School Reading Plan

Summerville Elementary adheres to the Dorchester District Two Literacy Model, encompassing all six literacy components: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The district's K-5 Instructional Planning Guide provides teachers with the daily schedule, scope, sequence, and resources needed to teach the curriculum, which primarily utilizes HMH Into Reading.

Foundational Skills (4K-2)

In 4K-2, we use UFLI Foundations and Heggerty/Bridging the Gap to provide cumulative, systematic, and explicit instruction in foundational skills (oral language, phonological awareness, and phonics).

• UFLI Foundations explicitly teaches a progression of skills, starting with phonological awareness (e.g., rhyming, alliteration) before introducing letter sounds. In K-1, lessons focus on one new phoneme-grapheme correspondence at a time, followed by practice with decodable text.

Advanced Skills and Comprehension (2-5)

In Grades 2-5, the primary instructional tool is the HMH Into Reading core program. Instruction shifts to applying foundational skills to complex text and integrating them with higher-order comprehension.

• HMH provides explicit instruction for complex phonics patterns, prefixes, suffixes, and multi-syllabic word reading strategies (e.g. syllable division rules). Assessments for all areas are built into the HMH program but can be edited by teachers.

Word Recognition assessment and instruction in PreK-5th grade are aligned to the Science of Reading (SoR) and implemented through Structured Literacy by focusing on the explicit, systematic development of Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Orthographic Mapping, which are the core components of foundational literacy.

Summerville Elementary School uses HMH Into Reading as the core reading curriculum and assessment tool for students in grades K-5. This program aligns with the Science of Reading, utilizing an explicit, systematic, incremental, and cumulative approach across all five pillars of reading.

Key Instructional Components (K-5):

• Fluency: Weekly lessons are spiraled to continually introduce and reinforce skills like accuracy, reading rate, expression, and intonation.
• Vocabulary: Instruction builds word and conceptual knowledge both within and beyond texts, focusing on direct instruction and cumulative review of academic vocabulary.
• Comprehension: Daily lessons explicitly teach a specific reading skill or strategy before reading, which students immediately apply to increasingly complex grade-level texts. This spiraling approach helps students draw from many standards and strategies for comprehension. 

Foundational Skills Instruction:

• In Grades K-2, foundational skills, phonics, and phonemic awareness are taught using UFLI Foundations and Heggerty/Bridging the Gap.
  • UFLI Foundations is taught daily, following the "simple view of reading" to ensure decoding fluency precedes linguistic comprehension.
  • Heggerty provides 10-minute, explicit, systematic lessons covering all eight phonological awareness skills and early literacy connections, aligned with the Science of Reading. 

• In Grades 3-5, phonics and word study instruction is integrated into the HMH Into Reading curriculum. Following whole-group explicit instruction, students apply new skills in both reading and writing. Small groups are used daily for targeted instruction or reteaching based on assessment data. 

Assessment:

Instruction is data-driven through a variety of assessments:

• Foundational Skills (K-2): AIMSWeb and the Foundational Skills Survey (FSS) monitor phonological awareness and decoding.
• Reading Proficiency (K-5): MAP assessments track overall reading proficiency.
• Literacy Components: Common Assessments and classroom assessments provide actionable data on student progress for all literacy areas.

Summerville Elementary uses a tiered assessment process to monitor student reading growth and identify needs for intervention.

• Universal Screening: The MAP assessment is administered three times annually in grades K-5. Results are analyzed in data debriefings and MTSS sessions to determine student placement and intervention needs.

Grades K-2:

• Foundational Skills Monitoring: AIMSWeb is administered three times per year to track progress in foundational skills (e.g. phonological awareness, decoding).
• Targeted Diagnostics: The Foundational Skills Survey (FSS) is given quarterly to pinpoint specific strengths and weaknesses in foundational skills.

Students not meeting proficiency based on MAP and FSS results are given a diagnostic test to guide literacy intervention.

Grades 3-5:

• Intervention Placement: Students who do not meet proficiency on SC Ready or MAP are placed in the Read 180 program for targeted intervention.
• Read 180 Placement & Monitoring: MAP Growth is used as both the universal placement and a progress monitoring tool for Read 180.
• Foundational Skills Screener: Students whose MAP/Lexile scores indicate a need for foundational literacy support (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency) take the Code Placement Assessment. This screener measures the accuracy and speed of their responses in letter recognition, high-frequency words, decoding, and morphology.

Summerville Elementary prioritizes a strong home-school connection to support literacy development using multiple communication channels and engagement events.

• Communication: Teachers primarily use Parent Square and Schoology to share classroom assignments and communicate with families. Additional communication is provided through classroom and school newsletters that highlight curriculum-aligned activities.

• Engagement Events:
  • Fall Parent Conferences allow parents to discuss grade-level standards and student expectations.
  • The annual Love of Literacy evening in February offers strategies to support reading and writing at home.
  • Monthly Parent Trainings are held for specific grade levels to share resources, best practices, and information aligned with ELA standards and the Science of Reading.
  • A Parent Information Session will be held this year for families of students receiving reading intervention (Grades 1-5), offering resources, books, school supplies, and information from the District Parenting Center.

Summerville Elementary uses a consistent system of data review and progress monitoring to guide core instruction and targeted interventions. Monthly MTSS sessions are held for each grade level to analyze student growth and achievement. During these sessions, grade-level and school-wide data are reviewed to identify trends and patterns, informing decisions about core instruction and intervention strategies. All students receiving reading intervention (K-5) are progress monitored to ensure the program is effective and students are demonstrating growth.

Targeted Intervention Programs 

Grade Level Program Focus and Assessment

Grades 1-2, 95 Percent This intervention program diagnoses deficits in phonemic awareness and phonics to create precise, small-group instruction. Ongoing progress monitoring is used to confirm skill mastery and optimize the school's overall intervention efforts. Grades 3-5, Read 180 Students complete daily instructional tasks in the "ReaL Book" that serve as embedded formative assessments to monitor understanding and pace instruction. The ReaL Books also contain summative assessments to gauge mastery of skills taught during whole- and small-group instruction.

Read 180 monitors a comprehensive set of literacy skills:

• ReaL Book: Comprehension: Skills include comprehension, vocabulary/word study, close reading, writing, and conventions.
• ReaL Book: Code Foundations: Skills include phonemic awareness/phonics, spelling and word automaticity, vocabulary, oral reading fluency, comprehension, and writing. Results from these embedded assessments are used for instructional planning, intervention adjustments, progress monitoring, and grading.

Summerville Elementary ensures all teachers are trained in the Science of Reading and aligned instructional practices across Grades K-5. 

Teacher Training

• Grades K-3: All teachers are enrolled in the state-provided LETRS training. This intensive professional development requires participants to complete online sessions and student case studies to apply Science of Reading strategies directly.
• Grades 4-5: Teachers had the opportunity to participate in a book study on Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This training focuses on translating reading science theory into practical, direct classroom application. 

Curriculum and Assessment Training

• Core Curriculum (K-5): All teachers have been trained in the use of the district-adopted HMH Into Reading instructional series. This curriculum is designed around the five pillars of reading and follows an explicit, systematic, and cumulative approach. Ongoing professional development is provided throughout the year to support its effective use.
• Foundational Assessment (K-2): All K-2 teachers have been trained to administer and interpret the Foundational Skills Survey (FSS), which is used quarterly to assess student foundational skills. Training and support for this assessment remain ongoing.