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BY DAVID SWANSON
JOURNAL-DEMOCRAT
With the approval last week of a new reading curriculum for Syracuse-Dunbar-Avoca Elementary School students, there are some items which will need to be done in the coming months.
The SRA Reading Mastery Signature Series was selected by a reading committee of S-D-A teachers and Elementary Principal Roxy Voorhees. The curriculum uses direct instruction. Lessons are scripted. Language and spelling are incorporated as part of the program.
The curriculum involves different instruction and intense teacher training.
Voorhees commended the efforts of the committee. The committee included representation from all elementary grades.
Committee members are: Barb Isaacs, kindergarten; Leslie Cameron, first grade; Kathi Weiler, second grade; Jessica LaFollette, third grade; Kerri Meyer and Sue Bassinger, fourth grade; Krista Sisco, fifth grade; Shirley Conradi, sixth grade; Regan Harsin, seventh and eighth grade; Joanna Zastera and Teresa Burr, special education; and Voorhees. Anyone with any questions may contact any committee member.
Reading committee members want to increase the time dedicated to reading and ensure that the time is spent in quality instruction.
The next step includes several items. The placement test will need to be administered to students. Books and materials need to be ordered. The staff needs to be trained. Parents need to be informed of the reading curriculum and the placement of students through handouts and an informational meeting at an open house this fall. There is a need for a plan for students who test out of the program; develop a reading report card to inform parents of reading progress; and select materials for sixth, seventh and eighth graders to ensure continued reading success.
There are several reasons why direct instruction works, committee members said.
Teachers have scripted lessons to provide direct and explicit instruction. Students are homogeneously grouped according to their instruction level. Students are taught to mastery. Only 10 percent of the information presented each day is new instruction. Students are highly engaged, with 12-18 responses per minute. Frequent assessments are embedded into the program to check for learning and monitor student progress. There is a great deal of skill practice and application of those skills are built into the program. Teachers are skilled at reinforcing desired behaviors with specific praise. Specific error correction procedures are built into the program.
The committee looked for nine items in a new reading curriculum. They were: all children to read at their instructional level; monitor progress in reading; special education and Title I support classroom instruction; consistency in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms; time dedicated to reading with no time wasted; needs of all students are met, from struggling to high ability; scientifically based curriculum for reading; immediately identify when a student is having difficulty and the staff will know what the nature of the problem is and what to do to fix the problem and the curriculum ties in with response to intervention.
The reading committee has worked as an ongoing process two years. The committee explained to school officials what had been done to date last week.
The committee discussed what good reading instruction looked like and what members wanted for S-D-A students. There were two years of staff development for the reading team in reading instruction. Committee members have shared information regularly with all staff on where the members were in the reading process and in choosing the new curriculum. The committee members previewed examples of five different reading series, and compared and matched them with their needs. Committee members reviewed research from officials of the University of Oregon and the Florida Center of Reading Research on different reading series. The committee began the selection process of a new curriculum, piloted lessons in classrooms and had an SRA Consultant presentation on Open Court, Reading Mastery and Signatures. Committee members visited Southern Elementary School at Blue Springs, which included classroom observations and a meeting with the reading coach. Information on the visit was shared with other staff members. The teachers watched a video of Gering Public Schools teachers demonstrating direct instruction. Committee members consulted with representatives of other schools who use Reading Mastery or are considering it. Those include Gering, Crete, Southern, Norfolk, Nebraska City, Seward and Centennial.
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