001There we go. Good morning everybody. It is Wednesday, May 7th. This is a meeting of the Darian Board of Education Curriculum Committee. Uh we are very excited to have just one item on our agenda today to talk about um our final recommendations for K to3 literacy and our next meeting will be June 4th. And I will turn the meeting right on over to Dr. Pigan and Mrs. Stroller. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Par. Um we are so thrilled today um to talk with uh the board and the community at large about our district study. Um I want to just remind the group that this this district study has really taken the part the better part of two years. Um, and while we are talking about a resource today, I'd really like everyone to listen and and
002tune into um, the professional learning that has taken place as we have this conversation over the last two years and also the real clear focus on highquality practices for high um, teaching uh, literacy K3. And so this is something that we're going to continue to focus on. Again, not just a conversation around a resource, but what do we identify as best instructional practice for our youngest developing readers in the school system. I'm incredibly proud of the work of the committee. We have had a larger steering committee. Mrs. Stroller is going to talk to us a little bit about this that really encompassed um staff from preschool through grade 12 related service provider, special education staff. We had a smaller core review team that did a very deep analysis and then an even smaller subgroup of
003that core review team that took all of the feedback and really looked critically um to help analyze and make a decision to recommend uh to the superintendent how we'll move forward hopefully today. So um we also have with us some staff that have been very committed. There are so many teachers that have been involved in this work that you do not see at the table today. And I always say let's remember who's not in the room. And so I want to just take a minute to honor that staff. Um what they do day in and day out with our kids and their thoughtfulness. Um change can be challenging. Reflection can be challenging. Thinking about your practice and the opportunity for new and different can be challenging because teaching is an art and science and it's
004of the heart. Okay. So this is a really um it's it's something that is very near and dear to the people at the table and the people in their in their at home in their classrooms. We have Corey and Brown um with us today from Tokenique. She is on our special education staff. Next to her we have Bess McMe from Royal Elementary School. We also have um Arley Carr Harris uh from Tokenique as well. And we have also Natasha Tory who is one of our co-chairs. This um committee was co-chared also not only by Mrs. Droller and me but also by um Miss Shirley Klein. And we also had Paul Blekeley who was heavily involved throughout the subgroup um that made the recommendation to the superintendent. I'm also very grateful. I know we've had a
005recent um announcement that Julie Droller is going to be retiring. I'm very grateful for her steadfast leadership not only in this process but prior to um she spent a tremendous amount of time studying the district literacy um the state of the union and developing a waiver and staying in really constant communication with the state department of education. This is a massive undertaking and I'm very grateful for her leadership and I know that um I know that everyone joins me in wishing her the very best in her next steps. This has been a long journey uh with regard to K3 literacy and we've got really bright days ahead for Darian public schools and I'm sure she does as well with her family in her retirement. So I wish you the best Julie and I'm going to
006turn it over to you. Okay. Thank you. And we are very excited as Amy said um this has been a long process and a learning process for everybody. So just briefly some background on how we ended up here. The Connecticut right to read legislation um in 2022 was the impetus for us to really review our reading program. We did submit a waiver. our waiver was partially approved for phenemic awareness and phonics um and not for fluency vocabulary and comprehension. So at that point we engaged in a multi-year program review and as Amy said um we we engaged um a very large number of um teachers, administrators and staff from prek to um 12. And we have a list of those for your reference. We have linked the waiver decision, the letter to the superintendent, the
007rubric, and then our feedback. So, this two-year process, as you know, again, that larger steering committee, we really outline what are our core beliefs about highquality literacy instruction. We wanted to really start there and then get feedback from staff about what are our strengths and what are the areas of growth that we see. We reviewed resources on the state's approved list. We developed our own rubric based on our values as well as the curate rubric that the state developed and we carefully reviewed all of those programs and narrowed that down. We engaged in multiple surveys to staff. We started in 2023 with our first survey to staff and families and then we held focus groups up until this spring when we have more information and feedback. We engaged in a pilot as you know and
008um actually one site visit to a district that had just implemented into reading and we had I believe 12 educators that um visited classrooms with us and talk to people there. We have had regular as you know board of ed curriculum committee updates and board of ed updates and ongoing meetings with the state department of education. So the resources that we explored this year, we piloted into reading in 10 um teams across the district, all five schools in grades one through three. As you know, we did not do kindergarten because of play-based learning. Um we also explored new vocabulary resources, word love, and new updated writing units of study. In addition, we have continued to add decodable text to all K2 classroom libraries from a variety of um of vendors and resources. So our final
009review process, as Amy said, we had a smaller subgroup comprised of representation from all five elementary schools as well as ELP, gened, special ed, classroom teachers from all grades, including kindergarten, and administrators. And our goal was to make sure that we were representing everybody's voices to review all of the the survey data, the focus group data, feedback from the pilot uh teachers, all of our meetings, observations of teacher teaching and learning um and student data. We also discussed which I'm going to talk more about an updated version of interreading and we developed an instructional framework. We actually spent one whole afternoon developing this framework to clarify and organize how we were going to compare our current compendium of resources with the updates that we explored and into reading. So um this is linked but I
010just want to briefly talk about what we wanted to make clear again is we know that the teacher is the most important um component and we wanted to make sure that we have clarity about what are the components that go into highquality reading and writing instruction. What's the purpose? What is the teacher doing and what are the students doing? Not only will that guide our professional learning with teachers, but it will also guide how we how we onboard new teachers to the district and what our administrators look for when they're visiting classrooms and how we can provide high quality feedback to our teachers because we know that that's a partnership. And even within our group, just putting this down on paper and articulating this was really helpful because we said, "Okay, if we have all
011of this clarity, it'll be very easy to communicate with with all of our stakeholders." So, the next thing we did, thank you for um is we use that again to clarify our comparison of resources. So, that would be the next link. Yeah. Mhm. And this was sort of a notetaking document. Thank you. Um and this is linked so I won't go through it but what we did was we then took the component and we said okay let's look at our current resources and what are the what are the strengths and the areas of of the challenges what are we seeing in interreading and just some notes and the notes were like okay let's remember this or when we roll out professional learning let's remember this so you can see there was a lot of detailed
012discussion and this is really a synthesis of um best practice for us what's the different the different colors needing. So the highlight is when we said okay this is okay this is what's standing out to us as as um the more robust of the of the resources. Would it be possible to actually spend a little bit more time on that document? Sure. Do you want to do that now? Do you have questions on it now? Greg I just um I had gone I I did click on this when you when it was sent around read through it. Um, I was just curious like I I mean I see the recommendation at the end of this which we're going to get to, but as I read through this um I I definitely saw some pluses in
013the in reading column and some things you can see at the top here books are excellent. Um, but there were also a number of areas that seem like potential deficiencies um or areas where I don't know it see I couldn't tell whether it was places where we need to do more professional learning for teachers and they need to speed or whether it was actually deficiencies within into reading versus what we currently have like for example K1 phonics it says has a comment that says he gold standard similar instruction more examples and more opportunities for practice in heity prek to decoding basis equate to not enough dictation that magnunch and and those were things that we wanted just I wanted to just if you could spend a little bit of time talking about some of those
014areas and I think that's like how you get to the um the recommendation is is as important as recommendation so I thought this was the most critical document for me in terms of understanding the these this is this is all the different areas and how you know the the parts of this curriculum that we need to focus on and so understanding pluses and minuses really helpful. Yeah. Right. And and what our committee said is again every resource has strengths and and it's also contextualized for um you know your community and your students. So we noticed things that and I would say overall um where we highlighted into reading we found a lot of strengths and we also noted there are some areas like phenemic awareness was one of them in in K1. Phenemic awareness is
015really important and while interreading does highlight the key phmic awareness skills we felt like students needed more practice. So you'll see us you'll see me talk about that. um when I when we make when we share the recommendation um but we felt like yes that program and we want to supplement where um where we talked about we have to do this or we need to make sure we do this we're not going to take any program and say turn the page this is our curriculum we need to make it our own so those were the places where when we develop our curriculum this is our primary resource but we need to tweak it to make sure that it meets the needs of all of our students. Can I just ask one question? Um, this is
016and I appreciate what what Greg was saying because I I had the same feelings that I had printed out this document in particular. So, just um I understand you're going to supplement with Hagerty. My question had to do with um one of them was foundations. Um, great. Well, Robin, why don't we let them finish through going through because I think that they'll probably talk a lot about this. So, okay. I think many of our questions will be answered in the next Thank you. Okay. Right. Um, okay. So, going back to our slide, we determine the need for ongoing professional learning. Again, every all of these curriculums, all of these resources have strengths, but the most important thing is what does the instruction look like and how are we implementing that and is that the highest
017quality um to engage students and support learning. We used a consensus protocol and then we made a recommendation to the superintendent. So, I just want to talk about interreading version three for a minute because we did know that there was a new version that was coming out. When we had spoken to our customer service rep from inter reading a few months ago when we did the budget, he recommended that we not do it at that time. He wasn't sure that it would be ready for fall and there were some other issues. um and we later heard that it was indeed going to be ready and um other colleagues were looking into that you new version and gave us some feedback. So we met with him again and um we we agreed that it wouldn't make
018sense for us to go with a version that was going to be um not the most current. So the he gave us some information and the subgroup reviewed the changes and we work with them to maintain the cost. So just um an overview of the version three there's an integrated teachers guide. So, we may have mentioned this before, but in the current version that our teachers piloted, there is a found there are foundational skills for K2. And with the science of reading, they replaced that with a separate structured literacy manual. In this new version, it was all combined and integrated um so that teachers were not going back and forth. In addition, the writing and grammar was also integrated into so there's one teachers manual. There's a more comprehensive platform. There's more knowledge building in
019terms of the thematic units that are more integrated. Even the way they teach grammar is integrated with the theme of each module which just makes it more cohesive and supportive. Um there are some new texts that were embedded in the new version, not too many. There's a new uh more comprehensive uh presentation platform. They also have a new decodable library set for grades K3, which is really interesting. It aligns specifically with the program. So, it just enhances, but we don't have decodables in grade three right now because there aren't too many available. So, this was a nice plus. And they're class sets for small groupoup instruction. Um so, we just thought, why change? and if we're starting this. So, the recommendation to the superintendent following a thorough review and analysis of our current literacy resources,
020the interreading resource and their alignment with the Darian public schools framework for highquality literacy instruction. We recommend adopting interreading version three as the district's primary liter literacy resource. This recommendation maintains the use of Hagerty as an additional core resource to support phenemic awareness instruction. This recommendation is made with the understanding that a comprehensive literacy curriculum framework will be developed by the Darian public school staff and that robust additional and ongoing professional learning will be essential to ensure consistent highquality literacy instruction across the district. We recommend additional professional learning to provide the support necessary to ensure success. And I will say that one of the things in the state's right to read legislation is professional learning and ongoing professional learning and not because we have a deficit model because we have great teachers and they deserve
021to continually enhance their practice. So this is just a summary of the recommendations. Um I won't read it all because we went through it just and to be fully transparent with our subgroup. We had we we did use a consensus protocol. We had seven members that agree, four that agreed with reservations and one that stood aside. And the reservations were just about student engagement and differentiation and what we mean by fidelity, the implementation timeline and the time for necessary professional learning. I think our group talked about these and um addressed them. So, our literacy block alignment, we have delineated, we have that 120 minute literacy block, but we wanted to delineate specifically how we were going to use that time. And we developed a planning template for K2 and and third grade. And the reason
022that K2 is different is because they have a structured literacy component whereas third grade is foundational skills. So, can you click on the K2 and you will see in this and this is something that we again would give to our teachers. It's a this combines our instructional framework with a very specific time frame. And of course this is over the course of a week. It's general. We know some lessons will take longer than others. However, in general um and this was developed by teachers and the pilot teachers who are doing the program now. So this is realistic um this works for phenemic awareness 10 to 12 minutes and that's their instructional practices of visual and uh visual auditory and blending review. It's about four to eight minutes. And then he is quick. It's 5 to
023seven minutes in KN&N one. But again, those phmic awareness skills are so important that we wanted to have that extra double dose. And everybody felt that was critical. Phonx 11 minutes from into reading. And this is how it's broken down. Um really this specifically the focus skill and continuous blending is six minute instructional routine. And then spelling and dictation is another five minutes. The fluency piece is all embedded in with that instruction. And then there's instructional minutes for handwriting in those primary grades and high frequency words which is that orthographic mapping routine. reading for comprehension in addition to that decodable text library that I spoke about um interreading has decodable passages for students to practice on and there's a reading comprehension component that would be done during the um reading time. So that's where that
024would be embedded and then we pulled out vocabulary and reading comprehension. So again, vocabulary is 5 to seven minutes. That interactive or shared reading piece is 10 to 15 minutes and it varies from day to day. Um some days it might be an interactive readaloud, someday it might be a shared reading. The the lesson, the actual explicit instruction is 8 to 10 minutes. And then we we everybody felt that this was how we could um include that independent reading and that small groupoup instruction that were very important. So this will require curriculum development where teachers are pulling out what is the essence of that lesson and then how do we communicate that teaching point suggestions for modeling it active engagement and making sure that the learning target is explicit to students so that they can
025then go off and read and apply it in their text which would be a combination of decodable text, level text, um you know whatever is happening for independent reading. We did the same thing if you don't mind scrolling up a bit for writing. And this um Greg, I think that this will align with with some of the questions that you asked about that instructional framework. One of the things that we said was student engagement was important and we wanted to make sure that we know that the science of learning says that the learner is the one that's doing the heavy lifting. So, we want to make sure that the teacher is not the one that's doing the hard work. that that's actually on our students. So that means um again for writing it's about 45
026minutes in K2, 5 to seven minutes of explicit grammar and mechanics instruction, a 8 to 10 minute lesson, and then 25 minutes for students to write where the teachers would be pulling small group. And we felt that this was very important also because we've talked a lot about grammar um and the quality of student writing. And one of the things that we want to make sure is that we are teaching kids how to go back and edit their writing and that we're holding them accountable for the things that are taught. So we felt that a a five minute um time frame to really explicitly put this in our schedule and make sure everybody knows it could either be in the middle of that independent writing time or at the end. but teaching students strategies to
027go back and look at their work, reread it out loud. It could be independent or peer editing, but we felt like that was important and we will see the footprint of of that extra time. Thank you. Um, grade three is very similar. The only difference in grade three is that the foundational skills that piece is about 20 minutes and that is um the word work the the um decoding and encoding and it's a lot of multi-elabic work high frequency words understanding spelling patterns and that morphology um and the fluency again is is embedded in that. So 20 to 30 minutes depending on the lesson for the day but everything else is the same structure. You'll see vocabulary and reading comprehension are 55 to 60 minutes. Um, and the writing is 45 to 60 minutes depending
028again it's the 120 minute block and it will vary depending on day and the the lesson. So this is just what that 120 minute time aotment looks like. and then our implementation plan. So, we are actually meeting with um HMH this afternoon with our representative and um somebody from their professional learning department and we've invited teachers from all five schools to help us craft the plan. But what we would like to do is introduce all of our K3 teachers to version three. Um we have been told that we'll be able to get at least the first manual before school is out. So that will be really important because we want our teachers to see it. Um we do have access to the digital platform. So all teachers will receive their teaching guide. We will introduce
029them to the platform, the manual, the program and that piece. We have um our own teachers who um have volunteered to do that for us because they really know like what do our colleagues need to know? How can we best do that without, you know, with just giving them the highlights of what's really critical. So, we're excited about that. will pull grade level meetings um and use some of our PLC time and then also we want to introduce them to that instructional framework. We're going to revisit that again in August, but that's so important that we we want people to start thinking about that. Um and that really is is communicating our expectations for how time is used within that literacy block during the summer and summer for us is the day school gets out.
030Um we are going to develop curriculum guides for model for module one that first module. If we can get further than that um we will and I'm absolutely committed to work with teachers on that. We have our pilot teachers and our non-pilot teachers and we're going to really go through and pull out those the essential lessons. And like any program um you can't do all the pieces nor should you. So we want context matters and we want the to um tap into the expertise of our teachers who are familiar with the program and the students in front of us to really plan what does our curriculum look like. Um they are also going to help us plan professional learning for August. Some of that will be facilitated by pilot teachers. the instructional routines. Um we
031will work with um HMH and develop a plan that works for us on that. We are also going to review our current battery of assessments to determine when we'll use our assessments. Obviously, Ames web and our universal screeners we will continue to use. That's a state mandate. Um but what will we maintain and what will we replace? And I did look in um the version three. There are new updated module assessments that look pretty good. I think our teachers will like them. Um we're also going to develop a plan for continued professional learning throughout the year because as we said that ongoing support and collaboration is really important. And then in the fall, full implementation in in all of our K3 classrooms, professional learning, um primarily at at um the PLC's and our district PD
032days will be devoted to this. Um, and I'm going to say not just interreading, but literacy instruction, high quality literacy instruction really aligned with the science of reading and progress monitoring through our MTSS process, which is a really nice complement to the work we're doing there and this work um, and planning for targeted small groupoup instruction. What does this mean for grades four and five and beyond? So, we're going to continue to address areas of growth and speaking to our teachers that focus on writing in fourth and fifth grade. We haven't had a lot of professional learning in that area in a while, particularly the grammar piece. So, that will be our focus. We're going to build awareness about interreading through instructional rounds and professional learning for our fourth and fifth grade teachers. And then
033we want to continue analyzing data through our MTSS process, monitor our student growth and achievement. um and and then consider the implications for our next grades. But we want to really make sure that we learn as much as we can learn so that whatever happens next, everything is smooth and cohesive and our and our students are prepared and have the background. So just some closing thoughts, this work reflects two years of thoughtful review by our Darian educators. Um we are excited about our recommendation. It aligns with research. It it um includes staff input and it aligns with the state mandates. And we believe that it supports success for all students and consistency as a core tier one resource. So with that, and I know we said that before, we want to thank the members of
034our core review team who gave up a lot of their time um and engaged in some difficult conversations, the subgroup, our pilot teachers, all of our elementary educators who completed surveys and focus groups, and our entire prek to 12 steering committee and the board for your thoughtfulness and in-depth um participation throughout this process. Thank you Julie and Amy um and everybody. This was a huge huge lift and will continue to be a huge lift as we actually implement it. So thank you for in advance for all of that. Um just in terms of process can you Alan and Amy talk to us about what you need from the board like this is coming to the full board on Tuesday. What will the board need to do? So we first of all thank you to the
035staff here. Um this is the representation small as it is mighty as they are. Um representation of of all the staff and the expertise. Uh thank you to Julie and Amy for your expertise and your leadership through this. I'm particularly proud of the district's uh comprehensive approach to this thoughtful approach to it researchbased approach to it. Um having witnessed some of the meetings and being part of some of the decision-m sort of listening in. Um I want to share with you that uh I want to make sure like you may go like what's what's the superintendent role here right? Um I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. Um yes everybody can't be uh in agreement completely given the number of people that we have uh participated in this process
036but I'm very happy that it's been an inclusive process and a thoughtful one uh and one where I think people's voice voices have been heard and that's the that's one of the main things. Um, I also wanted to make sure how are we understanding because we were critical of the state. How are we understanding topics like resources versus curriculum versus instruction? What are we doing with TC? What are we doing with foundations? Just practical questions, right? Um, uh, what are we doing with some of those things? I'm happy that that we have positions on those and when we have consistent uh, understanding. I will say that um, May whatever it is it the 20 I don't think it's the 13th. I guess it's the 2, pardon. Uh I think it's actually 27th is the actual
037um calendar meeting that I'm talking about. Oh, is that so I will be bringing back a reconsideration of of uh what I think uh would be important for continual professional learning for the staff. But that's that's that's aside uh for the moment. The 13th really is uh is really an opportunity for the board to uh I'll just say vote on this thing, right? Um the the policies that we have are a wee bit contradictory in the sense of you just you put a team together. It's their recommendation. They can vote on textbook too so on so forth. But there's language in the in the policies that talk about twothirds vote uh at any given time uh that that the board has had an opportunity to provide feedback which this board has. Um so I think
038on something uh as significant as this I would like the board actually to vote um on the actual resource. We have I think it's 218 in the budget uh for this partic for this particular item. Um I think we're on budget for purchases. Uh so we want to get we want to get it rolling as quickly as possible. So essentially we'll be putting it on for discussion on next uh next Tuesday's board meeting. I would ask this committee to speak to it a we bit too um and be ready uh to take a vote. Okay. Open for questions. Go on. Sarah, can I um have a question? Yep. So, Katie was just gonna get you back. Um, thank you all. I we can't say it enough how much we appreciate the work and the the
039incredible amount of time that this took. Um, as it should. It should be a lengthy um process that's that's worthy of all this discussion. Um, I also just wanted to note that I really appreciate the links in the presentation as well. I think that this is a really nice comprehensive summary um that provides a lot of information in an easily digestible way. So, thank you for your presentation. Um so, I did want to ask just a couple of things um that you mentioned Dr. Alli about you know we've had this conversations about compendiums. We've been talking about word love and all that. So, just to be clear, we are no longer having this long list of resources and we are moving to interreading and he is that correct? Okay. So we're streamlining and kind of
040simplifying. So we are streamlining um interreading will be our core primary resource. And again the use of hegrity as like a five minute classroom routine is meant to be like a a a double dose like a boost. Um so he would be considered the only other primary core phmic awareness resource but as a complement to interreading interreading is the core primary resource. Great. Fantastic. And then just a couple other just to really like clarify a couple of those things. So um I appreciated the comment about the decodables as well. That's part of purchasing this as a resource will receive those. So what happens to the leveled readers and some of the other things that have been in classrooms. Will those be removed from the classroom? No. We still want students to read a variety of
041texts. And the research shows that they should be reading decodable texts, but in life, I mean, they're going to be reading other texts in science, in social studies, in other areas, and they should be they should have opportunities to read books that they that they can and want to read. And even after about level F, students should be able to decode successfully enough to to read any text. So, how will that work then? Like um because I'm not pushing back on the content and the variety at all, but I am curious about um the specific levels, you know, I'm thinking of like all the cute little baskets and you know, the assessments as they go through. Will that how will that work? So, so generally um the the what's in students book baskets is curated
042by teachers with students. So, for example, they might have three or four decodable texts on the skill level that they're working on. They might have a decodable text from a previous level if they're practicing that. And then they might have some choice books. And it might be um a beginning series book. um like we are not we are not looking at levels you know A through D at all but we do have some pattern books that kids enjoy reading and they should still be able to to read those books um in first grade when kids start reading the books like Biscuit and um Frog and Toad and morph into those books the series are very supportive and kids have enough decoding skills to read those kind of books. And it might be also that um
043you know because we want to make sure also that level J at the end of first grade that is that is a guide about where kids should be and we want to make sure that they are still reading those kind of books. Um the behaviors, the text characteristics like that is not going away. So, while we want to make sure that they have the strong decoding skills, we also want to make sure that they have comprehension skills and that they're not falling behind in the expectations of of the level of text complexity. Um, thank you. So just then to just so that I understand and I know that you said that um you're still reviewing assessments and that interreading has some and that you like so will that will the like leveled assessments will that
044be continued next year like where kids you know meet with the teacher and they move from like a B to a C and we we do not we we start um the F and P at level F and above below that we're looking at decodable running records. And the reason that we do that is because we want to see how kids are decoding in context and also um listen to their fluency and their comprehension. Okay. So like from an it will that happen? Yeah. Yes. I mean it's and again there's there's nothing more important than a teacher listening to a child read. We can do all of those assessments, but you want to hear authentically what's their accuracy, their fluency, and their comprehension. That that's really important. And we want to make sure that our
045students are reading at levels at or or above where they are now. Um, yeah. Can I just say Yeah, that's what that was going to be my next thing was to ask the teachers. Thank you. So, the interreading program, you speak into the mic. Sorry. So that the other sorry pull it forward. Pull it far back. Okay. Okay. Um so part of what Julie had said is that the team this summer is going to be looking at the kinds of assessments that we're going to be doing as well. So into reading we did do a little bit of like research into their kind of assessments and it's similar. they're they're still having it so that there are in those levels still. Um not doesn't have to be all the time, but sometimes. And when you
046walk into a teacher's classroom, you're going to see a variety of ways that they are setting up their classroom library. Um and like Julie said before, it could be there's the biscuit books or these books are all books that have sharks in them, whether they're fiction or non-fiction. Again, to get kids excited about reading. You know, as I've been here a long time, I spent hours upon hours upon hours leveling those books. I'm not going to now go through and spend hours and hours and hours taking off the stickers and the thing. I don't think that's what my time is for. So, those are still going to be on there, but maybe there's some maybe there's some G and H in the same or J and K in the same, but we're still going to
047be directing children to their just right reading as well as you need a little support here and you need a little challenge here. Does that make help? Yeah, it does. Thank you. Um, yeah, I just I remember that the assessments also were like really scripted, right? Like if you had more than two errors in this, then you didn't pass. And and that was also a big component with the kids about, you know, I'm at a G and you're at an N. And so I'm just curious about that culture shift as well. You know, we we never want kids to say I'm in a G or I'm in an A. But they do. I mean, but Right. We know they do. We think about it as bands. It's more about a band, right? So like I,
048J, K might go together or H and I might go together. So in the libraries, it's not like the basket is just A or B or C. It's a band A through C and then D through F and then G HI and then JK are together so that they understand you're in this band. You can read what's below. You can read what kind of where you're just right and you can read above because all of those things help them get to the components that they're working on as readers. Great. Thanks Robin. Sorry to cut you off earlier. Um and and thank you everyone for I think this process that you've gone through has been really excellent and I also appreciate the presentation and all of the links with the details. Um, so the questions I
049had kind of honed in on one of the points that were brought up on the the reservations that some had expressed specifically about differentiation and as in kind of my specific question about that had to do with one of the links where you were comparing the uh resources to interreading specifically on the writing piece where there was language about how uh with interreading stronger writers write less. And I the question I have is how will we ensure that all levels of students are going to continue to be fully engaged and challenged and kind of how are you approaching that? Thank you Robin. That's an excellent question and I think um one that we talked at we talked extensively about that and while it will say that there is some reservation you know when you have
050a group of people there's different degree of reservation. there were some people in the room that did not find that it was challenging to differentiate or or engage in small group. So what I would suggest before I ask our teachers who are most closely connected to how this actually um is realized in the classroom is that this is an area that does speak to the importance of professional learning because as the staff was talking about accessing um small groupoup instruction opportunities and differentiation they were they had the opportunity in the core review team to share about their practice together. And so they kept saying this is what we need. we need time together to talk about maybe I'm missing something here. How are you doing that? How are you actualizing that in the classroom? So
051again, it's not um a complete reservation that people can't see how you would have small group instruction and differentiate. It's a topic that we have to explore and make sure everybody feels confident and sturdy around and some of our pilot teachers um do feel actually very confident about that and again that will come out when we offer professional learning as we um implement a resource. But I don't know if if you have um commentary around that because you were heavily involved in those discussions um with our colleagues. Yeah, we could go. Um I think that um I approach this the way I always appro approach teaching and that to make sure every student in my class gets what they need. And I think that you have the majority of teachers that are doing that. With
052that said, um into reading there's a wealth of differentiated materials. Is it a little tricky to find? It is, but it's there. And I think that's where we that did it this year will be able to help the teachers that haven't done it. Like I'm still learning that there's so much information on that site. I'm still trying. I'm still finding it and figuring it out. Um, but it is absolutely 100% there. If you need something, I have a group that's, you know, needs to master short A. I'm going to go I'm going to look for short A. I'm going to look for decodables. I'm going to look for other ways to handle that. It's it's definitely there. And on the other side, those kids who maybe need a little bit more because they've already got
053it, I can dip into the next grade level if I need to um to use those resources as well. Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. So going back to your qu your point about the people that have reservations and whether it's small reservations, large reservations wondering if you can extrapolate out. So there was reservations among your group of 12, right? So if you extrapolate out to your however many elementary school K to3 teachers are there's going to be a few that are I don't want to use the word resistant but you know this is a hard change is harder for some than others, right? So maybe Natasha as like you like administrators, how can we support those teachers that might need a little extra push and time and like what's the plan for that? So
054that you know it's like a board decision when you're not necessarily on board but the board makes the decision you have to like go with the flow, right? So how do you how do you support how do you plan to support those people? Can you hear me? Yeah. Good morning. So I would again go back to the professional learning piece. So for example, the teachers who have been part of the pilot um some of the feedback that we got initially was that um some of the lessons felt long or students were on the rug for too long. Now that's been a concern sometimes regardless of the resource that we use, right? We're cognizant about how long students are sitting and listening and then actually actively going off and trying things independently. So I think the
055professional learning piece when our pilot teachers are able to provide that professional learning and if there's concerns about you know this lesson feels really long what do I do then we have the pilot teachers who have had that experience of how to shorten the lesson how to prioritize how to pull the lesson over two days or again what does my whole class really need and then what can be small group instruction or you know one-on-one conferring with students. So, I think again it's that professional learning piece and tapping into the experience this year of our pilot team um and how to have them support the teachers that it'll be their first time um engaging with the materials and using it to plan instruction. Thank you. So just one commentary about the professional learning. Members of
056our pilot team have also been very um generous with opening their classroom doors. And I think you know there is the concept of professional learning when kids aren't in front of us and then there's the opportunity to get into one another's spaces with kids right there to see in real time in real practice how is this how is this happening? Um so I'm really grateful for that and I I know that there's a willingness for that to continue in the year ahead. So this idea of instructional rounds or or just simply providing those kind of embedded coaching opportunities um in classroom practice will be really important in the year ahead. And I did ask the staff um while this is a you know more a more public um discussion today than it certainly was in
057the last couple of of weeks as we were nearing a recommendation. This has obviously been an ongoing conversation across our elementary schools for two years. So this is not going to come as a surprise to anyone, right? And additionally, what I would say is um because there's been opportunity for teacher voice both in the steering committee, the core review team and beyond all the way through. Um it's not been just a conversation with a small group of people. Um the other thing that I would say is this this team is definitely going to be able to accelerate the learning of others because they've had so that we have the benefit of in-house um familiarity to the resource and the instructional practice that's aligned. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. Okay. Oh gosh. Um I'm sorry. Just
058to add on to that, um I want to also express that In answer to your question about how to sort of pull people along, something that I really like about the generosity of the teachers who have piloted and who said that they would be open to sort of, you know, allowing everyone to understand the prioritization or really the like essential pieces of each lesson. Feel like that really leans into I'm a special education teacher. I feel like that really leans into the ability for the special education teachers to prioritize goals and objectives for their specific students and addressing those goals and object objectives around a larger curriculum. Um, and it's really nice to be able to go into a lesson and say, "These are the essential objectives of this lesson in the general education room
059so that I can then go and look at my students goals and objectives and align them so that it feels really integrated for all of my special education students in the classroom as well as when I'm pulling them out for small groups into um, you know, a separate setting. They feel like when they're in the classroom, everything is sort of streamlined as well. So, I I think that um it's a great opportunity for the special education teachers across the district to really um align with kind of the general education teachers as we embark on this whole process together. I think it's a really nice opportunity for us to do this. That's a great point. And Coran, you might and also our staff at at the end of the table next to you. Um, what I
060was going to say before is while when you're gaining consensus, right, you want to have a critical mass. Change management, the science of change is really complicated and you want to have a critical mass of people who've had a voice and been a part and understand the work leading up to, but I've been asking the staff, you know, day in and day out while you're there, what are you hearing from your colleagues outside of a survey, outside of a focus group, what are you hearing? And especially since this has been a more public um discussion about the recommendation to the superintendent. So I know this is not like quantitative scientific data but if you can give a general sense of how the staff is maybe entering into this recommendation how it's being received what would
061be your um I guess how how would you describe that? I think both of our piloting teams are excited about it. Um because you know in the beginning it's always hard because change is hard but the more that we've gone through the piloting process I think we're starting to understand how it all works together and we're seeing a lot of positive things. So everybody was very happy and excited to know that this was the direction we were taking on our team. Yeah. Um, same. And I also had, you know, gone in after we met on Monday. Um, and I talked to the second grade team as well and let them know. I felt like Charlie in the chocolate factory with the golden ticket like telling everybody this is what's going to happen. Um, so they
062are and they're excited. Um, you know, they're very excited about it as well. You know, I think our our third grade piloted, so they're excited. Our second grade, of course, our first grade. Um, so you know, we are excited about it. I hadn't I didn't have a chance to talk to kindergarten, but I know there was a kindergarten representation on Monday, and I think for them it might be a little hesitant because there was no one piloting. So whereas the other first grade teachers have us to lean in on, you know, they don't have that necessarily, but um we'll be there to support them the best that we can. They actually had a meeting with um some colleagues from Fairfield, their kindergarten teachers who have um implemented not only play-based learning but also into reading
063this year. Met with our kindergarten teachers and and um you know they were they were really helpful in talking to us about how it was going with them and some suggestions. just to stay on the professional development. Um, first, thank you for mentioning the special education integration. That's one of my questions as well. Um, and I appreciate how you gave a peak into that. I am curious to hear a bit more about like how that will happen. And um I'm absolutely fine with it being a follow-up as well, whether it's coming to the board for the next week, you know, even if it was like a slide or something that just had kind of that specific way about, you know, what might be the same or different in terms of professional development that the special
064education teachers are getting alongside or, you know, in addition to the general ed teachers and just some of those steps even that you were talking about. But I think like a quick visual on that could be really helpful because this is something that we talk about a lot, right, with like reading and with it being foundational and how that relates to kids who need extra support, you know, in elementary specifically. Um, a couple to that point first. Um, just thank you Katie. Uh, there were three several things that we learned through the process. Um, and to Coranne's point also about being a nexus between general education teachers and special education. Special education teachers will be part of the same training. they'll have the same understanding of the components. But I just want to go back
065to the the one of the f earlier questions which is what does interreing offer in terms of very explicit instruction and and I think some of the difference in some of the conversations were there's explicit there's explicit instruction in those areas we were looking for including fornology and morphology orthol and also um very from the teacher feedback which was exciting the idea of going into a multi-ensory different groups of what to do. So it's it's it's visual, it's auditory, it's kinesesthetic, and there's also connections between the different variables or the different components. So you get reinforcement, you get repetition when you're going from your phonology into your decodable books into your writing. So I think the the connections that happen among the different resources in this multi-ensory reading program really supports all learners and to
066Coran's point also helps identify which kids go into which small groups to get a second dose and or to really continue to work on the skills they may not have acquired at the same rate as as their peers. Uh and I think that's something that's really built in explicitly to the program. And when Beth was talking about the voluminous resources and kind of learning about them, they they they just went through each of those components. And that was really exciting, especially for special educators because we can go back into into whether there's um a resource room or a different opportunity to really work on those same skills that are happening within the instructional model they're working in. That is really exciting. Everyone's playing the same game, right? So that that's exactly just to go back
067to the writing because I was very was listening to the teachers who were piloting it. I got it was very exciting by the way being a listener. Um and at the same time I remember when you were speaking about um the writing and I think it was Robin's question just to speak about um the volume versus the breath and depth of it. And I remember a conversation you spoke about um about student engagement and about their writing. Did you just did you mind just sharing because I got excited when you said that because I'm thinking of to Coran's point well I could do writing goals in that area. Um that would really help reinforce that but they were excited about the writing component and and do you want to talk about that? Sure. So I
068think one of the things that made it really was that the pace was slower in the beginning which focused a lot on oral rehearsal and planning which is really and explicit teaching which is really important for our youngest learners and our students who are striving to meet the benchmark in particular and there are scaffolds that come along with that in the forms of graphic organizers and then as you move through the modules those things pick up pace. So in the beginning it's slow which gives everybody that access right and that repetitive access and then the pace really depends on the teacher and the child in front of you after that. Um but then those organizers remain through each module they just shift and change depending on what the module's focus is. So it it maintains
069that thread all the way through which I think makes it more accessible for students. Um, and I think that that slower pace in the beginning helps them understand the real basics of what we're trying to teach them so that then they're available to do it with more independence later on. That slower pace also allows for um someone who's special education staff positioning to really um understand a lot of times what students might have in pre-teing strategies and the pace is slower for this writing process to be um unveiled to the student. It allows for additional time for pre-teaching which may not have been allowed for as much before. So if we have a 4 day roll out of this oral rehearsal, we can as a special education staff go in and really take advantage of
070that additional time doing those oral rehearsals and also pre-teaching that next step that might be. Thank you Greg and Ramen. I can now see you guys. So do Greg you hand up. Go for it. Yeah. Um just a few follow-ups. Um, first I I think the documents that were at the links that were embedded within the presentation were really helpful. So I I do think that as it relates to the board presentation, having those front and center will be great. Um, I really like some of the new writing framework, including the increased focus on grammar. One specific question on writing. I saw that there was um a section that talked about handwriting. Is there anything on cursive? I know that that's a a new I guess topic that's coming back. um reiterate kind of piggybacking
071on K's earlier point as it relates to special education um and just reemphasizing that point. I think that throughout some of the framework it would be helpful to highlight some areas that may address certain IEPs like dyslexia and other things because I know that that's something that we've discussed as we've gone through this process. Um and then the last the last thing I'd say is just as it relates to process um you know I I do think that for the board going through those linked documents including each area of the curriculum highlighting pluses and minuses and really connecting the dots for the board between the instructional framework documents which is sort of like the curriculum roadmap going forward that you guys have outlined very well and the planning templates which summarize you know all the
072different feedback back and things for what we've got today versus what we expect to have going forward, including how other resources that may no longer be used that have been valuable are going to be addressed in the go forward framework. I think that would be really helpful for the board who hasn't been part of all these conversations necessarily and really just um carefully going through each of those would be helpful. And then the last thing is just I think if the board is approving new textbooks, I think that was a topic that Dr. Ali raised. Um, I do think that we should we should be able to review those textbooks per the policy that Dr. Adley referenced. I'm just not sure if the board if we vote to approve the this curriculum change as it
073relates to interreing and everything else. I'm not sure if that's necessarily an explicit approval or an automatic approval of the new textbooks as well. I know that we've had it's been a topic of of concern over the past couple years. So, I think getting ahead of that would be helpful. Yeah. So, that's where Dr. was saying our policy language is a little it's conflicting a little bit. So, um you know, I think the vote that we will take on Tuesday night is not necessarily to approve the specific gloss, but it's to refute to the curriculum in general. No, it is it is a tricky the policy language is tricky. Yes. It gets a we bit trickier as you get down into the elementary level um versus disciplines uh at the high school. But, uh given
074Go ahead. I I read that policy as well and it's actually explicit as it relates to textbooks and and the approval by the board for any textbooks and that textbooks is a lowercase T. So I think that new textbooks that are coming in need to be approved by the board. Oh yes. Well, that's that's why we're suggesting to do what we uh to do what we are planning to do which is to have you vote on that. Yeah, Greg, are you asking about the board being able to physically see the materials? Is that what is that what you're suggesting as opposed to just having these meetings um about the materials? I would say that the board should be given the opportunity to review the textbooks. Yes, we can certainly share the teachers manual. I don't
075know if we'll have version three. And within the manual, you can see the readaloud texts that are included. We can give you the student edition that has the text that students are reading. We do have currently they didn't change too many that I've seen. So that will give you a good idea. Um, we have to go. Oh, sorry. That's okay. We I I just wanted to say um thank you to the board for letting us come and share our experiences with you. I hope that it was helpful to hear from us and also some student things. Um, also though a thank you to Natasha and Amy and Julie and Dr. Adley for letting us do this. I know many districts the decisions were just made. Um, it was so nice that our voices were heard
076and um, yeah, there were some tough conversations, but I think, you know what, I think we all learned from each other and I really feel like it brought a lot of us together and I um, I do appreciate us being able to do this. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for all your time here. Um, are there other questions? Well, yeah, go ahead. Okay. Um, I I just have a couple of other questions and requests that I'm happy to just mention quickly and we can follow up with. Um, but I am curious about continuing the conversation on what continued professional development will look like throughout the year. Um, I'm also curious about how that relates to um, you know, the roll out to four and five and beyond. um you know, we
077like what kind of plans might we be having or developing to to look at the middle school and the high school, right? And I understand that that's probably not something that we're answering today, but I'm I'm just curious about what that timeline looks like, right? As we implement a new resource and as we move forward and we, you know, are thinking about rolling that out, I hope we continue that conversation. Um so um and then I also wonder a little bit in terms of professional development like with instructional rounds and with all of these different things like if something needs to give. So again just for the board and for administration to continue that conversation about balance in terms of making sure that our teachers have what they need to be successful in the day
078but that we're not overtasking them and we're not pulling them away from their kids. And then um switching to another section, I did have a couple of questions. Um again, happy for follow-ups later, but just in terms of some of the specifics like um one of the things a mini lesson in reading, I'm curious about like an example of a specific skill or strategy because I know that in the past there were a lot of those and that some of them were a bit contradictory to the phmic and the science of reading. So, I'd love to see like a little example of that at some time. And I'm also curious about what independent reading looks like for pre-readers. You know, what like I I absolutely get that when we have, you know, solid readers who
079are diving in and, you know, sufficient on their own, but what does it mean for a kid that isn't able to, you know, decode the words on their own? Thank you. I know that was a lot and I'm happy to follow up an email as well if that's helpful. One thing I just want to say with this time frame in kindergarten that independent that was a K2. So in kindergarten 10 minutes especially at the beginning of the year. So just to just to touch on Greg's question um I was figuring that since the involvement of this committee all along has had a good idea of how that would metriculate into the actual text. But if if the board wants to see the text uh either at this committee level or at a board level, that's
080fine. Then we would probably uh have them ready for as soon as we can and defer the vote until the following. I mean, that's what would have to happen if you wanted to look at a text type thing. I mean, I'm wondering if you said there's access to digital platforms. Can you give that that access to the board or is there a certain number of licenses or if we we're meeting with them today so we'll see if we can get if not like I said the version two in terms of the text that students are reading there's only like one or two texts that I've seen that have changed. If I could also suggest I I'm comfortable and I don't personally need to have the books in my hands. However, if you know if there
081were some materials that maybe you could just have a window for board members to stop by and just let them know that they're available in a conference room. I think Yeah. Yeah. And and Sarah, I'm comfortable, so I don't need that either, but I agree with um that recommendation. I I wouldn't want to hold up the vote because I understand there's a lot to do right now for the teachers as well. Yeah. I think if we just just want to offering it seem to be rushing it too because like you know we got the meeting next week um to say you can come in and look at it seems a very after two years of through this seems a very rush sort of like process at the end of it if that's the case I
082think maybe I think it might depend on appetite I mean I think at least three or four of us if you were open to like you you were have asked to see because if if they were able to give you a window like hey stop by 35 Leroy would that be sufficient. Yeah, it's more like I think in our policy like the way it reads is that like the the board has to has like for any textbook that's in the school, the board has to approve those textbooks. So, I think this is really just giving us an opportunity to actually say like, yeah, we got a chance to look at the textbooks, what whatever form that may be before we went and actually voted on going in. So, that way I know that there's been
083issues on this over the past couple years. This will potentially alleviate those issues because now the board will say like, "Yeah, we we didn't just approve the program. We actually had the opportunity to look at the textbooks and they look good." And just to clarify, so it would we can absolutely provide access to version two. Version three, it's not that the um content is different. the organization is a little bit different especially with how with regard to the structured literacy but um that wouldn't be anything that I think would um kind of influence uh a board member or administrator's decision- making about the resource um but we can absolutely get those to to Leroy Avenue for you to have a look at. Sarah may say so just to clarification it's a teachers edition of a
084manual it's a manual teachers so it's not an actual textbook just when the board is reviewing it it's it's a manual for teachers comprehensive manual and the second part decodable text if it is okay with the board I it is available you can see samples electronically so if that's if that's how access okay anything else I'll just say probably for Tuesday we could talk about the professional learning that will take place within the structure that we have tonight and then and then there's a further 27th above that. Okay, perfect. Um public comments. Good morning. If anybody in person or online would like to participate in public comment, please approach the podium or use the raised hand icon. Wait to be recognized. And please note, you'll have up to three minutes to comment. Please state your
085name and address for the record when begin speaking. We have no raised hands at this time. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. All right. Have a good day everybody. Thank you.