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The Expanding the Reach II project is providing customized technical assistance to participating schools, and has developed an array of technical assistance options for schools to utilize in planning their professional development and technical assistance for the school year. Beginning with each school’s E-plan, pilot schools are using the following technical assistance options:
On-line individualized school electronic professional
development plans (E-plans)
The Expanding the Reach II project’s individual school E-plans include a number of Web-based tools for participating schools to use in analyzing and understanding performance data, setting professional development goals, and planning professional development for the school year. These Web-based tools are collectively called the E-Plan Web page. Included in the E-Plan are the following:
- LEA/School Improvement Plan Goal: School teams identify and include their School Improvement Goals
- SBRR Professional Development Goals: School teams set goals, objectives, and plan the school year professional development events including the content, delivery format, and specifics of what the school would like to accomplish in regards to professional development.
- School and Performance Data: Schools can access current assessment results and achievement data that has been collected about their students.
Team of SBRR Content Experts and Field Technical
Assistance Specialists (FTASes)
Expanding the Reach II (ETR II) has a team of three nationally-acclaimed scholars and SBRR experts who provide professional development on reading content and technical assistance to participating schools and districts. They are: Dr. Anne Cunningham, Dr. Timothy Shanahan, and Dr. Dorothy Strickland. In addition to the three SBRR experts, additional technical assistance is being provided by the project team (DTI, NCFL, and TWI), and reading specialists in the form of on-site and electronic technical assistance to the schools. All specialists have been trained in SBRR by the three reading experts.
A Senior Reading Specialist, DTI’s Stephanie Hamilton supervises three Field Technical Assistance Specialists -- Marilyn Box, Jane Hallisy, and Gloria Williams -- who provide direct, on-site technical assistance to all participating schools. The team has extensive experience in the implementation of No Child Left Behind programs, in general, and SBRR practices, in particular at the national, state, and local levels. A cadre of other experts also provide targeted technical assistance and professional development as identified by school needs and school improvement goals: Dr. Stuart Greenberg, Dr. Rita Bean, Dr. Stan Paine, Dr. Jan Silverstein, Adrienne Dowden, Barbara Camerlo, and Susan Ebbers.
Kick Off Institute
The purpose of the ETR II Kick Off Institute is to bring together school-based leadership teams in a central location to support their schools in assessing their capacity-building needs as they relate to the implementation of scientifically based reading research (SBRR) and to create a customized professional development plan (E-Plan) for the school year.
At the Kick Off Institute, each school-based leadership team consisting of district and school administrators, teachers, and reading specialists engage in team planning sessions to evaluate student achievement data, school improvement plans, and the results of the project’s teacher and administrator knowledge surveys to identify key areas for technical assistance in their school and to select supporting ETR technical assistance options and resources. Each school team is assisted in this process by a trained facilitator and a cadre of content experts and state administrators with extensive knowledge and experience in the field of reading. The content experts have expertise in reading instruction, assessment, English language learning, and instructional and staff leadership. Content experts work with school-based leadership teams to answer questions and provide insight on how to successfully implement SBRR in grades K-3.
Half and Full day Workshops
The half and full day workshops are a technical assistance option available to all participating schools in the Expanding the Reach II project. Working with their Field Technical Assistance Specialist, each school has the option of conducting a face to face workshop/presentation with the cadre of SBRR experts, Field Technical Assistance Specialists, and other project team members to learn more about a particular SBRR topic or area. Each workshop or presentation can either be a half day or full day training, and each Field Technical Assistance Specialist and/or SBRR expert works with each school to develop clear and explicit learning objectives and a detailed agenda for the workshop.
Web casts
The Expanding the Reach II project is using a unique Web-based technical assistance option in the form of Web casts. Web casts are on-line platforms where any participating district or school can access an archived video, Power Point presentation, and transcript of a presentation by a SBRR expert on various topics ranging from the five components of SBRR: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension, to the topics of differentiated instruction and assessment.
The Web casts are available to all participating schools, and are archived on the Expanding the Reach II project Web site for downloading and viewing.
Web site
The Expanding the Reach II Web site includes a number of the technical assistance events and options that are described elsewhere in this document. On the Web site, you can find useful SBRR resources, Web casts, a calendar of upcoming Expanding the Reach events, Web links, each schools’ E-Plan (password protected), and a monthly newsletter.
E-newsletters
Each month, the Expanding the Reach II project team produces an e-newsletter highlighting an area or topic around SBRR. The newsletter is electronically disseminated to the project’s participating state, district, and school-based leadership for wider dissemination across each school. The newsletter covers a number of activities and resources including general ETR II news, a "Strategy of the Month", project events, resources, and recent and relevant education news.
Each newsletter is also archived on the Expanding the Reach II Web site for easy access to archived content and resources!
School-based Technical Assistance Tools
The Expanding the Reach II project team uses two forms of technical assistance to participating project schools: Classroom Observation Protocol and Site Visit Implementation Review. SBRR experts and Field Technical Assistance Specialists are available to schools that need them to conduct in-person classroom observations of their reading instruction and practices. The Classroom Observation Protocol is used to guide this observation and help inform the technical assistance services to be provided. This tool is an internal document used by the Project Team to gather information, not as an evaluation of a teacher, classroom or school.
In addition, the Expanding the Reach II project team has designed the Site Visit Implementation Review to guide discussions with administrators and lead reading teachers to assess progress in meeting professional development goals.
Teacher Resource Binder
The Expanding the Reach II Teacher Resource Binder is a print resource that has been disseminated to all participating project schools. It is designed to assist teachers in their ongoing pursuit of improving reading instruction to raise student achievement. The Expanding the Reach II Teacher Resource Binder provides a teacher friendly approach to outlining the five SBRR reading components identified by the National Reading Panel (NRP) as essential to effective reading instruction for K-3 readers. The Teacher Resource Binder contains research on the five components of reading identified by the NRP Report as being critical to children’s reading success: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. It also provides strategies and activities that teachers can use as a framework for extending and reinforcing learning within these five components.
There are three sections to the Resource Binder. The first section provides an overview of the findings of the NRP, the elements of effective reading instruction, and the five components of SBRR.
The second and third sections discusses the five components of reading including the component definition, NRP findings, assessment and instruction, activities and strategies, and a glossary of related terms.
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