November 2023

Wow- it's November!  The holidays are around the corner.

It is time to ponder all that we are thankful for and I am so thankful for you- that you are doing this very important work that changes the lives and trajectories of our children in Kansas. Teaching is hard work...leading is hard work. Thank you for your dedication to our profession. 

In this issue you will find some new professional learning opportunities and additional information I hope you find helpful. 

Please share or forward this newsletter widely and let me know if I can help you in any way-

Yours in education, 

Laurie

Dr. Laurie Curtis

KSDE Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Program Manager

Have a question about teaching spelling...teaching "big words", teaching fluency?  KSDE is ready and willing to help you brainstorm answers! Literacy Lifeline if here!  

Someone from the Early Literacy/ Dyslexia team will be available online via Zoom on Thursdays from 3:30-5:00 pm (to accommodate both time zones) to help you brainstorm solutions for problems you are having, question you may have, or help you would like. 

If you have topics you know of you would like to discuss...feel free to give us a "heads up" by using this link!  Literacy Lifeline Questions/ Topics.

There are only two rules to follow: 

Zoom link: KSDE Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Virtual Office Hours

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR January LETRS REGISTRATION! 

The deadline for the January LETRS Cohort is November 17th. Additional information can be found HERE

We are excited to have over 100 administrators starting the LETRS for Administrators course this fall. As of writing this newsletter, there were just a couple spaces left for this cohort. If you, or an administrator you know, have interest in starting the LETRS for Administrators course this fall, please contact Kevin Davis at kddavis@pittstate.edu to see if there is space left! 

NEW OPPORTUNITY!

CLUES: What Do We Do with All This Data?


A KSDE Professional Development Event

Addressing Balanced Assessment System/ Structured Literacy

8:30 am – 2:30 pm; $35.00 (includes lunch)


January 23, 2024: Orion Education Center, Clearwater, KS Register HERE

January 31, 2024: Smoky Hill Education Center, Salina, KS Register HERE

February 2, 2024: ESSDACK Service Center, Hutchinson, KS Register HERE

February 6, 2024: Greenbush Service Center, Girard, KS Register HERE

February 22, 2024: Southwest Plain Service Center, Sublette, KS Register HERE

March 19, 2024: Greenbush Service Center, Lawrence, KS Register HERE


Who: PLCs or Building/ District Leadership teams

 This professional learning opportunity will provide building and/ or district teams of three more with structures and processes to discuss data and design action steps to improve student outcomes. This day of professional learning is designed for teachers and leaders of any/ all grade levels. Expect a day of discussion, processing, and planning! The discussion for this day will focus heavily on English Language Arts and reading data, however many of the processes can be transferred to other content areas if you chose to implement them at your school site. 

 

Outcomes:

Collaborate with your leadership teams/PLCs to improve   student outcomes

Learn how to utilize protocols to improve data driven conversations

Utilize an improvement cycle to select actions steps and monitor your impact on student learning

Explore best practices in data analysis

What to bring:

Bring a team- together everyone accomplishes more! Bring at least three individuals from your school or district who are interested in collaborating to bring this work forward in your district.  To support teams of teachers and administrators during this session, it is crucial to have access to digital data or printed reports available. This can include a variety of sources, but at minimum please bring state assessment and academic screening results. Additional data can include common assessments, interim results, office referral rates, attendance, SEL screeners, surveys, and other relevant data collected by your school and district. By utilizing data, teams can make informed decisions and effectively address the needs of their students.

Presenter: Casey Peine, KSDE Teacher Leader Consultant: Casey Peine presently holds the position of Director of Teaching and Learning in Clearwater, USD 264. Throughout her educational career she has undertaken diverse roles, including service as a TASN consultant, administrator, instructional coach, and teacher. Her passion resides in the cultivation of teacher teams’ capacity to make informed decisions using data and evidence of student learning.

Can we really afford to spend time reading aloud to our students? 

YES! We can't afford to NOT spend time reading aloud to students. Reading aloud to children may be one of the most enjoyable parts of the day for both you and your students! A shared literacy experience should be done with intention, can be interactive- aligned with the standards and provide a great opportunity for learning.  It is also one of the best ways to build all the upper strands of the reading rope, helping you align instruction to the science of reading (literacy knowledge, verbal reasoning, language structures, vocabulary and background knowledge). 

Information on this topic was shared in the recent Science of Reading Podcast, entitled, The Joy of Reading Aloud with Molly Ness linked HERE . 

A couple of questions seem to be surfacing periodically, so I thought I would highlight them here. 

Question: Does KSDE have "priority standards"? 

Answer: No, there are no standards that have been elevated over others. If you have a document that states that, it possibly is from guidance that was sent out during COVID to help navigate reduced time in classrooms. 

Question: Is there an ELA crosswalk for the new (2023) ELA standards? 

Answer: The ELA team is working on this and it will be distributed through listservs when completed. 

Looking for some quick phonological awareness activities that you can slip into quick transition periods of the day with little prep and lots of fun? Take a look at suggestions by Lindsay Barret from We Are Teachers. 

40 Low-Prep Phonological Awareness Activities: Build a Solid Early Literacy Foundation

Mark Your Calendars! 

Additional information can be found here! 

Check the document below for evidence-based practices for your older students who are struggling with reading skills and strategies. This comprehensive guide provided by the Institute of Education Sciences (March 2022) provides information and techniques for classroom practice and meaningful interventions to help all students in Grade 4-9. This would make a good resource for PLC discussion in your building if this is an area of interest and/ or need for students in your school! 

Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 (ed.gov) 

For questions and/ or information on space and availability for the Wichita MTSS Reading Road Show session November 29th in, please see the registration link below or contact Krystal Porter the Kansas MTSS Alignment and Training Manager at krystal@kansasmtss.org 

The MTSS Regional Reading Roadshows are provided through TASN and designed for districts to get updates on the latest reading research, go a little deeper with reading knowledge, get some hands-on instructional practices, and network with other teachers.  Because they build in some collaboration time, they encourage districts to consider sending more than one representative from a building, so they can plan together how to share back what they learn.  

Lunch and some great materials will be provided. 

Wichita: https://ksdetasn.org/events/rNwkbQ

The future of the world

is in your class today.

So teacher, do be proud,

and trust in what you say. 

For every word you utter.

and everything you do,

can realign a destiny,

for him and her and you.

© - Full copyright to the writer, Mark Bird.

Teachers, I am thankful for you...thank you for the job you do! 

If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, please ask them to contact me at ELitDyslexia@ksde.org to request being added to the Early Literacy/ Dyslexia listserv, or visit the KSDE Dyslexia page and select the purple HERE button and select Newsletter to see the current and past issues.