Deer Park Middle School - SRA FLEX Literacy
Q&A Washington state
Deer Park Middle School Which grade levels are using SRA FLEX Literacy™? Deer Park has implemented SRA FLEX Literacy™ in various stages for grades 6-8. SRA FLEX Literacy™ is the core Language Arts curriculum for our Sped and LAP (Learning Assistance Program) students. LAP students are those who have not met state standards in reading and/or writing and do not qualify for Sped. The sixth grade LAP students use only The Digital Experience, but grades 7-8 LAP students use all Three Experiences. The Sped students use all Three Experiences as well.
How far below grade level are your students who use SRA FLEX Literacy™? The LAP students are 1-4 grade levels below in reading. The SPED students are 2-5 grade levels below in reading.
How long have you been using SRA FLEX Literacy™? LAP has been using SRA FLEX Literacy™ for six months. When implementation first started, the school used The Print and Digital Experiences for the first two months, and since then has implemented the project experience as well. Lap has been using SRA FLEX Literacy™ since September 2014.
Was additional training needed to implement? One-half day of training provided a general overview of mostly The Print Experience. The teachers strongly recommend further training on the digital component, which has numerous aspects that can be very beneficial. It’s important that teachers know generally how students move through the activities and lessons, how to use the reports, and how to keep students engaged. In the lead teacher’s opinion, the print experience is very self-explanatory for teachers with a reading background, and can be fully implemented with little training. However, there are components relating to the digital, e.g., individualized instruction and critical thinking applications that may not be selfexplanatory. These could easily be shown explained further in the digital training. the project experience is also well outlined, but it takes some time to go through all of the components. It is beneficial for the teacher group to spend some time together, e.g., about one-half day, to review the full course of a project and prepare one together.
Are you employing all 3 components of the SRA FLEX Literacy™ curriculum? Yes.
IN14M02311
Q&A Are you seeing growth? Yes. Deer Park uses the Scholastic Reading Inventory Lexile® assessment and three months after implementation of SRA FLEX Literacy™, students on average achieved 150-200% of the expected growth. They also significantly out-performed their peers in achievement of expected growth on this assessment. Along with this, student fluency has made significant improvements and discipline problems have decreased in the classroom. The classroom is at the stage in the print experience where the students are leading the lesson, and teachers have been amazed at their confidence and desire to be leaders. Surprisingly, the “trouble-makers” were among the first to volunteer to be student leaders and have taken the job very seriously.
What other reading programs have you utilized in the past? The Sped team was trained in and implemented Direct Instruction last year and initially planned to use that going forward. The LAP program has had very little standard curriculum, but has used Rewards Plus loosely in the past. The school was looking at various alternatives to use with LAP and ended up choosing SRA FLEX Literacy™ because of the variety of instruction, data collection, differentiation, and cost-effectiveness of the program.
Do your students seem to enjoy or are they actively engaged throughout the lesson? Yes. Students enjoy moving throughout the Three Experiences. The change of pace from one experience to another keeps them engaged throughout each lesson. In the print experience, the majority of students are receiving full credit for participation, completing their reader, and the CTA (Critical Thinking Application). They are participating in discussion and offering insightful feedback. In the digital experience, teachers have developed an activity sheet that they fill out daily. The teachers created a reward system to further engage the students. If students complete a certain number of activities per session and can explain one thing they learned, they receive a small treat. This has been going well. Students have really enjoyed the projects as they have allowed for a lot of student choice and creativity. The class has created brochures, news articles, and websites and used research in all of these projects that has greatly benefitted the kids.
Any additional information? This program can either be fully implemented all at once, or implemented in parts, depending on the needs of the school. Currently, the school only has a 70-minute block for Language Arts, which does not allow for full implementation of The Project Experience. The lead teacher has recommended that for next year they use the digital and print experience as an intervention program for struggling readers, and that these students continue to attend a regular Language Arts class. The program can be implemented in flexible ways to meet the needs of different districts. Additionally, “buy in” is critical to success. From the beginning, LAP students have taken this program seriously and understood the huge gains they could achieve if they did. Rewards along the way continue to keep students interested and engaged.
Deer Park Middle School Which grade levels are using SRA FLEX Literacy™? Deer Park has implemented SRA FLEX Literacy™ in various stages for grades 6-8. SRA FLEX Literacy™ is the core Language Arts curriculum for our Sped and LAP (Learning Assistance Program) students. LAP students are those who have not met state standards in reading and/or writing and do not qualify for Sped. The sixth grade LAP students use only The Digital Experience, but grades 7-8 LAP students use all Three Experiences. The Sped students use all Three Experiences as well.
How far below grade level are your students who use SRA FLEX Literacy™? The LAP students are 1-4 grade levels below in reading. The SPED students are 2-5 grade levels below in reading.
How long have you been using SRA FLEX Literacy™? LAP has been using SRA FLEX Literacy™ for six months. When implementation first started, the school used The Print and Digital Experiences for the first two months, and since then has implemented the project experience as well. Lap has been using SRA FLEX Literacy™ since September 2014.
Was additional training needed to implement? One-half day of training provided a general overview of mostly The Print Experience. The teachers strongly recommend further training on the digital component, which has numerous aspects that can be very beneficial. It’s important that teachers know generally how students move through the activities and lessons, how to use the reports, and how to keep students engaged. In the lead teacher’s opinion, the print experience is very self-explanatory for teachers with a reading background, and can be fully implemented with little training. However, there are components relating to the digital, e.g., individualized instruction and critical thinking applications that may not be selfexplanatory. These could easily be shown explained further in the digital training. the project experience is also well outlined, but it takes some time to go through all of the components. It is beneficial for the teacher group to spend some time together, e.g., about one-half day, to review the full course of a project and prepare one together.
Are you employing all 3 components of the SRA FLEX Literacy™ curriculum? Yes.
IN14M02311
Q&A Are you seeing growth? Yes. Deer Park uses the Scholastic Reading Inventory Lexile® assessment and three months after implementation of SRA FLEX Literacy™, students on average achieved 150-200% of the expected growth. They also significantly out-performed their peers in achievement of expected growth on this assessment. Along with this, student fluency has made significant improvements and discipline problems have decreased in the classroom. The classroom is at the stage in the print experience where the students are leading the lesson, and teachers have been amazed at their confidence and desire to be leaders. Surprisingly, the “trouble-makers” were among the first to volunteer to be student leaders and have taken the job very seriously.
What other reading programs have you utilized in the past? The Sped team was trained in and implemented Direct Instruction last year and initially planned to use that going forward. The LAP program has had very little standard curriculum, but has used Rewards Plus loosely in the past. The school was looking at various alternatives to use with LAP and ended up choosing SRA FLEX Literacy™ because of the variety of instruction, data collection, differentiation, and cost-effectiveness of the program.
Do your students seem to enjoy or are they actively engaged throughout the lesson? Yes. Students enjoy moving throughout the Three Experiences. The change of pace from one experience to another keeps them engaged throughout each lesson. In the print experience, the majority of students are receiving full credit for participation, completing their reader, and the CTA (Critical Thinking Application). They are participating in discussion and offering insightful feedback. In the digital experience, teachers have developed an activity sheet that they fill out daily. The teachers created a reward system to further engage the students. If students complete a certain number of activities per session and can explain one thing they learned, they receive a small treat. This has been going well. Students have really enjoyed the projects as they have allowed for a lot of student choice and creativity. The class has created brochures, news articles, and websites and used research in all of these projects that has greatly benefitted the kids.
Any additional information? This program can either be fully implemented all at once, or implemented in parts, depending on the needs of the school. Currently, the school only has a 70-minute block for Language Arts, which does not allow for full implementation of The Project Experience. The lead teacher has recommended that for next year they use the digital and print experience as an intervention program for struggling readers, and that these students continue to attend a regular Language Arts class. The program can be implemented in flexible ways to meet the needs of different districts. Additionally, “buy in” is critical to success. From the beginning, LAP students have taken this program seriously and understood the huge gains they could achieve if they did. Rewards along the way continue to keep students interested and engaged.
