The Reading Success Network

Start with one RSN pilot team your first year.         Assign roles to each team member.           Decide on a regular, mutually agreeable time and place to meet. Examine your school's literacy goals. Set specific and realizable goals for your RSN team and for your team members' students.             Set specific objectives that will help the team achieve its goals.                       Describe how you will measure progress toward meeting your RSN team goals.     Create an agenda for upcoming meetings and stick to it!

Model RSN Plan: Shorewood Elementary School At Shorewood Elementary school, the first grade teachers have decided to pilot an RSN Team. Not all teachers have agreed to participate this first year. Only those teachers who are interested and willing will form Shorewood Elementary's first grade RSN team. The first grade team includes the following individuals: Mary: Grade 1 Teacher Bob: Grade 1 Teacher (a certified reading teacher) Janet: Grade 1 Teacher Alice: Principal The team has discussed and agreed to the following roles and responsibilities: Alice is the team facilitator and will be responsible for meeting agendas. Bob is the team resource person and will provide articles and information about instructional strategies. Janet is the team disseminator/communicator and ensures that the team and other faculty members get information, e.g., agendas, articles. Mary is in charge of logistics and ensures that the team has time and a place to meet. She also ensures that the RSN team is a safe place to work (i.e., team members feel comfortable and open with one another). Shorewood's first grade RSN team meets the second and fourth Tuesday of the month after school from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. in the faculty lounge. Shorewood Elementary School's literacy goal states that every classroom will move 25% of its students reading below grade level to reading at or above grade level by the end of school year 1999. Based on the teams' discussion of the school's literacy goal the following team and student goals were set: Goal I: RSN team teachers will: use at least 2 diagnostic assessment tools with their targeted students over the course of the year; use data from assessment tools to make instructional decisions; · modify instruction based on data analysis; · develop skill in using at least one new or improved instructional practice to teach reading. Goal II: Through the use of an ongoing classroom feedback loop, Reading Success Network team teachers will move at least 25% of the targeted students to reading at or above grade level. The Shorewood RSN team set the following objectives: Each teacher ranks the students in his/her class around grade level reading skills. Each teacher identifies the group of children he/she will target for moving to grade level. Based on grade-level expectations for reading (e.g., decoding, retelling, sequencing, etc.), the team selects tools for diagnosing the needs of children in the targeted group. Each teacher assesses students in the targeted group and identifies specific needs in reading. Eact teacher reports to the team on his/her students' needs based on the assessments given. The team identifies shared needs across the classrooms. The team sets goals based on targeted students' specific needs and the shared needs across the classrooms. The team decides whether to group students according to instructional needs and discusses instructional strategies for meeting those needs. The team creates a time line for a feedback loop: Assess-analyze-teach-discuss results-assess. Each teacher documents the following in the RSN Journal: reading assessments used, notes about use, decisions made from data collected, instructional changes made based on data, and suggestions for improving the study team meetings. Shorewood's RSN team decided they will measure progress toward Goal I by documenting in the RSN journal the assessment tools the team used, instructional decisions made by the team, how instruction was modified, and new instructional strategies used. They will measure progress toward Goal II by monthly reading level checks using Shorewood's reading level test (e.g., running record, Informal Reading Inventory) on each targeted student. The RSN team developed the following agenda items they wanted to address during the first semester. Discussion concerning the purpose of RSN, individual strengths that members bring to the team, roles and responsibilities of each team member, and safety issues. Setting the teams' goals. Developing an RSN plan. Discussing standards-based, grade-level expectations. Selecting appropriate assessment tools for diagnosing student needs. Analyzing collected data and determining what it is telling you about students. Discussing how to meet an instructional need of students (focus in on one issue at a time). Discussing comfort and expertise in using a particular strategy. Determining resources to plan for and implement a new instructional strategy. Supporting each other in using the new strategy and sharing experiences in implementing the strategy. This model plan represents just one school's ideas about implementing RSN. Your plan may look very different. What is important to remember is that RSN is basically about schools forming study groups to collect data around reading at the K-3 level and using that data to inform instruction.