Woodbury Public Schools Basic Skills Teachers & Instructional Assistants Support Services Handbook 2006-2007

Rationale

A new plan is in place for the 2006-07 school year to provide a more consistent instructional program in all three elementary schools. This plan offers three tiers of assistance for at-risk elementary students as follows:

Tier 1      The classroom teacher
Tier 2      In-class instructional assistant
Tier 3      Pull-out basic skills teacher

One immediate, positive result of this plan is increased in-class support. Each kindergarten class will now have a 29 hour/week classroom aide and each first grade class will have a 29 hour/week instructional assistant. Grades 2-5 each will share a 29 hour/week instructional assistant. Each building will have a teacher designated as a basic skills teacher who will provide pull-out services for the most needy students. The Reading Recovery teachers will continue to provide RR services AND, additionally, provide basic skills pull out support for the most needy students in Kindergarten and first grade.

The Basic Skills teachers will remediate and bolster literacy and math skills short of a child study referral.

Identification of Students in Need

The classroom teacher will assess student strengths and areas of need in literacy and math skills as usual. The classroom teacher will work closely with the instructional assistant to determine the most effective strategies to remediate students’ perceived weaknesses.

Basic skills student lists were jointly created during spring 2006 by a review of student performance and test results. However, a teacher or parent can request that a student not currently on this list be considered for support services in the areas of math and/or literacy. This request should then flow from the desk of the building principal to the basic skills teacher so that an evaluation of the student can be carried out.

Roles & Responsibilities

The Classroom Teacher will…

• Maintain primary responsibility to plan daily instruction in the classroom

• Maintain primary responsibility to carry out formal assessment of student progress in the classroom

• Maintain primary responsibility to communicate with students’ parents/guardians

• Take the leadership role in developing a collaborative teaching environment that supports open communication resulting in a strong and productive working relationship between the IA and the Classroom Teacher (the basic skills teacher will be working independent of the in-class Instructional Assistant effort).

• Provide the basic skills instructor with a copy of weekly lesson plans to maintain congruence and adequate pacing for pull-out students, where such pacing is possible.

The Instructional Assistant will…

• Perform instructional duties in collaboration with the classroom teacher

• Uphold classroom rules, climate and teaching philosophy put in place by the classroom teacher

• Proactively support instruction in the classroom as follows:
-circulate among students to be sure that students are on task
-distribute materials
-clarify instructions
-answer student questions
-supply feedback on student performance
-provide additional practice in a skill to promote mastery
-work with a small group to build student self-confidence
-suggest potential resources to the classroom teacher
-plan alternative ways of presenting skills instruction to struggling learners

• Model the behavior expected of students (listen when the teacher is instructing; read when the class is reading, etc.)

• Share evaluative feedback on student performance with the classroom teacher

• Administer the DIBELS test to students in grades K-2

• Anticipate classroom teachers’ ongoing instructional needs during the school day and willingly step up to serve in a role as partner

• Set a goal of open, upbeat, productive and ongoing communication channels between professionals, both face to face and via email

The Basic Skills Instructor will…

• Conduct a formal multiple measures assessment (to include NJ ASK score, report card grades, teacher recommendation) leading to an individual student profile to identify those children in need of basic skills instruction during the spring semester for the upcoming school year.

• Develop, implement and fine tune a pull-out schedule to service the neediest students in a one-on-one or small group modality outside of the regular classroom setting.

• Design a pull-out program that aligns closely with regular classroom instruction in terms of pacing and content. This program will utilize the regular classroom’s instructional materials whenever possible. Additional support materials are available throughout the district if needed. (Such resources and/or alternative instructional strategies may be required to bring students with a history of below par achievement to a point of improved performance).

• Initiate basic skills pull-out program rotation during the first full week of school for grades two through five. The RR teachers will use the opening weeks to perform the Observational Survey assessment to determine placement into RR. Kindergarten students will receive pull-out instruction beginning with the second semester.

• Communicate regularly with the Classroom Teacher with the goal of designing the appropriate instructional interventions for identified students in need and sharing student progress over the course of the school year. (Please note: the basic skills teacher will not be using “communication sheets” for this purpose but will instead copy the classroom teacher on lesson plans following each week’s instruction; these will become a record of student contact. Furthermore, the quarterly assessments will no longer be used as documentation of student progress in basic skills.

• Meet regularly as a team to share successes and brainstorm solutions to shared problems during the 2006-07 school year. It is understood by members of both the instructional and administrative teams that any new plan requires such “tweaking” as it unfolds for the very first time.

Models of Collaborative Teaching

The instructional assistants will be work with classroom teachers as a participant in collaborative teaching models as follows:

• Complementary Instructional Approach
The classroom teacher instructs content while the instructional assistant focuses on strategy, practice and/or activities to build mastery and confidence in particular skill areas.

• Team Teaching Approach
Both classroom teacher and instructional assistant work together, actively teaching the content side by side with each team member choosing different aspects of the lesson to deliver.

• Parallel Teaching with Grouping
Classroom teacher and instructional assistant plan the lesson together, but the classroom teacher sets up ability groups based on an assessment of student needs. The instructional assistant works with the group that needs more attention or accommodation to succeed.

To clarify, Instructional Assistants are not filling the role of a classroom aide. These individuals all have college degrees and most have completed teacher training and are certified teachers. The overarching goal is to utilize these individuals for support with the direct instruction – especially in a manner that provides extra support to those students identified as being in need of basic skills instruction.

Instructional Assistants will receive professional development during the first four days of in-service in September to build their knowledge of Everyday Mathematics and Guided Reading. Their training will be ongoing during the 2006-07 school year.

Updated 1/10/2007
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