techSteps+News

FYI – SchoolKiT is working with the WVDE to develop a number of enhancements to techSteps related to development of reading supports, instructional strategies for teachers, and reading supports for students.

The reading strategies supports will be applied to the activity books in grades 6-8 and the core books for 9-12 (total 41 books). The text to audio support is provided within the books and has actually been applied to all K-12 books. The additional reading strategies support for vocabulary and comprehension support will be provided for teachers in an Instructional Strategies section for each of these books within the teacher web site. Support materials for students will be provided on the student login page alongside each book and readily accessible for all students. The strategies and supports are based upon recommendations made by Allen Sexton and the folks in Special Programs.

Many of these promote proven strategies (e.g., that correlate with Marzano) that would be relevant to and be practical if delivered to the entire class, not just to struggling readers. These support activities are being planned for teacher access under an “Instructional Strategies” banner so that they are positioned as being relevant to all teachers – not just to those who identify themselves as teaching struggling readers. This should result in three things: 1. The struggling readers receive support 2. All students sometimes get better embedded reading instruction as they work on these activities 3. The ‘Instructional Strategies’ section becomes a repository that we can expand, e.g., to touch on career awareness, other teaching strategies, etc.

SchoolKiT has also developed 12 activities for CTE, to be added to the 9-12 projects. These modules were designed specifically for CTE, based upon ideas provided by the CTE content coordinators, and also have alignment and applicability to regular core content classrooms.

Let me know if you would like additional information.

Thanks, Kathy

Kathy Boone Office of Instructional Technology