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. 

MyView Learning Letter #24 - Explicit Instruction

                               

Anita Archer is well known for her expertise in explicit instruction. Above is an image of her "Archerisms" and in order to help support the rigor and lack of engagement some are experiencing when teaching reading and writing with MyView, we are going to focus on each "ism" one at a time and do a deep dive. 

The first is quite common and I am sure you have heard it a lot. In fact, it's listed in the MyView Teacher's Edition and we talked about it when using American Reading Company's materials. You might also know it as the gradual release of responsibility. It's I Do, We Do, You Do. This is the heart of explicit teaching. You are clearly telling kids what they are going to learn and how to learn it. 

What I have found that when I am teaching, I think I am doing this in this order. I think I am doing an I Do. But really, I am doing a We Do. It happens more often in teaching that you think. We are in the modeling section or the I Do part of the lesson, but we start asking the kids about how to do "it" instead of explicitly telling or showing them. We jump right into We Do and then send them on their way to You Do. However, they never really saw how to do it or heard the think aloud about how to do in a good I Do. 

In order to make sure the I Do happens the way it's supposed to, you have to be intentional with the planning. You have to actually think about what it is that you, the teacher, are going to show how to do. And a lot of the times, this HAS to involve a think aloud. You have to think and share what you are thinking. The beautiful thing is, MyView has this already listed for you. It's the blue section that has what you should say so that it is explicit. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Here is a graphic to help you be more intentional with the I Do, We Do, You Do so that you are explicit in your teachers so that kids LEARN! :) 

 

Fall Literacy Update - November 2024

 

Link to the PDF version to access document links.  

IWCS Literacy Vision and Goals - Updated November 1st

We have done AMAZING things with our implementation. 

Thank you for all your hard work!!! 

Please click this link (here) to learn more about how we are reaching our goals. 

Implementing MyView Literacy by Savvas will help us achieve our vision! 

 

Lexia Shout Out! :)

 

Highlighting Divisions’ Success with Lexia

Article: 2024-41-446
Audience: Superintendents, Directors, School Principals
Contact: Dr. Michelle Wallace, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, Michelle.Wallace@doe.virginia.gov

The Virginia Department of Education and Lexia® are proud to partner to help fulfill the Commonwealth’s priority to accelerate literacy growth for students through ALL In. Having reviewed the initial student usage and progress data for ALL In with Lexia, the VDOE Teaching and Learning team wants to celebrate the following divisions on an exceptionally strong start with the students they have rostered for Core5 and PowerUp through ALL In. Congratulations to these divisions, their ALL In leaders, educators, and students! 

• Buena Vista (Both Core5 & PowerUp) 
• Buchanan County (Core5) 
• Buckingham County (PowerUp) 
• Culpeper County (Core5) 
• Dickenson County (Core5) 
• Franklin County (Core5) 
• Isle of Wight County (Core5) 
• Lee County (Core5) 
• Lunenburg County (Core5) 
• Madison County (Core5) 
• Patrick County (Core5) 
• Poquoson (Core5) 
• Shenandoah County (Core5) 
• Sussex County (Core5) 
• Westmoreland County (Core5) 

Some great quotes, images, and other random stuff!

 

and a great podcast, because, why not!? 

MyView Learning Letter #23 - Rigor

Raise your hand if, UFFDA, MyView is rigorous. Yep! I think we are all feeling it. Ok. You can put your hand down. :) 

Here is what I wrote for families: 

Our new curriculum is rigorous. It is thorough when teaching our students foundational reading and writing skills through explicit instruction. Because of the high expectations of what students are learning and doing, students may find it difficult until they get used to it. All that we teach in literacy is from the VA Standards of Learning, These new standards (SOL), which are also rigorous, are taught through our curriculum, MyView. 

Another part of the increased rigor includes the fact that our students are writing all the time! Students write in reading and in writing. They are writing vocabulary and spelling words. While it is wonderful for students to write a lot, writing is one of the most complicated and taxing things for a student to do. The act of writing by hand is a complex skill that goes beyond the simple act of putting pen to paper. It involves a symphony of cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills that intricately work together.

Finally, another reason MyView is so rigorous is the fact that we are asking students to do a lot of thinking! We are teaching children the process of thinking about what they are reading and writing and then being able to communicate that to us through speech and writing.

Here is what I am writing to you, teachers:

Our new curriculum is rigorous. It is laying some serious foundation in ALL the skills in ALL the grades. You might find yourself teaching something that you don't think is valuable for your grade. I would argue that it is valuable because you are building background knowledge that will help students later. An example is suffixes. Suffixes seem like an upper elementary skill, right? Yet, we are teaching -s and -ed in early elementary. (See image below.) 

Yes. It is difficult for students, now. Yes. They can't do it, yet. However, we are going to start with what they DO know and CAN do. Look for other posts about differentiation and scaffolding support to help our students rise to the rigor!

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