Heartland AEA Literacy Newsletter

It’s spring cleaning time in FAST and Panorama Student Success. Please take a moment to read this message for exciting updates and a few timely tasks.

FastBridge Updates

• Action needed by users, leadership and student information system managers to confirm/retain FastBridge access. Cleanup of Fastbridge user roles is tentatively scheduled for April 10th. Details and action steps in Iowa News! What’s happening with Fastbridge.
• Check out the Iowa section in the FAST Knowledge base for up-to-date information about known issues with the FastBridge system, as well as how-to articles and other resources specifically tailored to Iowa users and processes.
• Also see the FastBridge Release Hub article for updates on FastBridge development work.

Panorama Student Success Updates

• Exciting updates to individual and group intervention plan pages that improve accessibility and function including:
• New plan organization options and filtering. You can now hide inactive plans!
• Ability to view just your plans or the plans for all students you have access to in Student Success
• Plus more. You are going to like these new features!
• Click here for more information and a 3-minute video introduction.
• There are several other recent system updates you should know about. Read about them in the Panorama release notes.
• Action needed: We have a new method for mapping courses to subject areas for K-8 students so the system can separate course grades by subject for individual student grade display and Overview reports. Read about course mapping requirements here.
• We are in the process of updating the academic, attendance and behavior cut points in the overview reports at the system and student levels. Read about the new systems level cutpoints here and student level cutpoints here.

General Updates

• The Spring window for screening opens April 23rd and ends May 26th. Plan to start and complete all screening for ELI during this time regardless of the assessments used. Check out our window planning article here.
• Action needed: Start planning for the end of the year.
• Review Iowa End of Year and Rollover Information. There are tasks that need to be attended to before certain information goes away at the end of the school year.
• Here are the tentative 23-24 screening window dates. Confirmed dates will be posted in the Panorama Resource Library and Iowa Resources in the FastBridge knowledge base (link to article).
• Fall Window 8/27/23 to 9/29/23
• Winter Window 1/2/24 to 2/2/24
• Spring Window 4/28/24 to 5/31/24
• The Iowa DE continues to support the myIGDIS literacy screener for students in Statewide voluntary preschool programs. Contact mary.breyfogle@iowa.gov for more information.

Small group literacy instruction is an approach to teaching reading and writing skills in which students are grouped based on their reading level, ability, or other factors, and are taught in small groups by a teacher or a trained tutor. Current research on small group literacy instruction focuses on identifying effective strategies to improve students' literacy skills and examining the impact of this approach on student learning outcomes.

One area of research looks at the use of evidence-based instructional practices, such as explicit instruction, modeling, and scaffolding, in small group literacy instruction. Studies have found that these practices can help students make significant gains in reading fluency, comprehension, and writing skills. For example, explicit instruction in phonics, comprehension strategies, and vocabulary has been shown to improve students' reading skills.

Another area of research focuses on the importance of teacher professional development in implementing effective small group literacy instruction. Studies have found that teachers who receive training and ongoing support in evidence-based instructional practices are more likely to use them effectively in their instruction and see positive outcomes in student learning.

Recent research has also explored the impact of technology on small group literacy instruction. Some studies have examined the use of computer-assisted instruction and digital tools in small group literacy instruction, and have found that these can be effective in supporting students' learning and engagement.

In this article featured in The Reading Teacher, the authors revisit the common practice of small group reading instruction. They challenge the idea of grouping students based on text levels and instead review supplemental intervention group research that suggests targeted skill practice as a more optimal use of time in small groups. They present the ABCs - a focus on assessment, basics and books, and clarity in communication - as the central principles that should guide how we instruct reading in small groups. Some of the evidence shared here may be new, some of the evidence may validate current small group practices you are implementing and some of the evidence may challenge current small group practices you are implementing.

Here are some Pause and Ponder questions that can be used once the article has been read either individually or in a group:

1) Reflect on how small group instruction is going at your school. Are all students making progress? Are all students achieving to their maximum potential?

2) What assessments do you use to guide your small group instruction? How do these assessments help you form groups? What do the assessment results say about what your students need?

3) How do you select books for your small group?

4) Reflect on the feedback you give to students during small groups. Do you provide corrective feedback during small group instruction? Is it specific? Is it scaffolded? Is it actionable? If you have answered "no" or "maybe" to any of these questions about feedback, consider the sample feedback in the article.

Maximizing Small Group Reading Instruction Big Ideas (please read the complete article to get a complete understanding of these big ideas)

• Small Group Instruction is Expensive - small group instruction costs a lot - not in terms of money, but in terms of management and planning. Teachers need to consume and interpret a variety of assessment data to create small groups; have to design and deliver appropriate differentiated lessons and provide timely, corrective feedback for students. Teachers have to consider how to engage the rest of the students. What are activities that are meaningful and engaging and not just busy work? Activities should reinforce and extend their reading and writing skills but need to be self-directed. Preparing such work can be difficult.
• Differentiation by Text Level Likely Does Not Work - in a recent meta-analysis of Tier 1 literacy differentiation at the elementary level, the authors noted that there is no research to suggest that differentiating by text level works (Puzio et. al., 2020). While the intention for this is differentiation, how well is this type of grouping actually meeting student's needs? Not only does differentiation by text level have the potential for incidental phonics instruction, but it also likely impedes progress because it can place students in lower text levels than they need to be reading. Once students move beyond the beginning stages, that can handle more complex texts as long as they have teacher support (Amendum et al, 2017). When students are reading texts that are too easy, teachers may not have the opportunities to provide constructive feedback and support to facilitate growth (Ankrum et al., 2017).
• Small Group Instruction Does Have a Research Base - Puzio and colleagues (2020) did find literacy differentiation at the elementary level effective particularly for word-level skills and writing. When we differentiate, we can address the very different needs and skill profiles of our readers - whether they are already devouring high fantasy novels in the second grade or still struggling to read a paragraph fluently.
  

What does that mean for thinking about small group instruction moving forward? Next month we will elaborate on the following big ideas in the article.

• The ABCs of Small Group Reading - To aid teachers in a shift, the authors present the ABCs of small group instruction, drawing attention to Assessment, Basics and Books, and Clear directions and feedback. These components are not revolutionary; their inclusion is based on substantial evidence supporting their efficacy: A: Assessment (Know What Your Students Need and Group Them Accordingly). It is important also to note that after forming the groups based on initial assessment data, they should remain flexible. Some students will make progress faster than others. It is important to note that progress monitoring will work more easily for constrained skills (such as decoding CVCe words) than it will be for unconstrained skills, such as vocabulary or comprehension. The article suggests teacher form groups based one of three instructional foci: 1) decoding; 2) fluency, and 3) comprehension. How this looks in the classroom will vary based on the class composition and level. B. Basics and Books (Foreground the Essential Skills Your Student Need Help With!) To reframe how we think about instruction, we first call attention to the basics. In there meta-analysis of the effects of small-group interventions, Hall and Burns (2018) found that small groups were most effective when they only included supplemental small groups or intervention groups in their study - a distinction from schools that use small groups in a more general sense for Tier 1 instruction. Still, their findings offer some valuable information for teachers: designing small groups around the essential need of the students' targeted skills proves most effective. This is different way of thinking about small group instruction, particularly for teachers used to group students based on leveled texts. (see article for examples in a table and scenarios). As a reminder, when the authors refer to basics, we don't want teachers to forget to spotlight actual reading in small groups. B. Books - In addition to thinking through whether students need basic support in an element of phonics or fluency, it is essential, too, for the actual texts we use takes center stage. It is important to remember that we're not just reading for reading's sake.
  

Here is an additional way to deepen your understanding of the concepts presented in this article: Podcast: Maximizing Small Group Reading Instruction

Today we’ll be talking to a team of authors about a recent article they published on small group instruction, titled Maximizing Small-Group Reading Instruction. We ask and answer important questions about small group instructional time: What is the appeal of small group reading instruction? Why has it been popular? What does the research say? What do we need to know about effective small-group reading instruction? What are some best practices?

New: IRRC’s Iowa Science of Reading Summit Announced for July

We are thrilled to announce that we will hold our first large, in-person professional development event for educators here on the University of Iowa campus!

Iowa Science of Reading Summit
July 19–21, 2023
Iowa Memorial Union | Iowa City

Attendees will take part in high-quality, advanced-level professional development related to evidence-based instructional practices that are grounded in the science of reading. Summit keynote presenters are renowned experts in the literacy field, including reading specialist and author Jan Hasbrouck. There will be a series of breakout sessions dedicated to different aspects of literacy instruction. The programming will be relevant to pre-kindergarten–Grade 12 teachers, administrators, instructional coaches, reading specialists, higher-education faculty, and others. Presenters will provide high-level, evidence-based content that will help educators and administrators implement the science of reading in their schools and local education agencies and plan for post-implementation next steps.

The conference will provide opportunities for educators to earn continuing education units (CEUs) for participation. The summit website has a schedule that will be updated with presenters and topics as they are finalized.

Registration, which will be available on April 10, is $250 per person and includes several meals, snack and coffee breaks, and more. Spots are limited, so register early to secure your spot. Visit the summit website for information on hotels, CEU specifics, and more.

Science of Reading Q&A Blog Post Series

Last month, we launched the first two installments of a science of reading-focused Q&A blog post series. These posts offer exclusive conversations with various literacy experts, educators, and advocates from across the country, including our first two guests:

• Dr. Kymyona Burk, a literacy expert and Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd
• Podcasters Melissa Loftus and Lori Sappington of Melissa and Lori Love Literacy

These posts originated from interviews we are conducting for a forthcoming podcast about the science of reading movement. Our guests had lots of great insights that did not end up making the final cut, which allowed us to share that content via the blog. Sign up for our email subscriptions for the podcast and blog to keep up on the latest posts and podcast announcements.

There is Still Time to Apply for the IRRC-Coordinated Dyslexia Specialist Endorsement Program

The University of Iowa College of Education’s Dyslexia Specialist Endorsement program is accepting applications for the cohort that will begin in the fall of 2023. You now have more time to apply than in previous years, as the deadline has been extended to June 1. The program is coordinated by the Iowa Reading Research Center and is designed to provide extensive hands-on training for experienced educators. For more on the program, read our article describing the experiences of the first cohort of endorsees.

New Dyslexia Specialist Endorsement Program Launched

Joining the University of Iowa in offering a Dyslexia Specialist Endorsement program is Grand View University. The university’s program was approved earlier this year after it was determined that it meets the criteria established by the Iowa legislature in 2020. Entities interested in offering a Dyslexia Specialist Endorsement program in Iowa must complete a comprehensive application and approval process that is overseen by the Iowa Reading Research Center and the Iowa Department of Education. Following an initial first round of applications, Grand View University is accepting additional applicants and any further admissions for the program will occur on a rolling basis.

Welcome New IRRC Staff Members

The IRRC welcomes new Web & Creative Media Assistant Vince Filippini back to our team! Vince worked with the center previously in several roles as an undergraduate student and as a part-time staff member. Vince earned his bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing in 2021.

In his current position, Vince will be assisting with various web and design-related tasks, including content creation and video production.

In his free time, Vince enjoys cooking, watching movies, and reading short stories.

ASCD published a series of four articles about how educators can support literacy by bringing knowledge-building into their classrooms. Read the second, third, and fourth posts. These posts unpack the 10 practical recommendations for educators.

"We believe it’s critical that educators incorporate all that we know about reading and writing development into curriculum choices and instructional practice. The scientific research on reading and writing is clear: foundational skills including phonemic awareness, knowledge of sound-letter relationships, decoding and spelling skills, and fluency are necessary, but not sufficient for students to become fully literate. Systematically building knowledge is also vital, so students can understand and apply what they learn from the words on the page and can write in a way that shares their knowledge with others. In combination, these components build on and strengthen one another. Knowledgeable readers are more effective readers, and more effective readers can more easily build knowledge for reading and writing.

So how can educators act on these insights? What does the importance of knowledge-building mean for everyday classroom literacy instruction?"

A rich body of research points the way. Our group of 14 scholars has distilled this evidence base into 10 practical recommendations for educators. These apply to students of all ages and skill levels. Building knowledge need not—and should not—wait until students possess some level of foundational reading skills. These recommendations, although certainly not exhaustive, can help educators value and build on the unique knowledge and assets that every student brings to the classroom. And they can support all students to joyfully engage in language- and content-rich experiences that nurture comprehension and writing development, expand vocabulary, spark curiosity, and build knowledge about the natural and social world.

Build Knowledge Through Language

1. Build from Birth: Knowledge-building starts in infancy. Through interactions with caregivers and play, young children develop oral language in their home language(s) as a key mechanism for building their knowledge of the world around them. Teachers and families can create language-rich environments that build knowledge and motivate young children to want to learn to read.

2. Grow Vocabulary: In addition to learning vocabulary through explicit instruction, students of all ages learn through incidental exposure. Teachers and families can create language-rich environments that encourage such encounters, including by reading informational texts aloud.

3. Lead Discussions That Promote Student Talk and Comprehension: Talk matters, and the type of talk students and adults have matters even more. Educators can intentionally lead the types of discussions that research shows can build and buttress knowledge.

Expand Access to Texts That Build Knowledge

4. Give Read-Alouds a Central Role: Through read-alouds and text-based discussion, young students can engage with more complex ideas and vocabulary than what they can yet read themselves, building the knowledge they need to engage with more sophisticated texts in the future.

5. Foster Foundational Skills: Knowledge-building and foundational skills development complement and strengthen one another at all levels of instruction and study. Secure word-reading and spelling are essential for students to build content knowledge through reading, and content and vocabulary knowledge contributes to word-reading and spelling growth.

6. Apply Strategies for Sense-Making: In the context of building knowledge, targeted strategies instruction can equip students with ways to access textual information that support understanding and learning from text as well as to convey information through their own writing. This includes a range of strategies that increase cognitive engagement, such as attending to the structure of a text, previewing, summarizing, and others.

Set the Conditions to Build Knowledge

7. Engage and Excite: Build on students’ interests and curiosity to maximize cognitive engagement. Several promising practices are based on building knowledge and providing opportunities for students to apply what they learn in a real-world context.

8. Curriculum Counts: Given the importance of background knowledge to comprehension, a curriculum that is not only knowledge-rich, but also coherently sequenced and well-implemented will set students and educators up for success.

9. Use Texts as Tools: The types of texts students read and write are important when it comes to building knowledge and learning to convey knowledge to others. Engaging students in more reading and writing of informational genres is important, but well-chosen literary texts, such as biography or historical fiction, can significantly enrich student knowledge of places, times, and topics and impact their reading and writing.

10. Safeguard Science and Social Studies: Even the most content-rich English language arts curriculum cannot substitute for strong science and social studies instruction—and such instruction can help build literacy skills. Schools can make time for science and social studies by shifting away from common practices that research does not soundly support and by looking for opportunities to address multiple standards simultaneously.

We are excited to share the following literacy courses to deepen your understanding of evidence-based instructional practices to impact student learning in the areas of reading and writing. We will continue to add courses through the spring for summer and will update this list.