Striving Readers

Content Enhancement Routines for Teachers (CERT) Orientation

Presented by

Christine Deitz & Steve Brown, Secondary Literacy Coach Team

Striving Readers: Key Facts• 5-year, $16.6 million grant, 1 of 8 in the US

5 participating high schools:– Springfield: Sci-Tech, Commerce, Putnam– Chicopee: Chicopee High & Chicopee Comprehensive HS

• Randomized control trial evaluation• GOALS:• To improve the reading skills of more than 3,500 students

over 5 years• To train more than 550 teachers in targeted interventions to

improve reading, and content enhancement routines in all subject areas.

Springfield / Chicopee Striving ReadersSpringfield / Chicopee Striving Readers

Grant Requirements:

1. A whole school intervention

2. Targeted Intervention for students 2 or more years below grade level in reading, down to 4th grade reading level.

3. Strict Research Model (Randomized Trial with Control Groups)

Business As Usual

Business As Usual

Small Control Group

Small Control Group

SIM(Strategic Instruction

Model - KU)Xtreme Reading

Read 180(Enterprise Edition –

Scholastic)

* Whole School Intervention: Content Enhancement Routines for Teachers (CERT): Unit Organizer, Frame, Vocabulary Lincing,

Concept Devices, etc.

•Content Enhancement

Routines for Teachers (CERT)*

•Motivation•Interacting with

Others•Learning Strategies

•Study Skills •Remembering

•Reading•Writing

•Organizing

•Traditional course offerings

•Special Education courses

•Inclusion, etc.

•Whole group direct instruction

•Small group direct instruction

•Read 180 Software

•Modeled and Independent

Reading

&/OR OR

1 2 3

4

KU-CRLUniversity of Kansas Center for Research on Learning

• Founded in 1978• Mission: Dramatically improve the performance of at-risk

students through research-based interventions• $80 million dollars of contracted R&D• International Professional Development Network• Over 400,000 teachers in 3,500 school districts

Vocabulary LincsVocabulary Lincs

All Content Enhancement Routines MUST:

• Be able to be infused into any content.

• Apply to HALO (high, middle, low, other) achievers.

• Be easy to teach and evaluate.

• Make a positive difference.

Content Enhancement Routines for Teachers

(CERT)Planning andLeading Learning• Course Organizer• Unit Organizer• Lesson Organizer

Explaining Text, Topics, and Details• Framing Routine• Survey Routine• Clarifying Routine

Teaching Concepts• Concept Mastery Routine• Concept Anchoring Routine• Concept Comparison Routine

Increasing Performance• Quality Assignment Routine• Question Exploration Routine• Recall Enhancement Routine• Vocabulary LINCing Routine

How well does ContentEnhancement really work?

• In each study, students gained an average of at least 10 to 20 percentage points on tests or tasks that required students to demonstrate learning.

• In general, the greatest gains were seen in classes where teachers had the highest expectations for student learning and were consistent in their use of the routine over time.

How Content Enhancement Supports Adolescent LiteracyAll students are increasingly required to…

• Think Critically• Apply knowledge to new situations• Listen, speak, read, and writing • Pass high stakes tests

7 Aspects of Adolescent Literacy • Alphabetic & phonetics• Word recognition• Fluency• Comprehension• Vocabulary• Background knowledge• Text structure

Specialized Instruction

Whole School / CERT

1.Graphic organizers• visual learners• “big idea” learners

2.Maximizing student participation3.Drawing on prior knowledge4.Higher order thinking questions5.Connections to other learning & connections to real life6.Memory tricks / mnemonics7.Formative assessment8.Routine implementation steps that “smooth out” classroom management issues

Instructional Rationale:Not just Graphic Organizers

Mythbusters

• Not about making teachers useall of the routines all the time

• Not about adding material to what is already taught; teachers use current course content

• Not about merely reformatting old lessons but enhancing them and trying new teaching routines

• Not “1 shot professional development”• Not “unsupported and unfunded”• Not “one way”• Not “just 5 years”• Coach Supervisor

How Am I Supported?Time and Money

• Daily opportunities for on-site support• Co-constructing lessons•See modeled lessons •Co-teaching lessons•Debriefings to providing feedback for lessons/devices

•Technological & resource support•Individual attention•Prep periods?

EvaluationEvaluation

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The Role of the Coach-

• Steven Brown, Literacy Coach, SIM/CERT Professional Developer

• Room 311• X 4311• sbrown@chicopee.k12.ma.us

• Sheila Hoffman, Striving Readers Coordinator•CHS Dial 8, 3437•CCHS x4311

•Becky Fennessey, Vice Principal•Kris Theriault, Vice Principal, SIM/CERT Professional Developer

•KU CRL - http://www.ku-crl.org/

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Contact-