District Literacy Leadership Team (DLLT) Update - April 30th

The District Literacy Leadership Team (DLLT) has met five times during the past four months: January 25th, February 15th, February 29th, March 21st, and April 11th. We have currently completed Round 1 which was a review of Into Reading, and Round 2, My View.  We are currently involved in Round 3, which consists of reviewing Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA).

District Literacy Leadership Team Agenda, April 11, 2024
Review Tool Completion for Round 2 Review of  (Program B) My View

We broke into our three groups (Red Group:  Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education.  Yellow Group:   Fluency, Vocabulary, Motivation and Engagement, Listening and Speaking.  Blue Group:  Instructional Design, Comprehension, Assessment, Writing).

We discussed our ratings, and entered them into the larger rubric/database.  We also met as a larger group and shared our overall impressions.

Referencing the Hill for Literacy Review Tool:

This document follows the sequence of instruction that should occur from kindergarten through fifth grade for a  comprehensive literacy program.  A comprehensive literacy program is expected to incorporate the components of reading and writing identified by the National Reading Panel (phonological/phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and writing).  In addition, the tool includes the elements of instructional design, assessment, professional development, motivation and engagement, culturally responsive/sustainability education and listening and speaking.

Round 2 Debrief of the Review Process

The entire DLLT broke into four different groups, where we shared our insights and learnings about the process, identified stumbling blocks and brainstormed solutions and then we shared out to the entire group.

Round 3 (Program C)  Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Review Process

We began the review of the next program, CKLA.   We reviewed the rubric, and how to access the resources.  We have resources at Lane and Davis, along with the online tools.

Remaining DLLT Meetings:
May 9th: Debrief Round 3
May 14th, 16th and 21st: Publisher Roundtables and User Panels, via zoom
May 23rd: Review processes and make recommendations for next steps
(May 28th School Committee Meeting)

Thank you again to the members of the DLLT, they are putting in a great deal of time and effort to examine the programs, and be prepared to discuss their findings at each of our meetings.  May will be a busy month!

District Literacy Leadership Team (DLLT) April 2024

The District Literacy Leadership Team (DLLT)  has met four times during the past three months: January 25th, February 15th, February 29th and March 21st. In the previous Assistant Superintendent’s Blog, I outlined what the focus of our first two DLLT meetings were.   The following information outlines the work we conducted during our February 29th and March 21st meetings.

February 29th  DLLT Meeting
At our meeting on February 29th, each of the six subgroups shared out with the entire group the programs they reviewed. Each subgroup had a specific program to review, those programs included: Wit and Wisdom, EL Education, Wonders, Into Reading, My View, Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA).  The Pros and Cons of the six programs were shared with the entire group.  We were all able to hear about the programs, which was extremely helpful.  From there, our group was able to whittle down the programs from six to three.  We then turned our focus on three programs:  Into Reading, My View and CKLA.

We were led through the review tool by Hill for Literacy.  The tool was comprehensive-each of the three programs we are reviewing will each be held up to a review tool, that is composed of several larger categories, with specific criteria listed under each category.  The larger categories consist of: Phonological Awareness Instruction, Phonics Instruction, Fluency Instruction, Vocabulary Instruction, Comprehension, Writing Instruction, Instructional Design, Assessment, Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education, Motivation and Engagement, Listening and Speaking.

Each member of our DLLT was assigned to be a reviewer in one of three groups:  Red Group which focuses on phonological awareness, phonics, and culturally responsive and sustaining education.  Yellow Group, which focuses on fluency, vocabulary, motivation and engagement, listening and speaking.  Lastly, the Blue Group, which looks at instructional design, comprehension, assessment, and writing. 

At the end of this particular meeting, we focused on the first program we would review which was, Into Reading.  The groups got together, reviewed the resources for this program, and began their work.

March 21st  DLLT Meeting

After having a few weeks to review Into Reading, the three groups met and discussed their review of Into Reading.  We discussed our ratings, and entered them into the larger rubric/database that we’ve been using to capture our impressions of the programs. 

The entire DLLT broke into four groups, where we shared our insights and learnings about the process, and identified stumbling blocks and brainstormed solutions and then shared them out to the entire group.  

At this point in our meeting we began to focus on the next program that we needed to review which is My View.  We watched an introductory video on the program, and reviewed the rubric again, and also how to access the resources for this specific program.  

Our next meeting is on April 11th, where we will meet again, and share our findings regarding My View.

The members of the DLLT are spending a great deal of time and effort reviewing the programs!   This work is greatly appreciated!