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The ResourceThe InformationThe Experience
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Wilson FundationsFundations is a systematic, explicit, and multisensory phonics and word study curriculum used in grades K - 3 at MHS.Teachers appreciate the clear components of each lesson, which makes planning clear-cut and straightforward.

Data from Fundations unit-end assessments support teachers in evaluating whether the class is ready to move on to the next unit, and thus informs Tier 1 instruction. These assessments also inform Tier 2 intervention by providing the learning specialist with information about targeted skills that students may need to practice in their “double dose” instruction.

Students find phonics and word study engaging and fun!
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Heggerty Phonemic AwarenessHeggerty is a systematic phonological and phonemic awareness curriculum used in Primary (preschool) through 2nd grade at MHS..

This curriculum helps teachers ensure that phonemic awareness is well-developed from the get-go to support students’ ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in words: a key part of reading and writing.		The plans help teachers ensure they are teaching phonemic awareness skills systematically.

The Heggerty curriculum supplements Fundations well by adding additional opportunities to practice phonemic awareness skills in a systematic and explicit way. It’s important for teachers to connect the phonemic awareness skills to print (i.e., graphemes taught through phonics instruction).

Heggerty provides preschool teachers with a roadmap for introducing and practicing phonemic awareness skills before students have formally learned letter-sound associations. Phonemic awareness can be exclusively oral before students have learned letters and letter teams.

Kids find these “word games” fun!
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DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) & Related ProductsDIBELS is an assessment tool used to provide valuable information for teachers, learning specialists, and administrators about students’ proficiency in specific skill areas to inform instruction and target intervention.

DIBELS assessments measure various early literacy skills - such as letter naming, the ability to break words up into sounds, the ability to sound out words, and oral reading fluency - that are reliable and valid indicators of literacy development and predictive of later reading proficiency.

These assessments are timed, so they incorporate the components of fluency and automaticity.

DIBELS is used for benchmark assessments in the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Additionally, some DIBELS subtests are used for progress monitoring: measuring a student’s progress with a specific skill every one to two weeks to ensure that instruction and/or intervention are effective.		The mClass system streamlines the administration and data collection of DIBELS assessments. The program offers recommendations for at-home practice activities targeting specific skills, according to a student’s DIBELS assessment. This has proven to be a great resource to provide to parents (e.g., at parent-teacher conferences) to share information about students’ skill development and ways to support them at home.

A plus for both students and teachers is that this assessment is quick, taking just minutes to administer.

MHS has subscribed to Amplify Reading, a program accessible to students by iPad or computer that allows them to practice targeted skills (connected to their assessment) at home. The student support team recommends this resource to students who may benefit from it.
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Data Collection & Tracking - Literacy TrackerMost literacy assessment data is stored in a document called the Literacy Tracker, a spreadsheet with tabs for each grade, Kindergarten through 8th.

Teachers input all benchmark assessment data and Fundations unit-end test data.		This tracker allows various members of the teaching and student support teams - such as learning specialists - to access up-to-date assessment information about student progress.

The tracker creates a log of student progress that can be analyzed over the course of a year and across past years to realize trends and patterns within the data, to ultimately make curricular improvements.
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The TeamSeveral faculty and administration members are involved in the aforementioned curricular shifts and improvements:
Director of Curriculum, Instruction, & Student Support: Oversees curricular decisions and supports teaching teams in using data to analyze trends in learning.

Learning Specialist: Provides small-group and 1:1 literacy intervention in grades K - 4. Supports the implementation of curricular and assessment practices.

Literacy Specialist: Provides literacy-related teacher professional development, delivers literacy-related family education programs, and partners with the learning specialist to support teachers with the implementation of new literacy-related curricular and assessment practices.		Students, teachers, and families all benefit from the use and understanding of evidence-based literacy practices.
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Parent Engagement & EducationThis year, MHS has hosted two literacy-related parent education sessions:
Early Literacy Development at School and at Home: Provided an introduction to the science of reading and models of the reading process along with information about literacy skills that are developed at school in the toddler through second grade years and ways to support those developing foundational skills at home.

Raising Lifelong Readers: Included a book conversation about Daniel Willingham’s Raising Kids Who Read. Parents of toddler through 8th grade students explored reading motivation through the cognitive psychology lens and ways to support reading motivation at home.		Parents enjoyed learning about components of literacy development and were especially interested in learning about how literacy skills are taught in the classroom and how they can support developing skills and motivation at home.