Session 3.1: Review of Pre-Assessment Data and Reading Instruction

In this session, participants will finalize and gather all preassessment data previously identified from Session Two: Pre-Assessment Review and Administration. As participants analyze and triangulate patterns of performance across each document, they should be able to identify a few specific areas of need, based on the focus group’s assessment results. Once areas of need have been highlighted and targeted, the participants will begin reviewing reading instruction and intervention that corresponds with the identified need.

Indicators targeted: 4.12, 4.13, 5.1, 5.14

 

Materials

  • Activity 2.1.2: Teacher Benchmark/Assessment Data Review
  • Activity 2.2.3: Teacher WIDA Data Review (if applicable)
  • Teacher Results from DIBELS 8 or Alternate Screener
  • Teacher Results from IRI Data Collection (i.e., Sample QRI Data Collection Sheet)
  • Participants should bring texts and/or resources that target areas of reading, including, but not limited to, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with text, vocabulary, comprehension
  • Participants should bring texts and/or resources that provide supports for English Language Learners (if applicable)
  • High-Leverage Practices in Special Education (High-Leverage Practices in Assessment and Instruction; pgs. 15 - 26)
  • Activity 3.1.1: Where Am I Now? PDF in file folder

 

Define Session Goals

The educator will…

  • Synthesize preassessment data from all previously administered benchmark assessments and other testing results from the students identified in the focus group.
  • Begin identifying appropriate reading instruction and/or intervention for focus group of students.

 

Review Pre-Assessment Data and Reading Instruction

1. Have educators review all reading data and synthesize findings across each preassessment to determine key areas of need.

Remind participants that in order for teachers to make sound instructional decisions based on students’ academic needs, they need to collect, review, and analyze reading performance data from multiple sources.  According to the Council for Exceptional Children and the CEEDAR Center (2017), it is important to “use multiple sources of information to develop a comprehensive understanding of student’s strengths and needs” (p. 19).

Take a few minutes to read High-Leverage Practices for K-12 Special Education Teachers, starting on pg. 15 in High-Leverage Practices in Special Education and focusing specifically on High Leverage Practices related to Assessment and Instruction. Discontinue reading at the bottom of pg. 25. Then, spend 5 – 6 minutes, either individually, or with an elbow partner, completing Activity 3.1.1: Where Am I Now?

Activity 3.1.1: Where Am I Now?
After reading through the High-Leverage Practice Descriptions in the High-Leverage Practices in Special Education excerpt, and using what I know up to this point in my career, where would I rate myself on a scale of 1 – 5 (where one represents a novice learner and five represents an expert) for the following HLPs?

  • HLP4: Use multiple sources of information to develop a comprehensive understanding of a student’s strengths and needs.
  • HLP5: Interpret and communicate assessment information with stakeholders to collaboratively design and implement educational programs.
  • HLP6: Use student assessment data, analyze instructional practices, and make necessary adjustments that improve student outcomes.
  • HLP11: Identify and prioritize long- and short-term learning goals.
  • HLP12: Systematically design instruction toward a specific learning goal.
  • HLP13: Adapt curriculum tasks and materials for specific learning goals.
  • HLP14: Teach cognitive and metacognitive strategies to support learning and independence.
  • HLP15: Provide scaffolded supports.
  • HLP16: Use explicit instruction.
  • HLP17: Use flexible grouping.
  • HLP18: Use strategies to promote active student engagement.
  • HLP19: Use assistive and instructional technologies.
  • HLP20: Provide intensive instruction.
  • HLP21: Teach students how to maintain and generalize new learning across time and settings.
  • HLP22: Provide positive and constructive feedback to guide students’ learning and behavior.

After participants have rated themselves, ask them to identify two practices (one high-leverage practice from assessment and one from instruction) that they would like to focus on developing during the remainder of this session.

Allow participants to share any of ratings or goals they set for themselves from Activity 3.1.1.

 

Collaborate

Allow participants to work together or individually, to review the data for the focus group and begin identifying corresponding instructional strategies for 30 – 40 minutes. This portion of the session can be completed in one of two different formats.

Option A:
Participants can meet in small heterogeneous groups of three/four members, where they review, discuss, and collaborate on assessment data collectively and as patterns of performance emerge among the students within each focus group, they identify corresponding instructional reading strategies/interventions that correspond with each area of need.

Option B:
Participants spend time individually or with an elbow partner, reviewing, discussing, and collaborating on assessment data to identify patterns of performance among the students within their own focus group. After a period of time (i.e., 20 minutes), the participants rotate through various stations, where they meet with other educators who are interested in discussing intervention/instructional strategies related to the development of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with text, vocabulary, comprehension, where each station is solely focused on the development of that one skill. Participants can remain at each station for 5 – 10 minutes before time is called and they rotate to a new station to identify different instructional strategies connected with a different skill.

After the 30 – 40 minutes is up, have participants share any new strategies they believe would be beneficial for the students in their focus group.

 

Reflect and Next Steps

Reflect:
Ask the participants to revisit Activity 3.1.1: Where Am I Now, where they were asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1 – 5 (where one represents a novice learner and five represents an expert) for the following HLPs and identify two practices they would like to work on developing throughout this session. Take five minutes and have the participants review their responses and make any modifications to their ratings after completing today’s session.

Next Steps:
After today’s session, participants continue analyzing data for any students within the focus group whose areas of need have not been addressed yet. Additionally, participants will need to continue thinking about lessons, instructional activities, and/or reading interventions that would correspond with the students’ assessment data results. In Session 3.3, participants will be asked to create an instructional methods timeline and overview of reading instruction/intervention. The timeline will be identified in Part B of the Data-Based Instruction Plan.