Blog #5: Culture of School

Chapter 3: The Instructional Role-Initiating, Implementing, and Evaluating

"Specialists need to have an understanding of the culture of the schools to which they are assigned and a good working relationship with school personnel" (Bean, 2015, p. 75). It is important for reading specialist to work collaboratively, especially with teachers. They must be experts on the curriculum that is being used in the school as they will be working with students in all grade levels as well as the instruction and assessments (Bean, 2015).

In my school, the reading specialist visits once every two weeks and sometimes once a month. At the beginning of the year, when we first meet, we always discuss our beginning of the year DORA assessment results. DORA (Diagnostic Online Reading Assessment) is used as a way to give teachers an idea as to which reading level each of our students are on at the beginning of the school year . We use the results to create our small-group instruction with the reading specialist. Our curriculum supervisor sits in on every meeting that is held between all grade levels and reading specialist. With the results, we discuss the common strengths and weaknesses between all three second grade classes. Once the common strengths and weaknesses are identified, together we begin to plan different strategies and interventions that can be used in our classrooms to assists students. If needed, the reading specialist will come into our classrooms and complete demo lessons. Since all three second grade teachers do not all share common prep periods, my curriculum supervisor will provide us with coverage while we observe the demo lesson targeting a specific skill. As the year progresses, we continue to meet to discuss collected data and continue to use data to gear our small-group instruction. Once PARCC approaches, she only works with the testing grades and the lower grades usually do not see her until after PARCC is over.

Even though my school has a reading specialist, who occasionally visits, I wish she was in our building more often to work with our struggling readers. As stated before, we identify the common strengths and weaknesses across the grade levels and create different strategies that can be used to assist our struggling readers. These strategies are used in the classroom by the classroom teachers. The reading specialist does not work one-on-one or in small-group with struggling readers. The teachers are the ones who closely work with students in both small-group and individually. As the specialist visits, we discuss what worked and what did not work. Then we create different approaches and see if those new approaches work. The teachers are their own interventionist!

As a fairly new teacher, I asked myself many questions! What is the best way to give students small-group instruction, on a regular basis, with a classroom full on 26 students, especially when we are expected to do so much in a 90-minute reading block? How do you bring students who are one or two grade levels behind into an area of reading in which not only is interesting but appropriate for their level of learning? How do I assist bilingual students who struggle with reading and writing and there is no ESL teacher in the school building to work with them? How do I get parents involved in their child's academics? I was fortunate enough to receive support from my fellow colleagues. I was invited into their classrooms and while I was there, I observed how to fit everything into a 90-minute reading block. I observed how to work in small-group (guided reading) with a classroom full of 26 students and how to manage other students working independently. I met with my mentor daily, even multiple times a day, to pick her brain!

When it comes to reading specialists and classroom teachers working together, Bean (2015) discusses the importance of classroom involvement.  "Classroom teachers should be involved in the decision-making progress" (Bean, 2015, p. 57). This is definitely the case in my school! In my school, we currently use Pearson's Reading Street as our reading curriculum. Two years ago, administration, curriculum supervisors, and the reading specialist had thoughts about switching over to Pearson's Realize. My principal and curriculum supervisor had a representative, from Pearson Realize, come into our school and present to all classroom teachers and supporting staff the new program. After the representative shared with us all about the program and benefits of the program, a survey was set out to all staff members. The survey asked questions about how classroom teachers felt about the program and what we thought were some strengths and weaknesses of the program. Administration took into consideration what the teachers thought because we have not yet switched over to Pearson's Realize. It is important for the teachers to be comfortable with the new program that will be implemented into their daily instruction.