Doing What Matters Most: Making Every Minute of Learning Count
While many had hoped the pandemic’s disruption would be “over” quickly, by now, we’ve realized that the road to recovery is indeed a multi-year effort. Not only had academic progress been disrupted, but, more importantly, as they were taught through a screen, some students had even fallen out of love with their learning.
This year, as we continue down the road to recovery, our instructional and professional development strategies have been built around the urgency we feel, not only to make up for lost learning opportunities, but to ultimately get all of our scholars achieving at grade level standards and beyond. In the interest of accelerating, not remediating learning, we’ve been focused on ‘Doing What Matters Most’. In other words, we’ve been prioritizing and re-focusing our efforts to get the best results possible.
School Principal Jessica Yiannos shares, “Collectively, there was a lot to be proud of when reviewing our data. But as a school community, we knew it wasn’t enough. We asked ourselves, ‘How are we going to be strategic to make the most of the next year with these students? How are we making up ground for the time we’ve lost, and getting scholars where they need to be’?”.
These questions helped us develop three major priorities for the year that would drive all of our work with students.
Prioritizing Strong, Data-Driven Instruction.
Continually Monitoring Student Understanding.
Providing Teachers with the Support and Professional-Development Opportunities Needed to Accelerate Learning.
Strong Instruction
While our instructional approach has always been rooted in data, this year we’ve really prioritized a deeper, more uniform integration of data-driven practices. During the pandemic, teaching reading and literacy skills through a screen presented a unique challenge. Like many other students, upon returning, our scholars demonstrated a greater need for support in this area.
In elementary school, some of the approaches we took included being more strategic about which assessments informed our data-driven reading conferences. We based some of these shifts on the emerging consensus around the science of reading and used this to strengthen aspects of our overall instruction. We have also done focused work on developing staff expertise in the science of reading and ensuring that we are using research-based strategies.
Elementary School Assistant Principal Shawna Mitchell shares, “what works most is when students are attending to visual information, letters and sounds, and using the clues right in front of them, rather than guessing. Some students came back after the school closure, and lost the ability to solve words quickly on their own, and so we dedicated time in the beginning of the school year to working on the necessary foundational skills to remove that barrier and get our scholars reading independently again”. This work, however, goes beyond just recovering those lost literacy skills. Ms. Mitchell explains, “Students fell out of love with books over the pandemic. We wanted to make sure that they not only had access to books on their grade level, but also fell back in love with the reading experience”.
In the middle school, we made significant schedule modifications to include more time for differentiation in the form of our tutorial block and a study hall blocks. This made more room for specialized instruction and targeted support through small group work, without having students miss out on core content classes.
Monitoring for Understanding
While remaining a top priority, strong, data-driven instruction, alone, is not enough. By marrying strong instruction with frequent opportunities to monitor for understanding, we are placing teachers in the best possible position to support accelerated student learning and growth.
Across both the elementary and middle schools, we’ve increased opportunities for teachers to review data in team settings to foster collaboration and problem solving.
In the middle school, up until this year, we’ve prioritized collaborative time for whole grade teams to review data. However, this year, we’ve also made time for instructors of the same subject area across different grade levels to collaborate as well. Creating this collaborative time allows middle school instructors the chance to think critically about the middle school curriculum as a whole, and make modifications where more vertical alignment is needed.
In the elementary school, teachers are reviewing data, and designing weekly lesson plans in direct response to identified growth areas in student performance. And, on an individual basis, If a student has a specific reading goal they are working towards, their teachers are creating checkpoints for them in differentiated, small group work, and monitoring for progress and understanding between assessments.
Professional Development & Support
Overall, these structural modifications to our instruction are mainly supported by the work being done behind the scenes to support our teachers, develop instructional expertise, and ultimately, accelerate learning. When it comes to professional development trainings, we have done a great deal of work to revamp our vision to ensure additional uniformity across instruction. Part of this required that our leadership team and grade-level chairs invest time into preparing curriculum for teachers prior to the return of all staff in August.
Not only is this done with all teachers in professional development days, but our Associate Teaching program this year even includes working with a literacy trainer to support with literacy intervention. Kate MacDougall, 4th Grade Teacher, who also serves as a Literacy Trainer and has been working with Associate Teachers to embed foundational reading skills as well as support them in creating high-quality lesson plans.
What is the Impact? How Have Our Scholars Grown?
Assistant Principal Shawna Mitchell shares, “I have seen a huge improvement in fluency and accuracy as a result of this work. So many of our scholars are catching up and moving quickly through reading levels, and I am hoping by the spring to see many more scholars reading at grade level.”
First grade scholar, Chloe Lenteu, has made incredible growth in her reading since starting at Springfield Prep this past September. In her time here, Chloe has grown more than 4 ‘step’ or reading levels— meaning she’s made over a year’s worth of growth in just over four months at Springfield Prep.
“I am a strong reader because my teachers always help me. They show me how to put myself in the character’s shoes in every story. ”
First grade teacher, Vielka Ortiz reflects on Chloe’s growth, sharing: “During reading conferences, I get to have that one on one time with Chloe and it has definitely helped me learn her individual needs and support her growth. This year we are really diving deep into differentiated, small group work, and in that time, it’s been a joy to see Chloe become a more confident reader”.
In her work with the associate teachers, Kate MacDougall notes, “I've seen the ATs become a lot more confident with their small groups. They really know their scholars and where they are with their reading skills, as well as any misconceptions that have occurred along the way. Having this foundation goes beyond just reading a book to students, and asking questions, They can actually embed a lot more skills along the way.”
As we continue on the road to recovery, we know we will only make progress if we continue to work in partnership with one another. By focusing on our most important priorities, or ‘Doing What Matters Most’, we know we will deliver on providing our scholars the tools they need to achieve success.
