5-8-23 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001So, good evening. I um I have been looking forward to this meeting for a really long time. Um and so, Vita, it's so good to see you. Yay. Um and um so for those who are not normally here is great good to have a party and I think that the board has um been really wanting to have um to see some of the teachers. So to see so many of you and and is just um above and beyond it's great. Um so I just want to let you know I was waiting for a quorum. I have received my form and so I am going to officially start the meeting. Um and today is May 8th. Uh it is 6:04 and it is my honor and privilege to start the Graten Board of Education Committee of

002the Whole meeting. That is my call to order. I'll take a motion to accept the minutes of April 17th, the 2023 meeting. So move. >> I've got uh and I've got a second from Andrea. So Dean and Andrea, Miss Jones, >> got it. >> Do I have any um discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the approval of the meeting minutes of the April 17th meeting, please say I. >> I. >> Abstain. That motion has carried. Thank you. the rest of our time together is um to go through the reading um our reading K through three program. That's kind of why you guys are here. It's not like you're going to teach us how to play volleyball or anything. So, don't worry. We're going to be really specific about that. It's so good to

003see you, my friend. >> Um so, let me just orient a little bit and then Susan, I'm gonna like pass it on to you. Um, but we had um this has really been spurred on um by several different things as far as I can tell. Uh there's been a lot lot of things in the news. I'm sorry, but my friend Andrea has become like my uh cough drop junkie and so she just put 10 in front of me. So that's why I started to laugh. Um I'm not laughing at you guys. Um and so um it part of it is because it's it's very political right now. um through the n through the nation everyone is um really concerned about the reading skills of of kiddos. Hi Bev, it's good to see you. um uh

004the um reading skills of the of the people across the nation. Um but in our regular regular board meeting in March, we had several parents come and talk about their concerns about the K through three reading program um and specifically about the waiver um that Susan brought in. And so um or sent to the state and my understanding it is one it was one request of a waiver out of how many school districts? >> There were 99 when I was at the state capital 99 were submitted on the due date. 50 had asked for an extension and did not want to take one of the programs that they were mandating. And so you know the last I knew I called Fran Minowitz and she said she's in charge of Connecticut Association of School Superintendent. I

005actually spoke with her today and there were, you know, out of 169, although they add up those districts differently. So I've had different numbers for the final number, but there were at least 150 or more that had asked for a waiver or >> so. So something so something is happening. And so what we made the decision um was as a board is for us to have a much better understanding about the K through three learning program um and to hear all the good work that you do. I a shout out to both um Susan and Phil and her staff. One for being here tonight for um creating a sense of helping us understand um literacy in the K through three, but the packet of information that we got was incredible. It was um it was

006informative. It was um I'm going to use the word dense, but not in a >> dense not in a I couldn't read it way. Um but I also am just so very excited. you guys may not know but there was a glossery put together it um and for those of us who are not in education um uh I just am so so very >> and some frequently asked questions and those are the kind of things I'd like to add to our website where we really have truly put up all the information and I think we should continue because I think that it needs to be out there for public to see. So that is the that is the backdrop. That is the field that I'm hoping that we're going to operate in tonight. Um and

007so at this point I am going to uh have Susan and her staff um speak with and to the board around this program or the programs. So Dr. and I have really been looking forward to this opportunity to address the board and the public and anybody who's out there online um to talk a little bit about our K3 Rotten Public Schools clinics and the curriculum work that's been done do been worked on this year. Um really it was early on in the year that teachers were coming to me and talking to me about recognizing gaps especially after the pandemic and I know people don't want to hear about the pandemic anymore but especially speech and language was really um impacted and phmic awareness was impacted and phonics was impacted and then of course there was

008legislation from the state and really there's nothing that we can't believe in in the state it they want all the same things we all want. We want our children reading. We want them reading in first grade. We want them really reading proficiently by third grade. You don't want to wait any longer because if you do, that means that it really can have concerns later on. Um, so our teachers had come to us. We heard about the shifting of the balance. I bought the book. Beth, you know, and Katie had also bought the book. So now we bought the book for all of our teachers. and we have a book study that we're going to be doing some PLC so everybody understands this. Um there's a master class done by Connecticut Association of School Superintendent and

009the CSC Connecticut State Department of Ed and we are in the third cohort and that includes superintendent, assistant superintendent, director of pupil personnel, our principles, our literacy coaches. So our whole literacy team will be able to participate in this. It's a five full day and then you have a designated specialist um consultant, reading consultant and um superintendent who comes out to the district and then they helped with the implementation and they just really monitor to see and answer any questions that we have. So we're really feeling very good that that is happening. I want to also go back a little bit to say that our district and I have Val here because she, you know, she has been a principal in all our schools. She helped me with the first grant in literacy that we

010wrote and um she was working side by side with the evaluator monitoring the terrific growth and development in the data. So um the district has always believed though in phonics instruction and phmic awareness. Um the literacy curriculum was actually developed or redeveloped in 20145 based on the common core standards or the Connecticut core standards and um and always included the essential foundational skills to assist students as readers, writers and speakers. Um this is what was sent to um the state department as our reading waiver along with some of the new things that we were going to work on. One of the things that we've been looking on in this development of the curriculum in phonics is the UFly foundational. And this has been purchased for our our teachers who've gotten referred for our um literacy

011specialists to take a look at. Um you're going to hear more about that because we have a couple teachers here who are also literacy specialists now, consultants, and they have absolutely tried some of these out and so have some of our teachers and have found really good results with that. So, we've learned a lot in this year. I would say it's really been a wonderful year of learning. Not that we didn't know anything. We knew a lot, but I think we've learned an even more. Um, so really the the strategies that have always been used and graten and are espoused to are professional development, continuous ongoing professional development, embedded coaching um for our teachers using decodable text. though we've really purchased a plethora of decodable text to add to our classroom libraries and this is

012really important finding a universal screener that really works. We've always used Dibble 8 but it's been more for when a child needs to have interventions. So using that with all kids and gathering that data and I think we shared with the board recently the data that we were gathering from them. We're going to be doing an NG data and I've heard a couple teachers across the room who can't wait to see how their kids have done on that screener because they've really been noticing all along how their readers are growing this year and and they needed to grow. We need to accelerate learning. There had, you know, been a time where speech and language was taught behind the mask and things were blurred and and kids were here half time. So, we really need to

013accelerate their learning to make sure that they're ready to go. Um but I just go back to the belief statements. You know what that legislation was and what it wanted for all. We believe in this. We believe I believe it as a superintendent. We believe it as a staff, but we want all students to be reading by the end of first grade and independently by third. We realize that there are some obstacles and disabilities. and Denise is here to talk to us a little bit about dyslexia and a couple other reading disabilities, but we need to give students more support beyond the core instruction to meet their needs. And there's a lot of kids that do get intervention or have resource early on to help support them. And sometimes a differentiated instructional technique, one size

014never fits all. If you've had two children, one may be reading right away and you don't even know how they picked it up and the other might not be and um you know they they learn to walk and talk and um tie their shoes all at different times. So we know that in childhood development there is a continuum and that we just have to be aware of that. But then we also have to give the kids what they need if they don't have it. So um we believe in a strong literacy curriculum and that's what we have been working on making it even stronger as we shift the balance to more structured literacy approach and um we also believe that school leaders also need to be kneede into this work. So hence the master class.

015Um, my biggest belief though is about the staff you see around this room are highly qualified teachers, literacy interventionists, reading consultants, special educators, um, and tutors all need to be available for our students. That's the biggest bang. I say that at budget time, but that's what we give our kids. And so, I'm really proud to be here. I don't think there's a magic bullet, but I do think that there is a pathway to making something much better. And we're going to show you some of that tonight. Some of that hard work that has gone into this. It's not all done yet. I don't think it's ever done. I think we're constantly making improvements and making things better. So, um, and then Phil, you were going to just talk a little bit about some research. >>

016Well, I I was just going to make a point. You know, one of my functions, I believe, is to um and one of my uh you know, as twisted as it is, one of the things I really love to do a lot is is really look at the research and look at what's available there. Um I know, you know, and Kim said it at this at the start, you know, we gave you a lot of information, right? And how many times did I say, "Wow, given them a lot, give them a lot to read." So, we do realize that there's a lot out there and I'm sure there's a lot more that >> um so I I constantly try to find out >> where the research is coming from. I try to do a little

017bit of a deeper dive as to who's bringing the research to our table. I I listen to, you know, all sides podcasts. Um, and um, I I I want to be that conduit for for all of you here. I try to be that for the teachers and the principles and for Susan to sort of bring it to the table to help us get better because I do, you know, that's one of the things I I want to keep doing is trying to find ways for us to improve our instruction, you know, for our kids. Uh, I just wanted to bring, you know, one of the articles that Susan provided for you. It's called Phonics First question mark. Um, and it's it's from um the excerpt here is from something called the Marshall memo that we

018used. It's a great resource because it does take all the stuff that's out there and and gives us nice summaries of that and of course it always gives you a link uh to the article it comes from. So >> and the full research piece, >> right? And so I I've been trying to do a deeper dive on that. This is um you know written by three people Ryan King, Karumi and Risco um you know from Clemson, University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt's you know um teacher education and uh uh ed leadership departments and it just really I think it gives a nice balanced look at at both sides of the issue. Um it really talks about stuff that I know we've been reading a lot about in the literature that I've read. uh talks a lot

019about the three you know the really the three keys which I know you're going to hear more about uh later is the scope of things you know which is you know what we're going to be teaching uh the sequence which is very important in terms of the order that things are are going to be taught and then of course uh how it's going to be taught you know having those solid instructional um uh routines in the classroom and again I think you'll hear some of that this morning so I really want to I I really want to bring your uh focus to that as you're listening tonight and Really, my hope is that we'll continue to to to educate ourselves and and listen to the research and I'll try to provide those and and if

020you have research you want to send to me, I would love uh to see it and break it down uh for the board as well and in at future meetings. Um I really want to listen um I love listening to the people that are going to be presenting to you tonight. Uh they're very talented and they're very skilled in what they do and I think you'll hear that in in in all that they present tonight. Um, and then, you know, we're always, you know, I'm one of those people that are always wary too of of different things. I try, like I said, I try to do a deeper dive, see where things are coming from. We know this topic could be highly politicized. Uh, there's a lot of money to be made on both sides

021of the equation. So, I again, that's why I try to look at who's who's bringing the research to the table and how deep that research goes. So, um, I really just encourage you to listen to our plan, you know, and ask your questions. we collect those questions, I think, and we'll keep getting your answers as we move forward. But, uh, this was I' I've done a deeper dive into the article itself. It's about 20 some pages long. Uh, but if it's something somebody who's interested in kind of walking through, you know, I could definitely do that with you. But, um, I thought that was this was good to include because again, it seemed to be um, someone who didn't have anything to gain on either side and it sort of uh, focused on the actual

022teaching and scope and sequence like I talked about. I do want to hand it off to the to the people who, you know, are doing the work and in front of our kids and I'd like to invite them to the table if that's okay. >> Absolutely. I I don't mean for us there might be people who don't want to be so squishy and I I'm totally understanding of that. But especially if if there's a lot of you that are breaking up in terms of presentations to please come join us um at the table. I mean, more than welcome to stay by the the window. Um, but whatever you are the most comfortable with. >> Thank you. You guys know how they they figured this out. They said we got this presentation. >> Hi everybody. >>

023Yeah. Do you do you have the presentations or I can do it from mine? >> It doesn't matter to me. >> Um, it would probably be easier on yours. >> I will do that then. No problem. >> Thank you so much. >> So, I think while we're um transitioning, if you guys could just um I'll do a I will um do a quick introduction for myself. There um are several board members um who are on that I would also would love for them to introduce themselves but I'll start at this end >> board member [Music] and Kim Shepardson Watson and then Bev you're the first on my on our screen. >> There you are. >> Bev Washington. >> Thank you, Bev. >> William, >> thank everybody for coming and sharing whatever knowledge you are going

024to give to us tonight. Thank you very much. >> It's William Han. Yes. And I'm with Beverly. I'm very excited about hearing everybody's input. >> Thank you. And Jay >> uh Jay Whitoff and uh again, thank you all. Um we've been looking forward to this meeting for some time. Um, I do know that Liz um will not be able to join us tonight and Matthew said that Matthew Schulman, who is um our ninth um board member, will be arriving probably in about 40 to 45 minutes. So, he'll be here as well. So, you'll actually um well, Lizzie is not here, but we'll have a nine, which is great. >> So, and you guys might want to share who you are and what school you're >> That would be great. And I'm Ali Merrill. I'm from

025Hi, I'm Carrie L. I'm also from Bura >> and Cory M from >> Awesome. And we have two other teachers over here and >> but that's not your name. >> Yes, please. Let's do that. >> Christopher principal >> who likes to raise her voice a lot. Ryan Chain, we just wanted to make sure everyone gets introduced to Glad that you're here. All right. Hi. >> Hi. >> Um, we're missing a vital person today. So, Brenda Brown is the fifth reading specialist campus that's she couldn't be here today. But I want to just start by saying like um what Susan said, this year has been stressful um to say the least and we feel that weight and we I mean I think we you know really as a team talk about how we can alleviate that

026stress and I will say now that it's towards the end of the year that stress has decreased and and I think for Aaron and Amanda and Ally and Bren who's not here like we you know feel really lucky to have collaborated and made such great work in one year and we're excited to show you that and also show you what we're doing. So, um um so as far as our agenda, we do this a lot when we're all together. You know, we always go back to why you know why are we doing this? Um why why do students need this at certain times? So, we wanted to start with that and give you some of the things that we utilize and find really important in our work. Then we want to move into our commitment

027um which is completely there and we wanted to tell you a little bit about what we have committed to this year and then what we'll move forward with and then we'll share what we've been working on. We have um a lot to share a lot to tell you and then looking ahead we're very aware that there's a lot of levels and tiers of change that go into this. You know we're talking about changing communication and habits and and all kinds of things. So we just want you to know that um we know that there's a need for that to happen in our curriculum and we want our curriculum to be implemented successfully. So we want to share you know when we look ahead we want to share that forward thinking like we really have tried

028to anticipate and we look most all those unturned um as we think about how this work can be sustainable and and you know long-term for um so the scar world reading rope this is very familiar to us as educators and especially us as reading specialist this is our guide to instruction and intervention um it's a visual representation of all the strands that are really interconnected and dependent upon the other dependent upon each other to make a successful reader. So when we really think about the why we are doing this and all this work it can be broken down really easily. So kids need to students readers need to be able to decode and they need to be able to color. And so those two components that word recognition and the language comprehension they they are

029part of our tier one literacy instruction at graten all the so a lot of us you know this is very familiar to all of your teachers know that as a team you really moved our lens to those youngest readers those those K to2 readers because we know those foundational skills awareness phological awareness and phonics are so vital um to even move into the language comprehension because if they're not making meaning out of words, they're not making meaning out of text. So this is like this is our map. This is our guide when we are in a room together and we're talking about ideas. I'm looking at the fact says it all the time. Remember the why. You know, we always go back to um you know, remembering the why and all those strands together make

030a strong rope. But if one's afraid, if one's not strong, that's where, you know, as educators, we need to go back and and repair. So, we're really committed to the work. We've said that. We talk about it all the time. And I almost want to call this slide our non-negotiables really because when we sit down and we plan, what comes up all the time? Teacher feedback. every time we've gotten together, whether it was September or now, what do the teachers think? What do the teachers doing? How do we go back and ask the teachers? What do the teachers think? Like, we're constantly trying to put a pulp on what the teachers need, how the teachers feel, so that we can then come together and do that work for them. But it it's plotted throughout the

031year. It's not just a what do they need at the beginning of the year. we are constantly, you know, trying to include them when it feels when when when we feel like we have something to share with them and something that for so that that is something that we're um big thank you to Susan and both for just allowing us the time to meet and plan. We are very aware >> any resources you ask how much our principles have sacrificed for us to get together. we sacrifice and and it's we that the feeling of being wanting to be in two places at the same time is very difficult but we know where we are is really where we need to be. Um and I'm just really you know proud of our team for for committing

032to that. So thank you Susan Nicole for giving us room. Um and our administration I mean again a non-negotiable as much as we think about the teachers we think about how do we bring this back to the principal? How do we bring this back to our admins so that we can sit and stand side by side and deliver this information? Because it's what we live and breathe every day, but we're very aware that that they, you know, have a whole building to take care of and they need to think about how everyone's going to get this information, trusting the research. And let me >> Oh, yeah. >> So, one second. Yeah. Let me just um how would you like us to would you like us to have like a like present for a couple minutes

033and then see if there's any questions? Do you want us to write do you want us to raise our hands >> whatever the whole slide? >> Sure that's fine. Yeah. So let's do that. Um so trusting the research and the resources. We're going to speak to that a little bit more, but really going back to all that, you know, evidence-based scientific research that led us into these positions and then those frequently meetings with the ELA team, really committed to continuing those and trying to figure out a way that we can um you know, balance balance our jobs in the building. We're definitely going to need to >> ask my question. How are your students? How is your Facebook presenting to you? How do you work with the students? >> Yeah. >> And you know, and

034then you take them out of the classroom. >> No, absolutely. Yeah. So at the beginning of the year and I speak I'll speak for all of us we're very you know similar in our in our job and and how we present you know how we get data and then choose our groups but our models are different at different buildings based on the need of each building but but the majority of us look at the data that comes in at the beginning of the year um and we have screeners that we put into place with students at the beginning of the year whether it's depending on the grade level like whether it's a a chronological awareness screener or a phonics screener comprehensive screener. And then we take that data and then we decide which kids are

035our tier one students, kids that we stay in the classroom and instruct and which kids are those kids that we're going to have on a fixed week cycle where we pull out of the classroom in the afternoon in what we call like our SRDI time because as we know like that instruction that intervention needs to be we do four times a week before. So there's this there's this pocket of kiddos that are our our lowest intervention where the gap is so big that then we are doing small group intervention outside of the classroom in the hopes that they'll transfer those skills back into the classroom >> but they don't remove them from the core they go into the addition at the same time specializ intervention it's it's built into our >> I Do one. >>

036Yeah. One >> classroom teacher. >> Yeah. >> But they have interventionists as well, Rita. So they really are part coach, part interventionist, part enrichment specialist. Um so they do coach too, but they do spend a lot of time with intervention and helping support the whole intervention team with the principles. Beth, >> thank you, Kim. Um, can you tell me how this plan I don't know if you want to call the plan, but uh how this is different from what you're already doing? >> Absolutely. Yeah, Beverly, if it's okay, if you don't mind, um, we're getting to that slide in a minute. So, so I want to write down your question to remember it, but we're actually moving into a slide that might be helpful. So, so if you can move on to the next slide,

037I think you might answer your question. Okay. So, this is kind of a heavy slide, so hopefully the team will help me out with it. This is what we've been doing all year, what we've been working on. Um, so actually Carrie and I came to Susan in the beginning of the year and we sat down with her and we said, we need to do something about our phonics instruction. um do we have your blessing to explore some different curriculum? Um because what we're using right now, we don't feel like meeting the needs of the students in our building. And we met as a district and representatives from each school came together and we shared our concerns about what phonics instruction looked like currently, what we could do better. We brainstormed all the things we would

038like to have in a perfect curriculum. Um and then we started really doing some research. So we looked at foundations which a lot of teachers in Bratton were familiar with and we looked at the scope and sequence and the routines that teachers really liked in foundations. They liked that it was easy to implement and that the students were familiar with the routines. They didn't have to come up with a new lesson plan every day. They just knew how to teach phonics and they could do it every day. Um they also liked the magnet boards and some of the other materials that came with foundation. We looked at Wilson um and we looked at the scope and sequence and made sure that what we what we ended up making had all of the phonics features that

039were part of Wilson as well. Um we did take a deeper dive into the teachers college phonics curriculum and we recognized what we had concerns with and we pulled out the things that we really liked about it. Um but ultimately we kind of fell into this University of Florida curriculum which Carrie Le had heard about um from one of her professors and it is a wonderfully written scope and sequence that does have all of the phonics features that are expected students in kindergarten to second grade to be introduced to during their time in school. Um it has routines that are built in that are very teacher friendly. It covers funological awareness. It has heart words or site word instruction built in. It has decodable word lists. Has decodable passages. It has um many opportunities for

040review and practice built in. So, it's very user friendly. And Susan said, "You know what? If this is something that sounds like it's going to be good for your classes and good for teachers, let's try it out." So, Terry, jump on board right away. And I'll let her speak for a little bit and then we'll go back to >> Yeah. She Yeah. piloted around the district too. Yeah. >> Yeah. I did. And I should also note that I mean my whole grade level team was really on board with this and I'm just really grateful that we just had like an entire grade level and teachers, you know, u both above and below us. Um, >> and I just want to add that we really ask people to commit as a grade level because I think

041it's really essential when we're trying new things to kind of do it together and our teachers do that anyway. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, so it really was a a team effort. Um, and I will say at first I was I was a little bit concerned that kids would find this boring, right? That you know phonx time would become something that wasn't fun. Um, you know, the program that we had been using involved, you know, a cute little mascot. There were a lot of opportunities for, you know, like we would sit and like maybe play a game on the rug and that was fun, but I was struggling to notice whether or not kids were transferring that into what we need them to be doing in text, in writing, and that was the piece that was

042really missing. I think Ally and I really were noticing that. Um, so I was a little bit nervous at first. Um, and I can tell you that it couldn't be further from the truth. My kids love phonics time. Um, and the power of is that they are recognizing that they they all can read. Um, we're really giving them the tools that get them excited um to become true readers. Um, the program is really multiensory. So, uh, there's opportunities for visual, auditory, tactile learning. Um, they have these great letter boards that we use. um you know, >> she made herself. >> I did. Um because I was really excited about it. Um but you know, so they're building words. It's it's totally um systematic. Um the routines are predictable. So there's no question about what we

043do during phonics time. It's 20 minutes of our day. Um and it's probably the most important time of the day and for free. So there's no room for we don't have time to fit phonics in or oh, I didn't have this material today. I don't think we're getting to that part of the lesson. Um, and and the kids are just really really excited about it. Um, and then I think the most powerful piece for me has just been the transfer is that I have kids who are are looking at, you know, the the sound wall that we've built. Um, and then the tiles on their board and they're saying, "Oh, there's that AI vowel team. I know that long vowel sound and look, here it is in my book today." Um, and so it's really

044really empowering for kids. Um and then not only in reading but in writing too. Um I think teachers struggle sometimes with spelling. That's sometimes the last thing to come. Um and this has given kids the tool to both um decode and to spell. So it really is addressing that piece of the rope, right? And that in that word recognition um with the phological awareness and with the site recognition that they these words are becoming part of their their site vocabulary. Um and I just want to share really quickly because I think this is all great. Um but what you what really was most powerful for me is the goal with my actual students. Um so I had just brought a sample of work from a kiddo. I had asked the parents today, could I just

045share the child's work because this is really a testament to um the kind of instruction um that we've implemented. Um so this was a student who was reading pretty significantly below grade level at the beginning of the year. Um you know, I'm not going to talk about levels, but I'm just going to kind of give you show you an example of the kind of book that he was reading. You know, some site words, it was patterned. um he was really overrelying on the pictures and not really appending to print. Um and he's now reading at grade level. Um so he's now, you know, reading books, you know, like tree books, books that you could find in the library. And there's just nothing more exciting or powerful than a kid that can pick up a book

046at a library and bring it to you and just be so happy to be able to read it. Um and that's because he's attending to print. He's looking at words. he knows what those parts of words are. >> Did he use a lot of decodable text in the beginning? Yeah. Tons. So that's the other thing, making sure that we have plenty of thoseable text for >> learnings. This is first grade. Um so tons of decodable text. And the nice thing is that this is tier one, right? So this is what I'm doing with all of my class and phonics time. But then, you know, this child was he was in an intervention group, but then he was also in my, you know, small reading group. So we were able to take what we were doing

047in the tier one and even though at the time the phonics was a little bit above his instructional level. The beauty of it was that we were talking about looking at words, right? That you know they're all the parts of the book are important, but the first thing you have to look at are those letters. We have to know what those you know the sounds that those letters um make. And um and then and then that gap starts to close and close and close and close and um and so you know, and now he's excited. I mean, even in his spelling, it's just beautiful. You know, >> he's more excited. >> I don't know. I don't know. I think I think both of us, but you can see kind of like this is what his

048writing looked like at the beginning of the year. Um, and this is what his writing looks like. This was today. Um, scary. You know, he's got all those vowel teams in there. Um, he's got site words. He's got capitalization. Um, so it's just >> How about the periods? >> Not yet. Not even harder. Um, but just, you know, truly a testament to um the power of something that's structured and systematic. Um, and kids really do get excited about it. So, a great experience. So, we looked at the scope and sequence of UI and no program we've discovered is a perfect program. So we have modified it a little bit to include some phonics features that are not included in the efly. Um blends for example were not part of the instructions. So we added in

049a unit on blends. Contractions were not in the manual. So we added a unit on contractions. Um and then we're going to be doing this in third grade as well. Phonics instruction will be part of third grade. And the UFI manual is for K2. So we have extended our scope and sequence to include um roots and prefixes and suffixes that were also um not included in the program. So we are modifying the actual progression of phonics skills a little bit, but we're sticking with the we're using the outline and we're using um the routine and the majority of their their um sequence, but we're adding in some things that we found were missing. um and resources. So, one of the things that UFI does is includes um high frequency words or irregularly spelled words into

050the sequence of instruction. So, we looked at the high frequency words in foundations. We looked at the high frequency words in teachers college. We looked at them um from Chip in the balance. We looked at the power words in this resource and we came up with um lists one, two, and three or A, B, and C. We haven't finalized how we're going to call it yet, but we have created a list for Gren that includes their regularly spelled words that we want our kids in K through three to be learning. Um, and one of the shifts that we're making is we're going to be teaching them how to orthographically map the sounds and not just memorize them. Um, so foundations, the flash cards, you know, the trick word cards kind of look like this and

051teachers would just drill and make sure that the students could memorize them. And that did work for some students, but for many of the students in the classroom, that was just not something that was available for them. It didn't it didn't stick in their memory. Yeah. >> So, we're going to be teaching them a different way. We're shifting how we're doing it, and we're hoping that they'll have a more solid understanding of the sounds in these words, which will hopefully translate into their spelling. Um, so that's one thing that we are doing and we've created a list and we're also going to be teaching them when we can teach them when they match the phonics feature. So for example, um, in kindergarten when we're introducing the the P, we're going to teach them up or

052we're gonna when we're introducing the th diraph, we're going to introduce the word that. I can't remember exactly, but more or less more more or less. No, the is right away. we want the to come up right away. So for some of them, there will be a heart before the phonics feature is introduced. And then once they've learned that that rule, that spelling rule, it will no longer be a something that they have to memorize by heart. It will be something that they've just internalized because they know the spelling rule. That is that part of it. So Heerty is a funological awareness curriculum that we introduced a couple years ago, but this year we really implemented it. um paid it to where we needed it. Not all two is doing it this year, but um

053>> K2 received um professional development this year and teachers have a manual and they are using it daily either right before reading time, right before writing time, during their um morning meeting, they're doing the lessons throughout the day. Some teachers like to just do it in one shot, but then they kind of go back to it throughout the day as well, but we are definitely doing more funological awareness instruction than ever before um as a result of the Hegerty curriculum. >> And I'm very excited because our preschool teachers who have three and four year olds and our prek teachers are also receiving training and they will start early. So a lot of this work can really start with our youngest learners out there so that by the time they do enter our case and one

054and two, you know, we'll be a little step ahead with them. >> So if you think back to the rope, you know, we've covered the funological awareness, the decoding, and then the the site recognition. So those three strands in that word recognition part. So that's really where we've been focusing a lot of our work here. And the the universal screener we talked about a little bit. Um, dibbles we found to be really quick and easy and it gives us a great snapshot of where students are. Um, this year we've piloted going into rooms of like a SWAT team where all the reading teachers go in and kind of assess the whole class and we're able to quickly see how the grade is doing um, with their funological awareness, their nonsense word reading, um, their rapid

055letter names. And we've done some of the upper upper grades. We've done the oral reading fluency as well. So we are really trying to get a full picture of every student at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. And then for the students in intervention, we're using the progress monitoring tools that are part of Dibbles as well to really make sure that they are building their skills in those areas of need. And the whole team has used for phonics too all along especially an intervention and being able to find those assessments that really will give you more information to kind of get to you have to identify the problem before you can solve it. So always looking to figure out what needs to happen. >> And you've also probably heard us talk about a

056mirror um in in the last few meetings. I think it's a it's another universal screener we were piloting this year uh to see it was very high-tech AI um where the child it was it one of the one of the perks of it was to save teachers time so we wouldn't have to do this whole SWAT team thing or have a teacher sit down with every kid but the uh student would sit in front of the computer and and really and the computer would listen and and grade and it was pretty pretty amazing uh when it works um we are getting feedback now um I just sent out um a survey this morning to all teachers to they've been using it for a couple months three maybe >> March. >> Oh. >> Okay. Um just

057to try to get some feedback and see what's working, what's not working to see if it was something we want to pursue. So we'll use that once we gather enough information on that. But that was part of the work we're doing. Uh Dibbles does seem to be the way. >> Dibbles is pretty darn reliable. >> Yeah. Then checking the balances, you know, Susan purchased a book for K one and two teachers and teachers all have it in hand and we're hoping to do some book clubs around the different chapters and teachers are already learning that they're already doing a lot of the things that the book suggests. It's really great news and if they have questions about anything, it's a great resource. Um so hopefully we will all continue to grow our knowledge over the

058course of the summer and next year and beyond um with science and reading >> and there's some short little webinars. I'd added those links Katie had sent them out and so I passed them along and those were very helpful especially as I was reading the book because it would really kind of entice me and then I go back and recheck. So, it's it's really important for us to to do this work with our teachers. >> That was a lot. Do you guys have a question for >> I know that Andrea has a question. >> I really have two questions and I think that you may have touched on some culture, but you have children coming in from all over the country. How do you do um how do you handle that in terms of in

059terms of the things that you're talking about which are the most successful? And the other question I have is as children come in, are you seeing any trends where there are stronger readers coming in from from places that use either what you're using or other other sources of teaching or even >> I haven't personally noticed any trends. We have a big military population at FAME. So as the transient population and um in terms of what programs that they are using I haven't noticed any discrepancies in terms of like wow you have so many more skills than this other student who's using a different program um in my experience I don't know if you guys have a different experience but um when we do have new students we assess them right away and we give them

060a wordless assessment we give them a running record we give them a phonological awareness screener we give a siteword assessment so we really do try to find out exactly where they are and with their literacy literacy needs. Um we give them a spelling assessment and then depending on whether or not they need intervention. We try to get them in right away um and then we'll meet on them every six to eight weeks. And we provide support in the classrooms as well. So we have interventionists and reading specialists go into our readers workshop and we're able to provide even more support in the classroom in small groups or one-on-one. Um, in addition to the pull out time >> and in addition to the military, we have the whole triangulation of Norwick, New London, Rotten, and even

061Ledger and other places. So, we do have as many as 400 students moving out in any given year and 400 different students moving in. So, out of a population of over 4,000, you have a net difference of almost a thousand. So I think when we got the first blue ribbon when it was val school and test school um one of the things the teachers all said is we get to know our kids really quickly and we know how to assess them and I think that's the secret sauce is really the teachers and the interventionists really trying to figure out what's going on and I think after this work we're going to even get better at it. >> Oh sure I want Andrea then Dean actually this is for you and you meet with the superintendence,

062do you talk about maybe consolidating how how the triangulation might work? >> We talk about that a lot. We we meet on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, Cynthia Richie, who's the superintendent in New London, was the first cohort in the master class. So, we actually went out and had a real quick conversation. And so, she was the one who got me excited about getting involved. So, I tried to sign up as soon as possible, but we're finally getting in. So and the same thing is true with you know well all my partners all the way down to old Sabbrook you know and you know over in Stonington so we do a lot of collaboration and discussion about what's working using the same >> we actually are using very similar they I mean

063I don't know that anybody has done this level of work I was telling Franowitz about it that we probably should share it with the state department because that's their job is to write a model curriculum and that's what they did with the common core but they really did it more in the mathematics and not so much in the reading and writing. So that does need to happen. That's the state department's job when they get people experts from around the state to come for it. So thank you. >> You just reminded me that we did look at the common core standards for the grade levels as well. >> Um and they're pretty vague. I don't I mean it's like the child knows grade level phonics instruction. So we really educated ourselves and decided we we needed

064to really just decide what that meant. >> I don't know if that answered question as like how does that change? How is it different? And I don't think that it is greatly different other than we're emphasizing the piece of it and we're making it more equitable across our district >> and ensuring the transfer. I think that's so important that we don't let it go that it's always kind of with us. like you said, Carrie, like it's so wonderful to see your children noticing it when they're reading and paying attention and saying, "I know this now." And we're really hopeful that if one student travels from themes to Mystic or, you know, if they're transferred between the schools that the child will be able to join a first grade class and be comfortable with the phonics

065routines and and know the teacher will know exactly where they've come from and what instructions, you know, we talked as far as like what what will travel with them, you know, they'll come with the same assessment. Speaking to students coming to us new, we do have transfers and we got such a transient population. Getting them into a program that's consistent with the routine every day is going to catch them up to speed so much quicker and make them feel more comfortable. >> I think one of the differences we always had word walls and then it was brought to my attention probably at Mystic River. I see a sound wall and so now we're really developing those sound walls to go along with the work that we're doing. So I think that's important shift. First one

066is going to be much like a river that I've got reading questions in front of me. Someone ask this um for me. >> It's no secret that English is not written very >> do you know whether that presents this is just for my curiosity. So contrast with a language that's written pretty much fanatically call it Spanish for example Italian you imagine that reading teachers in those languages have a much easier time it or is that kind of a longer >> I mean I do I have high especially Spanish when I meet especially my third, fourth or fifth graders. Um, and I'm teaching them, you know, a very similar program to what car is teaching and it's a rule and they they love it. It's tangible and they get it that we put an exception out

067there which have many of unfortunately that's when they get discouraged. So yeah, I do I do that and it's a conversation. >> If we both figured it out and then we're wandering through the desert like you said like >> Yes, exactly. There are hundreds of words that break the rules. Yes. Um yeah, >> so many so at least not Chinese. My second question is that um >> we're here basically on K through two, right? K2. >> Well, actually it's K through three. >> Okay, I'm sorry. K through three. I should write. So my question is how do we make sure that any good work that's done at this level carries on the other level because it's a it's a relay grades and uh it's not a given that it happened great grade to grade that

068the skills picked up or translated and back end added on to and then passed on the following grade. So how are we integrating this or making sure that the time is passed four, five, six. >> So it wasn't just my elementary teachers that came to me. I had sixth grade teachers coming to me and remember that they had missed like a major ingredient in their elementary. And fortunately, we have literacy specialists at that level, too. And they're actually going into the classroom. They're really giving the teachers some new skills because when you're a sixth grade teacher or a high school teacher, you may not know how to teach phonics or you might not remember those rules. So, a lot of that work has been done again with that team. But you ask a really good

069question and that's how I started paying attention because my teachers were coming to me saying, "We need to do something differently. This is not working. Our kids really need more than what we have right now." >> So, do you think that's working? Well, I don't know what your I don't know what your question is. >> No, I know. No, no, but have any awareness that can be passed on. >> And we're hoping that if we bolster our tier one >> now that hopefully the transfer will happen, >> but you're right like it's it's eventually. It's not as comfortable for them. um for sure but it's it's definitely in our in our radar radar and it's something that we are planning to then like coaching support for the classroom teacher >> this work is applicable to

070the other >> and the resources will be available to them too all of the all of the lessons and all of the slideshows and every resource that we create for the three >> will be available so if they're noticing large gaps in their classroom they can go in and implement the lessons that >> even even a railroad train they're all all the cars together but the engines moving doesn't you >> and just to think about it another way like K to three you're learning how to read and then you start to switch to reading to learn >> so the upper grades it's it's reading to learn however literacy specialists and teachers those upper grades also have to be aware of all like we lay the foundation and everything builds on that but the work that

071we've done here it's a scope and sequence developmentally roughly developmentally how kids should learn how to read words and decode words so if a a fourth grade teacher gets a student who is at the CBC level like they can only read cat dog words like that then they can go to our school this isn't just a use a lesson for kindergarten, you need a lesson for first. This is a scope and sequence. It's just like I went through OG training for teaching dyslexia. We're working in a scope and sequence. So, we place those kids, we figure out where they're at, and then we go from there. So fourth and fifth grade teacher isn't going to spend 20 minutes a day on phonics instruction for the whole class unless the class really needs it which right

072now in co we might have to for a couple years but hopefully in a couple years but they work will happen in lower grades >> and they have done many lessons for the whole class and they've seen that happen. I know that one >> one more question. Yeah. >> So kids come in all shapes. Um and they require different approaches to instruction and part of one of the natures of of math education is this kind of approximation here. You don't want to. But in an ideal world, you've got a teacher or student that that's the way school used to kids went to a tutor. Anyway, do you detect behind differences in kids? you detect the presence phenomenon if you will something that's working with you or against you that is involvement parental involvement is that

073a is that a large factor I would think it would be but I'm wondering what what your experience you feel something when you're working with a kid that's that's struggling like if only there was more engagement or that doesn't really matter that you can actually fill that gap of what you're We don't we have control over what's happening here at school. We don't always have control over that. But when we can partner with parents and family support, those kids make phenomenal. >> Absolutely. >> The parents have to first. >> Well, and that's actually one of the agenda items, Dean, that's really important to us because that's the other thing. In the past three, four years, we used to have these literacy nights and we bring families in more often and um I mean they did

074have a window of opportunity when they were on Zoom to kind of peek into the classroom and I've heard some you know some interesting um you know kind of feedback on that positive and negative. So, um, but but I think that that's a key ingredient and I know this board realizes that that the family engagement is probably one of the most important things and we really want to get back to that in a more serious way, especially with this the roll out of this is going to be really important to communicate and to really give parents um the information and sending home the decodable text and even I remember little um you know bookmarks that would tell the parent, you know, these are some things you can do when you're going when the child is

075reading with you. >> Great question. >> My question following it down for our students that were schooled in teachers college and they missed out on the phonetics learning. They're in middle school. They're in high school now. you know, you can't expect a um a social studies teacher or a science teacher in high school to go back look what's going on with phonetics. How this resus how are we helping those which I would think would be tons of them in high school and middle school that you know didn't get the >> so I I would say that we have the multi-tered levels of support like we do SRBI um in elementary we have it in middle school we have it in high school we have literacy specialists in all those buildings and we always had phonics

076with teachers college we actually when we first adopted teachers college reading and writing project um the workshop model we had the um Wilson um foundations. So it wasn't until kind of just right before COVID that we started using elements of the TC, but I think we always had foundations as well. So, I w I don't think that was the missing ingredient, but I think the way they've restructured this to make it so clear and so accessible and so um relevant for the teacher and easy for the teacher to use and that they will be able to take these because they plan on putting this all on that curriculum site that teachers can get to in a in a heartbeat. And I love what you were saying about that could be used by um literacy specialists

077in the middle school and high school and they could actually teach those kids probably pretty quickly, you know. Um, but then there's Denise is going to bring us to another where there could be a disability in reading and then you might need even more intervention and a different kind of inter intervention as well. >> Any questions um from the board members for on Zoom? >> I I also just would like um take the opportunity to introduce you to Matthew Schulman. He is our um other board member. You said you were going to be here at 7 and you got here like at 10:07 and I noticed >> I won't apologize because situations happen in life all of us >> and uh I'm glad to be here. I may be plowing some ground, but I was

078not overwhelmed, but I came close to being overwhelmed with the quality and rigor with the materials that they prepared for us tonight. They reflect well on the staff and superintendent and on the faculty, our faculty that's working on. I do have two questions. I spent much of the weekend on the internet looking up whole language, why Johnny can't read, structural literacy. I mean, I spent hours and hours trying to fill up gaps. I don't think I did a lot, but I tried. And there were two elements that I think have something to do with with literacy and reading that may be there, but I haven't seen them. So I want to ask two questions and I'm not sure who I'm asking to Susan whether it's you or the faculty. What's the role? The first one

079is what's the role of grammar in teaching English? You may have discussed this. If so I apologize. And the second what's the role of cursive as a tactile learning strategy. I bring up grammar because as a substitute at a middle school level. Um, there was a game. I was told to play a game with the youngsters. Madelines. Do you remember Melines? You're probably too young. >> Adjective, Mr. Sh. What's an adverb, Mr. Sh? And I'm saying to myself inside, oh, holy potato pancakes. Seventh graders don't know it. But it's a serious question. To to what extent does grammar play a role in literacy? And how are we dealing with that? And cursive. I know I'm a dinosaur, but I think practicing cursive and learning it, even if I asked my wife, I never mastered it.

080Uh, but practicing cursive is a tactile way. It's visual. It's So, what are we doing with those two if anything? And is that something we can work on together? Well, the literacy specialists have been always involved in doing that work with our teachers and we have a scope and sequence too, a pacing guide for grammar. Um, really K through 12 probably. You know, we do have a pacing guide that we do use. Um, but I I would say that because of the phonics and the way that we're able to decode words, we're also able to encode. So, it's going to really help our kids. But there are conventions that kids need to know and they learn it early on when they learn to write, but then we need to continue to teach it even into

081the middle grades and into the high school. Um, so I don't know, you might want to add on to that, but that's and I know that we we've actually piloted learning without tears and it's a handwriting program that we use preschool, preK, um, all the way through. We had had a third grade pilot in Cursive and many of our third grade teachers participated. The problem is that you kind of have to use it. You know, it's not one of those things you can learn and not use. And so the expectation would be that they use cursive. But I think because writers these days, especially in middle school and high school, everything gets typed and edited that way. That's kind of the the way that writing happens. Um, so it was hard to keep that engine

082going. But we did do a pretty good job. And what this team has done is they've taken that as well, learning without tears and how the handwriting works to outline so that piece correlates to the exact way that they're doing the um decoding so that it all matches up so the teacher is not doing one thing in the in the you know the handwriting book that's not being done with the phonics. So we want it all to gel so kids really get that practice. And does the balance does the balance program with elements of grammar? >> Oh, absolutely. It's a big piece of it in editing and revising. Absolutely. It's a huge piece. >> Yeah. Did you want to say something though? >> I know it is definitely embedded into our reading instruction separate from

083our >> and writing instruction. I mean, it's I think it's explicitly taught in writing and practiced and recognized throughout the day. I mean during morning meetings teachers are talking about different elements of grammar. Um definitely during phonics instruction. and it happens embedded in guided reading or um >> I just saw Jeopardy game in fifth grade because they're getting ready for sback and someone picked phonics level 500 you know and it was a grammar question you know and they had to take a sentence they had to rework it to make it grammatically correct and make sure all the conventions were there so some of that I that was pretty old school that was how I learned you know so that they are teaching those elements. They have to because it's in our ESPback state test as

084well. >> We're going to come back to it as well. Be reviewing that already and continuing to work on >> uh cursive. I don't know. We'll we'll have to talk about that. I don't know that it's been outlined to go beyond third grade that they might have tried it out in third grade. Kids love to do it actually. I would say the handwriting has taken more of a focus than previously. So >> handwriting even all the way from TK handwriting now has more >> is now explicitly taught and really focused on in the past. That was our OT's came to us, our OT's and PTS, you know, our occupational therapists came to us and they actually used that program and so that's when the teachers really saw that and said wow this is really very

085helpful and so again >> came to us and said this is something we really need. >> Andrea I have a question about grammar. When I was an eighth grade teacher we would spend the first marking period on them. So my definition of grammar may be quite different from yours and I when you say that you embed it in in the the in the lesson what does that mean? >> Yeah. No, just for example, so if there's, you know, for example, like a writing unit where you're you're focused on um like a certain genre, you know, so if you're doing like uh like a genre that that embeds like adjectives, like if you're doing like a narrative narrative piece, then adjectives are really important to describe your characters. The teachers will bring in adjectives and talk

086about, you know, what makes a good adjective and they'll brainstorm different different adjectives that will enhance and elaborate the students writing. Yeah. >> And the parts of speech are really taught throughout all the grades and as like you said as an enhancement but to make a better piece. Right. >> Whether it's fiction or non-fiction. >> I really I would really like to do the middle level. Yeah. >> And then I know Corey had some some interesting things he did with a new product that we are going to be implementing called Parent Square. It's a good communication tool. It will replace our school messenger. It's a little outdated and this will personalize it a little better. Teachers at James River have begun it and they've really been able to um share information everything from kind of

087snippets of what kids are doing during the day. But Corey was able to put together some pieces for his parents that I just was really so impressed with that to really help them understand what the children were learning in phonics. And so and you know they would get this through this parent square. It would beep at them or do whatever it does and say open me has something to say to you here. Here here's the latest tip for the day. >> Okay. So um this is an overview of parent right now. So, um, but back at in the start of kindergarten, we do a lot obviously with letter ID and letter sounds. And so, I did a little video for each letter. And I would do everything like explain to them how to how how

088we're teaching your child how to write the letter, how to make the sound, how do you make the sound with your mouth, little stories to help with that, that kinesthetic piece of it. Um, so I'm just going to pull up one of the videos. I don't know how this will come out, but we will see. S is another fun one. So, we talk about how when we make the sound S. It's a small amount of air and it's quiet. So, this is the small air sound s. And then the loud one is, but it's a small air sound. And we pretend like we're pulling a snake of air, a small bit of air out of our mouth. So we said, "Oh, smile like you're pulling a snake out of your mouth for a trick." And

089the kids loved that. So that's why when the picture there's a snake. Okay. And then we talked about how snake also starts with S. So we do s snake s. Okay. Now writing is a little trickier. So we can do little curve turn little curve for the uppercase S. And then for lowercase S, we do the same thing, but we're going to be in the middle. Little curve and curve back. Now I also like to tell the kids this trick, which they like. So flying C, stop, drop, and roll. Flying C, stop, drop, and roll. The kids like that one, too. Okay. And that's the letter S. >> Um, he will put he'll put the video on chat so that you guys can see it. We do know that um you guys cannot hear us

090online. In fact, it was actually from his computer speakers how we um heard it. >> And this was back from this is before we did all this. like this is stuff that I've been doing in my classroom um from the training that I've gotten with teaching kids how to lead. So, and again this was on parent square that I posted it. So, the parents can go back any time throughout the year and a lot of my parents said this was great because I would they would be like what I learned today what did you learn today? Like I'm not sure and then I'd play the video and then immediately they start telling me everything about it and then the little kids would come along and watch the video too. So it was >> So this

091is a way that you messaged your kids in your classroom. >> So I did this as a post. In this case, this is a catchup. So I did a bunch of letters in one post, but usually I would do like a weekly update and I would attach a video of like this is the letters we're learning this week. Here's quick little videos. >> So this is the only So this parent square is only occurring in Corey Mott's classroom. No, parents square is being piloted at the observer and by all teachers. >> So that also >> in the upper grades I've been doing word survey another spelling program and I post every week what the lessons are that I'm doing >> and it's going to be rolled out to the whole district next year. So that's

092what I just did today. When they got that alert and showing you everybody, you know, so like the dandy in our kitchen said, "Oh, lunch today. You changed the grill." So that whole >> did. Yeah. >> Okay. I'll stop. >> So, what I'm hearing is is that the parent square is a form of communication. Is it kind of like the classroom dojo? >> Yeah. It's going to replace the reminder. >> Yeah. >> It replaces everything. It replaces sign of genius. places >> because right now if I had a child in middle school and in things river but they also had one in a different magnet school there's a possibility at the present moment I would have three different message ways and messaging so next year you'll have your three children are on the left side

093that you can click on it'll go directly to their fees what's important to them okay and then you have the option to toggle between three buildings and also level enough. >> Okay. And then there's power school. So we still have power school. Who know >> presentation? >> Yeah, we we'll have to do that. You got a little snapshot of it. >> Okay. >> And then looking ahead, we have still more work to do. We're not done. >> We do still have a lot of work to do. This is I I just want to compliment this team because the work that has been completed is we aren't done. So um beginning of June we all have a team meeting with grade levels of K one two across um each of our schools and we're going to

094be meeting to roll this curriculum out with grade level teachers. Um that's going to be at the building level and we're really excited about um sharing those with teachers. um we've had grade level representation throughout this whole process um at each from each of our schools. So teachers have had eyes on this curriculum um or the scope and sequence and I think generally the feedback feedback has been really positive. Um so we're really excited about sharing. Um we've had summer curriculum every every summer. Thank you Susan. It's been wonderful. We're um we're really purposeful about that work and what that's going to look like this summer. And that is going, as you've seen today, there's a lot of things that need to be created, a lot of materials, a lot of things that are possibly

095gatekeepers for making sure that this um this roll out goes seamless. So, we want to alleviate a lot of that stress for teaching really um phonics because we want to make sure that phonics is taught and and teachers are able to spend their time teaching. Um, so we're going to be preparing a lot of things um and uh over the summer and over the next coming months, I guess you could say. Um, and then and then over um the throughout this whole process, we wanted to make sure that we are continuing to listen to teachers and listen to feedback about how things are going within contracts. I'm listening to teachers about um order well and what's not um and continuing to have that process through the future. >> We'll continue to implement professional development so

096that teachers are continually understanding the new system to them and able to implement the curriculum in the best way possible. And so we're going to give them this permission prior to beginning of the school year and then continuing throughout the school year as well that teachers feel supported. We're going to be digging into this shifting the balance really explains the sciences of reading and the research that has gone behind all these shifts. And I think a lot of it teachers are really open and excited to learn about and we're going to be having book chats and really digging into that and understanding how we can tweak our instruction just a little bit really emphasize the piece of that so we can support our students. We will be digging into grade three and probably beyond that,

097you know, at some point. We continue to support our teachers through these kind of chats and ongoing things, but also through our roles as literacy specialists in the classroom. And it might look like modeling lessons. It might look like working side by side with teachers in a coaching way. It might be that we're providing resources or giving them some research or just some positive feedback or pep talk if they need it um as they move forward through this. And we're we're really looking forward to getting this this curriculum out there because we think it's really going to be effective for our students. I mean, I think for me that's where this comes from. That we want our students to get what they all deserve and equitably across our district, that they're all hearing instruction that's

098solid. Again, >> like we know instruction matters and we want to make sure that all of our students in are receiving what they deserve. So, they can be successful. This summer will also be meeting with students there. So in conjunction with summer we'll also have tier one students all students. We're going to be offering summer tutoring for those immediate students and we have been doing that since the pandemic and it has made a phenomenal difference for those students who parents are willing to bring them. We're offering free tutoring with specialists >> at their own schools or where they are like if they're at a camp with CK we our specialists have gone over our tutors have gone over to meet the children where they are. >> Yeah. >> An hour to day or It's usually

099about 40 minutes because the K through2 students like their attention stand but I do know that the data that we've collected a lot of times we see kids like that covered slide >> but when they are coming for that teaching and that and they're able to kind of that momentum going which is super exciting for classroom teachers >> and we really give it to the school the the principal and the literacy coaches work together. They know who their intervention children are. They know their families. Sometimes a family might prefer Zoom and there might be a tutor who prefers Zoom and you can kind of connect them. But we do try to get them in face to face. Now we think it's really important but by them having the autonomy, not me trying to like figure

100that all out up here because I wouldn't do half as good a job as they do. They know their kids. They they're able to engage their families and it really has made a difference I think. And we do it in math too. Yeah. Any other questions on this portion of the presentation? Th this was great because I read and I am not a literacy specialist. Um if you could only see my grammar. Um and um actually I'm laughing because Andrea does see my grammar because oftentimes I'm like can you please edit this? Um and she's learned a lot about my life. Um, but just to kind of read this, but then to also to have you I'm a visual learner and an auditory learner, so to have you guys present was so very helpful. Um,

101and I know that we are probably are we going into now hearing from Denise. Um, I don't know if your friends need to be here because I know that you guys are working really like you started work at a very early hour, but just um in case this gets lost, um, thank you for continuously showing me why I'm proud. Um, the work that you guys do for the kids in the district are is really amazing. Thank you. Um I I I I have uh been honored to be here for 12 years. My three children um have gone through the district. Um just really gotten past I think I'd like to wrap up their piece with the principles just talking about that family engagement or anything else that we might have missed. So that you know

102it's they all have to scoot they could but um you know just uh listening to the principles about this good work because they've really been involved too. You know we've been trying to make sure that they're involved every step of the way at some of the changes and shifts that we're making but also with families and and you know how do we get the information to our families maybe some of the things you used to do and you're going back to. So we'll start with Ryan and we'll just march ourself around the room. any any other thoughts about um initializing this and getting information to families and things that might work. Someone in the room perhaps asked a question. So what's different? What's from my perspective? One of the one of the nicest parts about

103this work has been the PA work in our kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classrooms and listening to kids talk about words, >> watching teachers present words and having kids identify beginning sounds, middle sounds, ending sounds, just the discourse that happens in those lessons. Preandemic is not something I've heard and saw a lot of in the building. And I think you might work necessarily. We've really been able to get our our primary teachers to buy that work and then it's a 10 maybe 15 minute lesson at the most. You're talking about our five to six year olds. But just take your kids to talk about words strictly or program. I think there's a lot of power that I look forward to my turn. >> Yeah, you're going we're going around the room. >> Um you

104ask about family engagement. I think someone said over here earlier when we partner with the families, that's where we get the biggest um that constant communication. um going back and forth um you know something like this lesson about you know the letters and things like all the little things that we do that give them tools to use at home I think it's a big piece of that we need to partner with that and then um I think we need to keep in mind that this is constantly changing and I know that was brought up earlier but we're always looking for something I think that's a big on that side One of the things just tonight go back to what Sarah was talking about which was coaching literacy specialist have done probably a lot of work

105I'd like to go back I can only speak for my school but it's difficult there but you know just listening tonight and we've got some people here that that piece is very important. So I think going back to the um engagement of the families I feel like sometimes but um I want to get back you know coming back around some of those opportunities when we get closed in school about how can I best teach a really good job of that but you know it's so difficult to family But I feel like that's another that's another reason super excited about this summer. We put it out there and we've got a lot of folks in school that are very interested. So that is an opportunity. I feel like that's the big word when you have those

106small and opportunity to engage that work. >> Yeah. As far as the communication. So they want to help. I know there was a question that came over here to say the home piece of it and they do sometimes they don't know how. So not only for pick up the phone and call them tell them what we're doing intervention. Um they also need small chunk right like work on this really or work on this for this week intervention and then they feel empowered. So to give them those small chunks um and we just at for like hour and a half or something to try and make sure we are giving kids that we can give some room to and we're trying to like be creative with it and do like half hour reading and then today

107half hour math and um so thank you already. It is that communication piece I guess. Thank you. do four times. >> Um, but I this year we were really excited to start getting back to having our families in the building or some of our events, some literacy events, and um, steam events, science events. and our parents are so excited to come back and we've probably had the best um engagement, the best attendance that we've ever had since I've been at this school because people are just they miss us as much as we miss them. And so I'm really looking forward to getting back to all of our events um so that we can we share what we do and we help parents um understand a little bit more of what we do because what we

108do is so different than what happened when they were in school and when I was in school and that's they want to work with their children at home and we want to help them and support them in doing so that's That's the the exciting piece. And all of this is wonderful, the consistency and across all of the buildings and you know knowing that everyone's going to have what they need in their classroom and what's happening here is happening over there and happening over there and that's great and we really want to focus on this. this is will be our focus K through three, you know, because there's a lot of other things too that are out there, but we really want to be able to look at our calendar ahead of time and and make

109sure that we can incorporate this in in our professional development and in our day. >> I'm going to recognize Rita. >> I I was just going to compliment everyone because when I first joined the board and elementary school, we had and everyone had different books that this is wonderful. Chris, you must remember all that. I think dedication to the staff keeping reading up from up but what I have noticed more and more is of the joy of reading the joy of writing and I think it it's more I mean I very back when I was writing But now the children are excited. They want to read. They want to get involved in it. I I credit they work really hard. >> My my best piece of data is 17,000 books were checked out at Brown

110Middle School Library last year. Liz and Johnson, you know, and she counts how many books are checked out and they're really reading in middle school. And you know, middle school and high school kids, unless they had to read the book McBTH, you know, sometimes they're not reading. So I think that's that's a good piece of data. I want to keep seeing that grow. >> It was just nice to know that a child river could go to river school and be on the same page. >> Yeah, that's great. >> That's a really good That's a good point. Thank you, >> Matthew. I'm curious the parent and family partnering. I'm wondering how that interfaces with our equity piece, whether there is differentiation of parental partnering across different cohorts of the socioeconomic spectrum or is it pretty stable

111across all of them? And if there is differentiation, would you all reflect on ideas that you can share with us so we can get more participation? I think one of the things that we know to be true is that sometimes we have to meet the parents where they are and not always expect them to meet us where we are >> possibly find that out, right? So, so like maybe perhaps like >> everyone gets better and then you get it back from the usual suspects, right? You get it back from the usual kids and then there's this little pocket of kids and then you start going, "Okay, well maybe I'll talk to their teacher, maybe I'll talk to social worker. Maybe I'll talk to the like is it what's their family home like? What's the language?

112Um can I call them instead? Um can I talk to the student? So I think all of us would agree that we start at like one level and then we kind of like break it down and differentiate how we reach that kiddo and and communicate at that family and meet them at their needs. >> Yeah. >> Encourage your friends to watch the broadcast so they can hear the good. >> Thank you all. Thank you. You know how much I appreciate you >> all of you. >> Denise, can you start off with the distraction of people leaving? >> Oh, you going to do that? Okay. Thank you. >> And this has been a topic from our state department as well is to really understanding how to best identify for dyslexia and the sooner the better. So,

113so this is um I'm just going to let people go. >> I had a thought. Here's a thought. >> Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. >> Take care. Thank you guys for having us. >> Oh gosh. Thank you. Okay. Go. >> Wow. >> All right. So um the second field that I wanted us to be in um is that we um along with a lot of the discussion um was around understanding when we did have a child that's identified um I'm only vaguely familiar with this because I'm not a teacher um but I am vaguely familiar with some of that stuff um as a um therapist and working with kids who have learning disabilities and how it impacts social emotional growth. Um, and so we thought it was a nice blend if if we were going

114to have lots of people talk to us about what um what what learning um how do we how do we teach u meeting um in the K through three but what does it mean when it's not working for some kids and what what are all those things and what do we as a school department um do to identify and so um Denise it's good to see you thank you for coming >> thank you for that Nice open. Um, so the state department of education has added dyslexia as a primary disability on the IEP form in Connecticut as of about five or six years ago. So the information I'm going to share tonight is from um our protocol and our training manuals from the state department of education. >> I'm not come back. Okay. >> Um

115so we start with Scar Bro's reading rope because as was stated earlier in the presentation um the two different components of reading need to be solidly developed at an early age hopefully before age three. Um and that being language comprehension and word recognition. And you'll see Scarboro's rope shows how when they're adequately developed, they are woven together to help a child become a skilled reader, what we call a fluent reader. And one of the reasons why I put this in the presentation is because when we look at students who are not fluent readers, we want to go back and try to identify where in that reading process they're breaking down or they're having difficulty so that we can number one assess it. And then number two, um, target that weakness with, um, explicit instruction. So

116the working definition of dyslexia in terms of um the state department of education was just revised in 20122. Um this really came about uh with our new program of CT sets. We have uh new um eligibility forms. We have new SRBI forms um that really gather more data than ever before that um from tier one as you've heard from the literacy interventionists. Um from tier 2 students who are getting literacy intervention support um tier one is the general ed classroom. Tier two would be an interventionist support and then from tier three which could possibly be special education support. And we look at all of that data um to determine if a student is or is not responding to instruction because more than likely if a student has received a really solid tier one reading program

117and intervention from a skilled reading specialist, if they're still not making progress in those different components of reading, it's a pretty good assumption that there's something that could be a disability that's preventing them from learning to read. Um, so our definition really focuses on the fact that dyslexia impacts a student's ability to read, specifically decoding an accurate and/or fluent word recognition and spelling. So, a student who has dyslexia is really a student that is having difficulty unlocking that reading code, um, the phonic awareness, the blending, the segmenting, the rhyming. um and then remembering those skills to apply to read fluently in decodable text. Um just a few more notes. Dyslexia is neurobiological in origin. It's often inconsistent or unexpected with a student's performance in other areas. So often students with dyslexia have average to above

118average um cognitive skills and sometimes they have strengths in math. So this weakness in reading um is is very unexpected and sometimes it's hard to um to identify because you have students who are working many times at high levels. Um and if they can gather meaning from the text, sometimes it's not always obvious that they're struggling with those specific word tech decoding skills. Um but again, dyslexia usually results from a significant deficit in phonological processing. So the difficulty in um identifying sounds and manipulating sounds, we call that um segmenting words, uh rhyming, um all of those different um tasks that we do at the young age with letters and words that we heard about this afternoon. Um so just a few clarifications, dyslexia is not primarily a visual hearing or motor disability. It's not an

119intellectual disability or an emotional disability. Um it's not usually a result of lack of appropriate instruction because we have in Connecticut um an SRBI or response to intervention process that provides students with intervention early on. Um so Connecticut we've learned through SRBI students don't need to fail at reading before they receive intervention. The goal of our intervention program is to provide them that intervention early on when they're struggling. Um, typically students with dyslexia again have strengths in their reasoning, critical thinking, concept formation, problem solving, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and social communication. Again, early identification is key and as are the use of those effective research-based interventions. So, we want to be using uh programs that provide students with strategies that we know work. So, for instance, Denise and I have partnered since I've been here with

120getting teachers Wilson trained. We had one teacher who got Wilson 2 trained and that was like a dissertation. I mean, we really we afforded for her overtime to work through that and um and even after she retired, she still does contract with us. So, um I think you have three or four teachers going out. >> Corey Corey is in Dillingham trained. >> I'm in the process. I work for that >> for your fellow to be a fellow >> uh for the associate level. So there's so many levels and um you know they can even get a level that is like one of the highest levels where then they can train others. So we really are trying to make sure that we we cast that net wide for teachers who want to have that kind of

121training. Um it starts with the level one. So really as many as we can whether they're um special educators or reading teachers and even classroom teachers. and you found a program called Spire that the teachers really like which is based on Hor and Gillingham. >> So really trying to find those resources that will work best for our kids and the teachers mo I think you've heard that message loud and clear. The most important thing is the skills that our teachers get through the process. they need to read. Right. >> So, just touching a little bit on the criteria for eligibility as a student with dyslexia in Connecticut. Typically, this is a student who does not achieve adequately for their age or meet their grade level standards in one or more of the following areas. oral

122expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, mathematics problem solving. Um, these are criteria to be identified, I'm sorry, as learning disabled and then we're going to break off into just specific uh dyslexia. Um, also the student does not make sufficient progress. Um so when when uh presented or when uh provided with scientific researchbased interventions um these students also exhibit a pattern of strengths and weaknesses which we talked about a little bit before. Um often um they have been provided appropriate instruction. um we call that explicit and systematic instruction based on those essential components of reading, math or writing delivered by qualified personnel. So if a student has come to the district and they've been homeschooled, for example, and they're struggling to read, um we would not rush

123to identify them as having a learning disability because they haven't had adequate instruction. at least, you know, if the parent hasn't been able to provide to us what's been taught at home, we would want to provide them with instruction in the school setting before we move to identify them as a dis as having a disability because again, we don't want to identify students as having a disability if they haven't received the appropriate instruction. And we want to give them an opportunity to receive that instruction and to demonstrate progress before we determine that they have a disability. Um the student also um has to meet certain exclusionary factors. So if the student um has a visual or hearing impairment or an intellectual or emotional disability, we might look at other disabilities other than learning disabled. And

124then lastly, we want to be sure that if we do evaluate a student for learning disability, that that evaluation is comprehensive. That means that we're evaluating all areas of suspected disability. Um, so here's where if we're looking specifically, which we are tonight, at the area of dyslexia, we now, this is new as of 2022. Um, we just introduced this to all of our teachers in the fall. Um, we have we now know in Connecticut that there are three types of reading disabilities that students can be identified with. And um the the benefit of this is that this helps us target our instruction to the area where the student is struggling. So the first type of reading disability is a specific word recognition difficulty. This is a student who has difficulty with reading real words, reading

125nonsense words and that automaticity or that fluency of reading. Right? So they're not able to identify the letters, the sounds, those site words, those um CBC words with fluency. Um they have uh broad oral comprehension uh that is good and they have vocabulary knowledge that is average or higher. So you'll see the asterisk after this type of disability. Often students with a word recognition difficulty are identified as dyslexic. We're hoping that these universal screeners will also shed a light that we'll be finding kids with this disability earlier on. Um and you know and also the training that we're providing for the teachers as well. Um the next type of reading disability focuses on comprehension. So these are students that probably you know would test very low in their knowledge of vocabulary, their oral language. um

126they have difficulty um you know with words and language in general. So their area of difficulty if they have this type of a profile would be a specific reading comprehension difficulty. They would be identified as learning disabled. Um and then we have lastly a mixed reading difficulty. These are students that have difficulties in full word recognition and comprehension. um but um their reading comprehension difficulties exceed what can be explained by poor decoding. So again, these students would not qualify as students who are dyslexic, >> but they would qualify reading disabilities. >> They would qualify as having a learning disability and reading. So we've really um in our state, I think come a long way in terms of better understanding of students with dyslexia. What does their profile look like? What should we be looking for

127in our testing and how should we be well we'll talk about that next. How should we should be addressing our instruction? That's it. Um so one of the things I wanted to share >> Denise well before you go on. >> Oh sure >> Denise not that I want to sound like a dinosaur. However, since I am I don't remember recall this kind of thing happening when Art was in school and I know that's many many many years ago. However, was that because those kids were just ignored or they just disappeared or has something happened in the way people see them and processing information that was changed? Well, I think that the students still had similar types of reading profiles, but we hadn't necessarily drilled down and identified them as explicitly and then targeted the instruction

128to match their area of weakness. From my perspective, a lot of this became more uh became clearer when we started to learn more about scientific research-based intervention. Um, it's called it was called response to intervention nationally. Connecticut adopted SRBI and now we're moving to a multi-tiered system of support. I understand that what my question is has something changed because I don't remember any of this. You know, I certainly there were kids who didn't get it and and we knew who they were and I don't remember this twice, but I think and my question really is I know what we're doing about it, but when did it really begin? When did we because this seems to be to do multip. >> So that was my question. >> Well, I think Gillingham has been around for a

129while, right, Cory? >> Well, yes. >> You don't know what a while is. Well, and I mean part of it is that the kids have always been there, but these kids are typically they're very they're very smart. They make up for it. So when you're talking with them there, there's no indication that something's going on because the challenge for them is getting the words off the page. That's it. So they make up >> you're not seeing you're seeing a scope that has always been there. I think >> it's always been there but the thing is now we have more sophisticated assessments. more teachers are aware that a lot of the sitting here included didn't leave school college with a master reading specialist doing back to school and that's we learn more about it and so

130now we can we know what to look for now but the teachers done this type of work and now the goal is to get everybody on board >> I'm gonna recognize William Dean and then Rita Yeah. So, I just want to comment on the Orton Gillingham. Um it that type of uh training um to help with dyslexia uh is just phenomenal. Um my son who's a senior um is dyslexic. And if you ask his uh AP uh English teacher from 11th grade and his AP English teacher from 12th grade and told them that Joe was dyslexic, they would be like, "What do you mean?" You know, um his uh that Orton Gillingham gave him the ability to uh you know, catch up and excel and uh it's just amazing that that type of education. And

131I'm so happy um having gone through all of this with uh with Joseph, you know, years and years and years and years ago, but taking years of of of of therapy to work through it and and and the training and everything with the Orton Gillingham, I'm just so happy that we're discussing this uh today. Um, and I want to recognize how the school has um done such a phenomenal job um uh with students uh um that have been able to get the order in Gillingham training. >> Thank you. >> It's one of these things talk about dyslexia for those who are not dyslexic. I sometimes call myself reflexive, but I screw up when I write stuff. That doesn't mean that I'm dyslexic. You know, your brain's not kicked in in the morning. Um was put

132to me quite a while ago. This is a very very over gross oversimplification of the problem. If I show you an object, any object, car, tree, pen, whatever, no matter how I orient it, you know it's a pen, don't you? Right? You know, I just dropped it. It's pen. No matter what I show it to you, we all know this. Don't think anything of that. I take the lowercase letter D, B, P, and Q. The basic circle with a line. What I was told was if you're dyslexic, not all, not all dyslexic, but imagine what we know of as four different letters would appear to somebody dyslexic as the same letter. It's the same shape, isn't it? It's just oriented in different ways. But like the pen, no matter how you how you orient it,

133it depend. And they have to learn, you know, that is maybe thinking of one shape oriented different ways. It's four different letters and that's how I was told to understand something that I really had no experience with. How is it that somebody cannot make out four different letters for example? That's one form of so I think a lot of this too has to do with for most of us who are not dyslexic understanding just what not just labeling it describing it but how do you experience this? How do you get this? >> Otherwise, it's taking so long to get. >> So, I'll comment and then I know Corey wants to comment, too. Um, it is in many ways a common misnomer that students who reverse letters are dyslexic. So, we just want to put that

134out there. There are some students who do reverse their letters and they are dyslexic, but not all students who reverse their letters are dyslexic. >> Gross. Yeah, there is a developmental um stage when children learn how to form their letters and sometimes we just have to remind parents of that and give them some extra practice and some visual symbols. >> Another really good example, this is work. A good example would be thinking about your brain is a highway and for the typical person drive down the highway. It's nice and smooth. So when that letter E comes in through your visual information goes into your brain gets processed. Oh that makes a book sound you spit it back out. But for a student who's dyslexic, their highways are all messed up. They got so many detours.

135They got so many potholes in in there that the wiring they come in as a oh that's a B see a B. But by the time it gets back here to tell you that's the letter B and then gets over here to tell you the sound mixing it up with something else bump before you spit it out. Now, it's a um and a lot of what we're doing with the UPI, all that kinesthetic learning that we're going to be doing more of is to help straighten out those highways, make those connections, and fill in those potholes. As I think we have said, you know, um, dyslexia with through proper instruction, a kid can just because he dyslexia doesn't mean that's uh oh, uh, you can be quite successful if you're given the right instruction and

136you help smooth out that highway. That's an oversimplification. What Corey was referencing at the multi-ensory instruction means that children need to learn those letters in those sounds through multiple modalities. So through the visual, the auditory and the kinesthetic motor and that's what a lot of our programs like Wilson, Orton Dillingham, Spire, Linda Moodval, those are the main um structured literacy programs that are um that are approved by the International Dyslexia Association and most widely used. Um SPIER is a newer program. It's modeled on the Orton Gillingham um philosophy, but they're all what's called structured literacy programs and they provide students with a 10step or systematic lesson plan. And that lesson plan addresses many of those components of reading. So they start working on phonograms with cards. Then they might do some uh some blending of

137some words or some syllables. Um then they progress to building uh words. Um then they would progress to decoding and sentence reading. Um then they would progress to some pre-ereading. Um looking at the phone names and the graphing analysis. Then they would progress to reading sound dictation, pre-pelling, spelling, sentence dictation, and then some independent practice. So it's a very structured lesson plan that in that 45 minutes to an hour, you're touching with maybe one vowel combination. Maybe you're working on O A that day. You know, O A, O. You're going through all of those steps of that lesson plan with that one vowel combination and you're working on words with that vowel combination in reading. You're taking off, you know, you're showing the ch the child the word boat and then you're taking the book

138off. So you're you're you're manipulating those sounds and they're practicing those sounds both visually, auditorially, and then they're spelling them either in the air or they're spell they're tracing them on the paper. So it's a very involved lesson. Um, but as Corey said, um, with that kind of, um, explicit teaching, um, students do make pretty phenomenal progress and they're excited to move through the steps of the program and and graduate and become more confident and fluent readers and writers. >> And we hear that all the time with Wilson, too, that they, you know, and it sometimes takes takes some time, like they could be in middle school. promise all the March meeting we had parents come to the mic and all or both of them had something to say about reading program that we have

139and whether it serves or doesn't serve dyslexic kids. So, how do we how do we square what sounds like a complaint or an observation? I'll call it a complaint. And what's being present here today? Are we are we overhauling? Are you explaining what we already have? What's the degree of success? It did well. We expect that to happen most often or or what? >> So, we're strengthening the core and we're adding components and really focusing on components that that young children need to read. And everything we're doing is going to strengthen the reading of students who who may struggle to learn to read. Um, so everything we're doing, including using the Dibbles, the Dibbles has a dyslexia component. So there are several subtests in the Dibbles that have to do with rapid automatic naming, letter

140fluency, sound fluency, word attack that are specific um, you know, indicators of a child who may have dyslexia. if they're struggling with those uh subtests. And Dibbles goes K to 8, so we can continue to use it beyond third grade. Um, and we can use it three times a year. We can use it to identify students who are struggling, to target instruction, and then to monitor their progress. So everything we're doing from the dibbles to the Ufly to the Hagerty is strengthening the core and we're strengthening it within the workshop because we we're transferring what they've learned in the separate phonics instruction so that it's actually applied and we're watching and monitoring that. So it's applied in either reading or writing. So >> I'm going to recommend read and then go ahead. I was just

141going to say the new to study for reading because I didn't we just got them. I didn't try them out and the new units of reading from teacher college does a much better job aligning with the father's instruction that should happen that time of year. Right now the readers in the current room are seeing cword which is what we the kids are actually >> and I have to say the new decodable texts are like light years ahead of what kids used to read for decodable texts. They used to be very dry very um you know uninteresting really kind of monotonous readers. The new decodable texts are like light years improved in terms of um engagement, relevance. They're culturally sensitive, racially diverse. Um they're just they're phenomenal and we're getting those resources from a lot of

142different places. We've really purchased them from multiple places. >> I I was just going to say, Andrew, this sort of goes back what you said. Our older son, it was mid 80s and he was dyslexic and I knew he was deflected but the Bronten school system would not recognize it. So we took him to Easter Seal and had him tested and so forth because he could compensate. I mean it wasn't until third or fourth grade that you know they said oh yeah there there really is a problem. Um, so unfortunately they they didn't he didn't get the help but he has the PhD in psychology now but we were able to help him a lot but now our granddaughter in DC who's nine she's declared and it's amazing progress she made having that intervention this

143year. It's just remarkable. So we're >> I think in the 80s they recognized it as much you know back then it just I was teaching at that time. >> No it wasn't and it was really really a struggle >> and I'm hopeful that we won't have to wait till a child is upper elementary or middle school to detect it that we'll get so much better at it that we'll be able to use these indicators these resources these universal screeners when they're prek1. I mean, Cory's done a phenomenal job working with the screener process for kindergarten, for instance, and the TK process. So, just knowing more about our children coming into us, and if we can get this kind of instruction to them once they're identified sooner than later, that's going to make a difference. >>

144Well, and Carrie Le's story is so, I mean, profound. So, she has a student who's made significant progress. He's up to grade level now at the end of the year. So without her intervention, he could that student could have been a student who next year was referred for intervention. So strengthening the core is where we want to start. >> We have to focus >> because that's the curriculum that everyone receives. And if that's a strong foundation, then it's going to decrease the referrals to intervention and the referrals to special education. So this >> even though there'll always be there, there will be some. I'm hoping right there'll be fewer and we'll be needing many better. >> Yeah. >> To work with those kids. >> That's right. Yeah, that's right. part of what I read over

145the weekend was about the polit politization of the reading wars to quote and my impression of the parents who came and expressed concerns were that they were not being politically correct from any given point of view that those were genuine concerns. >> Absolutely. And so the the question I have is there seems to me to be a gulp. I don't know how big. It could be a very small gulp. I'm not trying to exaggerate, but there is some kind of gulp between what we're actually doing and public perception of what we're actually doing. And I'm not quite sure what how how we go about engaging the public to have a greater understanding of what we're doing. But I think doing right as we're doing is necessary but not sufficient. We also need to engage to

146bring along, educate, engage uh the public that is legitimately concerned even if their concerns might not be legitimate. Well, and you've heard the parents talking about getting back to community and having more of these events and but sometimes it's just really knowing your your classroom teacher and the and the children sitting in front of you and those parents. Sometimes the closest closer you're communicating to the families that are the that have the children in your classroom, that's almost a better way to meet those needs. I think >> and I think that article that Susan was referencing at the beginning of the meeting um about products What was it? Why phonics? Phonics first. Phonics first. Um, to me that was a very important article because it it opened my eyes in terms of the legislation really

147wanting to ensure that across the board in every elementary school in Connecticut that all children are receiving a solid tier one reading program because we know there are those children who go home at night and maybe don't have books in their house, you know, and aren't read to. Um, so the article really spoke to that that you know, similar to what we're trying to do in Groten, having a similar curriculum in all five of our elementary schools, the state of Connecticut wants to have a similar curriculum in every elementary school. So every child is receiving a a curriculum that's a a strong tier one reading curriculum, whether they're being read to at home at night and there's books in that home or not. So to me it spoke about equity. >> Um I've got William

148and then Dy. So, just to build on what Matthew was saying, um, with parental concern, there was, you know, reference to other districts and how much, uh, you know, higher their percentile of, uh, reading skill at specific grade levels was compared to Grten. And I think that's one thing that the public might be missing is how unique our school district is and the town of Graten is. I mean, it's one of the most unique, if not the most unique school districts in the entire state. So, to compare our our data and stats to Darien and Simsbury um is not really the best way to do it. um is to really look at how well we're doing with, you know, how many challenging um unique individuals that we're caring for uh in the schools and doing

149great things to try and and assist them and help them grow and uh and learn to read and and everything, you know, in the math and the science. we have such a um an incredible um unique diverse community and I think I'd like to recognize how how great the the district is doing in regards to that and uh understanding the challenges that we continue to have and and work on. >> Thank you Dean. >> So I recognize too the district is different. Unique is a word that's used all the time. We'll just leave it as we'll just leave it there. It's a very special district in a lot of ways. It's true. Um I don't recall anybody comparing Brockton to Derry or Simsbury. They might have and it might have overlooked them. I can't remember.

150I do remember comparison to Stoning, which again is not necessarily the same kind of apples, the same kind of apples. But what else are people supposed to do if you have no peers? Apparently, from what I hear, we're peerless. Well, then all those comparisons are useless. Well, some comparisons are valid. I wouldn't go so far as to say the parents are just imagining that there are problems. They do actually. They are the parents. They have kids. They are noticing things. Uh I'm going to have to give some weight to some of their observations. I don't think it fall their head. >> I don't even know. You're right. And I think that that's I think the children that are in middle school and high school that have missed out on what is going on now in

151our elementary classroom, they didn't get. So yes, there are problems and I think those test scores, you know, are going to reflect. >> Let's see. >> Okay, so I'm going to recognize Jay and then William again. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, so Denise, I I just want to clarify the screening procedure uh for dyslexia because there seems to be a perception that there are a number of still undiagnosed um cases of of dyslexia among students. So when you say universal screener, are we saying that every preK and K student is being screened with this dibbles um or is it just students who exhibit some other uh symptom before they're screened? So, we're using a Hagerty screening for awareness, preschool, preK, K1, two or we will absolutely be doing it for everybody next year. Um, but

152we also use the Dibbles 8 universally. So, I showcased the data from the beginning of the year, I'm going to be showcasing at the end of the year. So, you'll see, but that's all of our children and hence going forward. We did used to Jay um use it for intervention when kids started to struggle. we would use that dibbles 8 um assessment but now we're doing it um and then we've used the bance for concepts about print so we've used a lot of nationally normed assessments and resources to help us understand children when they ear in education when they first come to us if you want to say anything about that >> yeah like universal screeners like dyslexia isn't there isn't one test that just says you have to be dyslexic honestly Um there's several

153indicators and so a universal screener like the dibbles everyone in kindergarten gets it and we're just looking for those indicators along with other assessments other observations that teachers make throughout across the board on writing everything. It's kind of like when you go to the doctors and they take your blood pressure, they check your heart, they do those universal screeners, and then if they hear see or see something that could be an indicator, then that we do further like you use that core phonics and we use other assessments then um to help us really find out what's going on. >> So, so Jay, as of July 1st, we have to identify a universal screener for grades K through three. And we want to identify a universal screener that will identify all of those um components of

154reading that we talked about on STARS Scarboro's reading rope. And at this point, we feel that the Dibbles meets that. Um it is on the approved list from the state and it does address every area except for comprehension at the kindergarten and um grade one level because it's not developmentally appropriate. But we would use other things like a decodable text and teachers are are have always done a running record where they sit and listen to the child read and they notate the mistakes that they're making and where they're struggling. So that will continue but with the decodable text so we'll get valuable information. Jay, did you have a follow-up question to that? >> Yes. I just wanted to uh thank you for the clarification um about that and then I don't want to get ahead

155of what may be uh in the rest of the presentation but you know we talk about the the new deadlines from the state and I'm just curious um so the uh universal screener uh goes in by July 1st and I understand that in their wisdom they've selected six publishers for the reading curriculum. Um, so I'm just I'm just curious um are we looking at um uh you know trying some of those other um >> company to send them but actually I've had parents of children with dyslexia and other other professionals including the caps you know heads Fran Revenous who sat on the panel and not one of those they felt was really um as valuable as what we're doing in creating our model curriculum and teaching authentically and giving teachers the training. So they're more

156like a basil textbook with you know if you're in third grade I think Judy Moody is one of the stories in the whole class Judy Moody and I don't see any phonics in there at all. So, I really have concerns of an HMH publisher. Some publishers, if you find out who's going to be making a lot of money, you know, but I am for my own sake taking a look at it and I haven't paid a dime for them, but I, you know, they have shared with me and I have a sample here that um yeah, >> no, I don't. >> Does that answer Jay? Does that answer your question? >> Yeah, if you'll just indulge me one more thing. I've been trying to keep quiet so as to not interrupt the flow, but uh

157my concern is you know given the number of districts who are applying for waiverss, is the state um considering uh going back and and reviewing? Have you heard anything um from the state on on reviewing uh their their sort of their decision to just go with these six publishers? So, um, one of the concerns both Fran Ribbonitz and I have is that the same group that rolled out CT sets abysmally, PJ, what was it? >> PCG. They are the They are the group that they hired to do the greening waiverss. So, good luck with that one. >> And is there a date? >> No dates. >> It was submitted. >> Nothing. >> No, there's no word. No, but I mean when the state of Connecticut wanted uh district to adopt those six >> No, they've

158been put it off for a whole year that went through legislation. So, they've given themselves more time. So, and they say they will work with districts, you know, with a waiver process. Um, so like I said, I'm very proud of the work that our staff has done and that's really the work that should have been done at the state level to really roll out a model curriculum like we have proposed. >> So I can't wait to show them. >> Yeah, I just wanted to clarify I I you know I I chose the the two of the best uh you know performing school districts. Um, when I mention >> say new Kanan. >> Yeah, I didn't say New Kanan. I went I went with Darien. I'm so sorry. >> I've been talking to them too. >>

159Yeah. >> Is giving the community a reference of what our, you know, what our community is like, how diverse our community is, the student body that we have, and who to really compare it to and how we're doing. And when you do look at the the data of of the school districts that we are comparable to, you know, we're one of the top, which is just something that's excellent and we need to recognize. I don't think the community understands that. And so that's what I was trying to bring up. Um, so thanks. >> Don't don't get >> But I'm always looking for improvement. So I'm really feeling that this is going to really serve us well. We train these teachers really well and we expect it. I do the walkthroughs. I get the masterclass training

160and um it's going to be a heavy lift. The teachers are right. It's been a hard year for them, but they've actually come to me with some solutions that have been um wonderful. >> Well, we have this time now to plan our PD days in the summer and for when we return those two days before school starts. So, we'll have time >> days we'll focus on. >> I would recognize Beth. I I will say it's been a hard year, but it's been a rewarding year. Um and and things that we would maybe doing in snippets here and there, it's solidifying and it's it's spreading across the district, which is very um uplifting. I can tell you I was I did Hagerty as soon as we heard about it. >> Uh and I did it through

161the pandemic. I literally videoed myself doing the hangarling lessons, which is hysterical because you're staring at yourself in in a computer monitor. And my students did that and my and the parents were they loved it because they could put it on for their kids and they're like, I learned a thing, too. And then when we came back to see that growth that the kids made with Hegy and and explicit phonics, um, my kids this year are phenomenal. So, it's going to take some time for these kids to trickle up through, >> right, um, to have these really solid foundations. But, I think this work is exciting work and it's positive work and it's much needed work and we're in it. We're in it. We I think Corey can attest to that too that this is

162this is good stuff. >> Yeah. I mean, especially with our littlest words. I mean, my guys can tell you that u both say the ow sound, you know, they can tell you what a diagraph is. They can tell you what a blend is. So, it's it's a it's the things that they're doing. And I know it's it's Andrea's heart is swelling with pride. Um, >> and then when they go to write, they'll use it. >> This is kindergarten. You know, we're doing onsets and rhymes and all sorts of things. And I have to say, it's my favorite part of the day. Um, and and I hear them transfer this when they're writing. They're like, "Wow, that's an owl sound." And they go to our vowel valley and they find which one it could be. And

163so it it is hard work. What I am so impressed about is the the amount of the teachers are excited. Like when you when you got what you need to do your craft and do it well >> and you know you're doing the work >> and when you know you can come to central office and you can say, "Hey, things aren't going well. We need help. We need to do things differently." And we say, "All right, so what is it you need boots on the ground?" >> Right. >> Yeah. And I give the time and I did I shared that book shifting the balance with with um >> I bought it right away >> and I was like you got need to do this as a summer read. >> Yeah. >> And um >> took

164it to the page and it's one of those books that really spoke to me as a teacher >> and I knew it's something you know when you read something and you know that this is where we need to go and and it's exciting. It's an exciting time. >> Thank you. Thank you. I just ending I just wanted to say I really appreciate coming out and hearing from them because that's when you know you want to know >> right >> look what it did for us right well so we've done coffee chats at all of our schools with our teachers we're going to do a coffee chat with our juniors and seniors in high school where we just sit and listen and I've had parents come in to see me and I I think we're going

165to do a coffee chat here and just send it out to parents and Okay, come join us. All we'll do is listen. Just tell me your story >> because I won't know until I've heard the story from parents. >> Jay, >> yeah, I I also want to say thank you to to everyone who came out tonight. I think one of the misconceptions um and probably I had it and maybe some of our parents do is that somehow our reading program is monolithic. that there's just this one method that the state doesn't approve of because it's not on the list that they've approved, you know, this week. Uh but in reality, there are so many more pieces to it. Um and obviously each one of them uh is evolving and so um I appreciate this uh

166peak at how it all works and uh I'm very glad that the teachers are you know directly involved with um with the evolving curriculum. Uh it's not being just handed down from on high. Um and I hope the state will come around and understand the value uh of of their work. >> Thank you Jay. That was a nice nice hope so. >> So before I say motion to adjourn, let me just say that I learned tonight that the double is in the details and motion to >> I has a second. All those in favor please say I. >> I. Abstain. Motion is carried. Good night, folks. >> Please remember Wednesday at 7. >> Yes. >> RTM get our budget through.