Frequently Asked Questions

09 September 2024 16:42

At the start of the year, our focus is on assessing students. The PARA module in the Learning Management System is the assessment itself, and should be used to complete the assessment for students. Doing so provides us with data to analyse and decide on next steps for instruction.

It is helpful when working with a new program to try to chunk it. We can work with the Becoming a Reader and Science of Teaching modules once we get this important work done. PLCs will provide guidance for doing these chunks as we move along.

Because the assessment itself is in the LMS, it is not meant to be 'completed' like the other coursework (Science of Reading or Teaching). In other words, to assess each child you actually do need to restart the module to select the correct version (child) and challenge.

Yes, it can, with the Absorb Learning application. It is possible to do the assessment offline this way. See this article for further instructions. Please contact your IT team for support, or feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

It is possible to access the PARA assessments offline using a tablet. Print versions of the PARA assessments are not possible at this time.

PARA is designed as an assessment of the skills students need to master in reading development. It helps teachers establish which reading skills students have mastered, what they need to learn next, and how well they are progressing. By timing the challenges, we do not only get information about student skill progression, but their level of confidence with the skill assessed. If students are not confident with a skill, then they have not mastered it or they are not well prepared for the next skill. Throughout the PARA assessment, the goal is to have students not only master a skill, but to have them achieve fluency and automaticity so they can build on that and progress to the next level.

To administer the PARA, we recommend that all necessary guidelines and scoring rules be followed so assessors can gain the most information for classroom instruction. The more knowledgeable the assessor is about the requirements of the assessment, the more productive the assessment will be. It is highly beneficial for teachers to administer the PARA assessment to students in their class because they are in a better position to make observations about student responses to challenges, and use that information to make instructional decisions.

We use short labels to represent – as much as possible – the content included in a challenge, but they are taken literally. In the case of the phonemes, there are two challenges where we assess some sounds that are not considered phonemes, marked in bold in the list below:

• Challenge 4 – Sound-letter correspondence for 10 basic phonemes (ă, r, t, n, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, m, k, s) and soft and hard c
• Challenge 6 – Sound-letter correspondence for 13 basic phonemes (d, l, f, ŭ, b, p, y, g, h, j, v, w, z) and x and q

In total, the English language has 44 phonemes. We are covering all of them, and three additional sounds. Please note that responses of either a soft c /s/ or a hard c /k/ are considered correct when assessing a student.

Teachers should administer PARA to children with disabilities, and their scores should be entered in Progress Monitor. In every case, teachers should use their professional judgment to decide if all challenges can be administered or only some of them, the modifications required, and the frequency of the assessment. In the case of students with significant disabilities, with some modifications to the assessment, the data collected would still be highly useful.

In Section 4.4 of The Science of Teaching, 'Supporting students with disabilities', we suggest the development of an Individual Educational Plan for these students. In this plan, teachers should register the children's progress based on the assessments administered (PARA or others). Then, we should continue to use PARA for those children where possible.

We advocate that all children can and will learn to read when appropriate supports are in place. While the emphasis is on moving forward in the PARA challenges, we recognize the rate of progress will not be the same for all students. Teachers should work collaboratively with qualified professionals to ensure that the unique needs of students are being met. In the case of a child with a severe disability – who has already been diagnosed and has supports in place – we rely on your professional judgment, the wishes of the parents/guardians, and your organization’s practices and policies when deciding the appropriateness of the Confident Learners assessments.

The Confident Learners program follows a systematic phonics approach to teaching reading. It is designed to increase decoding and word recognition skills, which are key to reading comprehension. Following the sequence of the elements defined in a reading program is very important to its successful implementation. Please be aware that though you can use other resources, they may not align with the scope and sequence of Confident Learners. As such, you will need to adapt those resources accordingly.

Yes, but the scope and sequence may be different from Confident Learners. Sound walls are reference points for students when they are spelling and decoding words. It explicitly teaches students to listen for the phonemes in a word and identify the different ways to spell the sound they hear. The use of sound walls must be explicitly taught and referenced regularly throughout instruction in order to ensure that they can be accessed by students in their learning.

Structured lessons provide a clear guideline on what needs to be taught, how it should be taught and what the expected outcomes should be. This is important for teachers to teach lessons more effectively and for students to know and understand the purpose of their learning. Structured lessons mean effective use of classroom time, which contributes to a more focused learning experience.

Structured lessons can be described with six steps which serve as a blueprint for implementation: set clear goals; activate prior knowledge; model the skill; guide the learning; check for understanding; and give independent practice. In your planning, include a variety of teaching strategies that involve guiding student learning as well as assessment points to monitor student understanding and progress through the skill. This helps with feedback and making necessary adjustments.

Please refer to The Science of Reading course, Module 2 'Structured Teaching', for more structured lessons and effective implementation. You can find the course in our Learning Management System. It is specifically designed to help teachers increase their professional knowledge about the science of reading and applying this knowledge in the classroom.

When it comes to the literacy block every school will have a different approach, however, we recommend two 50-minute literacy blocks of structured lessons with content from Becoming a Reader/Becoming a Skilled Reader. We recommend teaching according to the scope and sequence and maximizing instructional time with structured lessons that are clear on learning goals, explicit instruction and strategies that engage all students.

There are useful resources in our Learning Management System that can equip you with instructional strategies you can implement in the classroom. Please refer to The Science of Reading and Science of Teaching courses. These courses have been designed by educators in mind. They will help you understand the foundations of reading and learning, build your confidence in managing students with different learning needs and provide you with engaging learning activities.

Working with students with complex needs requires a strong understanding of their cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Most students with complex needs will be able to receive benefits from appropriate instruction in a reading program based on research from the science of reading. For a small number of students with multiple learning difficulties, it might not be able to access instruction through explicitly taught sequential instruction. Students in this category should still be exposed to books, text and skills instruction and we should be flexible and creative in preparing them for instruction in reading and writing that they may be ready for in the future.

Confident Learners lesson plans and resources are well-suited to support a multi-grade classroom. The PARA data allows teachers to target students’ instructional needs and group students based on skills. This helps teachers identify which skills need to be taught through explicit instruction and which students require additional practice, or one-on-one support. With the Becoming a Reader and Becoming a Skilled Reader lessons aligned with the PARA, teachers can plan for their students and differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students based on the data. The Science of Teaching, Module 3, describes and provides support with cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is a key concept and important strategy for creating an inclusive classroom environment and in creating positive interdependence. The Confident Learners program was designed to assist teachers with planning and preparation, as the lessons, resources and classroom differentiation supports are all located together in the Learning Management System.

The PLC process focuses on student learning, inquiry through collaboration and results. For teachers to adequately benefit from the process, we recommend that teams meet at least once every week for an hour. The goal is to have enough time for teachers to collaborate on issues that affect student learning and teacher practice, as well as other related tasks that require time.

The PLC agenda differs slightly depending on the focus of the discussion. Typically, each session begins with questions, updates and a review of the previous session. Then we proceed with data discussion, where we discuss assessment data, plan instruction/intervention and review goals or professional learning. Professional learning topics vary because they depend on the needs and interests of each school. The session ends with expectations for the next session.

SMART goals focus a team on the same outcome: success for all students in a particular grade level or course. They guide our work and help make learning visible. As we look at our data and have data conversations, we look closely at students' work and identify the skills or concepts that are missing. We try to identify the root cause and identify the why. In turn, this helps us to plan the next steps that provide the what and the how. In this, if we are not guessing about what students need, we will know. Our SMART goal setting will help us end up very focused on student achievement, student learning and student growth and point to where we need to go next. It will ensure we will not just end up somewhere.

It would be helpful if everyone could log on with their device to allow everyone to fully participate in the PLC. If you are joining from the same room, using headsets will help ensure that we do not have feedback when speaking and allow for maximum participation in the PLC. This is how other schools have managed and it has been successful.

Effective collaboration is key to the successful implementation of Confident Learners. Providing opportunities to share insights and identify best practices that support student learning are ways school teams can collaborate for success. While PLCs provide a safe environment where teams can share and develop a common understanding of student learning, it is important to understand that the collaborative process is ongoing. Beyond the collaboration that happens during PLC, share the responsibility for student success and be responsive when the data indicates student areas of need.