Reading Coach Guidance

1. Reading Coach Guidance FRA Conference September 11, 2010 Cari Miller, Deputy Director

2. District Reading Coach Guidance/Workshops • Role of the Coach District Workshops to: • Provide the history/research/data on Coaches in Florida • District and School Systems to Support the Role of the Coach • Role of the Reading Coach

3. History of Reading Coaches in Florida Florida’s reading coach initiative began in 2002-2003 and increased dramatically in the 2005-2006 school year with the implementation of the FEFP Reading Allocation.

4. Florida’s Investment in the Reading Coach Model: The state of Florida has invested heavily in the reading coach model believing that coaches providing embedded professional development can positively impact student achievement in reading.

5. Reading Guidance Workshop Goals: • Improve Coach Effectiveness • Increase Student Achievement

6. Research on Florida Coaches RAND Study

7. Rand Study Key Findings • Coaches’ quality, particularly their ability to support adult learners, is positively related to several outcomes and viewed by some as an area of potential weakness. • The day-to-day work of coaches took many forms. • District and school administrators, coaches and teachers identified several barriers constraining coaches’ ability and opportunity to provide instructional support to many teachers. • The most frequently mentioned characteristic of successful coaches was “people skills” –interpersonal skills.

8. Key Findings (continued) • Most coaches viewed school and district administrators as key supporters for their work. • Many teachers and principals reported that the coach had positive effects on them and their schools. • The frequency with which coaches reviewed assessment data with teachers was associated with positive outcomes. • The number of years a school had a coach was significantly related to higher reading test scores.

9. The Rand Study – Recommendations • Provide guidance to school administrators in how to identify high-quality coach candidates. • Develop a pipeline of qualified candidates. • Consider offering incentives and support to attract high-quality coaches and retain them over time. • If the intent is for coaches to work with all teachers, address barriers to working across the content areas. • Continue to nurture school administrator support.

10. Recommendations (continued) • Continue research on coaching. • Continue professional development for coaches with some adjustments. (More support is needed in how to support adult learners). • Encourage coaches to review assessment data with teachers (data discussions, data conferencing) • Address barriers to enable coaches to work more with teachers including one-on-one work.

11. A Coach’s Time Making every moment count!

12. Reading Coach Log Breakdown by Recommended Categories • Recommended Categories Include: • Small Group PD • Modeling Lessons • Coach-Teacher Conferences • Coaching • Data Analysis Recommended categories – 75% or more of the Reading Coach’s schedule

13. Region 1 Reading Coach Log Report – 2009-10 School Year Recommended categories – Should equal 75% or more of Reading Coach schedule.

14. Region 2 Reading Coach Log Report – 2009-10 School Year Recommended categories – Should equal 75% or more of Reading Coach schedule.

15. Region 3 Reading Coach Log Report – 2009-10 School Year Recommended categories – Should equal 75% or more of Reading Coach schedule.

16. Region 4 Reading Coach Log Report – 2009-10 School Year Recommended categories – Should equal 75% or more of Reading Coach schedule.

17. Region 5 Reading Coach Log Report – 2009-10 School Year Recommended categories – Should equal 75% or more of Reading Coach schedule.

18. Reading Coach Log Breakdown by Recommended Categories • Recommended: 75% of Reading Coach Time • Region 1 – 41% • Region 2 – 34% • Region 3 – 37% • Region 4 – 40% • Region 5 – 45% • State Average – 39% *All Schools Within Region

19. Use of a Coach’s time Based on the data shared: What do you believe to be the barriers to coaches using their time most effectively? How do we remove these barriers to ensure the coach’s time is used for maximum benefit?

20. District and School Systems to Support the Role of the Coach

21. District and School Systems to Support the Role of the Coach District and School Systems to Support the Role of the Reading Coach The Principal/Coach Relationship Recruiting and Hiring Practices Reading Coach Training Monitoring/Evaluation Procedures 21

22. The Principal/Coach Relationship The principal/coach relationship is critical to the development and implementation of specific duties of the coach. Principals and coaches should work together to build a shared literacy vision and collaborative relationship to improve instruction and student achievement (Casey, 2006; Puig and Froelich, 2007). 22

23. Killion and Harrison Partnership agreements are a form of contract or mutual agreement between a coach and his or her principal. The agreements typically are about the scope of the work, expected results, and other details associated with the coach’s work with individuals or teams. 23

24. 24

25. Reading Clarify the Coach’s Role Please read p. 4-5 of the “Clarify the Coach’s Role” , Handout 1. Once completed, rank order (from most important to least important) each partnership agreement category with your table group. Share Out! 25 25

26. Reflect… • What partnership agreements do you and your principal have in place? • Based on your reading and the examples provided, how could these agreements be improved? 26

28. State Board Rulefrom 6A-6.053 K-12 Comprehensive Research-Based Reading Plan. • The reading/literacy coach will serve as a stable resource for professional development throughout a school to generate improvement in reading and literacy instruction and student achievement. • Coaches will support and provide initial and ongoing professional development to teachers in: • Each of the major reading components, as needed, based on an analysis of student performance data; • Administration and analysis of instructional assessments; and • Differentiated instruction and intensive intervention.

29. State Board Rulefrom 6A-6.053 K-12 Comprehensive Research-Based Reading Plan. • Coaches will: (continued) • Work with all teachers (including ESE, content area, and elective areas) in the school they serve, prioritizing their time to those teachers, activities, and roles that will have the greatest impact on student achievement, namely coaching and mentoring in classrooms; • Work frequently with students in whole and small group instruction in the context of modeling and coaching in other teachers’ classrooms; • Not be asked to perform administrative functions that will confuse their role for teachers; and • Spend limited time administering or coordinating assessments.

30. Reading Coach Role – Four Components • Establish an unyielding belief and sense of urgency for literacy learning school wide • Building capacity for literacy across the curriculum • Enhancing and refining reading instruction and intervention • Targeting instructional coaching using data and the gradual release model

31. Establish an unyielding belief and sense of urgency for literacy learning school wide • Serving on an active Reading Leadership Team (RLT) • The RLT meets at least once a month to determine areas of concern in reading at the school through reviews of data and create and implement a plan of action to address needs • Develops a plan to establish literacy practices school-wide • Works to analyze data to determine overall professional development needs of the school • Analyzes and shares school-wide data to provide training in strategies and targeted coaching support

32. READ Posters The area of concern for this school was that students were not reading above and beyond assigned texts. These activities were part of the plan of action to motivate students to read and put books in the hands of students.

33. Reading Wall of Fame

34. Literacy Plan of ActionHandout 5 How can this document support RLT Action Planning for the school year?

35. Reading Coach Role – Four Components • Establish an unyielding belief and sense of urgency for literacy learning school wide • Building capacity for literacy across the curriculum • Enhancing and refining reading instruction and intervention • Targeting instructional coaching using data and the gradual release model

36. Enhancing and refining reading instruction and intervention • Reading coaches enhance and refine reading instruction and intervention by: • Ensuring effective student placement and support. • Assisting in the interpretation of progress monitoring and other data. • Assisting teachers in implementing explicit, systematic and rigorous reading instruction

37. A Dilemma: Percent of Previous Level 3 Students Regressing in 2008-2009 in DA Schools

38. For Discussion Purposes: A Possible Reading Intervention Decision Process Handout 7

39. Is Instruction Rigorous Enough? • All students read one book every two weeks while receiving feedback from adults • All students respond to complex questions in writing and receive feedback from teachers • All teachers have a deep knowledge and understanding of the new FCAT Item Specifications as they relate to developing complex thinking questions aligned with the rigor of the FCAT Item Specifications

40. 2009 FCAT Item Specifications • http://fcat.fldoe.org/fcatis01.asp

41. Enhancing and refining reading instruction and intervention Reading Comprehension Resolution • As a reading teacher, I will do the following when working with students reading text in my classroom: 1) I will read text selections before the students so that I can encourage them to find the explicit and implied meanings and author’s purpose, particularly of difficult texts. LA.910.1.7.2, LA.910.1.7.3 2) I will be purposeful in building background knowledge, so that my focus is connecting my students to the most important and relevant aspects of the text. LA.910.1.7.3 3) I will not distract students during reading by focusing attention on obscure words or unimportant details, but I will keep a spotlight on the essential ideas in the text. LA.910.1.7.3

42. Reading Comprehension Resolutions continued……. 4) I will make my students do the work by not spoon feeding them what a text says, but making them find the meaning on their own through summarizing and paraphrasing in their own words and pushing them to think deeper about the meaning and structure of the text. LA.910.1.7.3, LA.910.1.7.4, LA.910.1.7.5 5) I will work with students to revisit texts by going back to earlier ideas as we read new texts and discussing similar and contrasting themes and characters. LA.910.1.7.7

43. Oral Reading Strategies Source: Good-Bye Round Robin 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies

44. Oral Reading: Think Alouds Teachers verbalizes their thoughts while reading aloud Modeling and demonstrating what good readers do • questioning the text • self monitoring through rereading • Linking what is being read to prior knowledge Source: adapted from: Good-bye Round Robin by Opitz & Rasinski

45. Think Alouds • Once the teacher has completed reading orally, and thinking aloud, invite students to add their thoughts. • Pair up students and have them practice the procedure with one another. Students take turns reading and responding to the other. • Ask students to use the procedure when they are reading silently. Students can use a form or a bookmark to remind themselves of what they need to be doing to ensure comprehension and to evaluate themselves. Source: Good-bye Round Robin by Opitz & Rasinski

46. Think Aloud form or bookmark

47. Strategies for Oral Reading And Fluency • Read Handout 9 • What potential do you see for these strategies to improve reading instruction in your school? • What would a coach have to do to make these practices work for their school?

48. Enhancing and refining reading instruction and intervention • What are some strategies that need to be employed by coaches to enhance and refine reading instruction and intervention? • Consider: • Rigor of Instruction • Comprehension • Oral Reading • Table group discussion

49. To Review… • The following must occur for reading coaches to substantially impact student achievement: • The role of the coach must be clearly delineated • The principal/coach relationship must be strong • Coaches must be selected carefully • Coaches must be supported • Coaches must MAKE the time to COACH

50. “Find a Book, Florida”