Toolkit for Differentiating Reading Instruction for Grades K-3

Welcome everybody and thank you for joining us today. We're excited to share an overview of the toolkit for differentiating reading instruction for age K-3. My name is Kevin Smith and I'm joined today by my fantastic colleagues Marcia Kasanovic and Lori Lee. We are the developers of the toolkit, former teachers, and have worked extensively in supporting educators to implement evidence-based literacy instruction. Let's start with a few quick housekeeping notes before we dive in. Feel free to use the chat throughout. We'll monitor and address questions in a moment. We also have time for Q&A at the end. Please refrain from using AI note-taking tools. At the end of the webinar, we will share a link to a short survey. We'd really appreciate your feedback. It helps us improve future sessions. And finally, today's session is being recorded and we'll share that recording with all who registered afterward. Our next slide is the RHEL Southeast disclaimer stating that we are not mandating that you use the information that we share with you. This particular slide is a quick overview of the RHEL Southeast. We wanted to share that before we move to the toolkit. So the Regional Educational Laboratories, or RHELs, are supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, or IES, at the U.S. Department of Education. The RHELs conduct applied research and trainings with the mission of supporting a more evidence-based education system. There are 10 RHELs across the country. The RHEL Southeast at Florida State University supports the following six states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. And of course, we also create products that are available nationwide. Okay, let's take a moment to see who's here. Please answer the poll question. Okay, and if you could go ahead and complete the poll to let us know which of the following best describes your current role. Okay, we'll give you a minute to finish that up. And we love seeing all the teachers, coaches, and leaders that we have on board. We're so glad that you're here. This is exactly the kind of group we hope to bring together, and we're very pleased to be able to share this toolkit with you. It's the fruition of several years of hard work by this team and others. So thanks so much again for joining us. And I think we can probably go ahead and close the poll and see again what we are moving on with the next. And just looking at the roles, we have a lot of people from the state level, which is good. Some teachers, coaches, as we said, really a lot of great people. So we're so glad to see you here. Okay, so the purpose of this webinar is to introduce the toolkit that we developed and to talk about how it supports using student data to differentiate tier one reading instruction. We know that that's an important component to strong evidence-based instruction. So the objectives for this webinar, by the end of this session, we really hope that you'll have three takeaways. First, you'll understand the evidence-based approaches for using student reading data to differentiate tier one instruction. Second, you'll become familiar with the purpose, structure, and components of the toolkit, including how the professional learning modules support teacher practice. And third, you'll begin thinking about how this toolkit could be implemented in your own school, district, or even state. Okay, this toolkit is grounded in a What Works Clear in-house practice guide, Assisting Students Struggling with Reading, Response to Intervention, or RTI, and Multi-Tier Intervention, or MTSS, in the primary grades. And that's also from the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. The practice guide outlines five recommendations that support the process of MTSS implementation. This toolkit focuses on recommendation two of that practice guide, and that is Differentiating Reading Instruction Based on Assessments Within Tier One. We all know that tier one is incredibly important, so I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Marcia Kasanovic, to get us started. Marcia, you're muted, I believe. Thanks, Kevin. Hi, everybody. Before we continue, we'd love to hear from you again. If you complete this poll, what's your biggest challenge with differentiating tier one instruction? Just give you a few seconds to complete that. Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of using data effectively. Yes, time for planning. Yes, thank you for participating. We hear a lot of those answers nationally, so we understand that, and we're hoping that this toolkit will help support you in those challenges. So as we move forward, keep your selected challenge in mind, and think about how the toolkit might support you. We'll start with why tier one matters. This quote is from the expert panel of researchers and practitioners who wrote the practice guide. It highlights an important idea. Tier one instruction is the foundation for student success. So when core instruction is not strong, more students fall below the benchmarks. So strengthening tier one is critical before adding additional supports. So let's look at how this fits within the MTSS framework. So MTSS is a framework for using data to guide instruction and support student success. I'm sure this triangle looks familiar. Response to intervention is part of MTSS and organizes instruction into tiers based on student need, where tier one is core instruction for all students. Tier two provides targeted interventions for some students. And then tier three offers intensive individualized interventions for a small number of students who are not making progress in tiers one and two. This visual shows how students are distributed across tiers in one classroom. So 20 students may be in tier one, another four students might be in tier one and tier two, and one student may be in tier three. So think about your context, your universal screening data. If fewer than 80 to 90 percent of students are meeting benchmarks, that's a tier one issue, and we all know you cannot intervene your way out of a tier one problem. So we need to strengthen core instruction and differentiation. Tier one reading instruction matters because it is the core instruction that all students receive. When it's strong, most students develop the foundational reading skills needed to be successful. Strong tier one instruction increases the number of students meeting benchmarks and reduces the need for additional intervention, allowing tiers two and three to be more targeted and intensive. Effective tier one reading instruction relies on four key elements. Understanding how students learn to read, assessment, instruction, and classroom management. So teachers use their knowledge and understanding of how reading develops to guide their instruction. Screening and progress monitoring data help identify needs and help form flexible groups. Instruction needs to be explicit, systematic, differentiated, with clear goals and frequent opportunities for students to respond in appropriate scaffolding. And these strong systems create the structure for differentiation to occur. So including a positive learning environment, a center management system, and classroom organization. So the key takeaway here is that differentiation isn't one strategy. It's the result of aligning all of these elements to meet student needs. At the heart of differentiated instruction is using data. So students in one classroom, as we just saw, have varied needs, so instruction must be differentiated. And that differentiation is guided by data. Data helps teachers identify strengths and needs of students, plan targeted instruction, form groups, and adjust instruction over time. The goal is to use assessment data to group students for teacher-led small group instruction that targets critical reading skills efficiently. So now let's take a look at how the toolkit is organized. At this time we'd also like to thank our partners in Tallahassee, Florida, who supported the development of the toolkit. You'll see them in some of the featured videos and the covers of the guides. And I'd like to share just a few reflections from some of the teachers who have gone through the toolkit during the usability testing. One teacher said, the toolkit helped shift how I look at data, especially when it comes to grouping students. Another teacher said, it reminded me that tier one instruction needs to be differentiated, not just tier two or tier three. And then finally another teacher said, I learned that I can always move students from one group to another depending on their growth. So K-3 teachers, educational leaders such as district leaders, principals, assistant principals, and literacy leaders like reading coaches participate in toolkit implementation. The toolkit includes three professional learning modules for teachers and a toolkit facilitator or co-facilitators such as a literacy coach or lead teacher guides teachers to the process of those three modules. And then a school or district leader supports the planning and implementation. The toolkit professional development modules are designed to guide teachers through the process of collecting and interpreting student reading data, forming instructional groups, planning differentiated reading instruction, and implementing effective small group reading instruction. The modules are designed to be completed in sequence over about a nine-week period, typically early in the school year, but it can occur anytime during the school year. And teachers spend up to 20 hours engaging with the modules through team meetings with their colleagues and in between team meetings completing independent work. Each module is supported by these resources. The content of the modules is organized by a grade band. So there's grades K-1 and grades 2-3. Each grade band has its own participant guide which includes a self-study reading for teachers and then the activities that teachers engage in during team meetings and between team meetings. The toolkit also includes a teacher self-reflection checklist which helps teachers assess how their differentiated instruction aligns with evidence-based practices. It's used before, during, and after implementation to set priorities, guide their learning, and plan next steps. Videos highlight teacher interviews and classroom examples of differentiated instruction. Each module follows this four-step collaborative learning cycle that provides opportunities for teachers to build knowledge in step one, where they do some independent self-study reading and watching videos. And then step two, they collaborate and practice during team meetings. And step three, they apply and reflect, where they independently apply what they learned in steps one and two using their own student data. And then step four is a dig deeper. It's an optional step where teachers and facilitators can use the provided resources to dig deeper into the content of each module. This is the module one schedule included in the participant guide. Each module includes a similar overview and includes the activities, the timing, approximate timing each will take, and it's all organized by those four steps that I just explained. So watching and discussing videos is a key part of the team meetings. And this video is from module three. It highlights essential elements of small group instruction and classroom management. It also includes a guide to support discussion and reflection. But we're just going to watch the very beginning of it. It's just a second grade teacher preparing her students for stations. You're going to be adding a book to your book tower unless you're reading a chapter book. Can you sit at your desk? No. No. You sit somewhere on the floor and you spread very good. Independent work. You are doing your spelling sentences. They are right here. It is in station work bin. If you finish, you can do the riddles. This is a may do, not a must do. Okay. It's a may do. May do. May. You may do it. Okay. I'm ready. You're on reading. And then when you come to me, you do not need to bring anything. We're going to work on our consonant le syllables today. All right. Okay. You guys can go ahead to your first station. All right. Five, four, three, two, one. You should be settling into your station. The timer is starting. So in addition to teacher resources, the toolkit includes supports for leaders and facilitators. The leader guide includes implementation guidance along with planning tools. There's a quick start guide, sample schedule and resources to support implementation and sustainability. It also includes a brief version of the teacher content. So the principals get an idea of what the teachers are going through in their modules. There are considerations for principals and guiding questions to help support how they support teachers in differentiating instruction. The facilitator guide provides an overview of the modules. It outlines a facilitator's role and different delivery options and includes preparation steps and team meeting agendas. Leaders and facilitators share a self-reflection checklist. And this is included in both guides and designed to be completed together. Leader and facilitator videos help further support understanding of differentiated instruction and how to support its implementation. To bring this to life, here's a short clip of principal McFarland describing differentiation in tier one reading instruction. So I would say it's very skill based. So each time a formative assessment is given, or each time a summative assessment is given, teachers are able to pull that information and are able to say which skills, which standards did our students perform lower than what they should have at that point. And they're able to pull small groups during their tier one instruction in order to meet those needs. I would say that tier one instructional groups, those differentiated groups change often. So it's really skill based and we're looking at standards and they're very fluid. I would say tier two instruction is a little bit different. We're really looking at The facilitator guide includes support for preparing for each team meeting. So facilitators use the team meeting agendas alongside the participant guide to lead sessions. And here's an example. So for each session, there's a list of what to prepare, a list of the materials to gather, a facilitator agenda. And the facilitator agenda includes each topic, how long, approximately how many minutes to spend on each topic, and those key points to emphasize about each topic. So this structure really helps ensure that team meetings stay focused and collaborative and connected to classroom practice. The toolkit is designed to be flexible across different contexts with built in strategic adaptations. This was informed by our usability testing. So these adaptations act as decision points, helping facilitators and teachers adjust their learning experience. And they appear in the participant guide as if then statements. And there's also additional guidance in the facilitator guide about these strategic adaptations. There are two ways you can access the toolkit, we're going to drop a link in the chat. And then you can also scan the QR code that's on the screen. There's an infographic, you can also scan the QR code for this. And we'll drop a link in the chat for this. It's just an overview of the toolkit. And you can also access it from that infographic. So right now, I'm going to provide an overview of the website and just show you how the toolkit is organized on the website. And as I'm doing that, be thinking about how you might be able to use the toolkit to support professional learning in your context. So this is the landing page of the toolkit. And it's organized by these tabs, purple tabs across the top. So there's an introduction, there's a grade K-1 modules, grade 2-3 modules, facilitator resources, and leader resources. I recommend just starting with the introduction page and it just gives you an overview of the toolkit, the title of each module, and then it provides frequently asked questions and answers. So that's a good place to start if you're not familiar with the content yet. If you're a teacher and you want to learn more about what's involved, you can go to the K-1 modules or the 2-3 modules. They are organized the exact same way. So I'm just going to walk us through the grades K-1 modules. Each module has its own tab across the top. So module one, it tells you the title of the module, the three objectives for that module, how many team meetings there are. It allows you to download the module and participant guide and the teacher self-reflection checklist, and then also gives you access to all the aligned videos. At the bottom of the page, there are accordion tabs for the four-step process, the learning process, and each step will include what you do during that step and about how long it takes. So each tab, module two, it's just organized the same way. It will show you the title of the module, the objectives. You can download the participant guide, the aligned videos, and then the four-step learning process for that module. Same thing for module three, organized the exact same way. The resources tab provides everything in one place. So if you want to download all three modules in one PDF, you can do that. If you want to look at the playlist for all the K-1 videos in one place, you can click on there and also the teacher self-reflection checklist. The facilitator resources, if you're interested in being a facilitator, this has access to the facilitator guide, both participant guides, both grade band participant guides, the self-reflection checklist for facilitators and leaders, and then those videos for facilitators. The questions and answers at the bottom are geared toward facilitators, so they're different than the introduction page. And then the same thing for the leader resources, the leader guide, the self-reflection checklist, the videos, and then specific questions and answers for leaders. So that is how the toolkit is organized on the website. I am going to turn it over to Dr. Lori Lee, my wonderful colleague, to guide us through some questions and extra resources. Thank you, Marcia. Thank you for that tour of the toolkit. And we know that you will find that very, very valuable. And we are just so excited that the toolkit has been released and you all have access to it. And we hope that you'll take some time and review those resources and the toolkit itself to see how you could best use it where you are. So I'd love to share some additional resources that REL Southeast has that you also might be interested in. You see the QR codes there. You can access the resources through those QR codes, or we will also then put links in the chat so you can access them that way. So the first resource I'd like to highlight is the Emergent Literacy PLC. And Marcia and her team, they created this PLC for our early childhood educators. It's a wonderful resource. It was studied in the state of South Carolina. And we know that early childhood educators, they work in a variety of contexts, sometimes in public settings, sometimes in private settings. And so this PLC is valuable in all contexts. And it was studied and found to have positive effects. So we're excited that that is available. You see the areas of literacy that it emphasizes from print knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, oral language, all of those aspects of literacy that are really important in building our readers, our future readers at that point. So that is a resource we hope that you will explore as well. Coming soon, we know how important it is for our administrators to be on board and for them to be supportive of the literacy efforts that are happening all across from pre-K all the way through 12th grade. And so this is a resource for our early childhood educators and their administrators. So it's really helpful for the administrators as they seek to support their teachers where they are. And so this is coming soon. Work is continuing on this PLC. And so we will be excited to share that with you as well. And then we have a PLC, and this one has been out for some time now. And this is targeted for our K-3 reading educators. It is based on the Foundational Reading Skills Practice Guide that has been available again for a number of years. There are wonderful videos in this PLC. And oftentimes we have pulled them and just showed them as examples of instruction that is explicit, systematic, and so forth. And the videos themselves are worth your time. And we're spending some time exploring this PLC. So we'd encourage you to check this out. If you have not used it or you are not familiar, please feel free to access this resource as well. And then we know how important it is for our educators to have HQIMs, so those High Quality Instructional Materials. And so we have a rubric here for Evaluating Reading and Language Arts Instructional Materials for Kindergarten through Grade 5. And so this just helps those who are selecting those materials to know what questions to ask, to know what areas of reading are strong in a particular resource or those instructional materials available to them. So as they are looking and selecting instructional materials for schools or districts, this rubric can be really, really helpful to narrowing things down and ultimately coming to a decision as to which tool or tools would be best in that particular state or district or school. And then we want to think about interventions and what that looks like. And we really emphasize the fact that we need to invest in Tier 1. And Tier 1 is the instruction that's provided to all students, but we also know, and Marcia showed this to us, so we're going to have some students that are not where we would hope they would be, and they need something in addition to Tier 1. So we have a group of students that will need Tier 2, and then a subset of those will need Tier 2 and Tier 3. And so we need to think about just the infrastructure we establish for delivering those interventions. And so we have self-study guides. The self-study process is just a way of facilitating conversations in states, districts, or schools. And these conversations are had by those folks that are involved in providing those interventions, whether that be teachers and administrators, maybe media specialists, counselors, anyone that has a hand in that. And the self-study group, the team members, they're provided this self-study guide. There are areas that are important to intervention that have been identified through literature reviews. The self-study team members evaluate where they think they are with each one of these areas in their particular school, district, or state. And then that team comes together and they talk about those areas. They talk about their different perspectives, why they think they are strong or where they think they might need improvement. They ultimately come to a consensus as to what areas they might need to focus on. And so then they work through a planning next steps form and think about what needs to be done to improve that particular area. And then they work the plan. And ultimately, they will come back intermittently and evaluate their progress, think about where they've improved and where they might need continued focus. But that self-study process is really a good way to establish that infrastructure for delivering interventions. So we have a self-study guide for implementing early interventions. And then we also have a self-study guide for implementing literacy interventions at grades 3-8. We know that as we move particularly into middle school, that schedules become difficult. Hiring people that are well-trained to deliver those interventions is challenging. Selecting those students and making sure they're placed appropriately, providing intervention environments that are conducive to instruction, all of those can be challenging. And so we would encourage you as you think about providing intervention, whether it be to early grades or to our adolescents moving into middle school, that you take a look at the self-study guide and think about those areas that are important to the infrastructure of intervention. And just pull together a team, see where you're strong and see where you might need to do some work. And we also have a self-study guide for high school that's focused on academic interventions as well. Same process, those self-study guides are laid out in much the same way, the same format. They just address different grade levels. And then finally, we have coming soon a professional learning community that's focused on adolescent literacy. And so as we think about our students that move through the grade levels, we want to provide them strong instruction in K-3. And our toolkit is focused on providing that instruction that is differentiated for those students. But as they move beyond third grade, we know that literacy skills need to continue to improve and that students need to continue to receive instruction that will help them to cultivate those skills. Learning to read doesn't mean that it's proficient and is complete by the end of third grade. And so we want to make sure that our teachers of early adolescence, beginning at third and fourth grade and on into middle school and high school have the skills that they need to cultivate those literacy skills, even in content areas. And so the PLC will help teachers to be able to do that, especially targeting teachers of English, social studies, and science, helping them to integrate evidence-based literacy practices into their instruction in a rather seamless kind of way. And this PLC is based on the Improving Adolescent Literacy Practice Guide that has been published by the Institute of Education Sciences as well. So we're looking forward to being able to share that with you all. And so REL Southeast has really taken care to address literacy from our emergent literacy learners all the way through high school. And so we have a continuum of resources that are available and that are coming to you very soon. So we're excited that we can provide those for you. And whether you are in Quebec or in Turks and Caicos or in Ohio or Arizona or in Florida or Vermont or any state in between, we just thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Our email addresses are there and available for you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We want to ask one more time if there are any questions. If you happen to have questions, please feel free to enter them in the chat. We will be glad to hang around for a few minutes in case you want us to answer any questions here in the next few minutes. We're glad to share. But we just appreciate you and all the work that you do. And thank you for taking time out of your day to join us and to learn a little bit about the toolkit that we have available for you. Okay.