ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
OUR LITERACY JOURNEY
The Beginning
In the winter of 2016 a self study was conducted of our Prek-12 ELA curriculum. A strong message was sent by Ashland's K-5 teachers that the program being used in Ashland was not meeting the needs of our students. Over the next two years professional development occurred to help teachers better implement the program and teachers were asked to use the program with fidelity as a plan was put together to move forward.
Starting The Process
In December of 2018 a committee was established to start the process of looking for a new program. A S.W.O.T. analysis was conducted to serve as a guide for what we valued in a program for our students. A Mission Statement was written so we all knew what we valued and what we were working towards. This served as our guide while we looked at programs and visited schools.
MISSION STATEMENT:
The Ashland Public Schools is committed to providing students with literacy instruction that focuses on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and comprehension to build a love of literacy. This balanced approach allows students to thrive in all aspects of language acquisition. We are committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of ability level, are exposed to authentic and diverse grade level texts while also providing teachers the resources and opportunity to effectively meet the individual academic needs of all students.
WHAT WE VALUE:
MISSION STATEMENT:
The Ashland Public Schools is committed to providing students with literacy instruction that focuses on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and comprehension to build a love of literacy. This balanced approach allows students to thrive in all aspects of language acquisition. We are committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of ability level, are exposed to authentic and diverse grade level texts while also providing teachers the resources and opportunity to effectively meet the individual academic needs of all students.
WHAT WE VALUE:
- A program that allows for easy integration with Special Education and English Language Learner classes and students.
- A program that explicitly teaches writing, helps teachers use learning progressions to observe and assess student writing, and develops student’s use of self-monitoring skills.
- A phonics program that uses an integrated approach to teaching skills, is systematic in the foundational skills for reading and spelling, emphasizing phonemic awareness, phonics-word study, and high frequency word study, and provides multi-sensory learning opportunities.
- Literature that is strong, varied, and authentic.
- Guided readers that are rich and varied.
- Resources and ancillary materials available to meet the needs of all students.
- A program that differentiates to meet the needs of ALL learners.
- A program that teaches not only content but skills that can be applied across multiple settings.
- A program that provides resources and opportunities for teachers to collect data that informs instruction.
- A program that allows for teacher and student flexibility and choice.
Presenting to the School Committee
In the fall of 2019 a presentation was given at a School Committee meeting highlighting our process in selecting the workshop model, the Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, and our consultant. Attached is a copy of that presentation. Please see the resource section below for more details on the Units of Study and the workshop model.
Day One---Professional Development
Our first professional development days were held in October and November of 2019. During these days teachers were introduced to:
- Texts to Support Balanced Literacy Model
- Independent Practice
- Interactive Read Aloud
- How Does a Classroom Library/Bookroom Support a Workshop Model?
- It’s Not Just About Volume - Design Matters
- Independent Practice - What Do We Have? What Do We Need?
Ordering Books--November 8, 2019
November 8, 2019 was a significant day in our journey. In order to effectively implement this program we need to make certain that we have diverse and varied books. Teachers spent the majority of the day purchasing books for students. In order for students to become better readers and writers we need to make sure they have books that are of interest to them and at their reading level. This day helped us get closer to accomplishing our goal.
First Arrivals
November 13, 2019 was the day that our first shipment of books arrived in Ashland for our program. After almost a year of working on this journey today marked a significant milestone. We have some of the resources we need to start the program in September of 2020.
Day 2---Professional Development
Our second round of professional development was held in early January 2020. During this time teachers reviewed:
- Mentor text demonstration lesson
- What is the role of mentor texts
- Creating a book room
- Book room design
- Unpacking, labeling, inventorying, and setting up books
Mentor Text and Units of Study
Teachers at the Warren School and soon at the Mindess all received the Units of Study in Reading and Writing along with the mentor texts. This will allow them time to look at each of the units before our next professional development day in February.
Day 3---Professional Development
For this round of professional development, teachers had the opportunity to dive into the units of study and see the workshop model in action.
The Science of Reading and Phonics
Over the past few years the Calkins Units of Study have been criticized for some shortcomings of the program. I hope to address these concerns and our plan. In order to guide our review and make certain that we were meeting the needs of students we created a mission statement and what we value in a program:
The Ashland Public Schools is committed to providing students with literacy instruction that focuses on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and comprehension to build a love of literacy. This balanced approach allows students to thrive in all aspects of language acquisition. We are committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of ability level, are exposed to authentic and diverse grade level texts while also providing teachers the resources and opportunity to effectively meet the individual academic needs of all students.
WHAT WE VALUE:
The Units have been criticized for lacking and not addressing what some people have coined “The Science of Reading.” This is 100% factual, accurate, and correct; they do not do a great job addressing and teaching systematic, explicit phonics. Lucy Calkins addresses this here in her response to this issue. In short, there is a debate as to where and how long phonics instruction should occur during a literacy block while using the Units of Study.
Fountas and Pinnell define what is phonics and why it is important:
What is phonics, spelling, and word study?"In an alphabetic language such as English, phonics describes the relationships between the sounds of language and its graphic symbols, i.e., the letters. When students learn these relationships, they are able to "decode" print more efficiently. For example, students see the letter a at the beginning of a word and know that this symbol often stands for the sound /a/, the sound at the beginning of the words and, ask, apple, astronaut, alligator, and many others."
Why is phonics, spelling, and word study important?"The true purpose and promise of phonics instruction is to expand and refine students' reading and writing competencies. With knowledge of letter-sound relationships, students add to their ability to derive meaning from print, to accurately turn sounds into their own print (i.e. spelling), and to solve increasingly longer words. Most students acquire this knowledge and learn how to use it under the guidance of a skilled teacher who provides a wide range of learning opportunities. '
Phonics instruction and phonemic awareness need to be explicitly taught as a component of a balanced literacy model. Students need to be taught the skills and strategies necessary to decode and encode flexibly and automatically. In order to address this issue and offer a well balanced curriculum, the Ashland Public Schools will adopt the Fundations program to teach phonics. Fundations is one of the premier programs available and was developed by Wilson Reading. Because Fundations and Wilson were developed by the same company, the language, terminology, and cueing system are seamless for students who qualify for Wilson services and may help to minimize the time needed for Wilson services because the learning curve is much shorter.
In closing, the critics of the Units of Study focus on the lack of explicit, systematic phonics instruction and they are correct in that evaluation. We are well aware of this weakness, which is why Fundations will also be a component in our ELA curriculum . Our mission is to provide students a comprehensive and well balanced program that promotes a love of literacy. The Units of Study, in conjunction with Fundations, will do just that.
The Ashland Public Schools is committed to providing students with literacy instruction that focuses on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and comprehension to build a love of literacy. This balanced approach allows students to thrive in all aspects of language acquisition. We are committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of ability level, are exposed to authentic and diverse grade level texts while also providing teachers the resources and opportunity to effectively meet the individual academic needs of all students.
WHAT WE VALUE:
- A program that allows for easy integration with Special Education and English Language Learner classes and students.
- A program that explicitly teaches writing, helps teachers use learning progressions to observe and assess student writing, and develops student’s use of self-monitoring skills.
- A phonics program that uses an integrated approach to teaching skills, is systematic in the foundational skills for reading and spelling, emphasizing phonemic awareness, phonics-word study, and high frequency word study, and provides multi-sensory learning opportunities.
- Literature that is strong, varied, and authentic.
- Guided readers that are rich and varied.
- Resources and ancillary materials available to meet the needs of all students.
- A program that differentiates to meet the needs of ALL learners.
- A program that teaches not only content but skills that can be applied across multiple settings.
- A program that provides resources and opportunities for teachers to collect data that informs instruction.
- A program that allows for teacher and student flexibility and choice.
While there is not one program that can meet ALL of these needs, the Units of Study does address what we value, our state standards, and provides a solid tier one curriculum that allows us to differentiate to meet the varied needs of our students.
The Units have been criticized for lacking and not addressing what some people have coined “The Science of Reading.” This is 100% factual, accurate, and correct; they do not do a great job addressing and teaching systematic, explicit phonics. Lucy Calkins addresses this here in her response to this issue. In short, there is a debate as to where and how long phonics instruction should occur during a literacy block while using the Units of Study.
Fountas and Pinnell define what is phonics and why it is important:
What is phonics, spelling, and word study?"In an alphabetic language such as English, phonics describes the relationships between the sounds of language and its graphic symbols, i.e., the letters. When students learn these relationships, they are able to "decode" print more efficiently. For example, students see the letter a at the beginning of a word and know that this symbol often stands for the sound /a/, the sound at the beginning of the words and, ask, apple, astronaut, alligator, and many others."
Why is phonics, spelling, and word study important?"The true purpose and promise of phonics instruction is to expand and refine students' reading and writing competencies. With knowledge of letter-sound relationships, students add to their ability to derive meaning from print, to accurately turn sounds into their own print (i.e. spelling), and to solve increasingly longer words. Most students acquire this knowledge and learn how to use it under the guidance of a skilled teacher who provides a wide range of learning opportunities. '
Phonics instruction and phonemic awareness need to be explicitly taught as a component of a balanced literacy model. Students need to be taught the skills and strategies necessary to decode and encode flexibly and automatically. In order to address this issue and offer a well balanced curriculum, the Ashland Public Schools will adopt the Fundations program to teach phonics. Fundations is one of the premier programs available and was developed by Wilson Reading. Because Fundations and Wilson were developed by the same company, the language, terminology, and cueing system are seamless for students who qualify for Wilson services and may help to minimize the time needed for Wilson services because the learning curve is much shorter.
In closing, the critics of the Units of Study focus on the lack of explicit, systematic phonics instruction and they are correct in that evaluation. We are well aware of this weakness, which is why Fundations will also be a component in our ELA curriculum . Our mission is to provide students a comprehensive and well balanced program that promotes a love of literacy. The Units of Study, in conjunction with Fundations, will do just that.