February 2020
Literacy News You Can Use
The Statewide Literacy Leadership Team met on February 20, 2020, for a full day of professional learning with The New Teacher Project (TNTP). Mya Baker, Midwest vice-president, and Jessica Dirks, Midwest director, joined the team for a deep dive into The Opportunity Myth and presented resources that members can utilize to build capacity.
The TNTP study found that most students, especially students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, and English language learners, spend the majority of their time in school without access to four critical resources:
- Consistent opportunities to work on grade-appropriate assignments
- Strong instruction, where students do the majority of the thinking in class
- Deep engagement in what they are learning
- Teachers who hold high expectations for students and who believe they can meet grade-level standards
During the workshop, participants were introduced to a Student Experience Assessment Guide, ELA Student Assignment Analysis Tool, and ELA Observation Protocol. Notably, Mya and Jessica were responsive to requests during the session by sharing a new TNTP Reading Foundational Skills Observation Tool.
Time was available for attendees to create an action plan for sharing new learning and resources with other educators. The team will continue an ongoing learning series to improve students’ academic learning in the final meeting of the year with guest speaker, Amy Rudat, senior director of English/Language Arts at UnboundEd.
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Explore text sets available on Achievethecore.org.
Student Achievement Partners provides free access to K-12 lessons using a volume of reading on specific topics, supporting all learners in building background knowledge and vocabulary. Text sets are essential across disciplines.
For further information, read "Supplementing Your Curriculum with Knowledge-Building Text Sets." The Aligned Blog emphasizes, "...the more educators do to build knowledge on a range of topics, the more likely that students will be able to comprehend future passages with similar vocabulary on similar topics."
Iowa Learning Academy
Special Education and General Education
Date: June 9-12, 2020
Location: Iowa Events Center, Des Moines, Iowa
Click here for more information
Iowa Academic Standards Institute
Equitable Instruction:
English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Leadership
Date: June 15-17, 2020
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Janelle Sulhoff, instructional coach at Highland Community School District, is working with K-5 educators to create a literacy-based unit aligning to the Iowa Core Literacy Standards. She meets with each grade level in the K-5 building weekly. Janelle shares, "Starting in February, we will also be focusing on the creation of these units during our weekly professional development time every Wednesday. Our goal is to have our units well developed by the end of the school year, so that they can be fully implemented in the fall."
Formative assessments are an essential part of the process. Teams at Highland Elementary School are working collaboratively and engaging in conversations around assessment data weekly to determine appropriate next steps for all students to gain proficiency on grade-level Standards. In "Formative assessment: An enabler of learning," Margaret Heritage emphasizes, "Formative assessment is a practice that empowers teachers and students to give their best to enable learning." (WestEd/CRESST)
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What are you doing to align instructional practice and implement the Iowa Academic Standards?
Are you utilizing tools to design instruction, assess learning, or create professional development that supports all students meeting Iowa Core expectations in literacy?
Share your work and celebrations via the Spotlight Literacy Google Form.
Also, feel free to nominate another educator to spotlight his or her work. A literacy spotlight will be chosen each month!
Let's build bridges together and improve instructional practice.
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Leigh Bellville Literacy Consultant Bureau of Leading, Teaching, Learning Services Iowa Department of Education Grimes State Office Building 400 E 14th St Des Moines, IA 50319 515-689-3717 leigh.bellville@iowa.gov
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