Heartland AEA Literacy Newsletter

As the fall screening window has closed, progress monitoring and intervention plans should be entered into Panorama and FASTBridge. When setting up progress monitoring be sure to change the start and end date, and enter in the first progress monitoring score as the start score.

In the FASTBridge site, the Screening to Intervention Report is available for Kindergarten/1st grades for the buildings that administered the Early Literacy Assessment, for grades 2/3 for buildings that administered both aReading and CBMR, and for grades 4 and up for buildings who administered CBMR and Auto Reading. The Screening to Intervention Report will provide an appropriate intervention resource plan within FASTBridge for students with similar needs.

Screening to Intervention Report - Reading resource from Illuminate Ed.

Short Videos for Professional Learning from Illuminate/FastBridge

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How do you meet the need for rigorous grade-appropriate content? The New Teacher Project is “scaffolding up” attempts to address that need. Instead of simplifying activities and bringing content down to what students can currently do, scaffolding up focuses on getting students to master the key practices and concepts in grade-level content, with students able to do so increasingly independently over time

Choosing text to use during social studies to teach the social studies standards pairs wonderfully with the literacy standards. The article entitled Supporting Reading in Social Studies from Reading Rockets is a great read on how to think about reading and inquiry. And, the article Does Social Studies Build Stronger Readers from Ed Week is another good one to read that includes new research in this area.

Thinking about inquiry, thinking like a historian, and how to choose text to meet both social studies and literacy standards makes us wonder what text we have that can assist with this instruction and learning. Here are a few options for you to consider:

• National Council for the Social Studies…Notable trade book list for 2021 list for 2020
• Through the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) grant, the State Historical Society of Iowa developed free and downloadable Primary Source Sets to help K-12 educators meet the Iowa Core Content Anchor Standards for Social Studies. These Primary Source Sets address national and international history as well as Iowa-specific history. Educators are encouraged to explore sets beyond a particular grade level – great sources are available at all grade levels that can be tailored for students.
  
• Presentation from Kim Heckart. Contains a compelling question and supporting questions for social studies standards and titles of text to include with the instruction. Great list of books to consider purchasing for use in k-5 classrooms.

The Science of Reading learning opportunity can be offered in a variety of ways to best meet the needs of your buildings. On-site professional learning throughout the school year, a hybrid format, or virtual learning as a building or individually are all possible options.

Reach out to your Heartland Literacy Consultant assigned to your district to register your building for this professional learning opportunity. The participants will:

• Learn about the principles of The Science of Reading
• Think about the relationship between other reading approaches in comparison with The Science of Reading
• Watch and read how experts define, discuss, model, and explain The Science of Reading
• Learn about the five components needed in a literacy block that supports the Science of Reading
• Analyze their current practices with practices discussed in this course and begin planning for implementation!