ALT What does identifying, communicating, and aligning with lesson objectives look like in practice? Johnson and colleagues (2017) developed a rubric for assessing the use of explicit instruction along seven dimensions. Goals and alignment are two of the seven and encompasses a range of techniques. "Not Implemented " "Partially Implemented " "Fully Implemented " The goals of the lesson are clearly communicated to the students. The goal is not verbally stated. “Today you will demonstrate mastery of decoding words with a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern.” "“Today you will blend sounds to read three-letter words with a short vowel sound (e.g., cat).”"

ALT "Not Implemented " "Partially Implemented " "Fully Implemented " The stated goals are specific.  The goal is not stated or displayed. “Today we will read a passage and complete a worksheet.” “Today you will use a graphic organizer to record important ideas in an informational text and identify the main idea.” The teacher clearly explains the relevance of the stated goal to the students. Relevance of the learning objective is not mentioned. “This lesson will help you with spelling words.” “We are practicing breaking apart [segmenting] the sounds in words because it will help you think about which letters spell each sound when you are spelling words.”

ALT "Not Implemented " "Partially Implemented " "Fully Implemented " Instruction is completely aligned to the stated or implied goal. "The objective is that students will blend sounds to read three-letter words with a short vowel sound (i.e., CVC words), but the students read decodable books that do not provide focused opportunities and do not practice blending sounds to read CVC words." "Students only blend sounds that are presented orally (e.g., /c/ / ă/ /t/) without reading printed words" "Students blend sounds presented orally (e.g., /c/ / ă/ /t/), then read printed CVC words." All of the examples or materials selected are aligned to the stated or implied goal. "When teaching a spelling rule (i.e., double the final consonant when adding an -ing suffix to a word with a short vowel sound), the teacher generates impromptu examples that do not illustrate the rule (e.g., bus, jump, fix)." "When teaching a spelling rule, some words

ALT "Not Implemented " "Partially Implemented " "Fully Implemented " Examples of materials selected are aligned to the instructional level of most or all of the students. "The students work on segmenting sounds in CVC words (e.g., map), but most students in the class are not yet able to isolate the first sound in a word. " Some students can easily isolate sounds in CVC words and some students have substantial difficulty. All students complete the same activities with the same level of prompting from the teacher. "Students can easily isolate the first sound in a CVC word (e.g., /s/ in sit), and the teacher uses various strategies to help students at different instructional levels segment the sounds (e.g., elongating sounds, choosing words with continuous sounds like /s/)." https://irrc.education.uiowa.edu/measure-first Find the other five dimensions for assessing explicit instruction on our free eLearning module and application!

ALT Measure FIRST (Measure Fidelity of Implementation in Reading Skills Teaching) Create custom fidelity checklists to monitor classroom instruction Learn how to analyze fidelity data to guide instructional decisions Share fidelity forms in collaboration with other educators

ALT What is the simple view of writing? Working Memory The ability to hold information in mind while completing another task. Text Generation Text generation skills include writing sentences, paragraphs, and longer texts. Transcription Transcription skills include letter formation (handwriting) and word-writing (spelling). Executive Functions Executive functions broadly refer to higher-order writing skills, such as planning and revising text.

ALT Blog Post Literacy is Every Subject - Math and Word Problems Every subject brings specialized vocabulary that students must master on their way to proficiency. Math is no exception. One of the clearest examples of math's literacy demands--and one of the biggest stumbling blocks for students--is the word problem. Solving word problems involves reading comprehension, the ability to filter out irrelevant information, and the ability to plan and execute a solution strategy.

ALT What is automaticity? Automaticity is the ability to read words accurately and effortlessly upon sight.