Based on previous and current school data, I identified a need to improve the overall reading abilities of third grade students. More specifically, identified phonics as a deficit in many third grade students. To attempt to increase reading abilities among third grade students, I engaged in LETRS, and learned about effective reading instruction. Based on that knowledge, I implemented research-based strategies, such as small group targeted phonics instruction to students based on their individual needs as reflected in the CORE Phonics Assessment data. After 13 weeks of implementation data was collected, and each student showed improvement on their CORE Phonics Assessment. All students also grew on their i-Ready Diagnostic in the areas of phonics. Based on the results, I will continue implementing the research-based strategies, and determine additional strategies that may further increase reading abilities consistently over the long term.

We have found that special education students show the lowest percentages on state assessments, common assessments, and national assessments. This could be due to a variety of reasons, but one reason that will become the problem of practice, is that students with disabilities are under performing in the core classrooms. To attempt to address our underperforming special education students, we implemented strategies, such as co-teaching in both math and reading classes, a master schedule to help lower the number of special education students in a classroom, and instructional help in both science and social studies classrooms. After one year of implementation, our special education students reduced the percentage of novice, on both the Kentucky Summative Assessment, and MAP test. Our school also moved out of the TSI category for special education. Our results indicated that we will continue to provide these supports for our special education students, and continue to implement further research based strategies to help increase the performance of these students.

Every teacher knows that our groups of students are sometimes stronger or weaker than previous groups. Long gone are the days that we could attribute it to lead paint, leaded gasoline, or iodine deficiencies. Nowadays we can blame TikTok, Snapchat, and copious amounts of sugar. Nevertheless, I can say that I have noticed my students are stronger in some areas but much weaker in others. The students in my middle school classroom seem to have trouble setting defined expectations for their progress, but also the progress of their peers. This specific form of collaboration is necessary when learning about workplace norms and expectations.
I decided to utilize some New Tech strategies when attempting to tackle the problem of solving their collaborative struggles. Group contracts were written, signed, and revisited periodically to make sure that students not only understood what was expected from them, but also expected from those working with them. This was done as an attempt to not only inform students of expectations but to get them to hold each other accountable for adhering to it. Just after starting the new Trimester, I gave students a sample contract and asked them to look it over and "dissect" it's parts. We then decided what was necessary for a good contract, and what wasn't. Students drafted their group contracts, signed them, and for 8 weeks we attempted to revisit them and see what was working and what needed changing. Students quickly realized that having to revisit the contract for every little detail was annoying, and they didn't want to keep editing them. What I discovered from all of this was that by students thinking they were responsible for the entirety of the group, they often gave subtle reminders to each other almost as warnings. This was done to keep them from having to go back to the contract, and sort it out. They would rather just give a subtle nudge, then moving on (as long as the behavior stopped). These results indicate that group contracts can help mitigate teacher involvement in some group settings. The class style, structure, and purpose may need to be be specific for it to work, but in some situations it seems to work well.

Based on my engagement in the LETRS Reading Academies, and administration of the Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST), my students lack phonological awareness skills. In an effort to strengthen these skills, I implemented research-based strategies providing systematic, daily instruction in Phonemic Awareness skills. Additionally, I included use of hands-on, concrete materials to aid language processing, cognitive, and motor delays. Data was collected across nine months addressing three phonemic awareness skills. All students made growth, or mastered the target skill presented: Concept of Spoken Word, Rhyme Identification, or Syllable Segmentation. Clearly, systematic and daily instruction has a positive impact on skill development, for all students. These results indicate that providing explicit, systematic, daily instruction in phonemic awareness skills, using visual prompts, tangible objects, and graphic organizers, should continue to be a part of the resource reading instructional practice.

Based on iReady diagnostic data, a teacher at an elementary school identified a need to improve vocabulary instruction. To attempt to increase the vocabulary of students, and implement high quality instruction, the Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate implemented research based strategies, such as the Frayer Model, and focused on explicit vocabulary instruction for students from special populations. After one school year of implementation, the percentage of students on grade level in the area of vocabulary increased by 34%, to a total of 80%. These results indicate the elementary school should continue the implementation of explicit vocabulary instruction, using research based strategies to show consistent growth over time.

Based on observational data from my Pre-Algebra class at a local Middle School, many students struggle with written communication. This is preventing them from applying new concepts, since they are not able to understand problems in context. In order to address this problem, I will incorporate more written tasks and prompts, including strategies for identifying procedures. This will allow me to help students improve their written communication in my Pre-Algebra class that students need in order to be successful.
I implemented the use of PBL and PrBL practice cards, to ignite discussions and enhance the content I was teaching. I also implemented the four corners strategy, to support and revise students' written communication. In addition, students participated in Throwback Thursday's, in which we revisited previous content or gaps in learning, along with rewriting written responses. After the period of a school year, 67% of students met i-Ready goals, and increase one grade level in math. In addition, student rewrites of written responses increases from 45% to 85%. My results indicate that I should continue to implement strategies from this year, to continue to help students improve written communication in math. I would also like to include additional strategies, to increase the rigor at which students are able to communicate.

Based on math i-Ready data, our middle school identified a need to improve our achievement gap. To attempt to close the achievement gap, the Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate implemented research-based strategies, such as Problem Based Learning Tasks, effective feedback, writing skills, and creating safe learning environments, to improve student achievement. After 2 years of implementation, the i-Ready data showed a decrease of 10% in students that are three or more grade levels below in math. The results indicate that the middle school should continue to implement these strategies, and maintain this focus to continue to decrease the achievement gap.

Over the last year, I have focused on direct, hands on, phonics instruction in my second grade classroom. I used data from a CORE Phonics Survey, and MAP Reading assessment that were given as diagnostic assessments three times throughout the year in fall, winter, and spring. I took this data, and used it to guide my whole group phonics instruction, as well as my small group instruction, for interventions. Using this data, I specifically taught direct phonics lessons as a spiral review in a whole group setting. I also used this data, as well as weekly formative assessments, to guide direct phonics instruction in my interventions. Along with these direct lessons, I used multi-sensory approaches to learning literacy, as scaffolds for my struggling students. As a result, I saw the majority of my students flourish in their independent reading sills this year.

Based on my engagement in the LETRS Reading Academies, and Dibels data, I, as an educator, need to increase my professional knowledge, and understanding, of effective phonemic awareness and other literacy practices, based on the science of reading, to impact student learning and phonemic awareness. According to my Dibels data, 60% of my students needed intensive or strategic support in letter naming fluency, 71% needed support in nonsense word fluency, 64% needed support in word reading fluency, 67% needed support in words read correctly in oral reading fluency, and 72% needed support in accuracy of oral reading fluency.
In order to increase phonemic awareness and impact student learning, many research based strategies, techniques, and curriculum were implemented in my classroom. After implementation, Dibels intensive and strategic support percentages dropped from 60% to 47% in Letter Naming Fluency, from 71% to 56% in Nonsense Word Fluency-Correct Letter Sounds, from 64% to 53% in Word Reading Fluency, from 67% to 50% in Oral Reading Fluency - Words Coded Correctly, and from 72% to 58% in Oral Reading Fluency - Accuracy. Therefore the number of students needing intensive and strategic support, such as reading intervention, went down from the beginning of the year to the end.

Every year the number of students in Kindergarten with Sensory Needs seems to be increasing, based upon prior analysis that has been conducted regarding the Elementary School’s Brigance Results. The Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate will target students that have been identified in the Brigance assessment as lacking in the areas of Social Emotional Development. These targeted students participated in a Tier 2 in a Check-in/Check-out (CICO) intervention program, supervised by the Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate. After 43 days of participation of the targeted student, the Candidate was able to get an idea on the CICO chart’s effectiveness that the Candidate had implemented. The results were very favorable. Out of the 43 total days recorded, the student met their behavior goals 34 of the 9 days. So these recent results perfectly illustrate how a CICO program modified to address the needs of younger children can be very beneficial. Furthering the Candidate’s belief that CICO is a great tool and resource to utilize to help address the needs of “at risk” children with social/emotional deficiencies.

Based on Brigance data, the Kindergarten staff of an Elementary School identified a need to improve phonemic awareness. To attempt to increase phonemic awareness, the Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate implemented research-based strategies, such as small group instruction, and multi-sensory learning, to improve phonemic awareness. After this implementation, phonemic awareness in the classroom increased with letter recognition, and successful spelling tests. Based on the results, the Kindergarten teachers should continue implementing the research-based strategies, and determine additional strategies that may further increase phonemic awareness for all students.

Based on my engagement in the LETRS Reading Academies, the Fastbridge assessment, and the PAST assessment, there is evidence that my Kindergarten students need to improve in phonemic awareness. I, as an educator, need to increase my professional knowledge, and incorporate effective phonemic awareness activities, for all of my students. This is important because I want all of my students to move into the next phase of reading development, and have success in reading and writing. Throughout the year, I implemented lessons on pushing letter sounds into sound boxes using plastic tiles, and blending cvc words using the phoneme and graphemes that had been taught. Each week, I continued to add in new phoneme and graphemes, as they were taught. For this particular activity, I would call out CVC words, and have the students push the sounds by pushing plastic tiles into the sound boxes, to help them blend the word. I would demonstrate how we push and blend words from left to right, and how we push one sound at a time. Then I demonstrated how we sweep our finger from left to right to blend the sound to make the word. I also used many other activities to practice phonological awareness skills, such as rhyme recognition, completion and production, syllable blending, segmentation, and deletion. 80% of my students are considered on target according to their spring Fastbridge composite score. The class average of mastery of pre k/k skills increased from 39% to 100% from the January PAST assessment, to the May PAST assessment.

Based on my engagement in the LETRS Reading Academies, my research in LETRS Volume I Unit 3, as well as the NRP’s Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and its Implications for Reading Instruction, we began to analyze weekly phonics' assessments at the beginning of this school year. After doing this, we recognized students were not able to decode 3rd grade level words, which led to low mastery in comprehension, and vocabulary. I, as an educator, needed to increase my professional knowledge, and understanding, of effective phonetic awareness literacy practices, based on the science of reading, to impact student learning. After almost a year of direct phonic instruction, my student's mastery level (according to STAR) was almost 70%, with students needing intervention was only 29%, and 17.6% was Special Ed. These results indicate that the Elementary School should continue direct phonics instruction, and intentionally teaching students strategies to decode words.

In this capstone project, I investigate the obstacles encountered by second graders with difficulties in phonological awareness, an essential skill for reading proficiency. The Phonological Awareness Screening Test Pretest revealed that many students at this Elementary School faced challenges in developing phonological awareness, which affected their overall reading progress. The objective of this project was to identify effective strategies and interventions, to assist these students. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, I implemented specific interventions targeting phonological awareness with a group of 25 second-grade students, identified as struggling readers over a six-month period. The results showed that systematic and explicit instruction in phonological awareness, along with multi-sensory learning activities, significantly enhanced the students' ability to manipulate phonemes, as demonstrated by pre and post-intervention assessments. These findings highlight the critical need for early detection, and support, for students experiencing difficulties in phonological awareness. The study concludes with recommendations for incorporating research-based practices in phonological awareness into literacy instruction, highlighting the potential of such interventions to promote reading success among struggling learners.

Based on my engagement in the LETRS Reading Academies, and iReady diagnostic data gaps, I, as an educator, need to increase my professional knowledge, and understanding, of effective phonological awareness literacy practices, based on the science of reading, to impact student learning. These skills are foundational skills for students to become accurate, and automatic readers, and spellers. With these practices, students will be ready to be successful in the language comprehension portion of The Reading Rope. I will conduct weekly phonemic awareness checks for a targeted group of students with explicit, research based instruction to help fill gaps on phonological skills.

Based upon the I-ready school wide diagnostic data, a High School determined a need to improve student ability to comprehend information text. To attempt to increase student comprehension ability, the Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate implemented research based strategies, such as PACT, placemat, and bumper vocabulary, to enable struggling readers to advance in their comprehension of multiple informational text. After 18 weeks of implementation and 2 specific lessons which data was gathered upon, an average growth of 2.1 points was found. In another midyear school wide diagnostic, 11 of 20 students increased their grade level ability in comprehending informational text. Based upon the results, the teachers of this High school will be utilizing the research-based strategies into every subject, and every classroom, throughout the school year.

A local School System has set as a goal for the district to have 88% of the students to be college or career ready at graduation. In May 2022, the district was at 81.7%. In May 2022, Special Education students that were career ready was 41%. In an attempt to raise the percentage of students with disabilities that are career ready, the Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate had to become very proficient in the physical skills required in several different disciplines. The Elevate Academy (GRREC ED) Candidate researched individual students with disabilities to understand their own strengths and weakness, and determine if any past students have had similar deficits, and using different teaching strategies to help current students. After several trimesters of teaching several students with disabilities, the percentage of Special Education students at this school that were career ready has increased from 45% in 2019, to 67% in 2023. The School System has increased the number of Special Education students that are career ready from 25% in 2021, to 38% in 2023. Working with students and instructors, I have determined that results are improved by teaching the instructors different teaching techniques to help all students. I will continue to teach the teacher, and use past teaching methods moving forward.
 

Based on reading MAP scores, and a high number of RTI students, a local Primary Center's teachers identified the need to increase phonological and phonemic awareness instruction. To attempt to increase phonological and phonemic skills for reading proficiency, kindergarten teachers implemented daily whole group Heggerty lessons, and small group lessons, using an explicit lesson plan format focusing on phonological and phonemic awareness. After a year and a half of implementation, and closely monitoring three leveled readers, students displayed an overall increase in phonological and phonemic awareness skills. Two of the three students displayed increased scores on MAP and Fountas and Pinnell assessments. Based on the results, kindergarten teachers at this school need to continue Heggerty lessons. Teachers need to also continue using a specific lesson plan during small group instruction. These kindergarten teachers need to consider additional strategies to build reading proficiency in RTI students.

To attempt to increase students’ sight word reading fluency, I implemented Science of Reading strategies in the classroom for sight word instruction. After 7 months of implementation, students FRY sight word reading increased from 47% overall, to 95% overall. This means students went from reading, on average, 47 sight words, to 95 sight words fluently.These results indicate that in my first grade primary classroom, I should continue to implement Science of Reading strategies for sight word instruction.

Based on analysis of the district’s Universal Screener for Classroom Behavior, RTI data, and classroom observational data, an elementary school identified the need to strengthen students’ emotional regulation skills, in order to improve social/emotional functioning, decrease interruptions to classroom instruction, and improve student success in the general education setting. Additionally, based on the SEL Teacher Needs Assessment, teachers need support with strategies and solutions for implementing Social Emotional Learning in their classrooms. To attempt to improve students' social/emotional functioning, the Candidate implemented research-based strategies, such as calm down corners, social stories, and an online SEL curriculum. To address teacher needs, the Candidate implemented a professional development that provided support for strategies to be used in the classroom. After implementation, students monitored improved performance on social/emotional goals from an average of 50%, to 90%. Post survey results indicate a 26% increase in teachers' knowledge of SEL strategies, and 27% more teachers indicated that they are implementing SEL strategies. These results indicate the Elementary School should continue implementing the evidence based strategies, to further support students social/emotional functioning.