ADE K-12 ELA Updates
Upcoming PD and more! April 2025
Join us!
This year, you don't have to register in advance. Just click the graphic to join the Teams meeting at 11 AM on the second Thursday of every month!
Check out the Padlet!
Access our 2024-2025 Office Hours Padlet to keep up-to-date or see topics you've missed at a previous Office Hours.
Essential Standards
The Arizona Department of Education announces essential standards guidance for the 2025-2026 school year. Through stakeholder workgroups and public comment, the Department of Education announces the completion of the essential standards project. Essential Standards are individual standards selected to receive a greater proportion of questions on the AASA exam beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. The AASA exam, administered in grades three through eight, is developed based on a standards blueprint approved by the State Board of Education that includes individual standards grouped into clusters and identifies an allocation of questions for each cluster. Identified Essential Standards will receive the maximum number of questions allowed by the standards blueprint. The state assessment will retain the same length and duration. ALL STANDARDS remain valid and subject to inclusion in each year’s AASA. For more information and to find details on Essential Standards for ELA and math in grades three through eight, please visit the ADE Essential Standards website.
Arizona Reading Fundamentals OnDemand Academy - now available!
- Evidence-based Decision Making
- Elementary MTSS
- Secondary MTSS
- Understanding and Recognizing Dyslexia
- Science of Teaching and Reading
- more to come!
Don't forget that each knowledge block recommends a companion text. Please browse our Professional Development webpage for all details prior to registering. We have made a few updates to the page, so check it out!
New OnDemand Knowledge Block: Science of Teaching and Reading
Our new three-part course delves into the science of reading and teaching, provides an overview of structured literacy, and provides support for shifting from old practices to evidence-based practices.
Note: This knowledge blocks does not fulfill the K-5 literacy endorsement or Dyslexia Training Designee requirements.
Arizona's Reading Fundamentals K-5 Literacy Endorsement Course Is Available
The Pathways to Proficient Reading with Pathways to Structured Literacy, K-5 has availability for those who wish to register. In order to successfully complete this asynchronous course, the following criteria must be met:
- 90 clock hours on the platform (the system automatically times this when logged on)
- Complete all discussion posts.
- Pass three assessments with 80% or higher.
There is a required text: Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, Fourth Edition (brookespublishing.com) We have a 20% discount code: ADE2024
Additionally, a passing score on Pearson's Foundations of Reading Exam is required for the K-5 Literacy Endorsement: Foundations of Reading (nesinc.com)
AZ Reads Applications Now Open
Arizona Humanities believes that building strong literacy skills at an early age is essential for building a just and civil society.
We invite program proposals that foster literacy in the humanities, including but not limited to:
- Reading and discussion programs
- Storytelling and creative writing
- Peer-to-peer learning and discussion
- Cultural learning/sharing
We especially encourage program proposals that incorporate active engagement with students through opportunities for discussion and reflection. Literacy programs can incorporate history, cultural studies, languages other than English, and other humanities disciplines. We will also accept proposals that combine humanities and STEAM disciplines. If you are unsure about whether your program fosters literacy and engages the humanities, please contact us!
📖We encourage you to read the entire Call for Proposals here.📖
The deadline to apply is Monday, March 17, 2025.
2024-2025 MOWR Portal - data submissions due!
MOWR Literacy Data Submissions for MOY were due by February 1st, 2025. MOY window will close March 30 to open EOY window April 1.
For guidance on all of the steps of the MOWR Submission Process, visit the MOWR Submissions page.
Reach out to moveonwhenreading@azed.gov if you have questions. For more information and guidance on curriculum, assessment, and other MOWR elements, please visit our website at Administrators | Arizona Department of Education (azed.gov).
MOWR Office Hours
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 281 557 486 454
Passcode: gxH2sm
Download Teams | Join on the web
Or call in (audio only)
+1 480-420-4055,,499373574# United States, Phoenix
Phone Conference ID: 499 373 574#
MOWR Vetted Intervention List Update
Reading Apprenticeship Strategy of the Month
Supporting Evidence-Based Argumentation and Civil Discourse
Supporting Evidence-Based Argumentation and Civil Discourse sentence frames are a strategy used to enable academic civil discourse, which is part of Disciplinary Inquiry, a major part of the Reading Apprenticeship framework.
Providing prompts to focus student attention on explaining a phenomenon or event, or interpreting an author’s stance or literary text, moves students’ sense-making toward valued disciplinary reasoning practices. The following reading and talking stems support evidence-based argumentation and civil discourse.
Past month's strategies can be found here: https://padlet.com/mz_ess_az/reading-apprenticeship-strategy-of-the-month-kvs2c2pp4w29jo75
ADE Secondary ELA Holocaust and Genocide Educator Cohort
Lauren Spenceley, Secondary ELA Specialist, is working with the ADE Social Studies team and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to find ways to support secondary educators in professional development in regards to Holocaust and genocide education. Please indicate your interest in being a part of a community for Arizona secondary ELA educators to learn and grow in the space of Holocaust and Genocide education. Lauren will reach out soon with more details. The cohort will include opportunities for professional growth, and a space to virtually collaborate with other AZ secondary ELA educators. Interest Form
Project for Adolescent Literacy
The Project for Adolescent Literacy draws attention to the gap in the current literacy conversation around adolescent literacy. Created by educators to support educators who are working with older struggling readers, PAL will is working on identifying what works (materials, curricula, strategies, and supportive policies), and telling the stories of educators and students who have seen success. They have released a report with all of their current findings. Please check out the report!
The Elements of Structured Literacy - Syllable Instruction
We’ve been highlighting the elements for structured literacy instruction, and this month we are highlighting Syllable Instruction.
Syllable Instruction teaches the six English syllable types: closed (CVC), vowel-consonant-e (VCe), open, consonant-le, r-controlled, and vowel team. Knowing and reaching automaticity with the syllable types helps readers determine the “code” of English, and also helps them determine which vowel sounds occur in those syllable patterns.
Systematic and explicit teaching of the syllable types with multiple opportunities to practice will help students become better at decoding, fluency, and ultimately comprehension.
See more on Syllable Instruction at this link: Six Syllable Types | Reading Rockets
Wrapping Up the Year as an Instructional Coach
"As instructional coaches, wrapping up the school year involves reflection, celebration, and preparation for the year ahead. By engaging in these end-of-year activities, instructional coaches can effectively close out the school year and lay the groundwork for continued growth and success in the upcoming academic year. Here’s to a productive and rewarding end-of-year period for instructional coaches everywhere!
Click on the picture to read the full article.
LitHubAZ
LitHubAZ is a new, online literacy resource for everyone who plays a role in helping Arizona’s children learn to read at grade level and be successful in school. Developed by Read On Arizona, LitHubAZ is a searchable, easy-to-navigate tool for administrators, educators, community partners, and families to identify effective, developmentally-appropriate strategies to support the needs of each and every learner —including struggling readers, English learners, and students exhibiting characteristics of dyslexia — and fuel their progress toward reading proficiency.
LitHubAZ offers a variety of resources to:
· Find effective ways to support language and literacy development.
· Choose instructional practices and materials proven to help students learn to read.
· Engage families and community partners in prioritizing literacy.
Learn more at LitHubAZ.org.
