CENTENNIAL ARTS ACADEMY

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

2004 - 2005

Centennial Arts Academy (CAA) will ensure that all students are able to read and understand math concepts at or above grade level by the end of the third grade.  The goal of a balanced comprehensive reading program is for all students to become independent, competent and avid readers.  CAA implements a balanced reading program organized around knowledge and observations of the ways children learn to read.  Teachers provide for students daily classroom experiences that include reading to children, reading with children and reading by children.  The reading program includes rich language experiences involving speaking, writing and instruction in reading skills and strategies, both planned and spontaneous.  Assessment will enable the teacher to make sound evaluations of progress and plan appropriate literacy instruction.  Teachers are trained in the administration and use of the Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) including appropriate grouping for instruction and prescriptive teaching.

CAA teachers employ a balanced literacy approach to reading instruction through the following:

• 3 hours of daily reading instruction based on Scientifically Based Reading Research
• Explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonetic processing
• Exposure to quality literature through read aloud, shared reading, guided oral reading, collaborative reading and independent reading experiences
• Integrating reading into science and social studies through the use of trade books and paired fiction/ nonfiction books
• Connecting reading and writing instruction through modeled, shared, guided, and independent writing
• Building fluency with cumulative, controlled sight practice materials

This balanced literacy instructional approach to reading and writing will be driven by the results obtained from the DIBELS, given three times per year.  Using DIBLES, students in grades K-5 will be individually assessed to determine instructional needs in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, sight word recognition, oral reading and comprehension.

Components of this balanced approach to reading include:

 

Phonemic Awareness - Phonemic awareness is explicitly taught through age-appropriate and motivating activities, including materials that use rhyme and alliteration and provide practice in phoneme isolation, identity, categorization, blending, segmentation, and deletion. Instruction begins with auditory-verbal exercises to direct children’s attention to sound, than phonemes are linked with letters once children understand letters represent segments of their own speech.  Teachers plan instructional lessons in which phoneme awareness, letter knowledge, and invented spelling activities are complementary.  Teachers further develop phonemic awareness by teaching concepts of print during shared reading of big books.  Teachers carefully monitor every child’s progress and, through the use of informal assessments, identify those students who are falling behind and need early help.

 

Phonics Instruction -In addition to phonemic awareness and letter knowledge, knowledge of sound-symbol associations is vital for success in first grade and beyond.  Explicit, systematic phonics instruction is a valuable and essential part of a balanced reading program.  Systematic phonics instruction can help children acquire knowledge of the alphabetic system and its use to decode new words and to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically.  Growth in reading comprehension is boosted by systematic phonics instruction for younger students and reading disabled students.  The goal of an effective phonics program is to provide children with the key knowledge and skills to ensure application of that knowledge into their reading and writing.  Since students vary greatly in their phonetic skills, teachers will use the DIBLES to assess individual student needs and tailor instruction to meet those needs.  Through the use of appropriate leveled books and decodable texts, students receive direct instruction in applying phonics skills to reading and writing.  Phonics instruction is one component of a balanced program that will also include instruction in phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies.

 

Modeled Reading/Read Aloud -Teachers will read aloud to students daily for a variety of reasons including to entertain, to inform or explain, to arouse curiosity, to inspire, or to create or strengthen a positive attitude about reading.  Teachers read carefully selected pieces of literature from a variety of genres and multicultural selections, including fiction and non-fiction.  Through “think-alouds,” the teacher models for students the thinking good readers process in their minds when they read   Think-alouds make invisible mental processes visible so children can then borrow the various strategies teachers’ use, and apply them in their own reading.  The text used for read alouds is usually at least six months to a year above the reading level of the listener.  This allows the teacher to model phrased and fluent reading, which fosters oral language and increases vocabulary.  The teacher uses read alouds to model reading for a specific purpose and to demonstrate reading strategies in the content of reading aloud.  Children’s listening skills and the extension of background knowledge can be enhanced through exposure to big books and read- alouds from authentic literature.

 

Shared Reading -Shared reading provides the teacher with a valuable whole group instructional time.  The teacher uses big books, enlarged text visible to all students, or multiple copies of the same text to read with students in a risk-free collaborative effort.  The teacher explicitly models and demonstrates reading strategies of decoding and comprehension in both fiction and nonfiction material.  The teacher further enhances comprehension by making use of visual learning and teaching tools, such as graphic organizers or thinking maps.  The shared reading experience provides support for the group of students, as well as the opportunity for each child to participate and be a reader.  Shared reading provides the opportunity for students to hear the text several times.  The first reading demonstrates important behaviors and the kinds of book knowledge that good readers use.  As reading occurs, the teacher pauses at key points and encourages children to predict what might happen next and to make inferences about characters, the story problem, and plot.  This is a good time to have children relate story events to their own lives.  Vocabulary is highlighted and discussed.  After one or more readings, students are ready for some explicit instruction using the text.  The teacher returns to the text to draw attention to phonics elements for blending words, sight words for creating word collections, unfamiliar words that have been marked with sticky notes, as well as other skills that children need.  As the children read the text together, they have the opportunity to gain practice in phrased and fluent reading aloud.  The teacher uses a taped reading of the text to support children as they attempt to read the story on their own or with a partner.  Materials at CAA that provide appropriate shared reading experiences include a sampling of big books, both fiction and nonfiction, story collections from our literature-based basal program, and sets of literature collections available in the media center.  Additional materials, including sets of big books with audiotapes, paired fiction/nonfiction books, and content area trade books are needed to provide ample opportunities for teachers to fully use shared reading as a valued instructional time. 

 

Guided Reading -Guided reading is a daily component of the balanced reading approach in the classroom.  During guided reading, the teacher works with a small, flexible group of students who have similar reading abilities.  The teacher selects and introduces new books, activates prior knowledge, sometimes through the use of graphic organizers, and supports the students during the reading of the entire text, whether read independently or orally with a partner.  The main purpose of a guided reading lesson is to promote independence by helping a child develop fluency, confidence, and reading skills and strategies.  The text is at a child’s instructional level, one that a child can read with 90-95 percent accuracy.  This will present a greater challenge to a child than a text he/she can read independently, but it should not be so difficult that it produces frustration.  The teacher’s role in the group is to guide children through any difficulties by prompting them to use a skilled reader’s strategies.  These strategies are taught to the students through direct instruction with text.  Students become more independent readers as they practice and learn to make predictions based on context, experiences, phonics, and language, look for particular details in the text to confirm the predictions, check that the prediction makes sense and fits the story line, and rereads and self-corrects whenever meaning is lost.  Because guided reading groups are made up of children at similar stages of reading development, it presents the teacher with an ideal opportunity to systematically teach the necessary skills, whether it be letter recognition, their combinations in words, or phonemic awareness.  Guided reading groups also present an ideal time to work with a small group of students in elements of a word study lesson, such as onset and rime, syllables, or prefixes, and suffixes.  Vocabulary instruction is a built-in component of a guided reading lesson.  Teachers introduce unfamiliar vocabulary to students in the context of the story prior to reading the story.  Teachers find available opportunities for students to use these new vocabulary words over and over, not just within the limit of the text, but throughout the entire curriculum.  When children are instructed in reading at their appropriate instructional level, they are able to be successful with the text, which leads to reading that is more fluent.  Students have the opportunity to reread the text with a partner, sometimes several times, which also leads to an increase in fluency.  When students are able to fluently read a good book or story to a friend, it increases their motivation to read other books or stories.  Our currently adopted reading program is a literature-based basal program and offers the students exposure to fine literature.  The wide range of readability of the stories makes them more suitable for a shared reading lesson.  Many of our students are unable to successfully read these basal stories on an instructional level.  Guided reading instruction requires sets of books at a range of reading levels so children may be matched to appropriate instructional texts.  It requires benchmark books to allow teachers to conduct running record assessments and place students at the appropriate level.  Running record assessments are taken on each student at designated increments to ensure progress and allow for flexible grouping of students to best meet their needs.  At the present time, CAA does not have the necessary materials to teach guided reading, but will purchase sets of leveled readers, along with the accompanying benchmark books, to enable teachers to instruct their students at the appropriate level. 

 

Collaborative Reading -During collaborative reading students read with one another in pairs or small groups.  Collaborative reading takes many forms in the classroom.  It may take the form of partner reading from a wide variety of genres, literature circles where students read and discuss a book of common interest, groups of students working on choral reading, “Readers Theater,” or dramatic works of literature, or poetry clubs where students rehearse a poem they want to present to the class.  All of these experiences provide students with the opportunity to apply their reading strategies independently while practicing phrased and fluent reading in a social context.  Collaborative reading allows children’s oral language abilities to be developed and interwoven through the context of reading and writing.  Collaborative reading is highly motivational to students in the classroom.  It provides students the opportunity to read with peers and to use their literacy skills as tools for enjoyment, learning, and communication.  Students are interested and engaged in what they are doing and feel a sense of pride in their accomplishments. In order to successfully implement collaborative reading as part of a balanced approach to reading, teachers need to develop rich, expansive classroom libraries with a wide variety of texts, including fiction and nonfiction books at students’ independent reading levels, magazines, numerous poetry collections, newspapers, student-made books, content-area books, and dictionaries as well as other appropriate reference books.  Many of our teachers incorporate a reading center or classroom library into their room using resources available from the school media center.  Teachers need additional resources to develop the type of rich classroom library that will allow students to participate in many types of collaborative reading.

 

Independent Reading - During independent reading students have an opportunity to apply reading strategies independently as they read a variety of texts.  The reader is challenged to decode words independently while reading books within his control.  Independent reading promotes fluency through rereading and students become more confident of their own reading ability.  At CAA, we use mentors from the nearby high school and middle school to read with our students during this independent reading time.  This allows the students the control and freedom of self-selected text within their range, while providing the support so many of our students need.  Students take part in a computer-based reading motivation program called Scholastic Reading Counts (SRC).  This program has proven to be highly motivational   with 95% of our students meeting the school-wide goal last year of 400 points.  Through the SRC program, students choose a book from their reading range and take the book home to read with someone in their family.  When the book is complete, students take a computer-generated test on the book to check comprehension.  The reading students do through SRC helps to build reading comprehension, vocabulary and concept knowledge.  Struggling readers, especially those who do not have parental help at home, are frequently paired with mentors to provide the support they need to be successful. Through SRC, families are involved in helping their students become successful readers.  The community library supports the SRC program by having reading lists and books available for students to check out.  Assessment, through the computer- generated tests, keeps a check on student progress and levels can be adjusted when necessary.  SRC provides the teacher with a valuable record-keeping tool on each individual child.  CAA needs more SRC books on independent reading levels to ensure the program continues to motivate children to read and help them grow to become independent readers.  Classroom teachers need the books necessary to create a print rich environment for students.  Children benefit from having large quantities of high-quality books in the classroom.  Classrooms should be filled with all types of printed materials from wordless picture books, decodable books, leveled books, trade books, thematic books, and multicultural books to newspapers and magazines (Bishop, 1994).  The 100 Book Challenge is an instructional program that provides classroom libraries to meet the independent reading levels of children.  Students have access to new books they can read every two weeks.  The 100 Book Challenge incorporates a family connection that allows students to choose books to take home each night to share with their home reading coach.  Research shows that children need to take books home to practice and share with their families (Baker, 1995).

 

Writing in the Classroom - Writing is an integral part of learning to read and needs to take place daily.  Writing instruction is designed with the understanding that the use of invented spelling is not in conflict with teaching correct spelling. Invented spelling has been shown to aid in enhancing children’s memory for words in the earliest stages of reading and writing.  Before the first grade, students are encouraged to write and then read using scribbles, drawings and invented spellings as forms of writing.  Writing is an important skill on its own and must be taught in a systematic manner as children progress through the grades.  Instruction in the use of writing to develop comprehension skills of predicting, questioning, summarizing and clarifying the materials that are read can enhance comprehension. Daily writing in the classroom will take place in the forms of modeling, shared, guided, independent or collaborative writing.

 

                                                                                                   

Word Study/Spelling -In a balanced reading program there are many opportunities for a teacher to integrate a word study component to enable students to see the connection between reading and writing.  Word study is integrated as part of a guided reading, phonics a spelling lesson or as part of an interactive word wall.  Teachers focus on teaching high frequency word lists to students to increase their overall knowledge of words.  High-frequency words are displayed in the classroom on word walls and students are actively engaged in activities on a daily basis to aid in mastery of these words.  Once words are introduced to students and added to the word wall, students are held accountable for the words in their daily reading and writing.  During word study, students have opportunities to learn phonics, spelling patterns, generalizations, word meanings and usage in order to gain an understanding of how language works.  Word study is an effective way to build vocabulary through an awareness of word meanings, origins and derivations.  Teachers provide instruction in the best practices concerning spelling instruction through the use of patterns and word studies, as outlined in Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children.  Spelling words used for instruction are phonetically based to ensure a natural progression through the developmental stages of the spelling continuum.

 

Centennial Arts Academy actively engages parents and children during the early childhood years to ensure that children learn to read as soon as they are ready.  CAA conducts each year a school assessment of family literacy needs.  Based on the identified needs of CAA families for the 2004-2005 school year, the Parent Involvement Committee will offer seven classes for parents to attend throughout the year.  These classes will cover topics such as helping your child at home in reading and math, parenting skills, discipline, gang prevention, resources available in the community, preparing for the CRCT, and the YMCA.  CAA will provide resources and literacy tips for parents on the school web site for school age children and siblings ages 0-5 years.  In addition to the twice-yearly parent conferences CAA currently schedules, the school secretary will arrange and  schedule and additional parent conferences at the request of parent or teacher.    Materials based on SBRR, such as computer software, backpack kits with books and audiotapes, learning activities, games, and other resources will be available for parent checkout from the parent center.  All Centennial parents are encouraged to have their own library cards to use with younger siblings.

 

Professional Development

Centennial Arts Academy has developed a research based professional development system that assists teachers in best instructional practices, which will increase reading gains for all students. There is significant evidence that professional development in reading can have positive effects on teaching and produce significantly higher student achievement.  In order for professional development to enable educators to meet their identified goals and objectives, it must be of sufficient quality, intensity, and duration to lead to improved teaching.  All staff, including administrators, media specialists, special education teachers, EIP teachers, paraprofessionals, tutors and volunteers participate in professional development before the beginning of and during the first full year of the grant.  During the second year of implementation, professional and paraprofessional staff teaching kindergarten through third grade will attend and take part in professional development activities.  In addition, invitations will be issued to community based early childhood personnel and parents. Student standards and objectives, curriculum, textbooks, instructional programs and assessments will be closely aligned with one another.  When teachers have received the necessary training to create a balanced reading program, they will more readily commit the effort and resources to implement the individual components.  This leads to more teacher support and collaboration, which will produce better student learning. Professional development will take place in school, when appropriate, allowing teachers time to reflect with peers on the success of their lessons as well as regularly scheduled team meetings to collaborate, discuss, read, and plan.  Teachers will be provided assistance by the Literacy Coach, who will observe and provide feedback, model strategies, co-teach, aid in the implementation of research-based reading practices and conduct mini-in-service sessions with materials and strategies obtained from the GA Reads Best Practices Institute.  Teachers will meet in small study groups to read and discuss current educational research and its application in the school setting.  School-based professional development will focus on the evidence of student learning and remedies for insufficient progress.  Teachers will be encouraged to observe master teachers in their classrooms.  Teachers new to the school will be provided with a mentor support system.  CAA will utilize the Literacy Coach, the Family Literacy Facilitator, master teachers and administrators to re-deliver research based best practices training for new teachers. School-based Technology Support Personnel will provide technical assistance services. CAA will provide technology training for teachers and families designed to help students learn through technology.  CAA teachers will receive In-Tech training to increase teacher/student knowledge of the computer.  CAA teachers will receive training and support in the continued use of SRC as a motivational tool for students as well as a computer management system for children’s self-selected reading. CAA families can take advantage of free computer technology training in Microsoft Office Suite as well as a technology course to teach keyboarding skills, Internet research, and ways to adapt software into family time at home.

 

Teacher Strategies to Improve Instruction and Raise Test Scores

1. Small group grade level meetings
   • Training in administering DIBELS & DSA
   • Analyze student/class/grade level data
   • Progress monitoring of students to ensure growth
   • Word study & developmental spelling

 

2. Book study groups during teacher planning periods to learn strategies for developing student writing

 

3. Reading Endorsement
   • Nineteen Centennial teachers have completed working on their Reading Endorsement through Pioneer RESA. 
   • The 150-hour endorsement classes met each Thursday at Centennial from 3:00-6:30 and included Problems in Reading, Reading Assessment, and a summer Reading Internship.

 

4. Peer Observations—
   • All teachers new to Centennial and any other interested staff visited classrooms to see direct instruction in reading and word study. 
   • Teachers were provided the opportunity to learn from each other and discuss strategies effective with students.

 

5. Through individual, grade level, and whole group professional development, literacy coaches provide teachers with the information & strategies to implement research-based practices with their students. 

 

6. Literacy coaches & administers use a research-based format to conduct teacher observations and then provide specific information to the teacher through post-observation conferencing.  Literacy coaches provide a system of demonstration, practice and feedback that allow teachers to work toward improvement in instructional practices.

 

7. Teachers conduct progress-monitoring checks on at-risk students.  The students determined to be at risk are monitored every 2 weeks and the students determined to have some risk are monitored monthly.  Progress monitoring allows teachers to make instructional decisions based on student growth.

 

8. Quarterly administrative conferences are held with classroom teachers to discuss individual student progress.

 

Student Intervention Strategies to Improve Learning:

1.      Students receive instruction daily with an explicit, systematic phonics program supported by reading research.  Teachers receive a pacing calendar to keep them on track.  Instruction is fast-paced and engaging. 

 

2.      Road to the Code is an intervention program used with kindergarten and first grade students that need more focused instruction in phonemic awareness.  (Data determines students needing intervention)

 

3.      EIP teachers provide focused, intensive instruction for students working below grade level.  Their instructional plan includes:

·         Word study focusing on phonological skills

·         Rereading of old text to build fluency

·         Reading new text

·         Study & review of high frequency words

·         Writing

 

4.      Ordered fluency building materials for students performing below benchmark on assessment:

·         “Quik Reads”

 

5.      High School Mentors are trained by the literacy coach in how to provide reading & math tutoring with students determined to be at risk.

 

6.      Reciprocal Teaching in the content areas

 

7.      SRA Corrective Reading is being used with fourth and fifth grade students reading below grade level. 

 

8.      After school tutoring for students is available in reading and math through the YMCA.

 

9.      The computer lab is equipped with an intervention program in reading – “Essential Learning Systems.”

 

10. PACT (Parent and Child Together) Time is incorporated into the instructional day

 

Using Assessment to Inform Instruction—Frequent assessments of students, and the use of that information for planning instruction, is the most reliable way of preventing children from falling behind and staying behind.  Instruction that targets the specific weaknesses most likely to cause reading difficulties often prevents later reading failure and facilitates the reading development of most children.  Professional development will be provided to educators in not only how to administer formal and informal assessments, but in how to interpret the results and use the results to plan appropriate instruction.

 

Improvement in Math

o       Students prepare for testing using Georgia CRCT Reading and Language Arts Coach and Georgia CRCT Math Coach (1^st – 5^th grades)

o       Centennial will provide additional extended learning support in reading and math through an after school program offered four days a week in conjunction with the YMCA After-School Program.  The program began in November and will run through the end of April. 

o       Centennial will train high school mentors concerning methods of read and math instruction.  This includes mentors that report to Centennial on a daily basis and Key Club mentors that report weekly. 

o       All teachers will use the Calendar Math program to integrate math concepts and skills into all areas of the curriculum.

o       All teachers will use Mastering Math Facts daily to achieve mastery in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

o       Students will be taught specific standards using the quarterly math pretests as indicators of strengths and weaknesses concerning the specific skills.

o       Third, fourth and fifth grade teachers will use Test Gate to analyze and apply data to classroom instruction.

o       Instruction in multiplication will begin at the second grade level.  Students will understand the concept of multiplication as repeated addition and memorize the following facts:  0’s, 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.

o       Third, fourth and fifth grade students will receive periodic multiplication timed tests of 100 facts to be completed within 5 minutes.