under 5 Fair” here in Mountain Village on Saturday, September 23rd. With 32 adults, 45 children, and 9 vendors, this was the biggest fair to date. Although intended for children 0 to 5 years, we had children as old as 12 in attendance. The growing interest in this annual fall event brings us great joy and encouragement.
Our fair's objective is to put ready to use tools for learning and early childhood development into the hands of as many families as possible. This year's vendors helped to make that possible by donating everything from dental hygiene products to exercise equipment (beach balls and frisbees), from book sets to coloring supplies. Perhaps most exciting is that this year we welcomed our first "in person" vendors: Matt Hebard and Pam Walker with thread (https://www.threadalaska.org/), Alaska's leading voice on child care. Matt and Pam took the theme of "Super Strivers, Super Readers" to its pinnacle and dressed as Mr. Incredible and Poison Ivy. Real, live superheroes alongside hourly book readings, cake walks, and raffles added just the right touches of excitement for young and young at heart! The youngest learners in Mountain Village thank all who helped to make our “Under 5 Fair” a resounding success.
"thread Alaska provides our first in person vendors"
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Meeting the new requirements of the Alaska Reads Act brings challenges. Hosting events that buoy the ability of families to develop early literacy and math skills at home brings positive changes. Principal Miller offers words that show dedication, commitment, and a positive mindset toward gaining reading proficiency for all students: “Our collective commitment to our students' success, shared by our dedicated teachers, aides, custodians, office staff and parents, is the driving force behind our recent positive changes. We have strategically placed strong teachers to lead in specific areas, which has contributed to our efforts to turn the tide and steer our ship in the right direction. Our shared belief is unwavering: our students can and will make progress. We have implemented strategic approaches to instruction, hosted engaging parental engagement events, and fostered a school culture that places reading at the forefront of our educational priorities.” DEED looks for forward to continued support and hearing more about progress in Mountain Village.
"Super Strivers, Super Readers"
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Has your school proven great success increasing student reading proficiency utilizing evidence-based curriculum and materials? 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 or questions to: Jenn.Miller@alaska.gov
You can view the 2022-2023 School Year Alaska School Spotlights here:
https://education.alaska.gov/Alaska-Reading-Resources/alaska-school-spotlights
Great Things are Happening in Petersburg
DEED caught wind of Petersburg's model for leading intervention groups by teacher strengths, and were able to also combine some content within the groupings. They knocked it all the way out of the park on this one! We were able to hear from Elementary Principal, Heather Conn about this recently.
While data was rolling in, Petersburg started the conversations with teachers about which group they would prefer teaching. We really wanted to have an investment from teachers and highlight their strengths in the intervention groups. We grouped students based off of their DIBELS scores into Tier I, II, and III groups.
As a collective group we paired teachers with the intervention groups they felt most comfortable with. We also took a look at all the Tier I students' MAP math scores to see if we could do some math support in one of the Tier I groups. Of course, we were able to incorporate some Tier II math support out of our Tier I groups.
In this situation we were able to pair a teacher who loves to teach math with this group. We are using UFLI and SPIRE for our Tier II and III students, and being creative in giving enrichment to our Tier I students. I recently got an email from one of our 2nd grade teachers that stated, "THIS IS AMAZING!"
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Congratulations to Petersburg on all of their hard work, commitment, and dedication toward reading proficiency for all students. We appreciate them sharing with us all.
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Alaska CLSD Supplemental Grant
2023 Recipient Highlight
Congratulations to Mountain View Elementary
in Anchorage. This month we revisit Mountain View, who shared about their reading supports with us in August. Check out the video provided by Principal, Dr. Clare Hill.
Saturday Reading All-Stars is off to an incredible start. We have built excitement around the program and have targeted groups each Saturday of about 10-15 students per teacher. One of the successes of this program is that we marketed the opportunity to staff across the Anchorage School District. We were able to attract master teachers, several who are instructional coaches, for this Saturday opportunity. It has been a delight to showcase our school to new educators, while also ensuring we are not taxing our staff at Mountain View who teach during the week. We have been exploring different warm lunches that the kids love and want to come back for—Pizza was certainly a hit! An interesting challenge was that our Best Beginnings 0-3 playgroup has ended up being mostly full of mothers that want to learn English. We pivoted and are offering English classes for mothers in the same space that the Best Beginnings team is hosting playgroups.
Enjoy watching this short video of our program.
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OC6NZU7DfAUwrAki0Zn2863TIfI_6Gix/view
Alaska Educator Qualifications
a requirement of the Alaska Reads Act
Part of the Alaska Reads Act includes educator qualifications as noted on the infographic below. Visit the DEED Educator Qualifications webpage for more info.
Starting last school year, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development worked to support Alaska Educators by offering FREE DEED-Sponsored professional development that meets Alaska Reads Act requirements for educator qualifications. The FREE opportunity for these courses may not be available past next summer. DEED will continue to offer as many seats as possible between now and then. Visit the DEED Professional Development webpage for information about courses.
Are you one of the Alaska Educators that has completed a DEED Alaska Reads Act approved course? Maybe you are wondering what to do next? DEED Teacher Certification has posted the Alaska Reads Act Educator Endorsement Form. Please complete and submit the form.
Notes From DEED's Early Learning Team
New. Understanding Alaska’s Early Education Program Standards and .5 ADM Approval. Does your district have an early education program or plan to start one? If so, register now for this five-part webinar series at The Alaska Reads Act: Early Education Programs webpage.
- Dive into Alaska’s Early Education Program Standards.
- Plan for documentation of high-quality early education programming.
- Familiarize the requirements of the 2024-2025 District-Wide Early Education Program Approval (5 ADM Funding) application.
Do not delay, the first webinar is October 26. Webinars will be recorded and posted on The Alaska Reads Act: Early Education Programs webpage for later viewing.
Early Education Lead Qualifications update:
https://education.alaska.gov/akreads/Teacher%20Qualifications%209.23%20(2).pdf
 Webinar Series REGISTRATION LINKS:
October 26, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
November 9, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
December 14, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
January 11, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
February 8, 10:00-11:30 a.m
 Visit flyer Links here:
thread WEBSITE thread TRAINING thread TOOLS
Travel Scholarships Pre-Approval Travel Scholarships Post-Travel Form
Pyramid Model Resource Kit
Alyeska Reading Academy
and Institute (ARI)
Alyeska Reading Academy & Institute (ARI) provides additional resources to schools and districts across Alaska. UFLI manuals are available free to schools that would like to implement the UFLI program during the 2023-2024 school year. Request copies of UFLI manuals for your district or school today.
Over 900 UFLI support materials, lessons, activities, and additional resources can be instantly accessed, downloaded, or make a Google copy as a group at this link. Quarterly Google files that match the UFLI Small-Group Supplemental Planning Sheet (page 35 of the UFLI manual) have been created to support teachers.
To assist schools in implementing the IRIP documents, ARI has created downloadable support resources for your use. Resources include:
- the updated IRIP Time-saver edition complete with drop down menus for each reading strand and fields that self-populate,
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IRIP Ideas sheet - supporting teachers as they fill out an IRIP
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IRIP Class at a Glance google sheet - allowing teachers to easily view what reading skill each student in a class is working on. Available as individual reading strand sheets or with all the reading strands for a class on a single sheet. Easily shareable between colleagues that are supporting students.
Download or Make a Copy to change these file permissions from view to your own editable copy. Note:
- PDF files (IRIP) must be downloaded to function, and google spreadsheet files must stay in a Google.docs account.
- Other files can be downloaded to a computer or remain in Google.docs. A handout is included above.
- If you need additional assistance, contact Melinda Krise at melinda.krise@alaska.gov
Click to learn more about the Alyeska Reading Academy & Institute and how it can support your district, staff, and students in need of free additional tutoring.
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Department Reading Program Resources
View Department Reading Program PD Resources
For access to the Intensive School Reading Improvement Program (Department Reading Program) Professional Development resources, please fill out complete information to be added to the DEED Professional Development Google Site.
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DEED Sponsored Early Literacy Screener
Congratulations, Alaska
The first beginning of year (BOY) benchmark window, including Vocabulary, RAN, and Spelling measures, has officially closed.
Next Steps: Progress Monitoring
- Refer to the District’s K-3 MTSS Plan for progress monitoring details.
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The District reading teacher, classroom teacher, and student’s guardian(s) will collaborate to create and implement Individual Reading Improvement Plans, as needed.
Upcoming Training Sessions:
All Professional Learning Opportunities are posted on the Alaska Amplify webpage.
Find more information on the DEED Early Literacy Screener webpage.
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DEED sponsored Science of Reading Courses
Please visit the DEED Professional Development webpage for SoR course updates. You can also visit https://aklearns.org under "events" to look for calendar updates with information.
Keys to Literacy SoR Courses
*Please note upcoming registration windows and mark your calendar!
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Winter 2023 (Registration opens 11/6 and closes 11/17)
Cohort 1: Nov. 22 - Mar. 13, 4:00 - 6:00 pm (Wednesdays)
Meetings on 12/13, 1/10, 1/31, 2/21, and 3/13
Cohort 2: Nov. 22 - Mar. 14, 4:00 - 6:00 pm (Thursdays)
Meetings on 12/14, 1/11, 2/1, 2/22, 3/14
Cohort 3: Nov. 22 - Mar. 16, 8:30 - 10:30 am (Saturdays)
Meetings on 12/16, 1/13, 2/3, 2/24, 3/16
Spring 2024 (Registration opens 1/29 and closes 2/9)
Cohort 1: Feb. 12 - May 22, 4:00 - 6:00 pm (Wednesdays)
Meetings on 3/6, 3/27, 4/10, 5/1, 5/22
Cohort 2: Feb. 12 - May 23, 4:00 - 6:00 pm (Thursdays)
Meetings on 3/7, 3/28, 4/11, 5/2, 5/23
Cohort 3: Feb. 12 - June 1, 8:30 - 10:30 am (Saturdays)
Meetings on 3/9, 3/30, 4/13, 5/4, 6/1
Summer 2024 (fast tracked course; Registration opens 4/8 and closes 4/19)
Apr. 22 - June 22, 8:30 - 10:30 am (Saturdays)
Meetings on 5/18, 6/1, 6/8, 6/15, 6/22
Summer 2024 (fast tracked course; Registration opens 5/6 and closes 5/17)
May 20 - June 24, 8:30 - 10:30 am (Mondays and Thursdays)
Meetings on 6/10, 6/13, 6/17, 6,20, 6/24
Visit the Alaska Keys to Literacy website for more information:
https://keystoliteracy.com/alaska-reads-professional-development/
Note: Keys to Literacy satisfies Alaska Reads Act educator qualification requirements for both teachers and leaders. It is open to educators in Grades K-6, but required for K-3. Please make sure you have reviewed your schedule and the DEED Guidelines/Expectations for Courses sheet prior to registering. Full participation and attendance is expected.
NWEA for Administrators SoR Course
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The NWEA for Administrators course opened for registration on May 8, 2023. Cohorts 1-4 are full and in session. Register NOW to try to get a seat for the last two cohorts.
Cohorts 5 & 6 will occur January 9–April 25.
The detailed schedule for virtual seminars can be accessed via the registration link.
https://dpdol.nwea.org/pl/sa/AK/AK_Literacy_LeadershipRegistration_Flyer_FY23.pdf
Note: It is recommended that District Leaders take this course, however Keys to Literacy and LETRS also satisfy Alaska Reads Act educator qualification requirements.
Opportunities for LETRS training!
New LETRS Cohorts sponsored by both R16CC and DEED are underway! If you have not secured a seat, see the application link below to apply. To learn more or to apply for an upcoming LETRS training, you can also visit the Alaska LETRS Overview Guide at bit.ly/ak-letrs.
Upcoming cohorts: If you have not filled out the application form yet and are interested, please do that ASAP. Follow this link to apply.
JUST LAUNCHED
Check out the new LETRS Alaska webpage at:
https://www.lexialearning.com/alaska-letrs
Join us - LETRS Local Certified Facilitator Information Session
Have you completed LETRS training? Are you interested in bringing LETRS to your entire school or district staff? If you answered "yes," we invite you to join us for an informational webinar about opportunities for no-cost LETRS Local Certified Facilitator training, which provides LETRS "graduates" with the credentials they need to serve as facilitators in their local districts.
Beyond the Playbook
Modules 1 and 2 have been completed at this time.
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Working with Struggling Readers Grade Three and Beyond
October 24, 26, and November 2-16, Tuesdays and Thursdays
4:00-5:30pm AKST (no session Oct. 31)
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Must register to participate.
Register here
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