Literacy Plan

Olivia Murray

Longwood University

READ 680: Developing Literacy Leaders

Section 1: Literacy Need

Contextual Factors

Buckingham Elementary School is located in Buckingham County, Virginia.

Buckingham Elementary is the only elementary school in the Buckingham County School

District. Buckingham Elementary has a current enrollment of 445 students in grades 3-5.

Buckingham Elementary School showcases the demographics throughout Buckingham County.

Buckingham County has a population of 17,059 people. The demographics of the county are

64% White, 34% Black, and 2% Hispanic or Latino. During the 2019-2020 school year, 82.1%

of Buckingham Elementary School students qualify for free or reduced lunch (Virginia

Department of Education, 2019).

Description of Need

According to the Virginia Department of Education, students at Buckingham Elementary

School demonstrate a strong need in increasing reading level and overall comprehension. This

comes from the below state average SOL scores.

Analysis of Data used to Determine the Need

In 2018-2019, the state average of 3rd to 5th grade students passing the reading SOL was

75%. Students at Buckingham Elementary School had a cumulative 3-5 passing rate of 53%,

which is substantially less than the state average. This has been a trend for the past 3 years. In

2017-2018, the state average was 76% and the Buckingham Elementary average was 55%. In

2016 and 2017 the state average was 79% and the Buckingham Elementary average was 54%.

This is an ongoing trend in all grades at Buckingham.

Section 2: Possible Solutions

Program Description: Success for All Reading Program

 Buckingham is currently using a few different reading programs in 4th grade.

Balanced Literacy, Reading Mastery, and Structured Literacy are the three different programs

that the school is using. A flaw that I’ve identified is that the programs lack vocabulary and

comprehension practice. The program that I am recommending is the Success for All Reading

Program. This program is structured for all grades and is broken down by what should be learned

by each level. The program offers ongoing professional development sessions for teachers and

data tools to show teachers how students are learning and where they need additional instruction.

Success for All Reading focuses on a lot of different components. Comprehension and

vocabulary are a main focus. Other main focuses are cooperative learning, technology, and

social-emotional learning.

How the Solution Would Address the Literacy Need:

As I mentioned before, two main areas of focus are comprehension and vocabulary. This

program focuses on both while still incorporating other components like cooperative learning,

technology, social-emotional learning, and professional development for teachers. This program

covers a lot of different areas of need for fourth graders at Buckingham Elementary.

Necessary Requirements to Implement:

Buckingham Elementary School is a Title 1 school and this program can be covered by

Title 1 funds. It can also be covered by school-improvement grants (SGI) and professional-

development budgets. For those states with waivers, the program can be covered by

supplemental educational services (SES). The average cost per child is $104 per year and costs

are lowered after three years of implementation.

Possible Pitfalls:
 One major pitfall for transitioning to this program is adjusting all faculty and staff to the

program. Buckingham Elementary has been using a lot of different reading programs at the same

time, which I believe is the majority of the problem. Teachers aren’t being properly trained on all

of the different programs and the implementation of the programs isn’t ideal. Using the time and

resources to find a flexible program that can fit all learning styles and meeting all the needs of all

students is ideal. If teachers aren’t properly being trained to utilize the program in all of the ways

that it’s built for, then that will ultimately be a major pitfall for transitioning to this program.

Section 3: Solution

Description of Solution

The Success for All learning program has 4 major components that they strive for.

Cooperative learning, effective, engaging instruction and curriculum, professional development,

and research based. Grades 2-6 with this program use a program called Reading Wings. With

Buckingham Elementary being grades 3-5, this program could be implemented in each grade

throughout the school, which would fix the problem of all grades using different programs. The

students are grouped by reading level into different classrooms for 90 minute periods. This

program is centered around vocabulary development, reading comprehension, fluency, oral-

language development, and written expression by allowing students to use both narrative and

expository text. The program includes professional development for teachers, so that the teachers

are properly trained to understand and deliver the program effectively.

Justification

The main focuses that I have for the school are comprehension and vocabulary and this

program is focused on making vocabulary and comprehension instruction as hands-on and

interactive as possible, which is exactly what Buckingham Elementary School needs. The
program has comprehension and vocabulary lessons that are built to foster creative thinking,

problem-solving, and innovation. The program also comes with technology tools to help make

the activities student-friendly and interactive for all students. The programs encourage students

to read authentic text and to work on problem solving using inquiry-based learning to encourage

students. The program includes multiple opportunities for collaboration and team-work to help

develop social-emotional skills throughout the lessons.

Supplementary Materials

Guided reading center: students are separated into reading groups and are working in a

small-group setting with the teacher. The teacher will have a skill focus for the day and will

integrate the skill focus into the text. The teacher will ask questions to help activate prior

knowledge and will model what fluent reading is prior to the students reading the book. The

teacher will also show students how they can monitor their own fluency while reading the story

in the small-group setting. Students have lots of opportunities to “turn and talk” to a partner to

share ideas and answers throughout the small-group lesson.

Media-enhanced lessons: the program implements a lot of use of technology, which

keeps the students motivated and engaged. The videos are interactive and showcase and model

the skills that the students are learning and working on in class. Students are able to view videos

after the whole-group lesson if they need a review, or just want extra practice with the given skill

for that day. The media-enhanced lessons help build background knowledge to help students gain

knowledge about the topic of the day.

Process of Implementation

To start the process of implementing this plan, administrators, reading specialists, and

teachers will need to sit down and evaluate the most recent school data. These educators will
have to group students based on their current instructional level. This program is most effective

when students are grouped together who are on exact or similar levels. These students will be

placed in a reading class together for 90 minutes for reading instruction and then a language arts

block to follow. The writing activity changes each day to focus on different writing skills in the

writing process. While in the class, the teacher will pull small groups after a whole-group lesson

and the rest of the class will have independent activities that will help enhance vocabulary and

comprehension.

Section 4: Professional Development Plan

Description of Plan

All educators, including Title 1 educators, special education educators, and reading

specialists will need to be in attendance of professional development sessions. The school will be

hosting multiple workshops to help educate the teachers about the new program and showing

them resources that they can use in the classroom. Teachers will be split into groups that will

serve as stations. Each station will focus on different traits such as technology, methods,

techniques, and materials.

Training and Supplemental Materials

Initial training will be occurring during the professional development sessions that were

mentioned above. The training will be mandatory for all staff to attend to become more

comfortable and familiar with the new reading program. All materials that are needed for this

program to be successful are included with purchase in this program. Teachers will be trained on

how to properly use all of the supplemental materials that are included in the new reading

program. The reading specialists will model how to effectively use the supplemental materials

and how to use the reading program effectively with different groups of students.
 Motivation for Change

The current reading programs that are being used at Buckingham Elementary School are

not meeting the needs of the students. This program addresses the targeted literacy needs of the

students at Buckingham Elementary. With the implementation of this interactive program, the

targeted areas of needs, which are comprehension and vocabulary, will be increased with the

proper instruction and use of the reading program. I believe that having all staff on the same page

with the same program will make a huge difference in the literacy rates at Buckingham

Elementary School.

Role before, during, and after Implementation

The literacy coaches/reading specialists will be acting as a facilitator during all

professional development sessions. Due to the program not being used before, the school will use

previous data from the previous reading programs to help group students for the reading

program. The teachers will use this data to help drive their instruction in their groups with the

students. The reading specialists will be available to assist during instruction to help model what

best practices are in the reading setting. The reading specialists will offer conferences with the

teachers to talk about the positives and the areas of growth.

Section 5: Timeline for Implementation

Timeline

First two weeks of school September October

Analyze data to organize and
group students based on
student individual strengths.
Implementation procedures
will be put into place with the
help of administration and
reading specialists to ensure
that all students are placed
correctly and that
The literacy plan will go into
place and remediation and
proper interventions will
occur.
 interventions are occurring.

Provide the first round of
professional development
sessions for teachers and
paraprofessional staff.
Collaboration will begin with
push in and push out with the
reading specialist in the
general education reading
classrooms to model lessons
for reading staff.
Collaboration will continue
with push in and push out
with the reading specialist in
the general education reading
classrooms to model lessons
for reading staff. Adjustments
will occur if needed.

Assessment Plan

The success of the reading program will be assessed quarterly at the end of each marking

period. The teachers will be submitting their data and reading intervention results to the reading

specialists for evaluation. The reading teacher, the administration, and the reading teachers will

meet once this information is evaluated to discuss what’s working and what can be improved.

The team will come up with a plan to make improvements for the upcoming marking period and

make any adjustments that the team sees fit.

 Reference

Virginia School Quality Profiles. Virginia School Quality Profiles. (n.d.).

https://schoolquality.virginia.gov/.