“Assess the adequacy, accuracy, and appropriateness of the author’s evidence to support claims and assertions, noting instances of bias and stereotyping.”

The problem:

A typical middle school class is not long enough to teach both content standards in language arts, math, science, social studies and differentiate instruction for literacy skills.

For example, in one district, the teacher workday began at 8:05 am and ended at 3:45 pm. Actual class time began at 9:05 am and ended at 3:30 pm. Students did not have access to teachers in the morning between 8:05 and 9:05 am. That left only 15 minutes after school to meet differentiated needs — not enough to address the needs of students.

The solution:

Bell schedules can be changed. Strategic use of the bell schedule is crucial for providing student interventions during contractual hours without taxing the site budget or asking teachers to volunteer their valuable time.

For example, in order to provide additional academic support for students who need it, one school changed its start and end times to 8:25 am to 2:50 pm with a minimum day on Fridays (8:25 am to 1:15 pm). This provided students with 55 minutes of additional access to teachers Monday through Friday, adding 3 hours and 40 minutes weekly for potential interventions. Friday minimum days allow 2 hours and 30 minutes weekly for professional development, examining student work, and adjusting instruction based on analysis.

The problem:

Middle schools do not know the literacy needs of each student. Unfortunately, many elementary schools do not provide data that would help the middle school know why a student is struggling. Standardized tests reveal a student is behind but they don’t provide a clue about the underlying problem.

The solution:

Every student — 6th through 8th grade — should have the benefit of a literacy screening. Teachers must know what kind of support each student needs, and the assessment should be repeated throughout the school year. Schools need to identify literacy strengths and weaknesses in four areas: decoding, fluency, comprehension, and usage. If you don’t know the specific problem, you can’t effectively fix it.

The problem:

Students arrive in middle school with a need for continued foundational literacy skill development that teachers are not trained to teach.

The solution:

Middle school teachers must participate in professional development and build their capacity to teach literacy. This will allow teachers to incorporate literacy strategies to support student needs identified in a literacy screening.

These strategies must be evidence-based with research showing they have positive effects on student achievement. The Educator’s Practice Guide contains four evidence-based practices that middle school teachers should be able to implement.

The problem:

Students who struggle with literacy do not all have difficulty with the same skill. A child who can decode may not have the vocabulary to understand a lesson. This is particularly true for English language learners. A child may be unable to combine sounds to create words. A child may be unable to meet writing goals. Many students can read words but lack comprehension of ideas.

The solution:

Redesign the master schedule to support flexible grouping based on ongoing assessment and student need. These learning groups are based on student literacy needs rather than reading level. For example, students who are struggling with morphology would be put in the same group. The initial screening assessment provides the data teachers need to create these groups. This approach leverages time for teachers. After students learn a skill they can move to a different group.

The problem:

Too many students are arriving at middle school with significant gaps in their literacy development. Students are entering middle school not knowing digraphs (two letters representing a single sound, e.g. ch, th), how to spell sight words, limited reading fluency, comprehension…

The solution:

A heavy concentration of district resources to deliver high quality evidence-based literacy instruction in Pre-K through 2nd grades. Any student requiring additional support must have access to resources to meet their identified needs. High quality instruction is not limited to the classroom setting. It must include targeted tier 2 and tier 3 interventions when necessary, and continued support at home.

The problem:

Students do not take responsibility in their literacy development. Teachers communicate the areas of growth and concern for students. Students take a passive role in their own educational development.

The solution:

Students familiarize themselves with their literacy screening. They develop goals based on their literacy screening and track their growth in preparation for the Student-led Conference. The student shares artifacts indicating their progress towards completion of the generated goal. This assists with building a positive internal dialogue for a student and creates ownership over their literacy development.