So many minutes are wasted in education each day. We all must be dedicated to increasing adolescent literacy by implementing, with fidelity, strong evidence-based practices such as the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) from the University of Kansas. This can be made possible in a large scale way in Randolph County with my becoming a SIM professional developer. Many years ago when I first learned about SIM I was excited to begin implementing them with my middle school special education students. The growth and confidence my persistently struggling readers demonstrated reaffirmed my dedication to SIM strategies. When discussing the steps, the research behind, and the growth my students were showing many other teachers expressed interest in learning and teaching these strategies. As I continued to immerse myself deeper in the NC SIM network, adolescent literacy, and the science of reading, I knew I wanted to help bring these resources to other educators. SIM strategy implementation has become a part of my middle school’s adolescent literacy team plan and school improvement plan. After starting within my school, I plan on helping to spread SIM learning strategies to students across Randolph County and North Carolina. County-level support staff has been involved in the planning of increasing literacy for all. My SIM knowledge also helped me in the process of becoming a Reading Research to Classroom Practice (RRtCP) instructor.
Describe your current position.
Currently, I teach middle school special education ELA and reading classes and serve as the school-based Exceptional Children’s (EC) Department chair. All of my small group classes consist of students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP) with literacy-based deficits. I teach basic reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and written expression skills that follow my students’ IEP’s and are guided by the Common Core State Standards. Often I serve as a mentor for new teachers and have had many student interns in my career. I am on my school’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) team, as well as, our Adolescent Literacy Team. I also am a member of the county-level NC State Improvement Plan (NC SIP) advisory team. Typically, I assist in school-based trainings dispersing information from county level to school level. I also serve as EC case manager for many of the students I teach, lead my department in upholding policy, and developing an understanding of the special education process within my team and school.
Classroom Impact.
SIM strategies have impacted me as an educator, my students as learners, and the future of my school and county. I have seen hesitant struggling readers gain a sense of confidence when using morphemic knowledge to correctly define a content word after learning the Word Mapping Strategy. I have seen students use word identification skills to pronounce an unfamiliar word in grade-level literature texts, and strategically break apart a paragraph using the framework of Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing. I have gained confidence in my ability to effectively teach adolescent literacy skills by implementing SIM strategies. I have also been able to develop leadership skills by earning my micro-credentials and delivering professional development within my department. The data from work samples and progress charts have been used to share student data with students themselves in data conferences and with stakeholders in IEP meetings. This impacts education as a whole by effectively increasing the literacy skills of all students.
Professional Development Background.
After earning my Word Mapping Badge I provided training on the strategy to my fellow special education teachers at my middle school. This allowed my department to become specialists in the strategy that the entire school will be implementing next school year. The leadership team at my school has outlined that I will train science teachers at the start of the 21-22 school year and Word Mapping will be implemented school-wide through science core classes. I have also completed the process of becoming a trainer of the Reading Research to Classroom Practice course through the NC State Improvement Project. That process required me to instruct several hours of the class independently and I was observed by state level literacy consultants. I previously was a member of my school based Autism Team and attended several county level trainings and subsequently trained the staff at my school. I was a part of a team of reading teachers that developed reading remediation lessons and led the professional development with school staff. I regularly attend grade level school based meetings in order to provide solutions to problems, access to data tracking forms, discuss implementation of classroom and testing accommodations outlined on students’ Individualized Education Plans. When my school began the Adolescent Literacy Initiative I developed a teacher survey, summarized survey results, presented staff with literacy statistics and introduced staff to possible literacy pathways for the future. Throughout my educational career I have found myself in front of groups of my colleagues and have grown to develop a sense of confidence and competence regarding implementing professional development. I hope to grow these skills by becoming a SIM professional developer!
Instructional Coaching Background.
While earning my specialist badge in the Word Mapping Strategy I enjoyed the process of guiding my colleague in not only learning the strategy but also teaching it to students. This opportunity allowed me to observe her implementing the strategy and providing feedback. I have been a part of planning some literacy “booster sessions” for teachers that have attended the Research to Classroom Practice training. Once school personnel has been trained in the Word Mapping Strategy I will provide regularly scheduled coaching sessions, observations, and problem-solving meetings with teachers that are implementing the strategy with students. This will allow for extended coaching with colleagues. As a part of a school-based Autism team, I attended subject-level teams to help teachers modify learning environments to help students with behavioral expectations related to tasks in the classroom. I also introduced, modeled, and coached the use of reading assessment protocols from the Consortium on Reading Excellence (CORE) with school-based Multi Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) team. Building a sense of community with SIM implementers can be achieved with open communication and extended coaching. I look forward to planning these coaching sessions as I am able to spread the Word Mapping Learning Strategy with teachers in my school and district.
Adolescent Literacy Background.
As I learned the Reading Achievement Program (Hill R.A.P.) from the Hill Center, I went through intense literacy training and assessments before teaching that program. This allowed me to earn accreditation through the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC). Once all requirements were satisfied, I began teaching at least 1 Hill R.A.P. elective class each school year and continue to do so. I successfully completed the Reading Foundations class before it was rewritten into Reading Research to Classroom Practice (RRtCP) with the NCSIP framework. Once updated I took the training again as a level 1 participant and again as a level 2 participant, as well as all of the required steps in becoming a RRtCP instructor. I completed the Adolescent Literacy Overview with my state-level literacy consultants and led my school based team in planning. Unfortunately, many of these plans were suspended due to the global covid 19 pandemic, but will be readdressed with the upcoming school year. I have attended and helped to plan small literacy professional development trainings for RRtCP participants. I also have attended many workshops and lectures, such as a whole day training with Dr. David Kilpatrick regarding the importance of phonemic proficiency. I regularly attend Summer Institutes provided by NCDPI and have encouraged fellow teachers to attend as well. In addition to formal literacy trainings, I have taught, progress monitored and assisted students with literacy-based weaknesses since 2012. I also earned my master's degree in Special Education in 2014, in which literacy was a large focus.
Letters of Support.
Letters of support from current SIM professional developer Dr. Elizabeth Gibbs, and school based administrator Dr. Bruce Carroll outline my SIM experience and future. Elizabeth was the first person to introduce me to SIM strategies, taught me many over the years, and I look forward to working with her and learning from her throughout the professional developer process. She has been a sounding board for my SIM implementation and problems and she continues to be a helpful and knowledgeable source of encouragement. Bruce is relatively new to my school but has embraced the SIM and literacy plans outlined under the previous administration. He is dedicated to strengthening literacy instruction and implementing small group remediation on prerequisite skills. For example, we discussed if an inclusion class was learning the Paraphrasing or Summarizing Strategy, EC teachers could pull a small group of students that require Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing to strengthen those foundational skills.
Apprenticeship.
When the professional developer pathway was first introduced to me I was excited to learn more about it. I plan to work closely with my SIM mentors to help facilitate professional development sessions they may lead during the apprenticeship phase. One of the most important aspects of the apprenticeship process is learning as many strategies as possible, therefore I intend to teach many new strategies to students during summer school and next school year. The bulk of my SIM LS experience is in lesson based acquisition strand strategies and I want to be as well versed as possible in all SIM LS so focusing on learning and implementing more strategies is key. I have also made school level and district level plans to teach as many teachers the Word Mapping Strategy as possible. I also see the apprenticeship process as a way to learn even more effective teaching strategies for adult learners to prepare for my future as a SIM professional developer. I want to learn all that I can about literacy, SIM, and closing the research to classroom gap. I am also open to other opportunities the apprenticeship would afford to me and look forward to embodying lifelong learning!
SIM Content Enhancement Routines Background.
I have attended training sessions with Question Exploration Routine and Concept Mastery Routine. I have implemented the Questions Exploration Routine with students in a co-taught ELA classroom. My experience with Content Enhancement Routines (CER) is much more limited than my knowledge and experience with learning strategies, but in the future I would like to go through the professional developer process with routines as well. Both routines and strategies would be an integral part of strong literacy instruction across all content areas. I have shared the potential power of all teachers using CER in their classroom so students can concentrate on content rather than learning a new way to learn. Routines are also a powerful way to vertically plan and concretize language and structure of the learning environment in order to provide all students an equitable and solid educational experience.
Karen Staley