Read to Succeed

Section A: Five Pillars of Reading Instruction

Instruction and assessments for PreK-5th grade students include the 5 pillars of reading. The new ELA standards for South Carolina, along with the curriculum explicitly teach students each of the following components. By increasing the rigor of these pillars, educators can effectively support students' literacy development and prepare them for higher-level reading tasks as they progress through each grade.

Oral Language: Teachers participate in the oral language component through classroom discussions, partner work, storytelling, and peer collaboration. This skill is assessed by observations and checklists that correlate to the ELA standards.
Phonological Awareness: Teachers use curricula such as OpenCourt and HMH into Reading to solidify students’ phonemic awareness. Through the training of LETRS, teachers are able to support the curriculum with more intense strategies. Phonemic awareness is taught by identifying and producing rhymes, segmenting syllables, blending sounds in words, and manipulating sounds within words (adding, deleting, and substituting). Assessments include EasyCBM, Indicator Aligned Inventory, MAP, and the Phonological Awareness Screening Test.

Phonics: Teachers utilize explicit curricula such as OpenCourt and HMH in Reading and Reading A-Z to show the relationship between phonemes and graphemes. Assessments can include Reading A-Z, progress monitoring in small groups, and observations while students decode.

Fluency: Teachers model fluency to students through shared reading. Students are able to practice fluency through choral reading, reading a story multiple times, and partner reading. Teachers assess fluency through timed passage reading, EasyCBM, Reading A-Z fluency passages, and OpenCourt passages. Being able to be fluent readers is not just reading quickly, but also being able to read with expression, pace, and accuracy.

Vocabulary: Vocabulary is explicitly taught orally and through print. Teachers strategically teach vocabulary through direct teaching and providing context, providing rich contexts in their reading, word mapping, and semantic mapping. HMH into Reading has vocabulary words included in each reading that teachers can explicitly teach. OpenCourt also allows new words to be taught through discussions during shared reading. Teachers assess vocabulary through HMH and OpenCourt assessments, and informally through students’ writing and discussions.

Comprehension: Teachers use their OpenCourt or HMH curriculum to teach students how to comprehend texts. The younger grades teach comprehension by discussing stories, recalling main events, and answering simple questions about texts read aloud. The older students are taught comprehension by analyzing texts, making inferences, summarizing content, and discussing themes and character motivations in more complex texts.

By incorporating these components into assessments and instruction, teachers are able to identify individual student needs, modify interventions, and support all students in reaching grade-level proficiency in reading.

Section B: Foundational Literacy Skills, 

Word recognition is important for building a student's fluency and comprehension. It is a critical skill that is supported by the Science of Reading which teaches students decoding, orthographic mapping, and word analysis through a systematic approach. Each curriculum that our district has provided for ELA supports each of these components necessary for building word recognition through a structured literacy approach. OpenCourt and HMH both include phonics skills for students to recognize words quickly and use those words for reading comprehension. Word recognition is an essential skill that supports fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development, for literacy success.

Section C: Intervention

Langford Elementary uses universal screeners and diagnostic assessments as a way to determine which students are not showing grade-level proficiency and need extra support. Universal screeners include MAP, EasyCBM, and Mastery Connect. These assessments will allow teachers to see which students need additional intervention services. Diagnostic assessments are OpenCourt assessments, HMH assessments, and IAI. Teachers can then use these assessments to determine the exact area a student needs extra support. The diagnostic assessments used in our school are given to progress monitor students based on what support they need. If progress is not being made, teachers can present the student’s data to the IAT team for further evaluation and extra support.

Section D: Supporting Literacy at Home

Parents are a vital part of Langford Elementary. They are the student’s first teachers, so we want to make sure we equip them with the tools necessary to support their child’s literacy development. Some things we do to keep parents informed are parent-teacher conferences, interim reports, parentsquare communication, weekly folders, Literacy Night, list of ways parents can support their child that is differentiated to meet their specific needs. Each one of these items mentioned is a way we keep parents involved and up to date on how their child is performing, and how to continue to support them. Parent support plays a vital role in fostering academic success, promoting positive behavior, and creating a collaborative environment that benefits students, teachers, and the broader school community.

Section E: Progress Monitoring

Langford Elementary provides monitoring of reading achievement and growth at the classroom and school level to ensure reading proficiency through various strategies and data-driven decisions. We monitor the reading achievement through MAP, Reading A-Z assessments, and quarterly assessments (benchmarks). At Langford, we have MTSS and IAT meetings monthly where teachers show documentation on how students are progressing, or not progressing. The IAT and MTSS team will decide, based on the data, to what additional support would be appropriate for each student. Through EasyCBM, teachers are able to progress monitor their students to ensure they are on the right track or if additional support is needed. We also have RTI in place through 3 different tiers. Tier 1 is done in the classroom by the general education teacher through explicit instruction. The literacy coach is able to step in and offer support to close holes and gaps within the classroom. Tier 2 students are pulled out by an interventionist where they are receiving extra support from the LLI reading program in small groups to target certain skills. Tier 3 students are also pulled out by an interventionist who gives them targeted skill instruction in a small group that is more intense than tier 2.

Section F: Teacher Training

Langford Elementary is making a shift to structured literacy with foundational literacy skills through the Science of Reading to support all students in our school. The Literacy Coach will conduct PDs on foundational literacy skills that are embedded in the Science of Reading. The curriculum, OpenCourt, and HMH are aligned with the Science of Reading and incorporate structured literacy and foundational literacy skills in each lesson. Teachers have the capability to engage in training in either curriculum. Teachers in K-3 are also receiving ongoing training in LETRS that is embedded in the Science of Reading and foundational literacy skills where teachers are learning useful strategies that can be implemented in their classrooms.

Section G: District Analysis of Data

Strengths:

• We are able to collect and analyze a wide variety of data.
• Grade-level planning that is centered on academics and standards.
• Have an IAT team that is able to review data and make sure students are given the extra support they need.​​​​​​

Possiblilities for Growth:

• ​​​Understanding what to do next with the data collected and analyzed.
• Training on structured literacy.
• Vertical alignment across grade levels.

How many eligible teachers in your school have completed Volume 1 ONLY of LETRS?:  5

How many eligible teachers in your school have completed Volumes 1 and 2 of LETRS?: 1

How many eligible teachers in your school are beginning Volume 1 of LETRS this year (or have not yet started or completed Volume 1)?: 28

Section H: 2023-24 School SMART Goals and Progress Toward those Goals

Goal #1 (Third Grade Goal): Reduce the percentage of third graders scoring Does Not Meet in the spring of 2024 as determined by SC READY from 19.5% to 16.5% in the spring of 2025.

Goal #1 Progress: This goal was not met during the 23-24 school year. Based on the data in spring 2024, 19.5% of third graders were performing below grade level.

Goal #2: By May 2024 school year, Langford will expand and increase participation in Peer Learning Labs within all grade levels with the use of the R2 Balanced literacy model by 20%.

Goal #2 Progress: Peer learning labs were started again last year. The literacy coach modeled lessons for entire grade levels several times throughout the year. Teachers were able to debrief together with the coach to discuss what they noticed, and how thinking may have shifted on a certain topic. We were also able to conduct peer observations where teachers were able to observe fellow colleagues during the school year.

Goal #3: By May 2024 school year, teachers will increase their use of higher DOK levels of questioning in their teaching and assessments by 100%.

Goal #3 Progress: A PD was conducted on DOK levels to make sure teachers understood what DOK levels are, and how to incorporate them in their lessons. Mastery Connect was also utilized to make sure a variety of DOK levels were assessed to get students ready for state testing.

Section I: 2024-25 School SMART Goals and Action Steps Based on Analysis of Data

Goal #1 (Third Grade Goal): Reduce the percentage of third graders scoring Does Not Meet in the spring of 2024 as determined by SC READY from 19.5% to 16.5% in the spring of 2025.

Goal #1 Action Steps:

• Routine PLC meetings with administration, coaches, and district specialists
• Provide data analysis PD
• Provide PD on using data to inform instruction
• Teachers will use data to inform instruction
• Review benchmark data and use it to guide instruction
• Use small groups to provide more intensive instruction

Goal #2: By the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, our school will establish a vertically aligned curriculum framework in ELA from PreK to 5th grade, ensuring that 100% of teachers implement consistent instructional strategies and assessments.

Goal #2 Action Steps:

• Collaborative planning sessions
• Classroom observations
• Student performance data-utilize the data and determine areas of growth

Goal #3: By the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, 100% of teachers in K-3rd grade will use their knowledge of LETRS training and 2024 ELA standards to implement structured literacy in small groups.

Goal #3 Action Steps:

• Continue PLC meetings with coach and admin every two weeks to discuss LETRS strategies teachers are learning
• Weekly watching of LETRS session videos
• Peer collaboration amongst their grade level on LETRS
• Collaborate with teachers from each grade level to discuss vertical alignment across grade levels
• Teachers will score at least 80% on unit assessments to show mastery and understanding of LETRS.