Discussion 1: TransformationThe field of special education has seen many changes in the past two decades, from the right to a free and appropriate education for all students, to the educational placem
Read Chapter 9 in the course text and reflect on how you use literacy data to inform your instructional decisions and the importance of visual analyses of data to monitor student progress. How might you use data to collaborate with regular education teachers and families?
Read the Suggate (2016) article and note how data informs the research about best practices in literacy intervention.
Conduct a search to locate online and peer-reviewed resources on literacy progress monitoring tools and assessments. Think about how each resource might support teachers, families, and students.
Think about the literacy topics discussed thus far in this course (e.g., reading comprehension, vocabulary, etc.). Select one literacy topic and research a tool or strategy for special education teachers can use to allow students with exceptionalities to self-assess with regard to the selected topic.
By Day 3 of Week 7
The importance of conducting a visual analysis of data to inform instruction is that it provides a picture of what students know, what they should know, and what can be done to meet their academic needs. To show an appropriate visual analysis interpretation of data it can be analyzed graphically. According to (MSDE, 2016), states that “graphing data can give a visual display of information that gives a quicker meaning of the data”. The usefulness of the classroom monitoring data is to help you understand where your students are in relationship to the content standard indicators where you can make informed decisions about what you need to do next. As stated in (Daly et al, 2015), states that “graphs can provide the data interpretation of instructional decisions, which leads to greater improvements in student achievement”.
One strategy to employ that will use visual data to collaborate with general education teachers and with families is to use a visual display of data, because it encourages collaboration and conversation amongst teachers and families. According to (Renshaw et al., 2013), indicates that “visual displays of data have the potential to encourage and promote ongoing data analysis within collegial environments” and visual displays of data such as data walls encourage schools to track individual students’ progress within a class, across year levels and through P-12. Visual displays of data can promote choices through discussions regarding instructional strategies.
The three online resources that provide information and tools for collecting data on literacy skills are Literably, ReadWorks Digital, and ReadTheory. According to (CSE, n.d.), indicates that “Literably has reading-fluency assessments that has an approach to getting concrete feedback about an important aspect of your students' reading ability”. Literably can automatically score students' reading, but teachers should look at the results and listen to students' audio to spot-check accuracy and fidelity. Teachers looking to measure and track students' reading fluency, Literably can be a very useful tool. Side-by-side, full-week bar graphs give key information at a glance.
ReadWorks digital is a free website offering resources for differentiated reading instruction, specifically comprehension. There's a range of nonfiction texts, activities, and assessments as well as an online platform teacher can use to track student progress. An easy-to-use assignments dashboard makes it simple to grade student responses, track progress, and provide direct feedback. Multiple-choice questions are automatically graded, but teachers will have to grade short-answer questions and, if they wish, provide written feedback (CSE, n.d.).
ReadTheory addresses discouraged and frustrated readers by helping teachers ensure students are reading at or close to their independent reading level. ReadTheory's plug-and-play-style and text-leveling can best fit students' abilities and interests. While some quiz questions are challenging, students receive feedback including explanations for any wrong answers. Students are encouraged to read via Knowledge Points, which they receive for answering questions correctly, answering challenge questions, and completing written response questions that are then graded by their teacher. Some students will enjoy challenging themselves to gain more Knowledge Points and track their progress (CSE, n.d.).
My selected literacy topic is the content of reading comprehension and one strategy that special education teachers can use to allow students with exceptionalities to self-assess on that topic is think alouds. According to (Ronan, 2015), states that think alouds is “when reading content-related texts, students can learn a lot from teachers who stop to vocalize their thinking”. Young readers aren’t always aware of when their comprehension has broken down, so hearing teachers talk about their internal thought processes can help students mimic the strategy. According to (TEA, n.d.), indicates that “effective comprehension instruction helps students to become independent, strategic, and metacognitive readers who are able to develop, control, and use a variety of comprehension strategies to ensure that they understand what they read”. To achieve this goal, comprehension instruction must begin as soon as students begin to read, and it must: be explicit, intensive, and persistent; to help students to become aware of text organization; and motivate students to read widely.
Reference
Common Sense Education (CSE). (n.d). reading literacy. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/search?sq=reading%20literacy&searchType=review&page=2&sort=.
Daly, E. J., III., Neugebauer, S., Chafouleas, S., & Skinner, C. H. (2015). Interventions for reading problems: Designing and evaluating effective strategies (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Chapter 9, “Accountability” (pp. 192–230).
Maryland School Department of Education (MSDE). (2016). Analyzing and using the data. Retrieving from http://mdk12.msde.maryland.gov/instruction/progress/using.html.
Renshaw, P., Baroutsis, A., van Kraayenoord, C., Goos, M., and Dole, S. (2013). Teachers using classroom data well: Identifying key features of effective practices. Final report. Brisbane: The University of Queensland. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/teachers-using-classroom-data-well.pdf?sfvrsn=0.
Texas Education Agency (TEA). (n.d.). What is effective comprehension instruction? Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-effective-comprehension-instruction.
