II.

Curriculum and Instruction

International Literacy Association International Dyslexia Association Course/Artifact

ILA Standard 2: Curriculum and IDA Standard 4: Structured Artifact #2

Instruction Literacy Instruction A – G SPED 605
Topical
Investigation

Artifact #3
EDCS 607
Literacy Case
Study

Synthesis of Assessment Standards

The ILA standard 2 focuses on curriculum and instruction. Leaders develop, analyze, and
evaluate school curriculum; design, implement, and evaluate effective classroom literacy instruction,
and collaborate with other professionals. Literacy leaders facilitate in selecting, designing, analyzing,
and evaluating the school wide literacy curriculum that align to state and district standards. Coaches
also are a means to improving teaching practices and enhancing teachers’ knowledge and skills of
evidence-based classroom, supplemental, and intervention approaches or programs to improve student
learning.
The IDA standard 4 is about structured literacy instruction. Leaders need to understand and be
able to apply in practice explicit, systematic, teacher-directed instruction. They need to know what that
would look like in practice and be able to demo for teachers who are newer to the practice. Leaders
need to be aware that during explicit teaching they need to consider levels of phonological sensitivity,
and considerations for adapting instruction for students with weaknesses in the role of decodable texts
in teaching beginning readers. This can also include the rationale for learning techniques, adapting
instruction as well as considerations for the structure of English orthography and the patterns and
rules that inform the teaching of single- and multi syllabic regular word reading. Lastly, it is important
to know the teacher’s role as an active mediator of text-comprehension processes. The leader needs to
be able to use these active process to model critical thinking strategies for the learner as well as a
teacher inquiring on best practices. For example, if a teacher wanted clarity on what explicit feedback
looked and sounded.
Both ILA standard 2 and IDA standard 4 are both focused on the explicit instruction
incorporating all elements of the literary elements being taught systematically. Using researched
curriculum's, but also as a literacy leader altering content based upon specific student’s needs and
developmental path. Knowing developmentally what students need based on what the state and federal
standards demand as well as evaluating the specific needs of the students. Also assisting with modeling
and collaborating with teachers to ensure best teaching practices are being used and also encouraging
teacher skill development.
In the classroom as a literacy leader this looks like me observing the teaching practices that I
see. It has me as the facilitator to ensuring that the teachers I was working with had all the best and
research based tools to help enhance their teaching styles. For example, using effective feedback
strategies for students, or active participation from students. These are elements of best teaching
practices that align with any curriculum goals. I am an advocate for the students, and I meet that by
ensuring the teachers have what they need. For example, if students need supplies for a notebook;
helping to provide those materials for students who may not have due to economic costs. Another
example would be to possibly talk to the special education teacher to ensure that their specific students
needs are also met and if they require any extra supplemental materials those get brought to the
attention of our administration to purchase ahead of time. It requires me to listen to what the teachers
are saying and taking it to the other stakeholders; including parents, administrators, professional
development representative options. It requires me to be a listener and an observer. It requires that
judgment and critique are not unclear. My role is to be critical, but not judgmental of teachers.
However, advocating for best curriculum and instructional techniques.

Evidence of Application

Curriculum and Instruction (ILA 2).

The standard ILA 2 for curriculum and instruction focus on aligning curriculum with federal
and state standards and school wide and student centered needs. The literacy leader has the knowledge
of best scientific and research practices in instruction and curriculum to balance the mandates from
the federal and state standards to the students developmental stages. Artifact 2 showcases my
understanding of the desired outcome of all the standards and expectations. The excerpt from my
attached paper along with presentation emphasizes,“There is a growing consensus that waiting until
later grades to address literacy problems that have their origin in earlier grades is not successful
(Grahame, 2012, p880).” I broke the similarities into three themes: characteristics of developing
readers/writers, instructional practice and research findings, and lastly the relevance to children with
dyslexia. As my article further states, based upon several different sources the commonalities to
becoming a fluent reader and writer require that children develop three very important skills. These
skills are Phonology; understanding the way sounds of the language operate, Morphology;
understanding the way words are formed and are related to each other. Once children understand both
Phonology and Morphology they begin to develop a Lexicon, a vocabulary of stored information about
the meanings and pronunciation of words. My paper and presentation shows that we know there is a
connection between reading and writing disabilities and if they are not developing the need for even
more explicit instruction and clear practice and routine is important.
Another connection between my artifact and the standard is the illustration that researching
supplemental programs is crucial for those students who struggle. One such authors of a program I
have used is by Fountas and Pinnell. They have a standard curriculum, but they also have a Response
to Intervention program that backs up and re-teaches key concepts that students struggle with. My
paper and presentation was a reflection on my main take aways and learning from other peer-reviewed
articles and studies pertaining to Dyslexia, writing, and other learning disabilities.
Artifact 3 is an excellent example of my completion and understanding of ILA 2. In my
presentation I share that my student displays an issue with comprehending due to having a hard time
with sight words and also ordering the information in the text. We practiced talking about the pictures,
drawing his own pictures, and adding as much detail into the pictures as we needed to convey the
problem in the story. My student was unable to explain in order the beginning, middle, and end. He
was able to tell me the problem and solution out of order. So we practiced reading, talking, drawing,
and repeating the process until he was able to retell a complete story in order. He was also able to pull
out stand alone information about character and setting as well. My lessons and the use of
foundational strategies are evident. I adjusted the curriculum so he could read a simple text; it was
printed so he could read and re-read it. It was also below his grade level for decodable words, but his
known sight words were about 100 words below where he needed to be. So he practiced grade level 1
sight words in context that he was not as solid in memorizing.
Structured Literacy Instruction (IDA 4: A–G).
 The standard for IDA 4 is very extensive. Most of the concepts are to be articulated in these two
artifacts. Artifact 2 exemplifies my ability to balance the mandates from the federal and state standards
to the students developmental stages. My second grade student did not have a solid foundational
understanding of sight words as well as the ability to conceptualize the sequence of a story. He would
often only be able to state the most recent thing he had read. He could name maybe one character and
sometimes was confused about reality verse fantasy. For example, if a character in the story was
reading a fairy tale than he would internalize that one element and even though he was reading he
would not be comprehending the story, but thinking about fairy tales he likes. Another specific example
of understanding IDA standard 4. I knew my role as an active mediator of text-comprehension
processes. Using these active process to model critical thinking strategies for the learner. As we
practiced our comprehension strategies we would talk about what we doing. I asked who is the story
about, what did the character do, why did they do what they did, where and when the story took place.
My student got into the habit of saying these questions to himself as we drew the pictures.
Artifact 2 on my paper and presentation about literacy and writing disabilities often times
going together. I had read peer-reviewed articles and written my connections. The research led me to
reflect, Some of the next steps should be on more research on assessments used with beginning writers.
Another area that needs to be carefully considered is what has been researched as best practice and
should be more consistently taught. I know in certain schools that are private or charter it is not as
strict as to the curriculum that teachers choose, but I feel there should be certain things that are taught
no matter what. This led me to thinking about what my role as a literacy leader would be in those
situations. Advocating for professional development to help instruct teachers that didn’t have a
curriculum. Or for those curriculum’s that don’t encompass everything; what are some key practices
that all good explicit teachers need to make sure they teach. “Writing is not language, but merely a
way of recording (spoken) language by visible marks… the prime challenge for beginning readers is to
map the orthography (letters) onto the elemental sounds of spoken language (phonemes), and this
serves as the major focus of early reading instruction).” (Shaywitz, 2008, p456) This excerpt from an
article I researched for my paper is important. It exemplifies, how interconnected the reading and
writing process is. If a student is struggling with their reading; often times there will be struggles for
them in writing. These struggles will make it stressful for the student to focus on ideas (which is the
most important element) when they can’t form a letter, or write a word, or formulate a sentence.