Biennial Division Literacy Plan for the 25-26 SY

We made it! We survived our first year with the Virginia Literacy Act! We learned a lot and are ready to tackle next year! When we move into the 2025-2026 school year, we are including 4th-8th grade! Please read about plans below! 

Thank you! 📚💖📝 ☀️

 

myView Reflection

It's that time of the year when you think about myView and how the journey went this year. You might also be thinking about what you need to do differently next year to be more successful, after that glorious summer break! 

Here are the slides to get you thinking and celebrating! :) We did a lot and you should be proud! Don't forget to complete the survey so we can hear your view!

Spring Literacy Update - May 2025

 

Here is the PDF version to share with families! 

MyView Learning Letter #29-Explicit Instruction - How well I teach = How well they learn!

 

Uffda. That is big responsibility. How well I teach = How well they learn. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that the way we are teaching isn’t working for our students. Don’t feel discouraged if this is the case for you. 

Instead, work on improving how explicit you are with your instruction. Explicit instruction is "systematic method of teaching, proceeding in small steps, checking for student understanding, and achieving active participation by all." It's using the gradual release method of I Do, We Do, You Do. 

Teach first, then ask the questions. Be clear with your instruction. 

Or, work on improving the organization of your lessons to achieve higher levels of engagement. Be intentional with your instruction and don’t be afraid to adjust your approach when needed. Ask your literacy coach for ideas. Check out the engagement page on our website. 

No matter what, don't just stay in the land of students not learning. You have the power to control what you do and the impact of that will be outstanding! We are the adults. If kids aren't learning, we can't blame them. I leave you with this quote...

Resistance and Acceptance

I am a learner. It's my top strength. Because I love to learn, I also love to read. While reading this morning, I read a statement that made me stop and reflect on the Virginia Literacy Act. To summarize, "resistance causes excess stress so it's better to accept things. However, acceptance does not mean approval."  So I went on a deep dive of thinking and research on definitions. 

re·sist·ance

/rəˈzist(ə)ns/

noun

1. 1.

   the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.

   "she put up no resistance to being led away"

   
   

ac·cept·ance

/əkˈsept(ə)ns/

noun

1. 1.

   the action of consenting to receive or undertake something offered.

   "charges involving the acceptance of bribes"

con·sent

/kənˈsent/

noun

1. 1. permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.

ap·prov·al

/əˈpro͞ov(ə)l/

noun

1. 1. the action of approving something.

   "the road plans have been given approval"
2. 
   
3. 2) the belief that someone or something is good or acceptable.

    "step-parents need to win a child's approval"

Refusing to accept the VLA leads to things that are 100% out of our circle of control. If I chose to refuse what it is asking me to do, I am going to be one stressed out, unhappy person. On the other hand, I can accept the VLA. I consent to following what it asks me to do and give it permission to direct my actions. What I LOVE is that neither acceptance or consent means approval because the second definition of approval is the belief that something is good or acceptable. 

Let's be honest. There are some things with the Virginia Literacy Act that I accept but do not approve. There are somethings that aren't good. Not everything can be. However, I am not going to resist because that will get me nowhere I want to be. 

Winter Literacy Update-January 2025

Here is the PDF Version to share with families! 

 

Family Support for Literacy

My family means the world to me and even just typing that is an understatement. I love and value my family first. A close second is the families I serve. Because family is so important to me personally, I am always trying to reflect and think of our student's families. 

It may not look like it or seem like it, but I truly believe our school families are sending us the best student they can. I might be overgeneralizing here, but I feel...

* Most families just don't know how the school system works like we do because we are on the "inside". 

* Most families don't know what they don't know and therefore, don't ask for help because they don't know to. They trust that we will tell them.

* Most families want to help their student, but they don't want to seem silly or stupid by asking. 

* Most families are wore out doing the best they can to provide for their families. 

...and I feel this way because I have been "that family". My child went to a new school system where I didn't know how it worked, didn't know what I didn't know about high school, didn't want to ask because I felt stupid because I do work in a school district, and I was tired working my butt off in the 9 to 5. 

While all that is true, I know better so I did better. I asked the questions and did what I could to help her. This experience taught me that we have to be clear and kind with our families. We have to presume positive intent and give them the resources they would need to be the parent who helps their student succeed. True, some may not use it. However, that doesn't mean we don't for the few, hopefully many, that will. 

That is why I have put together our Literacy Help for Families website. 

https://sites.google.com/iwcs.k12.va.us/literacyhelpcenter/myview

Here are some new things I have added to help our families. Please join me in spreading the word and providing feedback about what else I should add. 

* Handwriting worksheets for manuscript and cursive - For those students really struggling with handwriting, print these and send home for families. Have the student circle their BEST letter! 

* Fluency Progress Graphs and Kid Friendly Fluency Rubric - You could send home the cold read weekly in grades 1-5 in order to help with this. Another idea would be to send home the weekly foldable decodable texts. 

* Writing Rubrics by grade level - You could print one and send them home to each family at the beginning of the unit. Have kids write at home and bring a writing in for extra credit. 

MyView Learning Letter #27-Engagement, Again!

 

One of the biggest complaints I hear about MyView is how boring it is. One of the biggest things I see is the teacher doing more work than the students. In order to solve both of those concerns, the answer is something as simple as engagement. How do we get students to participate more in their learning?

While it is simple, it's not easy. There are LOTS of explicit things you need to teach your students about how to engage in their learning. And sometimes, let's be honest. It's easier for you to just control what is happening and have kids sit there. While that it is easier, it's not better for kids. 

On our new webpage, I have added a video that shows how I would engage students in ALL of the MyView lessons in order to build engagement. I probably need to go back and add some things for the writing section, but you will get the idea. I have also added other resources to help with engagement on this page and I am always seeking feedback so please share what you think is missing! 

Happy Engaging! ;)

IWCS Vision & Goals-Updated January 2025

In order to support families and be clear and kind about our intentions, we have a Literacy webpage on the Isle of Wight County Schools site. Families would get to it by clicking Departments, Instruction, and then Literacy K-5 on the right. This is the direct link to share: https://www.iwcs.k12.va.us/apps/pages/literacy

Find this section to learn where we are with our goals and how we have been progress monitoring them. 

We have met our Implementation Goal! Yay! You all are doing a fantastic job of implementing MyView. At my last data meeting with Savvas, they said you all are using it the MOST. Thank you for your dedication! 

We are close to meeting our Instructional Goal. We have some areas to work on with ensuring all students are engaged in their learning and we don't overscaffold for students because of the rigor. 

We do have teachers participating in professional learning monthly during PLC on SBRR, EBLI, and HQIM topics. However, not all teachers have finished the VLA Canvas course so we are on our way in our Professional Learning Goal.

For our Assessment Goal, we want our students to increase in their reading skills. Currently in K-2 on VALLSS, we have 60% of our students in Low Risk. Our goal was to have over 50%! YAY!!! In grades 3-5, we wanted to have at least 68% of or students in Tier 1 and we have 71%!

Trust the Process

I always used to hear the words from a mentor, "Trust the process, Haley. Be patient and stop trying to rush it." 

I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I always trust now or am always patient. But by golly, I now know how to trust the process and be patient. Things always seem to work out the way they were meant to be and most of the time, even better than when I tried to control it all and figure it out myself. 

While this blog post is about trusting the process of your life, I connected it to trusting the process of learning with MyView! Ugh. What a messy process that has been for all of us, am I right? 

Read all about 4 ways that you can trust the process of what MyView is trying to do when teaching our kids. 

1) Be resilient. "If you believe that everything is in your control, drop that story now. Change is the only constant. Resilient people surrender to uncertainty. They understand that we have very little control over what happens in life, and by adopting this mindset, they have trust in the process."

2) Embrace The Unknown "Humans dislike ambiguity of any kind. Anything that doesn’t feel safe, stable, and comfortable feels dangerous. The fact of the matter is that we don’t know what life will throw us, but if we embrace the unknown and get comfortable being uncomfortable, we will be better prepared for anything." 

3) Focus on your Purpose "Trusting the process is about accepting that hardships will happen along your journey to success, but having confidence that every lesson is bringing you one step closer to fulfilling your purpose in life. Whether you want to believe it or not, failure is a good thing. It is proof that you are trying." You are here so kids learn how to read and write and that is SO very important! 

4) Practice Gratitude "Feeling grateful has been associated with less frequent negative emotions and thoughts, more frequent positive emotions and thoughts, greater meaning in life, more positive coping, a greater appreciation of life." I am sure there are some things that are going right with MyView. Celebrate them! 

 How are you going to trust the process? Trust me when I say, once you do, you will be a lot happier! :) 

MyView Learning Letter #26-Engagement

One of the biggest things I hear with MyView is that it is not engaging. I am just going to put my opinion out there to start and get it over with. I do not believe engagement equals fun. Engagement means participation. Kids should participate and engage in their learning. Sometimes, their participation can be super fun, but fun isn't the goal. Participation is the goal so kids learn. 

Alright. Now that is out of the way, let's talk about how we ENGAGE kids in THEIR learning! I kept the "Archerisms" here because two of them relate to engagement. The first is that learning is not a spectator sport. You should not be doing all the work. Yeah, you have to model, but that should be a small part of your lesson. The rest is kids working WITH you and you giving feedback on how they are thinking and doing and learning. If at the end of your lesson, you feel you worked and talked more than the kids, it's time to reflect on how you could have them participate more. 

The second is that everyone does everything. There are times where one student is talking or writing or doing something. How could you have ALL students doing the work all the time? Could they ALL write on white boards? Could they turn and talk to a partner so they are all answering? 

Here is one quick strategy to help with both of these! 

Choral Practice (Give instructions then check for understanding.) This straegy also makes me think of Mirror from Whole Brain Teaching. 

1. Give instructions or share facts-

2. Students finish the teacher’s sentence, or repeat instructions, in unison to a teacher question, such as,

“The first vocabulary word is...it means..." 

Look for the next blog post where I present engagement, or participation, strategies for each Day's Routine! 

MyView Learning Letter #25 -Scaffolding Instruction

I know we have ALL felt how rigorous our new literacy curriculum is. The end result is going to be AMAZING for our students, but uffda. It's a lot right now in the messy middle. Here is a fantastic blog post from Timothy Shanahan on how to teach above a student's reading level. May it offer you some helpful tips as you scaffold for your students to help them achieve great things! 

In the meantime, let's talk about what scaffolding is. Scaffolding is what teachers do FIRST to help students. 

                             

Scaffolds don't stay forever. They are only there as long as a student needs them and the goal is for them to do things on their own.

Scaffolds also aren't complicated. Here are some quick ways to scaffold for student success. 

1) Model EXACTLY what kids need to do. 

2) Talk about what kids know about the topic BEFORE they learn it. 

3) Provide talk time. HAVE KIDS TURN AND TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE LEARNING. 

4) Pre-teach the vocabulary. Thankfully, MyView does this for us. However, make sure you have images and time to talk about the word. 

5) Create anchor charts WITH the kids, otherwise it is just a poster and won't be as meaningful. 

6) Give kids wait time. Let them think. 

What scaffold are you going to try first? Which ones do you already use? 

Stay tuned for more information and tips on how to scaffold for student success as the year goes on.