Literacy Plan

Section 1: Literacy Need

The literacy plan that will be put into place is for Antietam Elementary school
in the Lake Ridge community in Prince William County. Prince William county is in
Northern Virginia and consists of 98 schools; 58 elementary, 16 middle schools, 11
high schools and the remaining schools are special education, alternative, governor
or traditional schools. The countys student demographics are: 32% White, 32%
Hispanic/Latino, 20% African-American, 8% Asian, 48% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and
American Indian, and 6% two are more races. At Antietam Elementary school, the
student demographics are: 37.8% White, 24% Hispanic, 21.3% African-American,
9% Asian, 7.1% two or more races, 0.3% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 0%
American Indian.
The Lake Ridge community is a very supportive and hands-on community.
The parents, staff, students, and teachers all work together for the common goal of
enhancing student learning and forming a close-knit community. Parents are
welcomed and encouraged to volunteer at the school for several events and/or with
helping assist the classroom teachers provide the best learning experience and
environment for their students. Lake Ridge is a suburban community with a
population of over 41,000 people.
The literacy plan is specifically for the second grade team and their students.
It is based from the mid-year test scores on the assessment given within the
Benchmark Literacy program that the kit provides. Each teacher in the school has
one Benchmark Literacy kit in which the school uses to help drive Language Arts

instruction. After analyzing the test scores from the mid-year assessments, the
second grade team decided to meet and discuss any areas of concern they had, and
if there were any similarities between classes in which students may need
remediation on certain topics covered thus far in the school year. They also
discussed in what ways they can improve their instruction when teaching these
skills and topics for future students in hopes for better understandings and higher
achievement on assessments. The second grade team has noticed there are some
areas of need that need to be addressed to help improve student success in these
areas. Topics that students seemed to struggle with were on summarizing and
making judgments.
On the mid-year assessment, there were a total of twenty-eight questions.
Out of the twenty-eight questions, four were related to making judgments and for
three questions students had to apply their summarizing skills. T1s (Teacher 1)
class average of answering making judgment questions correctly was 66%. For T2,
58%; T3s class average was 76% and T4s was 56%. With summarizing, T3s class
scored higher on summarizing questions than the other three classes by about 20%
with an average score of 82%. However, their scores on summarizing were the
second lowest scores they received for their class out of all of the topics the
assessment covered (main idea, inferences and conclusions, literary elements,
relating ideas, text structures and features and word study). T1s class average for
summarizing was 73%; T2s was 57%, and T4s scored a 58%. After analyzing and
reflecting, the second grade team has decided to begin piecing together ideas on
how to improve student performance with making judgments and summarizing
information to ensure their success in their educational careers.

100%
80%
60%
40%

Making
Judgments

20%

Summarizing

0%
T1

T2

T3

T4

Section 2: Possible Solutions

There are many ways that the second grade team can work together to
improve student learning on these two particular areas of weakness their students
are showing. One way is to continue to use the Benchmark Literacy kits as they
have been, but to add additional resources to enhance student learning and
experience with these reading skills and topics. The additional resources can be
from websites, colleagues, and catalogs to name a few. The Benchmark Literacy kit
provides numerous leveled books on various levels as well as teacher handbooks
with handouts and activities to do with their students during instruction. However,
the kit provides only non-fiction literature for guided reading instruction and this
may be one of the reasons behind the low scores in the summarizing information
and making judgments (homophones, antonyms and synonyms) portions of the
assessment. If teachers are only using the Benchmark Literacy kits for their guided
reading instruction and no additional resources, the students are only limited to
applying their reading and comprehension skills on non-fiction topics and with nonfiction texts. They will not have the experience of summarizing information or
making judgments while reading fictional texts. On the mid-year assessment, they
are to read various passages and answer questions based on the passage they
read. Some passages are non-fiction while the others are fiction. Therefore, they

would like to incorporate fiction texts in their guided reading instruction along with
the non-fiction texts. This will help students when practicing their reading skills and
comprehension skills on a variety of genres and not solely one genre.
A possible solution to this issue is to get reimbursed for the funds that were
spent on the Benchmark Literacy Kits in order to purchase fiction and non-fiction
guided reading books for each grade level. The benefits of this solution will be that
the school has not wasted any money and the teachers get a more well-rounded
literacy kit that suits the students learning needs. The pitfalls of this solution are
that more than likely the school will not be able to receive refunds on the kits and
must keep them. Then they are forced to purchase brand new materials for all
teachers which will decrease school funds that may need to go to other outlets in
need.
Another possible solution could be to continue using the Benchmark literacy
kits and only purchasing fictional guided reading text sets for the teachers to add to
what they already have. This solution is more realistic because it would save money
and teachers would be resourceful while also receiving more resources to expand on
the literacy topics. Or the other solution, which is to purchase another guided
reading set that contains both fiction and non-fiction. This solution will more than
likely never happen and the pitfall would be spending money on another complete
set and having two sets in the classroom. Teachers would have so many choices and
options, that the set would not be used to its full ability and the students may not
benefit from the back-and-forth usage of two different kits. Also, the catch is that
one of the kits, from Sundance, contains both genres and touch on content topics
that students are learning such as life cycles, weather, and matter. The other kit,
from Teacher Direct, contains both genres but does not touch on content area

material in the texts nearly as much as the Sundance set. Between the two sets, it
would be more beneficial for the school to purchase the set that touches on content
material because the schools goal as an IB (International Baccalaureate) school is to
be global and connect all subjects as much as possible in the classrooms and in
school. Therefore, the kit that connects subject content within the leveled guided
reading texts fit the school and their mission the best!
The last possible solution could be in addition to one of the previous solutions
which are to remediate students in small groups who have struggle with similar
Language Arts topics based on the mid-year assessment data. The teachers would
get together and plan out the groups based on the scores and the students needs
and come up with a plan on when they will teach the small groups during their
reading blocks. The remediation will last no longer than twenty minutes and each
teacher are responsible for a specific topic for three weeks and then the topic and
students may change when they see the need. The pitfall of this solution is time
management and preparation. In order for this to run smoothly as well as be
effective, teachers need to pre-plan remediation during their planning periods in
addition to the general subjects they already plan and prepare for. Also, when
working with other students that are not your own, they have to take some time to
get to know the students and how they best learn the topics which can be difficult.
These remediation groups would help benefit the students struggling in reading by
possibly learning the material in a different way from how their teacher taught them
as well as working with other students who are also learning the same material and
the students can help one another as they are learning while having guidance from
the classroom teacher.
Section 3: Solution

The best solution I see fit for this grade level, in which all grade levels could
benefit from, would be to continue using the Benchmark Literacy kits and purchase
fiction texts to add to the texts that come with the kit they have already. The school
has already spent thousands of dollars per kit so it would be a complete waste to
stop using them especially if the students are benefitting from them. The only issue
the teachers had with the kits was the absence of fictional texts; therefore, a
solution for this could be to order only fictional texts or to purchase an additional
guided reading kit that provides fictional texts.
With the Benchmark Literacy kits, teachers are provided with guided reading
books on all of the Language Arts Topics such as summarizing, main idea, and
making predictions to name a few. The kit also contains a teacher handbook,
handouts and an assessment book for quizzes and assessments to give throughout
the units. The fiction guided reading set gives the option to purchase a teacher
handbook and audio CDs. If the school worried about budget, they could choose to
only purchase the guided reading books. If they had the funds for all of the
materials, then the whole set should be purchased. I believe that purchasing these
sets would benefit the students because they will have a wider variety of texts to
work with when learning the different units. Adding to the Benchmark Literacy kits
would hopefully increase student language and comprehension skills and there will
be an increase in test scores. The good thing about the Sundance Theme sets, are
that they are content based so students would be learning and reinforcing content
while learning to read as well. Purchasing and incorporating these sets in the
classrooms would reinforce our schools mission as an IB school in which the goal is
to teach our students to be globally minded and to teach how all things students
learn melt into one another and are connected.

The second part of this solution would involve the teachers to attend SPOT
training if they are not already trained. SPOT training is training for teachers in
Language Arts and begins in the summer. Teachers leave the training more
knowledgeable in the Language Arts curriculum and the best practices as well as
leave with a variety of books to add to their classroom libraries. By having the entire
teaching staff SPOT trained, I believe that the students will be able to attain more
knowledge from the lessons and activities in the classroom because hopefully they
will experience first-hand the best practices in Language Arts. As stated in Read,
Write, Lead, Ongoing professional learning that leads to teacher expertise and
increased student learning (Routman 140).
The last part of the solution would be to have ongoing professional learning
and collaboration with teachers and staff to increase student learning. As mentioned
in Becoming a Literacy Leader, book swaps is a good program that the entire school
participate in (Allen 22). Antietam elementary already has a Language Arts night
once a year, however, they have never done book swaps and I feel that the book
swaps can be a part of the many activities the school puts on for the literacy night.
At the book swap, parents, students, and teachers may bring in any kind of
literature to contribute to the swap. There will be bins that are labeled by grade
level so parents and students can easily search through age and grade level
appropriate books. The book swap can even be more specific to the skills that each
grade level needs improvement with. For an example, second grade test scores on
summarizing and making judgments were low this year so anyone bringing books in
for second grade can be books that are good for those particular skills. Parents
could also donate books that will help the teacher and students that would reinforce
the skills as well.

Section 4: Professional Development Plan

Professional development is essential for all teachers and schools because it
helps keep instructional practices current and up-to-date. There is always something
new and improved that makes the lives of educators and students much easier
efficient. As mentioned before, all teachers will be trained in SPOT to help with their
reading instruction in which they will receive several books to use in their
classrooms. Also, all teachers are required to read and keep a copy of The First 30
Days of School by Jane Shook which helps teachers set in place their Language Arts
block starting at the beginning of school.
All staff members will actively conduct and participate in further professional
development during each staff meeting every month. The purpose of this is to allow
each grade level to openly share with their colleagues resources and information
they found to be useful in their classrooms. This is the perfect way to network and
swap ideas and feed off of each other to work as a collaborative team. Teachers
may share a plethora of information from books, to websites, lesson plans, etc. This
is also a great way to match students with texts they can and want to read, as
mentioned in Read, Write, Lead (162 Routman). If students are not interested or
drawn in, how do teachers expect them to have the motivation to continue the
lesson or the reading? For this reason, I believe that sharing experiences and
resources at staff meetings would be beneficial for everyone. Adults learn best when
they are taking away something from their meetings and can easily and readily
apply them to their classrooms. Therefore, when the grade levels present at the
meetings, they will be required to provide something physical that attendees can
take away with them such as a handout or lesson plan. As motivation to implement
the information they receive and learn from the meetings, the grade level team who

has the highest assessment scores on the end-of-the-year benchmark for Language
Arts will with a pizza or ice cream party.
During the school year, all grade level teams will be required to upload
various resources into the Language Arts folders on the One Drive through the
Microsoft Outlook email that the school uses. This will be a perfect way for staff to
share ideas and have all of the documents in a central location that everyone can
easily access at any time. As a literacy coach, I will contribute to these folders as
well sharing my resources that I know grade levels have shared with me that they
need assistance with.
Section 5: Timeline for Implementation

Teache
rs

Aug
ust

Sep
t.

Oct
.

SPOT
training
all
teacher
s
Meets
teacher
s

K-1
prese
nt

Grade
s 2-3
prese
nt

Nov.
(Liter
acy
Night
)
Grades
4-5
present

Dec
.

Jan.

Feb
.

Mar
ch

Apr
il

May

June

K-1
prese
nt

Grade
s 2-3
prese
nt

Grade
s 4-5
prese
nt

K-1
presen
t

Grade
s 2-3
prese
nt

Grade
s 4-5
prese
nt

Reflecti
on

Works Works Works

Works Works Works Works
Works Works Reflecti
**Liter
with
with
with 4with
with
with
with Kwith
with
on
acy
K-1
2-3
5 team
K-1
2-3
4-5
1 team 2-3
4-5
Coach
team
team
team
team
team
team
team
*The topics presented will be based on what the data of the assessments show
weak areas for the grade levels

**The Literacy coach will also be contributing to the uploading of materials to the
One Drive each month as they are working with the teams.

In August, the teachers will attend SPOT training. From September-June there
will be one staff meeting per month in which nine of them, grade level teams will
present and share their grade level activity that helps with their areas of need. At

the staff meeting, the teachers will be given handouts or any other form of takeaways from the in house professional development amongst one another.
This literacy plan will be monitored by continuing to use the Benchmark
quizzes per unit taught every three weeks as well as the pre-assessment, mid-year
assessment, and post assessments. These scores will be able to show what students
are coming in the grade levels already knowing as well as how they are progressing
throughout the year within the different Language Arts topics. At the end of the
year, teachers will be able to see all the scores of their students and analyze their
progression with this plan. The teachers at the end of the year will reflect on their
overall experience with the plan and in their June staff meeting, they will come up
with ideas and modifications that may need to be set in place before the following
school year begins. At the June meeting, the literacy coach will be present to help
guide their thinking and ideas and to also reflect on what he or she witnessed
during the school year that they felt was beneficial for the teachers and students. Of
course, this would in no way be to down the teachers on their instruction, but to
uplift them and praise them for what they have accomplished and to assist them in
any way for the following school year.

Citations

Allen, J. (2006). Becoming a literacy leader: Supporting learning and change. Portland, Me.:
Stenhouse.
Antietam Elementary School - Front Page. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2016, from
http://antietam.schoolfusion.us/
Prince William County Public Schools - Home Page. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2016, from
http://pwcs.edu/
Routman, R. (n.d.). Read, write, lead: Breakthrough strategies for schoolwide literacy
success.