Implementation Process
In the first year of the plan, the PLLT focused on refining their own skills as teachers of literacy. This involved completing 17 hours of professional development provided by Corwin Online Literacy. This course explicitly taught the process of Rigorous Reading, and increased the confidence of the PLLT members in explicitly teaching literacy skills.
In the second year of the plan, the PLLT members led professional learning within their faculty groups, training the entire staff in the use of Rigorous Reading. The training followed the Learning Sprints model1, in which the learning is broken into small, achievable chunks. The PLLT designed and delivered five learning sprints, through which the Rigorous Reading model was established as classroom practice at RHHS, with all staff delivering Rigorous Reading lessons as part of the learning sprint training.
In the final year of the project, the PLLT designed and delivered an intensive professional learning course for new and beginning teachers. The PLLT members acted as literacy mentors within their faculties, creating resources and exemplars.
Throughout the project, the PLLT members generated resources for use within programming and lesson design. This included a text complexity tool2, based on the work of Fisher and Frey; Conversation starters for use in collaborative conversations, adapted from Fisher and Frey’s work, and a poster to assist students in the annotation of text.
In 2020, RHHS held ‘Rigorous Reading Week’, a week in which students experienced Rigorous Reading across all of their classes. To prepare for this week, PLLT members worked with their faculties to create outstanding resources, and when surveyed, 100% of staff utilised Rigorous Reading strategies in their lessons.
Resources:
Based on the work of Simon Breakspear, https://teachingsprints.com/
To gain access to the complexity tool, which was designed by RHHS staff please get in contact with us via the email address: professionalpractice@rootyhillhighschool.nsw.edu.au and someone from the team will be in contact.
The data shows the difference we made
What difference did we make?
Through the implementation of the project, literacy teaching at RHHS has become more purposeful, with teachers actively using Rigorous Reading strategies to improve student comprehension. This has led to an increase in student confidence and results. Rigorous Reading has facilitated a culture of high expectations, with teachers choosing complex, challenging texts, and students being challenged to read consistently at an inferential level. The platform has given staff and students a shared language to facilitate literacy discussions, and as a result, student vocabulary and use of metalanguage has improved. As students become more familiar with the strategies, they are able to independently analyse a text at literal, structural and inferential levels.
At the conclusion of the school plan, Rigorous Reading has been successfully incorporated into all programs, and is evident through lesson design and classroom observation. All staff are trained in the use of Rigorous Reading strategies, and have used these strategies to improve comprehension in all subjects. Moving into the next school plan, Rigorous Reading has been operationalised as a whole school platform. The English faculty will be responsible for teaching the strategies to the incoming Year 7 group, and all faculties and staff will apply subject specific Rigorous Reading strategies. New and beginning teachers will continue to complete an intensive training course.
Rigorous Reading has changed the way literacy is approached at RHHS. Staff surveys show increasing expertise in the purposeful teaching of literacy, with teacher comments that show understanding of the benefit of Rigorous Reading strategies: “Students retain the information better”, “Year 11 improved by an average of 6 marks since their last assessment since using the strategies”, “It was interesting to note the increased vocabulary” “Students have an increased independence”.
Student survey comments highlight the benefits of Rigorous Reading: “Reading, enjoying and understanding what I was reading. Usually I don't really understand, but Rigorous Reading has been beneficial to my learning.” “Working in groups and allowing for other people's perspectives to be interpreted and allow for a new point of view on the text.” “My teacher’s input analysing the text, which helped me analyse easier and brought up new perspectives.” “It was fun to read and I learnt new things and new facts I never thought about”
Internal Grade Point Average (GPA) data indicates the difference that Rigorous Reading has made to student achievement. Year 8 students have far exceeded the target of 50% above a GPA of 3.25
(Refer to figure 1 - to the left for the specific data)
Rigorous Reading has been successfully implemented, as has improved student literacy, as demonstrated by the quantitative and qualitative data. All stated goals of the project have been met and exceeded. The success of the project contributed to the school being rated as excelling against all 14 elements of the SEF during external validation.
Moving into the next school plan, it is vital that Rigorous Reading continues to be used in all faculties, and that all staff are trained and confident in implementing these strategies in lesson design. The intensive course currently delivered to new staff will be converted into an online, on demand course, and will continue to be mandatory for staff new to the school.
Rigorous Reading has been operationalised, with evidence in all programs and lesson design. However, it is clear that student writing must become a focus, with the development and implementation of a Rigorous Reading and Writing platform. This will explicitly teach the link between reading and writing, and will allow faculties to teach writing in a specialised manner. There will be an ongoing, rigorous evaluation of data to track student achievement in both reading and writing.