WSQ 11, 15 and 16

As per Dr. Beach

On page 163 of WSQ11.7 is a table that describes the 10 guiding principles that will help a literacy leader support change in a school. Choose the 2 that either you find the most challenging for your setting or that are most germane for supporting change in your setting. There are self-reflective questions with each one. Respond to professionalism for school improvement. 

Chapter 11

Principle 2- (This is a challenge for me) The most those who are expected to change are involved in shaping the change process, the more sustainable the change effort will be. Evaluation that is controlled and managed from the outside is far less effective in supporting real change than evaluation that comes from within the system.

Question- How involved are the faculty in shaping the current efforts.

Answer- I think teachers want to be heard but sometimes find it hard voice their opinions. Teachers back home in my opinion are not very involved in decision making. I don’t think they are given a chance to be heard either.

Question- What are some of the ways you are attempting to bring some of those outside the process more inside the process?

Answer- It would be in my best interest to enlighten them about what they can do whether small or big. I think lots of teachers think that their involvement needs to be significant for change to occur. However, if many are involved, responsibilities are more widely shared. Incentives can always work too.

Questions- Is there a leadership team taking shape within your school?

Answer- No. Teachers are afraid to take the initiative I believe. Being in the leadership position or even being apart of a team cause for lots of responsibility,, collaboration and professionalism. At the end of the day, teachers just don't want that extra workload on their platter. 

Principle 7- (Relevant to me) The literacy leader’s work is never done because it is focused on the “culture change” imperative, forming coherence, and realizing a vision.

Question- How comfortable are you in a leadership role?

Answer-So we all have yet to be in a leadership role. However, I am always up for a challenge especially if it is for the betterment of my students. I also like working with people who want to see and be apart of progressive change. With that I do think that I will be very comfortable in a leadership role.

Questions- Is there a culture of change taking hold in your school? What evidence do you see of this?

Answer-  In my opinion, not really. I think we are a people stuck in our ways and find it hard to accept change. I do not see change within classrooms so how can there can be change for an entire school.

Questions- How can you continue to use evaluation as a tool to guide and support change in the reading program?

Answer- The results from evaluation I think are very important. They will help me to know what needs to be in the tool or taken out as the years go by taking into consideration students abilities.

Chapter 15

Although we know that our students are already digital natives, there is a lot they still need to know and do, and knowing how to do it effectively. These New Literacy skills are important for our students to evolve. They must know how to navigate links on the internet, read in a non-linear manner, make connections use multimodal features such as images, pictures, text and sound to communicate among other things.

Pick one of the ten principles to inform classroom leadership and instruction in New Literacies and explain why you like it. Using the instructional practices within that instruction, explain why you might have a difficult or easy time teaching it.

Chapter 16

Parent and community involvement is crucial to the growth of a school and more specifically a literacy program. Although we as teachers play an important role in our students literacy success, there is so much we can do.

What does the parent/community demographic look like at your school? Is parent involvement an issue at your school? Would you be able to choose from the challenges starting on page 216 of why parents aren’t involved in your school? If not, are there other challenges in your school that prevent parents from getting involved? Is your school using any type of strategy to combat the lack of parent involvement such as the ones on page 218-220?

WSQ - Chapters 10, 12, 13, 14

Chapter 10

This chapter discussed different ways to assess students reading achievement.  There is something to be said about establishing clear school wide, classroom and individual student learning goals in order to identify ways to gather data of whether or not students are reaching those goals.  What are some challenges you might see pop up regarding the assessments that were discussed in chapter 10?  How do you think schools can overcome these challenges?

Chapter 12

I appreciated this chapter explicitly describing ways to promote student writing along with reading and learning by creating writing goals.  I appreciated the chapter encouraging authenticity in writing and allowing students to be given choice when writing.  I think it is very important for students to enjoy writing and is also more evident in younger grades.  Looking at Figure 1.2, out of the six guidelines for developing writing goals, which goal do you think you might need more guidance in and why?  Which goal do you think you have a firm grasp on?

Chapter 13

This chapter really resonated with me because in grade school I was considered an English Learner.  My mom never taught me English until I was put into preschool and on top of learning English I was also learning how to read and write in my native language on the weekends.  Luckily I picked English up pretty quickly but reading and writing didn’t really click for me until the third grade.  The SIOP Model intrigued me because I have never heard of the 30 step plan.  I personally believe that most of the plan would work well for not just EL students but all students.  Have you ever heard or practiced the SIOP Model?  What do you think of the 30 step plan?  What components of the plan do you think you could implement in your classroom or potential classroom right away?

Chapter 14   

Response to Intervention is definitely something that I am familiar with.  It has played a large role in my school district in how we teach and reach students who have learning gaps.  At my school, we meet every other week with our teammates, principal, reading specialist and math specialist to discuss students who are on a tier.  Once a month we gather with all specialists in the building along with our grade level and principal to progress monitor.  What are some advantages you see in RTI?  What are some disadvantages?