Elementary Screening and Progress Monitoring Scenario: Miguel

Elementary Screening and Progress Monitoring Scenario: Miguel 1 Miguel is a 5-year-old kindergartner with a February birth date. In October, his classroom teacher 2 administered the state-mandated PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) assessment that 3 measures young children’s knowledge of several important literacy fundamentals. Miguel scored at the 4 maximum level for each of the subtests given. 5 At the Kindergarten screening analysis meeting, the team noted that several students also scored at 6 the maximum level and were already reading books from classroom libraries. Miguel’s classroom 7 teacher noted that Miguel often misbehaves during whole group lessons that involve learning letter 8 sounds. The teacher reported that she has done some informal observation and Miguel appeared to 9 be reading books at about a second-grade level. 10 The reading specialist agreed to “dig deeper” by administering above grade level passage reading and 11 comprehension tests to better understand the strengths, interests and needs of Miguel and his reading 12 peers. 13 Results of further testing showed that Miguel and 2 of his peers (not in his class) were decoding and 14 comprehending mid-year second-grade level materials. 15 At the next team meeting, the team discussed available team and school supports they might use to 16 meet the needs of these above-grade readers, including: 17  Creating an individualized reading plan in each regular classroom for each child, 18  Moving all 3 students into the same reading classroom, and/or 19  Having the reading resource teacher work with the group during the time she is scheduled to 20 work with their classrooms for support 21 The team considered the pluses, minuses, and feasibility of each option and decided to try cluster 22 grouping, bringing all 3 students into the same classroom, during their reading block. 23 In this plan, the reading resource teacher would meet with the small group of students who are most 24 advanced in reading for 15 minutes a day during reading station work time. The resource teacher 25 would use a guided reading structure and keep weekly running records for each student to monitor 26 their progress. The small group of students would independently practice skills and cooperatively apply 27 strategies learned during small group while the rest of the class is engaged with letter sound 28 instruction. The classroom and reading resource teachers would work with the media specialist to 29 identify age-appropriate, advanced leveled books for independent reading for school and at home. 30 The team sent a letter home to parents with specifics of the plan and placed a follow-up call within the 31 week to discuss further. The team documented their plan on a form their school had created and 32 agreed to meet again in three weeks to gauge how well this course of action was proceeding. 33 Three weeks later at the regular Kindergarten PLC team meeting, the resource teacher shared the 34 running record data and teachers shared observations from the classroom. Progress monitoring data 35 showed that Miguel and his peers were thus far showing accelerated reading growth. Miguel’s teacher 36 noted that his in-class behavior has improved during reading block. The team put it on the calendar to 37 review the group’s progress again in 3 weeks.

Scenario adapted from Colorado Dept. of Ed Office of Gifted Education, Thinking Points: Gifted Education in an RtI Framework.