Do’s and Don’t
It depends…
Decisions/next steps may vary depending on:
The time of year (fall, winter, spring)
- Would not expect children to meet benchmarks in all areas in the fall.
- Do not rush to begin intervention/additional support in the fall if learners do not meet benchmark.
- Use fall data to inform universal instruction that will best meet the needs of all learners.
- Consider additional supports/intervention for children who continue to demonstrate risk in winter.
Predictiveness of later risk
- Prioritize universal tier work and additional supports/intervention in domains that are highly predictive of later risk (Sound ID/alphabet knowledge or Picture Naming/oral language). Always consider the subtests in which the percentage of learners with “Strong Progress” is lower than desired for beefing up the area in the universal tier.
How widespread the current risk is
- If more than 20% of learners in a classroom would require additional resources, consider ways to increase the rigor and intention within the universal tier, for all learners.
- Do not provide intervention to or progress monitor the majority or all learners in a classroom.
What does it look like?
Example: Vocabulary & Oral Language Instruction
What?
Effective vocabulary and oral language instruction occurs when there are many opportunities for active engagement, rich conversations, and targeted direct instruction. Be intentional about which words to teach:
- Words that are connected and taught within a meaningful topic or study.
- Words from a network of words (are related to each other or associated with a larger topic of interest). New words are remembered and retrieved more easily when they are connected to words we already know.
How?
- Integrate vocabulary instruction throughout the day, which may not require adjustments to the existing schedule
- Dialogic reading: Asking questions, adding information, and prompting children in order to increase the sophistication of their responses during interactive book readings with small groups of children.
- Explicit instruction: where the teacher provides simple, child-friendly definitions, opportunities for children to say the word multiple times, and activities that actively engage children.
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Scaffolded conversations and peer-to-peer interactions
- Frequent, daily language interactions that follow children’s interests.
- Frequent opportunities for children to practice using precise language.
- Play-based interactions with teacher guidance during e.g., learning center time.
- Small group instruction (10-15 minutes).
Where can I find additional information/resources?
- See upcoming professional learning opportunities and recorded professional learning for more information
- Snapshot Series: This snapshot is part of a suite of materials designed to support early education leaders and providers to build understanding and implement evidence-based instruction in early language and literacy in preschool settings called, Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy.
- Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy: This website provides multiple resources for educators and leaders to engage in a professional learning model focused on four emergent literacy building blocks that are evidence-based, collaborative, and practice-relevant.
How do I know if it’s working?
myIGDIs progress monitoring may be used when children are receiving additional supports/intervention. See more information about myIGDIs progress monitoring here. Remember, these are not skill measures, they are measures of risk. The goal is to reduce risk based on effective universal instruction and learning opportunities, and additional support/intervention, as needed. Use evidence-based strategies described above to teach critical constructs broadly.
myIGDIs progress monitoring can be used as a (narrow) measure of the effectiveness of the (broad) additional instruction/support that children receive. The progress monitoring measures have been carefully developed through research and have adequate technical properties. Trust these measures and let them do their work. A limitation is that myIGDIs progress monitoring may only be administered every three weeks. This means that it will take longer to collect enough data points to make data-based decisions using myIGDIs progress monitoring.
Another way to know if additional supports/intervention are working is to review screening data. Consider whether learners are moving from at-risk status (moderate progress or test discontinued) to low risk status from one screening window to the next.