Differentiated Reading Block
MiBLSi State Conference 2008
Margie McGlinchey
Session Goals
•
•
•
•
What is differentiation?
Why should we do it?
Steps involved in differentiation
Guidelines for establishing differentiated
instruction in your classroom
• Evaluating your plan
What is differentiation?
• Classroom based literacy instruction for all
students
• Instruction that targets a particular group of
children directly and temporarily
• Instruction that applies a developmental
model and assumes that children have needs
in word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and
comprehension
• Instruction that supplements high quality core
instruction
(Walpole and McKenna, 2007)
Characteristics of the Reading Block
• High Quality Instruction
• Minimum of 90 minutes of uninterrupted
instruction
– Whole Group Instruction
– Small Group Instruction and Practice
• Teacher-Led Instruction
– Flexible
– Differentiated
– homogeneous
• Independent Student Centers
– Differentiated
Classroom Organization: Learning
Centers for differentiated groups
• Teacher-Led Center
- Small group instruction
•
•
•
•
Teaching “on purpose”
Careful observation of individual students
Addresses particular individual needs
Opportunities for responsive scaffolding
• Student Centers
- Academically engaged
- Accountability
- Group, Pair, Cooperative, Individual
The Reading Block
Whole Group Instruction
Teacher-Led Instruction
Independent Student Centers
Homogeneous
Differentiated
Flexible
Differentiated
(Cooperative, Independent, Pairs)
Classroom Organization for this
Kindergarten Class: Teacher Led-Center
• 40 minutes will be devoted to whole class ii using core
curriculum
• 50 minutes will be devoted to small group instruction:
M
T
W
TH
F
25
25
25
25
25
G2MR
15
10
15
10
15
G3LR
10
15
10
15
10
G1HR
minutes
Classroom Organization for this Kindergarten
Class: Teacher-Led Center
Small group instruction for 50 minutes:
• Group 1: Implement an intervention program --25
min. daily
• Group 2: Implement phonemic awareness and
phonics activities that will provide students extra
practice with the content that was previously
taught--10-15 min. daily
• Group 3: Use the decodable & leveled books from
my core reading program to practice the decoding
process and fluency--10-15 min. daily
Why should we do it?
• NAEP- reading problems affect about 4
out of 10 students
• Reading failure as high as 70% in some
districts
• This failure affects them for life
• Children enter school with significantly
different levels of language and
exposure to print
When a teacher tries to teach something to
the entire class at the same time, chances
are, one-third of the kids already know it;
one-third will get it, and the remaining third
won’t. So two-thirds of the children are
wasting their time.
Lillian Katz
“The grade-progression model is a factory
assembly-line model of schooling that assumes
equal readiness to learn and equal rates of
learning. The model persists despite
overwhelming evidence that by grade 3, the
achievement gap within a single grade may
span five or more years of schooling. The
model makes assessment of students to
establish starting points irrelevant because the
starting points are dictated by the curriculum,
not by the readiness of students to learn. It
denies individual differences. However the
differences remain and define the nub of the
problem, the age-old problem of personalizing
instruction.” (Fullen, Hill, Crevola, 2006)
Best-evidence Syntheses
• Thousands of studies on effective
teaching-three factors:
– Motivation to learn and high expectations
– Time on task and opportunity to learn
– Focused teaching
Focused Teaching
1. Knowing the strengths and
weaknesses of each student through
formative assessment
2. Knowing the appropriate instructional
response and when and how to use
strategies and resources
3. Having classrooms routines structures
and tools to deliver differentiated
instruction
(Fullen, Hill, Crevola, 2006)
Steps for Differentiation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Establish instructional priorities
Conduct appropriate assessment
Analyze assessment results
Make a plan
Try it out for 3 weeks
Evaluate the plan
1. Establish Instructional
Priorities
• Focus on the 5 Big Ideas of a
comprehensive reading program:
– Phonemic Awareness
– Alphabetic Principle
– Fluency
– Vocabulary
– Comprehension
5 Big Ideas
• Equally Important but…Not at the same
time
• Curriculum Maps provide guidance as
to instructional priority depending on
where in the developmental sequence a
student is performing
• You also must evaluate your curriculum
in connection with the Big Ideas
How to Read Curriculum Maps
Mapping of Instruction to Achieve Instructional Priorities
Second Grade
Table Time
• Curriculum Maps
– What are the focus skills for first grade
alphabetic principle/
– When should sound segmenting be
introduced in Phonemic Awareness?
– How much time should be spent on fluency
in second grade?
Changing Emphasis of Big Ideas
A Model for Instructional Time
Phonemic
Awareness
Phonics Fluency Vocabulary
Comprehension
K
30%
15%
10%
30%
15%
1
10%
30%
20%
25%
15%
2
30%
25%
25%
20%
3
20%
25%
25%
30%
4-6
15%
20%
30%
35%
2. Conduct Appropriate
Assessments-Four Purposes
Screening
Diagnostic
Progress Monitoring
Outcome
The first three are involved in
Differentiated Instruction
Screening: DIBELS
• Benchmark Screening
• Reliable and Valid
• Identify which students are likely to
meet the next benchmark
• Identify which students are likely to
have difficulty
Validate student data
• Do the assessment results match what
you know or suspect about each
student?
• If it doesn’t match up, retest
• Set aside protocols of students at or above
benchmarks with no reading concerns.
(Celebrate!!), and plan to provide enrichment
when relevant
• Fluency and accuracy are not a problem, but
there are still concerns? Check vocabulary
and/or comprehension.
• For students who performed below
expectations, is it a “can’t do” or “won’t do”
problem?
“Can’t do” vs. “Won’t do”
• “When a child does not perform well,
there are only two reasons: either a
child can’t do the work or the child won’t
do the work.”
• The next step for the child where you
are unsure is to conduct a “can’t do /
won’t do” assessment individually with
the student.
“Functional Assessments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Solving Academic and
Behavior Problems”, Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000.
Can’t do / Won’t do
Individual Assessment Steps
1. Use same form of assessment.
2. Offer the child an incentive for bettering his/her
performance either accuracy or fluency .
3. Incentive should be readily available to you and
desired by the child.
“Our work with this type of individual-child assessment has
indicated that at least 25% of children who do not perform up
to par in the classroom can actually do the work but simply
prefer not to …”
“Functional Assessments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Solving Academic and
Behavior Problems”, Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000.
Diagnostic Assessment
• For those not at benchmark
• Purpose: to identify instructional
strengths and needs.
• Observations, IRI, Error Analyses, more
formal assessments.
Error analysis
Purpose
• Looking for error patterns in a student’s reading
• Error patterns will give us more information on
teaching points
• Use the error patterns to remediate skill deficits
• Error patterns may be difficult to identify with the
number of errors on the three passages, but worth
exploring
What type of errors?
• Is it a single error pattern or does it cut
across multiple word attack skills?
• Can you address the errors informally or
do you need a more formal intervention
program?
Survey Level Assessment
• Assessing students in successive
levels of the general education
curricula for the purpose of making
several decisions: eligibility,
determining instructional placement,
set goals, identify strengths and needs,
progress toward goal.
Specific Level Assessment
• Involves collecting and analyzing
additional assessment data
• The results of the analysis are used to
develop instructional strategies
• This process can get very detailed and
complicated, but there is some first line
questioning that can be very helpful
without being overwhelming
Conducting Specific Level:
Error Analysis
• Errors are examined in maximum
knowledge conditions (un-timed and in
isolation) Use a passage sample of
about 250 words, a good error sample
is about 40-50 errors
• Word lists with similar word types to test
hypothesis
• Comprehension questions
Connected Text error patterns:
• Missing prefixes, suffixes or endings
• Trouble decoding larger and/or multi-syllable
words
• Difficulty with articles (a, the, an)
• Confusion of the “wh” or “th” words.
• Skipping words
• Adding words
• Substituting words
• Hesitations
• Letter-sound correspondence errors
• Blending errors
Qualitative Features of Good Reading (Shinn)
Fluency (accuracy + speed)
Uses effective strategies to decode words (word attack strategies
uses context for confirmation)
Adjusts pace according to level of text difficulty (words, syntaxword order, semantics-word meaning)
Attends to prosodic features (reads with expression, inflection, punctuation,
predicts level of expression according to syntax)
Possesses prediction-orientation (looks ahead when reading, reads at
sentence or paragraph level-not word-by-word)
Self-monitors reading (self-corrects when error distorts meaning of
sentence/paragraph)
Errors made:
Meaning preservation (MP) (“home” for “house”)
Meaning distortion (MD) (“mouse” for “house”)
Automaticity on reread words (words that reappear become “sight” words)
Example 1: High Accuracy/Low Rate
It was a pretty good composition. I felt proud knowing
it was the best one at my school. After I’d read it five times,
I was impatient to start reading it out loud.
I followed the book’s directions again. First I read the
composition out loud without trying to sound impressive, just
to hear what the words sounded like. I did that a couple of
times. Then I moved over to my full-length mirror and read the
composition out loud in front of it a few times. At first I just
read it. Then I practiced looking up and making eye contact.
Of course I was making eye contact with myself, and that felt
pretty silly, but that was what the book said to do.
Then I went on to reading the composition to an audience.
this consisted of my favorite teddy bear and Amanda, my best
doll, the only one I couldn’t bear to give up.
10
24
33
43
58
65
78
92
103
115
126
137
148
158
49/51=96.1%
Accuracy: _______________
Example 2: Low Accuracy/Low Rate
It was a pretty good composition. I felt proud knowing
it was the best one at my school. After I’d read it five times,
I was impatient to start reading it out loud.
I followed the book’s directions again. First I read the
composition out loud without trying to sound impressive, just
to hear what the words sounded like. I did that a couple of.
times. Then I moved over to my full-length mirror and read the
composition out loud in front of it a few times. At first I just
read it. Then I practiced looking up and making eye contact.
Of course I was making eye contact with myself, and that felt
pretty silly, but that was what the book said to do.
10
24
33
43
52
65
78
92
103
115
126
41/57 = 71.9%
Accuracy: ________________
Assessing Fluency: Terry
How well is Terry reading?
– Accurate but slow
How accurately can he perform
the skill?
– 92%! (would like to see 95%)
Readiness for fluency
instruction?
– Fluency building and sight
word instruction may be
appropriate
– Assess accuracy further with
another probe
Assessing How
Fluency:
Dan
well is Dan reading?
– Making many word reading errors.
– Reads at a slow pace.
How accurately can he perform the skill?
70%
How easily can he perform the skill?
– Labored approach
Readiness for fluency instruction?
– Intensive instruction in decoding,
irregular word reading, and
advanced word reading.
– Check alphabetic principle skills with
NWF. Automaticity instruction may
be appropriate but with reading
materials he can read accurately.
Team Time
• Take a few minutes to review the
informal assessment in your packet.
– Are there students who would benefit from
this assessment in terms of helping you
decide the next instructional steps?
– Sometimes we are able to develop a
hypothesis about the needs of the student
without the phonics survey, but not always
Progress Monitoring
• To evaluate effectiveness of plan
• To provide information regarding how
plan should be revised
• To determine if a particular skill is
established
3. Analyze Assessment
Results
• What are the needs at this time of year?
• Which students have similar needs?
• Which students have more intensive
needs?
• How will students be grouped and what
will be the instructional priority?
If we don’t analyze
• It’s like a dentist
doing an exam
taking an x-ray, then
just drilling until…
• Out of time?
• It feels right?
Grouping – when should it occur?
The 60% Rule
• If 60% of the class needs a particular skill or concept, whole group
instruction is appropriate.
• If less than 60% is struggling with that skill or concept, small group
instruction is most effective and efficient.
Develop Plan
• For Teacher led small group instruction
• For Student Center activities
• “If it takes longer to make something
than it does for children to use it
instructionally, then don’t bother making
it” (Diller, 2003)
A Model for Instructional Time
Whole
Group
Phonemic Phonics Fluency Vocabulary
Awareness
Comprehension
30%
15 min
15%
10 min
15%
10 min
10%
5 min
30%
20 min
Teacher Led
Phonemic
Awareness
Alphabetic
Principle
20 minutes
Group 1-Onset
Rhyme
Group 3
Group 2-sound
blending fluency
15 minutes
Group 2Blending
Group 1
Group 3Blending, Wd
rdg
10 minutes
Group 3Segmenting
Group 2
Group 1-Sound
blending fluency
Team Time
• With your partner review the case study
on page 6
• What are the instructional needs.
Create a plan for differentiation
Implementing and Managing
Student Centers in the Classroom (p. 17-30)
I. Form Flexible Groups Based on Assessment
II. Identify Appropriate Center Activities Based
on Assessment
III. Design Center Management System
IV. Implement a Behavior Management System
V. Give Explicit Center Directions
VI. Organize the Classroom
VII. Manage Transitions
VIII.Establish Accountability
I. Form Flexible Groups
Based on Assessment (p. 18-25)
• Teacher-Led Groups
– Group size (from 3-8 students)
– Keep high-risk group sizes small (3-5
students)
– Work with each small group differently based
on instructional need as determined by results
of the various reading assessments.
I. Form Flexible Groups
Based on Assessment (p. 18-25)
• Monitor progress of those most at-risk
students more frequently for making
instructional changes to accelerate
learning:
– Size of the small group
– Group members
– Level of explicitness
– Amount of scaffolding
– Length of time for targeted instruction
II. Identify Appropriate Center
Activities (p. 25-26)
• Choose Activities that target each
group’s instructional need.
• Plan with the learning objective in mind,
not the product.
III. Design Center
Management System (p. 26-27)
• Establish time efficient routines and
protect instructional time
– Group Formation
– Activities
– Center location/areas
– Systematic movement of student groups
– Scheduling of center time
III. Design Center
Management System (p. 26-27)
• Center management boards are graphic
organizers that answer Where? When?
and What?
– Large
– Matching words/icons
– Student should know how to read it
independently
IV. Implement Behavior
Management System (p. 28)
• Students need to know
– What to do when something does not work
– What to do when they do not understand
the Activity at a Center
– What to do when they complete an Activity
at a Center
– How to clean up
– How to decide who goes first
IV. Implement Behavior
Management System (p. 28)
• Questions to ask yourself
– Did I introduce too many Centers at once?
– Did I do an effective job explicitly teaching the
activity?
– Have the students mastered the skill and need to
move on?
– Is the activity interesting to the student?
– Do students 3 and 6 work well together?
– Is this Activity to difficult for students to do
independently?
V. Give Explicit Directions (p. 29)
•
•
•
•
Teacher Models and Explains Activity
Teacher Provides Guided Practice
Teacher Provides Supported Application
Students Engage in Independent Practice
VI. Organize the Classroom (p. 29)
• Allows students to
– Easily locate materials
– Focus on academics
– Use Center time productively
VII. Manage Transitions (p. 29)
• Protects and maximizes valuable
instructional time
– Routines
– Expectations
– Use the time instructionally
VIII. Establish Accountability (p. 30)
• Prevents students from making the
same errors
• Provides opportunity for teachers to
instill the importance of quality work
• Conveys the importance of each
academic task
Interpretation of Activity Plans
• Activity Plans
(p. 31-36)
– Used by the teacher to plan and teach an activity
– Sequenced by concept in a logical order within each
component
• Activity Masters
– Used by the students
– May need to be copied
– Can be laminated and stored for future use
• Student Sheets
– Used by students (consumable)
– Need to be copied for each student
Implementation of Activity Plans
(p. 37-39)
•
•
•
•
Preparing and Organizing Materials
Setting Up Centers
Computer-Based Centers
Selecting Quality Computer Software
and Technology-Based Curricula
Materials
• Materials Needed for all Student Center
Activities
Summary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Establish instructional priorities
Conduct appropriate assessment
Analyze assessment results
Make a plan
Try it out for 3 weeks
Evaluate the plan