Literacy Plan

READ 680
4/22/17
Susie Strong, Ally Baltas, D. Bates
LITERACY PLAN
1

Section 1: Literacy Need

Contextual Factors:
Students of Chesterfield County Public Schools are each given $10,155 for their
educational needs, this is all included in the budget of the county and given to the
student by services of the school. Statistically the majority of students are: 52%
students white, 26% black, and 13% hispanic. Of the more than 59,000 students that go
to school in the county, 32% qualify for free or reduced lunch. As we are looking at
elementary level students, it should be noted that students from grades 2-5 are given
chromebooks to aid in their learning during class time. Students also tend to perform
better than the state average on SOL tests in reading and writing, which are the scores
we are assessing and providing additional intervention for.

Intervention Need:
Students generally passed most sections of the third grade reading SOL. We did find a
total of 7 standards that had area for improvement. Students need additional instruction
on using graphic organizers, details/description, alphabetical order, main idea,
contractions, drawing conclusions, and reference sources. These areas have already
been assessed as an area for improvement in a county wide improvement plan, actually
meeting 2 of the 3 county goals:
Goal 1 All learners will acquire, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information
to solve meaningful problems and to achieve success as productive, thriving
global citizens.

Goal 2 All learners will demonstrate the 21st-century learning and technology
skills and knowledge that will prepare them for success in school, postsecondary
education, work and life in a global society.
Solutions listed in section 2 of this literacy plan will serve dual purpose of offering plans
for increasing SOL pass rates and meeting county wide goals for students and
instruction.

Data:

Seen below is the data for school X in Chesterfield County. The data is SOL
performance in grade 3 reading.
LITERACY PLAN
2

Data Analysis:
LITERACY PLAN
3

Below is an analysis of the school wide data. We highlighted anything that is an area of
risk in red. For those standards, we took a look at the county scores to see if this was a
county-wide trend. Then we identified anything that sound remain in our watch zone,
which we put at any score in the 70 percent range. Lastly, we identified the areas that
our students are strong in, anything in the 80 or 90 percent range.
LITERACY PLAN
4

Section 2: Possible Solutions

We researched three programs that related to the seven areas where our third graders
are struggling. These three programs are: Reading Horizons
(www.readinghorizons.com), Reading Rocket (www.readingrockets.org), and Back on
the Right Track Reading Lessons Program (www.righttrackreading.com). These three
programs are great programs, however, their pitfalls are that they do not focus
specifically on the areas our students were struggling. They were more broad and did
not go in depth enough in the areas the students were having trouble. As a result, we
decided to create our own program as it would allow us to have more control over how
in depth each area was reviewed and spend more time on the areas needing
improvement.

Section 3: Solution
Program Description:
LITERACY PLAN
5

This program is a compilation of review lessons and practice activities specifically

designed to help students review specific skills in areas where reading scores were
weak. Below there are multiple resources linked and described that give students the
opportunity to review skills focusing on the following areas: graphic organizers, identify
details/descriptions, alphabetical order, main idea, drawing conclusions, contractions,
and identifying the best reference source. These skills can be practiced one at a time or
by combining certain skills in joint lessons and activities. Time should be set aside for
intervention or implemented during the Language Arts block in each third grade
classroom. The skills may be reviewed as a whole class or in small groups with the
teacher and followed up with students practicing the skill in small groups or individually.
Each area of focus has an activity that reviews the skill and is hands on for students to
interactively practice. Below we have listed explanations and links for each specific part
of the program focusing on the specific areas needing improvement.

Graphic Organizers/Details
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/scaffolding-comprehen
sion-strategies-using-95.html?tab=4#tabs - This resource is useful for scaffolding using
graphic organizers to interact with the text by activating students prior knowledge,
generating questions and answers from the text, and making predictions. Using the
KWL chart the students will practice identifying details and facts they learned from the
readings. This can also tie into identifying the main idea and details of a text.

Alphabetical Order
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/teaching-language-skill
s-using-18.html?tab=4#tabs - This resource gets students working with alphabetical
order in a more interactive way. Students will use telephone books (hard copy as well
as online) to find various people and learn the way telephone books are set up and how
to utilize them. While doing this they will be practicing alphabetizing skills by looking
through alphabetized items as well as putting items into alphabetical order on their own.

Main Idea/Details/Description
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/nonfiction-pyramid-30843.h
tml - This resource includes a Nonfiction Pyramid activity where students fill out the
sheet during and after reading a nonfiction text. This requires students to identify the
main idea, details, authors purpose, vocabulary, what was learned, and identifying
items that aid in reading. Since the sheet requires the students to use specific, minimal
words this reinforces specifically identifying the main idea and supporting details.
Practicing these skills will benefit students in a variety of areas they are currently having
trouble - main idea, details, and description.
LITERACY PLAN
6

Activity 2:
Support the Main Idea: Students are given a main idea and a list of details.
Students have to select from the list of supporting details which details accurately
support the idea provided
Example: Main Idea: During winter the right clothes can keep you warm.
Details: Wearing a hat will keep your head warm.* It can snow when the
temperature is below 30 degrees. Wearing gloves will keep your fingers
and hands warm.* - Students would select which ideas support wearing
appropriate clothes during winter.
As a challenge, students can create supporting details that support the provided
main idea on their own.
Example: Main Idea: Hurricanes are very dangerous storms. Students
come up with reasons that support this idea/details on their own and list
the ideas.

Contractions
http://www.123homeschool4me.com/2016/10/contraction-dominos.html
Contraction Domino's - Students work in pairs or small groups playing this contraction
activity. After reviewing contractions - theyre a shorter way of saying what you need to
say and uses an apostrophe - they have to match the words to their appropriate
contraction by laying the domino next to the match. This is an interactive activity for
students to practice contractions independently and/or in pairs or small groups.

Drawing Conclusions
Review with students that drawing conclusions means making a judgement or decision
after a period of thought - making an inference. You combine what the text says with
that you already know to draw a conclusion. Students will be given cards with scenarios
on them. They will have to read the short description of the text and determine, from the
options provided, what the card is describing. For a challenge, the students can be
given the description without options of what the card describes and make an inference
on their own. This could be anything from a sports game to a time of day.
Example: I was nice and warm sitting on my towel listening to the birds and waves
crashing as I inhaled the salty air. - Students would infer the person is at the beach.

Reference Source
Students will review the following reference sources and their purposes: dictionaries,
thesauruses, encyclopedias, and online resource materials. After reviewing what each
resource is used for the students will be given cards with questions on them. Each card
asks which resource would be used to find out a specific piece of information. Students
LITERACY PLAN
7

can work in pairs or individually and will need to explain why they selected the specific
resource they would use to answer the question on the card. For extra practice,
students can then use the resource they selected to find the answer to the questions on
the cards.
Example: What source would you use to find the synonym for funny?

How this addresses literacy needs:

This program addresses the specific needs of these third graders as it touches on all
areas where the scores were below passing and/or below the average score for the
school division. Reviewing these skills them will give the students practice
understanding the concepts and learning how to utilize these skills. Each area where
the scores were weak will be reviewed and tie in other areas of reading which will
address these literacy needs. Reviewing each skill and participating in practice activities
will increase each student's ability in the identified areas. Working on these skills in a
variety of ways will help the students strengthen their knowledge of these specific areas
and benefit their literacy skills as well as prepare them for new skills and upcoming
benchmarks.

Necessary Requirements:
In addition to free access to copying materials and machinery, in order to facilitate this
program, teachers will need cardstock in multiple colors. A Smart board/projector will
assist teachers in modeling the use of graphic organizers. Two classrooms sets of
dominoes can be used for this program (and re-used in math). Reference materials that
must be available include: dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopedias, telephone books,
and online resources.

Possible Pitfalls:
Teachers will require non-judgmental support during the implementation of this
program. Classroom observations and evaluations should not be tied to this
intervention. As practitioners, we will respond to the students successes as we adjust
best practice based on research and individual results.

Program Justification:
This program was created on our own as we can use it to specifically target areas
where students are struggling without focusing time on other areas where students are
excelling. The areas this program will specially focus on are: graphic organizers,
details/description, alphabetical order, main idea, contractions, drawing conclusions,
and reference sources.
LITERACY PLAN
8

Using these specific lessons that hone in on the identified skills where scores were
weak will give students the opportunity to work on these skills in different ways and
practice them in a whole group, small group, and individual setting. These lessons will
be hands on, interactive and engaging lessons and practice activities that will allow the
students to work on these skills in more than one way

Implementation

This program will be implemented by first introducing it to teachers in an in depth

professional development. Teachers will be asked to meet biweekly to reflect - pros,
cons, questions, make adjustments, set new goals, etc.

Materials Needed are as follows: Interactive Whiteboard, Graphic organizers - KWL

chart, Telephone books - hardcopy & online, Nonfiction Pyramid sheet, Nonfiction texts,
Main idea & detail cards, Contraction Domino's, Drawing Conclusion Cards, Reference
sources - dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, and online resources.

Section 4: Professional Development Plan

Section 5: Timeline for Implementation

The implementation of this literacy plan will begin immediately. Students are showing a
deficit that is coming in below state average and therefore it needs to be resolved as
quickly as possible to ensure they meet average score lines by the time of the SOL.
This will ensure that students provide passing rates for accreditation and that they are
well prepared to begin their education the following year.

Ideally, the timeline would be integrated so smoothly and with so many benefits there
will be no real end time. Teachers should constantly be reflecting on their teaching and
constantly assessing the outcomes of their intervention. As we are expecting teachers
to implement recommended lessons and then come together to reflect, this has the
potential to become a sustainable and constant part of collaboration and
self-assessment. But, this will be a required plan until the end of the school year.

Otherwise, we plan on gathering together as a third grade team every other week to
discuss any issues with intervention, results of intervention, and benefits from
intervention. We will also open up discussion for other ideas and suggestions to
improve implementation. This will be an active and flexible process for the entirety of the
required time period. To get the plan rolling teacher participants will attend a
professional development session for a half day so they can use what they have
LITERACY PLAN
9

learned in the second half of the day. There will be three more half day professional
development sessions to guide instruction. The successive professional development
days will be created and include content from areas of need assessed through our
every other week reflective meetings. This will ensure flexibility and adjustment from
any problems that arise.