Literacy Plan

Marnie Turman
Longwood University
READ 680: Developing Leaders
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Literacy Plan

Contextual Factors

Trails End Elementary School is in the central part of Farmville County. This part of the

county is a densely populated, highly diverse region of the state and a suburb of a major

metropolitan city. There are three elementary schools in the cluster and 12 elementary schools in

the town. The school demographics reflect the changing diversity of the surrounding community.

The 2022-23 demographics are 47% Hispanic, 28% White, 10% Asian, 10% Black/African

American, and 5% other ethnicities. This population is also 62% economically disadvantaged

and 42% English language learners. The school also began receiving Title 1 support in the 22-23

school year.

Description of Need

This report shows that K-2 students are struggling with the acquisition of phonics skills

and its potential impact on comprehension. Second grade has the highest number of struggling

students with 53% identified at-risk. Currently, over half the grade level is receiving reading

intervention. Although Kindergarten and First Grade scores are higher, the number of students

needing Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention in phonics instruction is more than 20%.

Analysis of Data

I reviewed the school’s Mid-Year PALs data for grades K-2 and it reveals that students

are having difficulty with developing phonics skills. The results showed 26% are working on

beginning ending sounds, digraphs, blends and short vowel sounds. Over half of the students are

working on nasals and long vowel patterns. The results for Kindergarten and First grade were

less concerning at 30% and 21% testing below benchmark respectively. First Grades results
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showed a grade level strength in letter sounds. However, 33% tested at the preprimer or below.

Kindergarten results showed that 30% of students were working on identifying rhyming words

and beginning sounds and 20% were working on letter sounds. Second grade students were also

assessed using the NWEA MAP 2-5 assessment. The Mid-Year data showed that 43% of

students scored below the benchmark. The subset results also showed that 57% of students

scored low average or low for Word Origins, Semantics, Vocabulary Acquisition, 54% for

Comprehension of Literary Texts and 55% for Comprehension of Nonfiction Text.

Solutions

Current research into the science of reading has shown that explicit and systematic

phonics instruction is best practice to assist students in acquiring decoding skills to facilitate

reading. School data shows our K-2 students struggle with acquiring these skills and a new

program may be more effective. I reviewed the current phonics program as well as three

additional programs for their effectiveness in phonics instruction: TCRWP's Units of Study

Phonics, Fundations Phonics, Saxon Phonics, and UFLI Foundations

TCRWP's Units of Study Phonics

TCRWP's Units of Study Phonics program is based on the reading and writing research

conducted by TCRWP as well as the research of Bear, Beck, Blevins, Cunningham, Fountas,

Pinnell, Rasinski, and others. The program’s scope and sequence shows that skills are organized

into four grade level units. Each unit lesson teaches phonics skills along with phonological

awareness, concept of print and word knowledge. The skills taught repeat in several units across

the three grade levels. This program does not include screening or diagnostic tools. The skills are

not organized in a sequential manner. This program also requires the purchase of classroom kits
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with lesson plans. There is an online component that provides reproducibles and other resources.

A pitfall of the program is the amount of teacher preparation and student manipulatives required

for each lesson.

Fundations Phonics

Fundations Phonics is based on the science of reading research. It explicitly teaches

phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency. The program includes diagnostic and screening

materials to assist teachers in determining instructional skills. The program is organized by skills

and designates what skills are reviewed in a lesson and what news skills will be taught. This

program also provides resources for intervention. A pitfall of this program could be the

consumables needed each year and organization of resources.

Saxon Phonics

Saxon Phonics is an explicit systematic approach to phonics based on Orton-Gillingham.

The program includes diagnostic and screening materials to assist teachers in determining

instructional skills. The program is organized by skills and designates what skills are reviewed in

a lesson and what news skills will be taught. The Saxon Phonics program also provides resources

for differentiation and intervention. A pitfall of this program is that it is a new program with

limited results.

UFLI Foundations

UFLI Foundations is based on the science of reading research and provides an explicit,

systematic approach to phonics instruction. It is a research and evidence-based program. It

includes activities for phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency. The program is organized by

skills and includes auditory and vision drills as well as dedication and decodable text support.
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The UFLI program provides online projectable resources for instructional use. This program is

the newest program that has been highly visible among science of reading proponents. Its lack of

testing data is a pitfall.

Justification
After review of the current and several new phonics programs, it is apparent that a new

structured literacy phonics program is warranted based on our current PALs data. The results for

the Winter PALS data showed that more than 20% of students were below the PALs benchmark.

The current program does not provide the systematic and explicit instruction that research has

revealed is best practice in phonics instruction.

Of the three new programs reviewed, Saxon Phonics and UFLI Foundations both

appeared effective in meeting the needs of our K-2 students. Both provided an explicit and

systematic program of instruction. However, Saxon Phonics requires extensive training,

materials and funding. UFLI Foundations is more cost effective and provides explicit and

systematic instruction. Online resources provide whole and small group resources as well video

demonstrations for fidelity in instruction.

Professional Development Plan

USFI foundations will be implemented initially in grades K-2. UFLI will schedule as

30-minute block during the 90-minute ELA block. Before classroom implementation, teachers

will use PALs and additional assessments to determine an initial lesson. Teachers may use the

suggested grade level guide to provide assistance in determining a starting point.

All K-3 teachers, including EL teachers, SPED teachers, will receive the initial workshop

training before the start of school. This initial workshop will introduce teachers to the UFLI
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materials, program background and the lesson structure. Teachers will work in grade level break

outs to review manuals and determine any classroom supply needs. Grade levels will use Spring

PALs data to determine starting lessons. Grade levels will also determine their next step in

implementing the program. Based on classroom PALS data, identified students will eventually

receive intervention instruction in small groups.

After the initial workshop training, additional grade level specific training will take place

during grade level PLC or CLT meetings. Reading Specialists will also provide direct classroom

coaching and demonstration support through classroom visits and recorded lessons. Classroom

teachers will begin UFLI foundation instruction during the 2nd week of school with the Getting

Ready lessons. SPED and EL teachers will provide push-in support during this time. Small group

pull-out support will begin after the Fall Data review has been completed. Third grade teachers

will determine whether they are implementing the program as a whole class or small group

intervention program.

This program does not require supplemental materials. All teachers will have the

necessary materials at the beginning of the year. The manual is provided at the PD workshop and

teachers have access to the online toolbox with lesson specific resources.

Motivation For Change

The current program being used requires extensive review and preparation by classroom

teachers. The lessons require students to have access to several lesson specific manipulatives.

Teachers have voiced concern over the amount of prep time required to teach the lessons with

fidelity. I believe that the introduction of this curriculum will be a relief to teachers. The

materials provided offer teachers clear, concise directions. The lessons teach skills in a
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systematic manner in an established routine. The past program required several days of PD that

pulled teachers away from the classroom. The implementation of this program will not require

teachers to plan for PD days and instead focus on implementing the lessons with fidelity and

increasing classroom skills.

Role of Reading Specialist

The reading specialist will be the facilitator for professional development and PLC

meetings. This program does not require extensive training over multiple days and can be

implemented with an introduction and grade level focused training. The reading specialist will

conduct the initial workshop to provide teachers with the program manual and lead teachers

through an unpacking of the manual and the online resources. For the second part of the

workshop, the reading specialist will lead the teachers through a data analysis session to

determine starting points and next steps to implementation. The reading specialist will also

conduct a materials inventory with teams.

Timeline for Implementation

August September October

Introduction and Teaching and completion Teachers begin teaching

Unpacking of Manual and
Resources.
of Getting Reading
Lessons
Routines established
Materials Needed provided
to Classrooms.
UFLI lessons.
Additional training
provided to SPED and EL
teachers for intervention
support

Acquisition of classroom Fall Literacy Assessments Implementation in 3rd

materials. Conducted and Student grade for small
needed established for group/whole class
classroom and small group instruction as needed.
instruction.
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Assessment and Progress Monitoring

Our goal in this implementation is to increase student phonemic and phonological

awareness skills. On-going assessment methods will be established to help determine

how the program is being implemented and its effectiveness on student progress.

Students will be assessed using PALs during the Fall, Winter and Spring Testing

windows. This data will be housed and accessed from our district's online data

management system. These assessments will be used to determine student progress in

classroom and intervention groups. Students in small group interventions will be assessed

on a bi-weekly basis using the PALs progress monitoring tools or FastBridge CBMR.

Teachers will monitor Tier 1 students using formative assessments such as bi-monthly

running records.
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References

Virginia Department of Education. (n.d.). Fall membership build-A-table. Fall Membership

Build-A-Table. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/apex/f?p=180%3A1%3A%3A%3A%3A%3Ap_session_id%2
Cp_application_name%3A-307888931078413925%2Cfallmembership