Because as we know, as we use common language across the building, it's easier for kids to know and understand how to do it. And they've even started on their own, using checklists across the curriculum and different things as they work together in their teams, which is great. The other area that we knew that we needed to address was literacy. Our ELA scores have not been where they needed to be over the last couple of years, and so we knew we had to come together with that. And actually in, I guess, February of the previous year, we started a literacy redesign where we really looked at what was happening in fifth grade, what was happening in ninth grade, and our reading and writing at the same rigor and hitting those guide points across the board. So the teachers all worked independently. We looked to see how many, about how many books kids should be reading, about how many written essays should be happening, and really trying to increase that as we went across those pieces. But we also know that reading does not just need to happen in literacy. There's no way we can get done what we need to get done if it's just in literacy. So we took on reading as a full building-wide goal, and as Dr. Patel can tell you, I wanted just to have reading as my goal for my school improvement plan.

So we took on reading as a full building-wide goal, and as Dr. Patel can tell you, I wanted just to have reading as my goal for my school improvement plan. And I was about there until about September, and she called me and said, no, you need to have a math goal too. So I went back to my math department, we got a math goal kickin' and we were rollin' with that too. But it just shows that we really wanted to focus on reading across the building. How are we dealing with nonfiction and social studies? How are we looking at vocabulary and science? How are we doing all these different pieces? Because when you come to take the tests and the different tests, they're not just looking at literature. They're looking at all these different pieces. And so we were leaving a whole bunch of information and learning on the table. We also just looked at reading during pack time. We started off with how many kids were just reading during pack time and dedicating reading for individual reading and all those different pieces that we went through. And also just a specific framework on nonfiction reading. Those are just kinda some things that got a little bit left off in literacy. So we tried to bulk it up in literacy and spread it across the board for our elective classes for everything.

Those are just kinda some things that got a little bit left off in literacy. So we tried to bulk it up in literacy and spread it across the board for our elective classes for everything. Part of the work we did on tier one this year with our department chairs is that we all met to talk about what does MTSS mean across the building? What does it look like in health class? What are the reading strategies that you can do in all the different classes when you're reading an article in speech and debate? What are the ways that we can approach this reading curriculum? Because we know that it goes across the piece. And then we also looked at just generally edgy climber on those proficiency scales. So in January we stopped and said, okay, now we have two benchmarks. Who's growing, who's not growing, what do we need to do? And looking at those kids' faces with their teachers, looking at them to say, okay, we're in January, we still have half of a year, where do we need to go? So really taking what was going on at the district and trying to coordinate it for where we needed to go. Then you move on to tier two. And tier two at the secondary level is incredibly hard. I think Dan would probably agree that it's just not something that most secondary teachers are trained in, that it's not something that they're used to.

And tier two at the secondary level is incredibly hard. I think Dan would probably agree that it's just not something that most secondary teachers are trained in, that it's not something that they're used to. And so to say, okay, go do a tier two intervention, there has to be a lot of professional learning around that. So we partnered with the innovation cycles. I asked each of my departments to send a representative to be a lead teacher. And they went through that innovation cycles. I also tried to go through the innovation cycles very unsuccessfully. You did great. But where we actually went in and tried some tier two options with the specific, the coordinators that helped us and the partnership was just really great. And it was good for me to experience how hard that is, the difference between differentiation and actually tier two. And it comes down to what Malena has said over and over again is, do you know your students well and what they can do? And if you don't, you're never gonna get there through tier two. So we started that capacity building around all of the tier two interventions. We're also very lucky that we have what we call a learning center and we have that space for our teachers to teach learning center. So that allowed the space within the day to not only have it happen within the classrooms but also in this learning center space.

We're also very lucky that we have what we call a learning center and we have that space for our teachers to teach learning center. So that allowed the space within the day to not only have it happen within the classrooms but also in this learning center space. So we restructured literacy this year where our literacy teachers worked with our reading specialists to provide, I think what Erin was talking about, like sort of that step down. So you're done with reading in the reading specialist classroom but before we completely release you, we're gonna spend some time doing application work with those same reading skills in a tier two specialized classroom. And so really again, looking at what we're doing and again, working with our teachers to know how to teach decoding fluency and some pieces of that, which a lot of secondary teachers may not be as familiar with. And then we put into that the specific data driven followup. So we meet the literacy and reading specialists meet quarterly together to talk about the specific kids in tier two. How's it going? Where are we going? How can we push together to support these students? We even had some former reading specialists, teachers come back and help work with tier two interventions with those literacy teachers and some professional learning. Because sometimes we assume teachers know what they need to do and sometimes they don't know.