D182, The Reflective

Practitioner, Task 2
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OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
Introduction

I am a first-grade teacher in a small Title 1 school within a small district. The class

consists of 20 students, 8 boys and 12 girls—16 of them being English Language Learners. ELLs

get pulled out throughout the day for LEP resources. Native languages spoken in the classroom

are English, Spanish, and Russian. Ages range from 6-8. Many students read and write below

grade level. Engage New York is the curriculum used for mathematics and ELA.

Challenge

Given that regular classroom instruction has been minimized over the past year, and

current instruction being a hybrid model of in-person and distance learning, the challenge for my

class is that reading skills are at an all-time low. Students are not being taught to read at their

level anymore. We are cramming first-grade level reading curriculum with very little testing and

progress monitoring that tells us any information. I have many students learning Phonological

Awareness as a step before reading. We have an assessment called the Phonological Awareness

Screening Test that covers eight areas in kindergarten and eight different areas in first grade.

Many students aren’t able to pass kindergarten sections. Along with this, there is a struggle with

students’ ability to read fluently. Most students can decode but when it comes to putting it into a

sentence or paragraph, they struggle with reading it in context.

Long-Term Goal

To increase student accuracy of substituting last phonemes to 70% or higher on the PAST

1 Assessment by researching and implementing three new strategies for teaching phonological

awareness by the end of the 4 th quarter.

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OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
Goal #1 Explanation

Typically, students in first grade are taught to read at their level, being progress-

monitored and assessed consistently to reevaluate reading levels. At this point in the year,

students should at least be reading at a first-grade level, and many students do not. By focusing

on Phonological Awareness and assessing the students individually to see what areas of

phonemes they need to work on, we should be able to progress through Phonological Awareness

and move on to leveled reading, fluency and comprehension. This will be evidenced by daily

instruction and bi-weekly monitoring. By researching new strategies for teaching phonological

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awareness, I can work on building engagement and better sequencing for lessons during whole

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group or small group reading intervention.

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Short-Term Goals for Long-Term Goal #1
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 Observe 5 ELA lessons taught by other teachers and implement two of their strategies in

a 4-week period.
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 Work with each reading intervention group twice a week for 6 weeks to practice
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implementing new strategies.

 Research different instructional strategies through online seminars, articles and blogs and
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implement three new strategies for teaching phonological awareness.

Actionable Steps for Goal #1 Short-Term Goals.

 Schedule 5 lessons during lunch and/or prep periods to observe, taking notes on each
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lesson in teaching log. Debrief with teachers if needed.

 Implement at least two strategies observed from lessons into ELA whole group lessons or

reading intervention mini lessons. Reflect on lesson outcomes and effectiveness in

teaching log.

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OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
 Schedule to meet with each reading intervention group and implement strategies into

their lessons that meet their needs. This can be done also by giving a paraprofessional the

lesson to be taught to each group.

 Daily instruction and Bi-Weekly Progress Monitoring: Students will receive instruction

through ELA lessons and also in their reading intervention groups on specific skills they

are needing to work on. Students will be progress monitored using lessons from

“Working Out with Phonological Awareness”. This will show what students need to

continue practicing. I can then turn to researching how to teach to specific needs in each

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intervention group and implement at least three of the new strategies.

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 Research online for various instructional strategies to implement. Write three strategies

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into ELA lessons or mini lessons for small group.
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 PAST 1st Grade Assessment (Post): Students will be assessed the same, beginning with

the section they left off with from the preassessment that was done at the beginning of the
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quarter.
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Timeline for Goal #1 Actionable Steps. Students will be assessed prior to spring

conferences using the PAST 1st Grade Assessment (section 16, PAST 1) to develop their baseline.
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 5 lesson observations: observe 30 minutes each of 5 lessons in 3 weeks

 Implementing at least 2 strategies in week 4 of four-week period: 40-60 min ELA whole
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group lessons, daily

 Meeting with each reading intervention group and implement strategies into their lessons

that meet their needs: 15-minute mini lessons in small group, twice a week for 6 weeks.

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OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
 Daily instruction and Bi-Weekly Progress Monitoring: 90 min allotted ELA time, at least

40 min of lessons using a new instructional strategy. Progress-monitoring lessons from

WOWPA take 10 min each.

 Research: 30-60 minutes (during lunch/prep/at home)

 PAST 1st Grade Assessment (Post): Students will be assessed individually with a teacher.

Student progresses through sections until they miss three consecutive items. Each

assessment should take 5-10 minutes.

Long-Term Goal #2

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To learn about and implement at least two new resources for fluency practice by the end

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of 4th quarter in order for 70% of students to increase from 30-40 words per minute to 60 words

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per minute or higher.
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Goal #2 Explanation

Students are expected to be able to read at least 60 wpm correctly by the end of 1 st grade.
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With our reading skills currently so low and nearing the end of the school year, my goal is to
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have 70% of my students increase their wpm to 60 by the end of the school year. A few of my

students already read 60wpm or higher, and some read 40-60, but I still have a chunk of students
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who fall in the 30-40 range. If we can get most, if not all, students up to 60wpm by the end of the

school year, they will be able begin 2nd grade around the expected fluency level. By learning
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about and implementing two new resources to help them practice their fluency, I will be giving
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them the opportunity for extra practice outside of what is given in the curriculum—as well as

give them other options if they have a preference on how they practice.

Short-Term Goals for Long-Term Goal #2

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OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
 Send home a new fluency practice sheet each week with 80% completion and return from

students.

 Choral read sight words 3 times a week for 6 weeks.

 Collaborate with two other teachers for ideas on how to practice fluency and implement

two into ELA/reading.

Actionable Steps for Goal #2 Short-Term Goals.

 Incentive: Create an incentive with the class to help motivate them to practice their

fluency sheets and return them. Students will receive the chosen rewards for completing

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and returning their sheets.

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 Fluency Practice Sheets: This will be used as practice and progress monitoring. Model

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how the paper should be done each week so the students can hear how fluently it should
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be read and how to time themselves. The student will first read through the paper and

record how many words they can read in a minute. Each day they will read through it and
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try to read through the sheet and record the time that it took them.
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 Sight Words: Schedule to choral read through sight words three times a week for six

weeks. Students will practice their current lists of sight words at home and during
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reading. We will also do sight word games as a class. Learning 1st grade sight words will

help build fluency when they are placed into sentences.

 Bi-Weekly fluency assessments: Similar to the practice sheets sent home, students will be
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assessed on their fluency. Scores will be recorded and used to track progress.

 Goal Setting: Students will set WPM goals in their individual ELA journals and I will

sign each week. If students reach this goal by the following week, they will receive a

reward.

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OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
 Collaboration: Meet with at least two other teachers during morning collaboration, prep

periods or lunch and discuss strategies and resources they use to teach and practice

reading fluency. Take notes and implement 2 new resources learned.

 Look through sites such as TeachersPayTeachers.com and implement a new resource

learned into ELA/reading lessons.

 Fluency Reader Assessments: Pre and post assessment will be given to track WPM and

errors.

Timeline for Goal #2 Actionable Steps. Students will be assessed with a fluency reader

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in the first full week of January (spring semester).

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 Incentive: Spend 10 minutes brainstorming ideas with the class by January 8th

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 Fluency Practice Sheets: Students will spend at least 1 min each day, Monday-Friday
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each week.

 Sight Words: Choral reading will be done Monday, Wednesday, Thursday for 5 minutes
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during morning work. Students should spend 10 each night Monday-Friday practicing
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their sight word lists. Sight word games will be played during Reading Intervention

times, up to 20 minutes each, once a week on Fridays.

 Bi-Weekly fluency assessments: Students will be pulled and tested individually for 1 min

each (this should take approximately 25 minutes with transitions, unless assessments are
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split with a para).

 Goal Setting: Students will take one minute from morning work each Monday to write

their goals and the teacher will sign them during recess (allot 5 min)

 Collaboration: 10 min with each teacher during morning collaboration, prep periods or

lunch. Implement resources with 10 min activities during reading.

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 8
OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
 Research on websites for resources: 30-60 minutes (during lunch/prep/at home)

 Fluency Reader Assessments: Pre and post assessment will be given to track WPM and

errors. (Another 25 min)

Students will be assessed again by May 28 and recorded for 2 nd grade.

Goals and Continual Improvement

Setting these long-term goals in the time frame up to essentially the end of the school

year helps me to place where the students need to be for phonological awareness and fluency.

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Setting the short-term goals and writing out the steps and timeline for those goals helps me to

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dissect who needs help where and be able to celebrate progress within the long-term goals. Also,

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writing out realistic long-term goals helps me to achieve realistic short-term goals and leaves
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room for adjustments to instruction or specific skills that need more practice.
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 9
OHM2 Task Two: Developing a Professional Growth Plan
Sources

Schwartz, L. (2000). Working Out with Phonological Awareness. Super Duper Publications.

Retrieved from: https://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?

pid=TPX18801&s=working-out-with-phonological-awareness-book#.YKLbT2RKggo.

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