Hayley Hilgenberg Julianne Batelli March 19, 13 Curr 511 Instructional Inquiry

Livonia, NY

A. Description of the community and its demographics

Description: Livonia is a small town with a population of about 7,800. It is made up of six hamlets, including Lakeville, Livonia Center, Hemlock, South Livonia, South Lima and the Village of Livonia. The town is bordered by two Finger Lakes, which are called Conesus Lake (on the west) and Hemlock Lake on (the east). While the population of the Town of Livonia remains around 7.800 the village of Livonia ranges around 1,408. The change in population since 2000 is an increase of 2.5%. Females outnumber males with 52.1% (734) of the population to 47.9% (674) of the population. The estimated median household income for 2009 was $57,796 as opposed to $49, 688 that was seen in 2000. The average for Livonia of $57,796 is higher than the New York average of $54,659. Livonia is a predominately white area with 32 % Irish ancestry, 29.3% German, 19.2% English, 12.1% Italian and 5 % French ancestry.

21 residents are foreign born This village: New York: 1.5% 20.4%

Information about the education of the population who are 25 years old or older is provided. For that portion of the population 93.7% received a high school diploma or higher. 26.6% have received a Bachelors degree or higher. 10.3% have received a Graduate or professional degree. Only 5.5% of this portion of the population is

unemployed. The average commute to work from Livonia is about 26.4 minutes. The unemployment rate as of August 2012 in Livonia is at 7.6% while the New York average is 8.8%. People who work as a driver, in sales and as truck drivers make up 5% of the population. Other frequently worked jobs are construction trade workers except carpenters, electricians, painters, plumbers, and construction laborers make up another 5%. Those who work as sales representatives, or in services, wholesale and manufacturing make up 5% as well. Other management occupations except farmers and farm managers make up 4%. Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, and repairers, engineers, material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing workers make up another 4% of occupations help by Livonia residents. The marital status for residents of the Livonia that are 15 years of age or older have been documented. 21.7% have never been married, while 60.4% are currently married. People who have separated from their spouse equal 2.5% while those who have been widowed make up 6.5% and divorce makes up 8.9% of the population. Livonia is also in close proximity to colleges and universities that contain over 2000 students. The closest to Livonia is SUNY Geneseo, which is 8 miles away and has 5,454 students enrolled full time. The next school that is the closest is Rochester Institute of Technology, which is 19 miles away and has 13,372 students enrolled full time. Monroe Community College is 20 miles away with 12,159 full time students. Nazareth College is 21 miles away with 2,555 full time students. University of Rochester holds 7,898 full time students and is located 22 miles from Livonia. Finger Lakes Community

College and Saint John Fisher College are also located 22 miles away and hold 3,750 and 3,202 full time students respectively. Livonia has a Library, the Livonia Public Library that is located on 2 Washington Street. This library contains is a valuable resource to the community and contains:

22,639 books 1,671 audio materials 1,235 video materials 14 state licensed databases 5 other licensed databases 129 print serial subscriptions

(See B. for Livonia Public Library and how literacy is used in the community

Educational Attainment (%)

Less than High school High school or equiv

Less than 1 1 or more year of years of College college

Associate degree

Bachelos degree

Masters degree

Profess Doctorate school degree degree

Purple: Livonia Green: New York average

School Enrollment by Level of School %

Nursery, preschool

Kindergarten Grade 1 to 4 Grade 5 to 8 12 College undergrad Graduate Purple: Livonia Green: New York average

Grade 9 to

Public schools in Livonia:

LIVONIA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Livonia Senior High School contains 709 students and is located on 2 Bulldog Boulevard in Livonia. It has grades 9-12 and is ranted number 60th. LIVONIA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Livonia Junior High School houses 354 students grades 7-8 and is located on 20 Memorial drive. The Junior High is ranked 38th.

LIVONIA PRIMARY SCHOOL Livonia Primary contains 534 students grades PreK-3. The school is located at 6 Puppy Lane and is ranked 65th. LIVONIA INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL The Intermediate schools houses 455 students in grades 4-6. It is located at 40 Spring Street and is ranked 60th (See section D for more in depth descriptions of the schools)

The focus of our inquiry is within Livonia Elementary School. We have spoken to Mrs. Erin Marozas, Room 75: Grade 1

B. The ways in which literacy is used in the community

Livonia Public Library

The Livonia Public Library is located at 2 Washington Street, Livonia and can be reached by phone (585) 346-3450. The Library holds Childrens Story Time for various ages. Toddler time is available for children 12 months to 3 years old. Small Fry Fun is

available for ages 3-5 years old. Story time is held every Thursday from 10:30 am to 11:00 am. It is encouraged to pre-register by calling their number. The Livonia Public Library also has what is called Kids Korner Blog. This is a feature on the Librarys website. Here you can find book lists for teens, easy readers, kids books, kids fiction, chapter books, graphic novels, kids non-fiction, and picture books. Here you can also find information about their summer reading program. The most recent summer program to be listed is the 2012 program named Dream Big! The Dream Big Read! Livonia Librarys 2012 summer reading program was a big success with 153 registered students. Over 859 children and parents attended the special programs offered.

C. And informal interview with a community member We interviewed a community member, April, who has been living in Livonia, NY for 21 years. Her mother, father, and until recently brother also live in Livonia. She went through the Livonia school system and is now a senior at SUNY Geneseo. April loves living in Livonia, and hopes to live close to it for most of her life. She does not remember much

about how she learned to read, but she had little trouble and speaks highly of the school system. April lives right in the village and speaks of the community as a close-niched society. With literacy brought to the community, her mother is the president the Literacy Volunteers of Livingston County. She helps volunteer with her by bringing literacy to the community with scrabble games, tutor illiterate adults, and trivia competitions.

D. A description of the school and its demographics and foci

www.livoniacsd.org District Profile:

The Livonia Central School District provides a comprehensive program for its 1800 students. There is an elementary school, Middle school and High school. These three schools contain organizes instructional services and are located within a 180 acre campus. It is located within Livingston County. As previously mentioned there are a number of colleges and universities located a short distance from Livonias campus. Most of which are located in Rochester. The travel time to Rochester is less than 30 minutes, and is a convenient drive along the I-390 expressway.

MISSION of Livonia Central School District: Livonia Central School will create the conditions so that each student will successfully meet the challenges and opportunities to achieve and thrive in a changing world. VALUES of Livonia Central School District: Livonia Central School is a community of learners where all willpursue world-class standards. The entire community will continue totake great pride in the school's program of excellence and its climateof respect and trust. VISION of Livonia Central School District
The Livonia school community believes that: A shared responsibility between school and home is advantageous to student well being. Students pursue different pathways to success leading to a future that requires high expectations and continuous improvement. A safe and nurturing school environment is essential for learning to take place. Instruction should engage all learns and challenge them to achieve their maximum potential. Students are partners in the pursuit of excellence, not mere recipients of services.

www.livoniacsd.org/district/

Livonia Primary School

The Primary School, David P. Deloria Primary School contains 534 students grades PreK-3. The school is located at 6 Puppy Lane. There is a half-day program for Pre-K and a full day program starting in Kindergarten and up. The Primary school also contains the Livonia Reading Clinic, whose mission is to bring the latest literacy research into the classroom. The Primary school also holds a variety of extracurricular activities for its students including musical productions, field trips and fitness programs. The building was constructed in 1956. The latest construction added on 26 classrooms, a cafeteria, and the library media center. These additions were completed in 1993.

Livonia Intermediate School

Livonia Intermediate School is located at 2 School Street. The school has a total enrollment of 455 students. There are 158 students enrolled in 4th grade, 154 in 5th grade and 143 in 6th grade. The school offers courses in mathematics, English, science and technology, social studies, language arts, health education, computer science, arts and crafts, music and physical education. The various extracurricular activities are cross-

country, soccer, football, volleyball, swimming and other athletics. The school also has a media center with various resources for student use.

Livonia Middle School

The Livonia Middle School houses over 400 students who are in grades 6-8. It is located in the 6-12 complex. This is part of the team approach for transitioning students from elementary school to high school. The school also has two full time counselors that help students through the transition. The credit offerings are in Science, Math, Spanish, and French. There are a variety of extracurricular activities such as clubs, modified sports, intramurals, and service opportunities.

Livonia High School

The R.J. Davis Senior High School contains over 700 students in grades 9-12. It is also located within the 6-12 complex. The curriculum contains college preparatory

classes as well as classes in technical areas and trade. There nine sequences from which students can chose. The advanced placement courses that give college credit are available in a variety of subject area. This may be a factor in the percentage of Livonias high schools graduate whom continues on to higher education, which is at 86%. The school also has a strong art and music program. The facility has art studios for pottery, photography, drawing, painting, and textiles. They also have science labs, music suites, and a swimming pool. Academic teams as well as sports teams have earned high honors at county, regional and state levels.

The district has been recognized for its use of the SMART Board technology and its increase in instruction through technology. Within the school district you will find computer labs, wireless laptop carts, and labs for digital photography, as well as technology that is used for pre-engineering courses, business course and library and computer classes.

Staff within the district includes full-time principals in each building, as well as athletic and activities directors. They also contain an assistant principal for the elementary and high school, director of student services, counselors, three psychologists and three speech therapists. The staff contains 150 people including teacher aides, teacher assistants, technical support staff, foodservice, maintenance, custodial, transportation, and office personnel. Livonia Board of Education describes its staff as highly dedicated, professionally motivated, and innovative.

Livonia Central Schools Reading Clinic:

The mission of the Livonia Reading Clinic is to connect the most current research in the field of literacy to reading in the classroom. The reading clinic serves the children of the Livonia Elementary School and is located within it in room 24. The focus of the reading clinic is to help students with decoding and spelling difficulties. Decoding and spelling difficulties interfere with the students abilities to read and spell accurately. This usually results in slower reading pace, weak comprehension and poor written expression. Students who should be seeking help in the Reading Clinic usually exhibit learning problems such as inaccurate sound/letter associations, difficulty reading and spelling phonetically regular words, inaccurate sound blending, reversal of letters and words, difficulty developing and maintain a consistent sight word vocabulary, poor reading fluency, and poor written expression and organization.

Livonia Elementary School Library The Livonia Elementary School Library contains various resources. These include: Links for grade level unit: PK-Fifth grade Elementary Library Catalog Online Resources EBooks Young voices student projects List of Livonia Favorite books District and Livonia Calendar Resources dealing with Common Core Standards Accelerated Reader Lists Internet Safety links

A lot of these resources can be accessed at home through their website: http://bookwings.wikispaces.com/ The website also contains announcements for the families. A recent announcement for March 6 reads:

Paws 4 Reading! Read Aloud Day is Wednesday March 6th Top 5 at Livonia are: 1: Diary of Wimpy Kid 2: The One and Only Ivan 3: Babymouse 4: Skater Girl 5: Boxcar Children #1 6: Babymouse for President

E. The literacy instruction methods currently or previously used in the school

Livonias school wide instruction method implemented is the CORE Program. Livonia started using this program a few years ago. CORE is a literacy (and mathematics) program that gives support for classroom teachers, special education staff, English-language learner staff, and literacy coaches. CORE also has specialists to give professional development and coaching for the principal to help introduce basals, materials, and assessments (Elementary Literacy: Core, n.d.). According to Mrs. Erin Marozas, a first grade teacher in Livonia, the program is excellent in phonics, and the

scope and sequence of the units are very easy to follow. The drawback is that it is very scripted, and hard to bring creativity into the lessons. The books recommended are also very dry. Literacy Instruction previously used was Houghton Mifflin. At the time it was used, it was a whole language oriented program. Before that, it was a basal series program, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ).

F. The Literacy Assessments Used

Livonia Elementary School uses assessments in the Reading Clinic. For Kindergarten they assess letter name fluency, letter sound fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency. For first grade they test letter naming fluency, letter sound fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency. For second grade they test nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency. In third grade they test oral reading fluency.

The school also uses the popular, AIMSWEB. Aimsweb is, a complete webbased solution for universal screening, progress monitoring, and data management for Grades K-12 (Aimsweb, n.d.). Aimsweb gives assessment in math and literacy

that in line with the Common Core Standards, puts the answers into data, and gives real time reports that help show where a student, class, grade, school, and state is performing. Aimsweb gives teachers the data to help determine RTI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F0fukImoaWI

Along with Aimsweb, Livonia also uses the Livonia Primary Literacy Profile. This is a scale that measures what stage each student is from grades K-3. Each grade has three sublevels that help categorize exactly where a student is. 3-4 times a year (or more often if possible), a student is assessed for very specific skills to see if they have mastered it. What skills they have mastered will determine what level they are on. The assessment is given orally individually. The assessment affects the instruction in the classroom and helps the teacher customize exactly what skills she needs to work, whether it be for the whole class, in small groups, or individually. The assessment results go into a portfolio for each child that follows them throughout every grade.

G. A brief summary of interviews and/or observations with classroom teacher literacy instruction methods and materials, grouping, goals and expectations, values

We had the pleasure to observe and interview Mrs. Erin Marozas, as first grade teacher in Livonia Elementary School. Mrs. Marozas has been teaching 26 years. Within her literacy program, she follows the school-wide program, the Open Core Program (discussed above), though in her specific classroom she breaks off of that and makes the curriculum work for her. Mrs. Marozas incorporates her own flair by including poetry, real trade books, non-fiction texts, songs, and more. Early on in the school year, she focuses on phonemic awareness with her students. With students aged six and seven, she wants her students to be able to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes successfully. She also focuses on phonics as a whole. Within the interview she stated that if students can understand phonics, manipulate chunks and endings, and understand the rules of the English language, then it takes care of so many questions in their understanding of literacy (E. Marozas, personal communication, March 25, 2013). With observing her classroom, most of her students were able to read successfully on their own above the average first grader. As an observer, I had little time to talk to Mrs. Marozas until after the observation. When watching the students, I was positive that the students were either high second graders or third grade students. I was shocked when I found that the students that were writing 5

sentence stories independently and read long poems. She also focuses on sight words, context clues, and read alouds. She groups her students by ability for the third-quarters of the year, and the last part of the year is by choice. Her grouping is very flexible, and can even change daily. As part of her curriculum, she does not teach anything more than one day. She said she should, and used to do genre, author, and idea fluidity through multiple days, but she does not do it anymore because of time. She also discussed that her age level does not respond to a story seen multiple days, and she instead focuses on phonics. Her goals for her class in literacy is she would like to see sight words spelled correctly, all students reading at least on level, understanding phonics rules, and being able to write 5-6 sentences cohesively and focused.

Her expectations and values in the classroom is that students need to have manners and respect each other. Students need to learn what is appropriate and how to be a good and considerate person. Active Participation is also highly valued and expected in the classroom. Mrs. Marozas, in the beginning of the year, discusses and models what is means to be actively participating in the class, what it does it mean to not participate, and

how it will help them learn. While observing, students were often raising hands, putting fingers in chins when they understand the concept, and clearly focusing in class.

Materials used during the literacy observation was a CORE program basal, a Too Big Book full of poems, a Phonics book, an easel for the whole group instruction, and a Book Nook full of books for when the students were finished with their independent work.

School as a whole Livonia Elementary Schools website provides a webpage on Fluency for parents, describing what is it and showing what is should sound like. The site also includes fluency expectations for the Livonia District and what parents can do to help their children at home. The information provided about fluency is provided:

What is Fluency? The National Reading Panel defines fluency as the ability to read text with accuracy, appropriate rate, and good expression. (NICHD, 2000)

Why is Fluency Important?

Fluent readers can focus their attention on gaining meaning from print. When children read too slowly, it is a struggle just to remember what is being read, much less extract its meaning. Fluent reading leads to a joy of reading.

What are the Characteristics of a Fluent Reader? A fluent reader has good oral reading expression, accurate word recognition, and reads at an adequate rate according to grade level expectations.

What are the fluency expectations at Livonia Primary School? The fluency expectations at Livonia Primary School vary by grade level. By the end of first grade an average student should be reading approximately 55-85 words correct per minute on grade level text. By the end of second grade an average student should be reading approximately 95-120 words correct per minute on grade level text. By the end of third grade an average students should be reading approximately 115-145 words correct per minute on grade level text.

The website also provides videos that show what fluent readers should sound like for each grade level:

Samples of fluent readers http://www.toolboxpro.org/classrooms/template.cfm?ID=3603&P=104433

H. A summary of the home-to-school literacy connection- including analysis of local literacies and environmental literacies in the school community.
The Livonia School website provides links for Reading at Home. These can be found at: http://www.toolboxpro.org/classrooms/template.cfm?ID=3603&preview=1

Below is a list of websites with their brief descriptions that encourage and support reading at home. The links can be found at the website given above. Reading Rockets Note: Parents will find articles about learning to read. Online Stories Note: Online storybooks read aloud to your child. Reading and Math Websites Note: A list of websites that you can link to and explore with your child. Helpful info for Parents Note: The Website provided above also provides links to Online Learning Sites that can also support student growth and leaning. Below are examples of the links you can find on the website with brief descriptions. PBS Kids Note: Reading and learning games with your favorite PBS characters Starfall http://www.starfall.com/ Note: Explore long and short vowel sounds. Reading fun! Kidport Note: Reading, math, science...all kinds of fun stuff! Reading with Jan Brett Note: Lots of fun activities based on Jan Brett's books. Looney Tunes Note: Fun reading activities with your favorite Looney Tunes characters Kaboose Note: Lots of different games to play Sight Words With Sampson Note: Practice your sight words with a lion names Sampson Game Goo http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html Note: There are a lot of games on this site. Fun Brain Website: Check out FUNBRAIN for free educational games, online books, and comics. Funbrain, created for kids aged preschool through grade 8, offers more than 100 fun, interactive games that develop skills in math, reading, and literacy. Plus, kids can read a variety of popular books and comics on the site, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Amelia Writes Again, and Brewster Rocket. http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

ABCya.com is the leader in free educational kids computer games and activities for elementary students to learn on the web. All children's educational computer activities were created or approved by certified schoolteachers. All educational games are free and are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way for children to learn http://www.abcya.com

Within the Resources section of the site you can also find View Folder and Documents where it lists documents that you can download dealing with how to help you child at home. These include Common Core information for grades 1-5.

Name 1st_Grade_common core parent info.pdf 2nd_Grade_common core parent info.pdf 3rd_Grade_common core parent information.pdf 4th_Grade_common core parent info.pdf 5th_Grade_common core parent info.pdf Kindergarten Parent Common Core Info.pdf

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What Can Parents Do at Home to Help Their Child Become a Fluent Reader?

The Site also gives tips to Parents and tells them what they can do at home to help their child become a better reader. They suggest reading a sentence or passage aloud to your child. After they suggest that you have the child math the parents voice when they read it aloud after the parent. They suggest that the parent should have the child read their favorite book or poem over and over again which will help them practice getting smoother at reading and better at reading with expression. Parents should also remind their child to pause between sentences and phrases when reading aloud.

Typical Home-School Connection within a First Grade Classroom Within Mrs. Erin Marozass personal classroom, she sends out her own weekly newsletter that discusses what they are reading and literacy skills they are focusing on. She also sends home 20 decodable books home every quarter. These are short story books that have a specific phonic skill in them that the student and parent can read together.

I. An analysis of texts that teacher and students read, talked about, wrote about, or listened to throughout an extended time II. (preferably 3-5 days)
In the interview with Mrs. Erin Marozas, there was no text talked, wrote, or listened to throughout an extended time. She discussed that with the allotted time for literacy, there wasnt enough time to make a multiple day connection, although the

Open Core Program did ask for a book to be used for a week. She said that she previously used to do a week of the same author, same genre, or same theme, but she no longer does this.

J. An analysis of instructional time spent in whole group, small group, or individual

With relation to instructional time split up in the classroom, Mrs. Marozas discussed that she ideally likes to have 50 minutes of whole group and 50 minutes of small group. She also mentioned that when she can, she works one on one with students in writing. Within the observation, she had split it up as 50 minutes of whole group, 45 minutes of individual with 10-15 minutes in small groups meeting with her. Mrs. Marozas started with a whole group lesson about long vowel sound exceptions, and the students practiced it in a mini spelling exercise with the words and skill previously learned, independent work sheets continuing the skill, and then reading a poem independently and aloud for fluency that also had the long vowel sound exceptions. Each days literacy lesson has fluidity throughout the day. They integrated the same phonics rule into their mathematics vocabulary. Mrs. Marozas discussed that she tries to, teach every subject within every subject, (personal communication, March 25, 2013).

K. A brief discussion of considerations or suggestions for extending the role of a balanced literacy program and workshop approach in this classroom community. Take on a coaching stance as you reflect on the observations.
Within the classroom, and as a coach, we do love that time is split up between individual, small group, and whole group, but we would love to see some more time in small group.

In our observation, the students had small group instruction for 10-15 minutes. We would try to increase this, possibly by decreasing the amount of time in whole group. We think a great strategy that Mrs. Marozas designed the small groups have is a lot of flexibility, even changing daily if they have to. Another suggestion we have is to have some sort of consistency of book, novel, theme, etc. over a few days. We were told no book or story was discussed or read for more than one day. We think the students would respond to some consistency in this for a few days so they can make connections and have the experience of revisiting a text. During small group instruction we also witnessed that there was only homogeneous grouping. We believe that this type of grouping can be beneficial, especially if every student in the group needs to learn the same skill. However, we also believe that there should be some heterogeneous grouping at various points. This allows students to work with students from other reading and skill levels and exposes to them to different ways of thinking and witness modeling from students at various levels. Peer tutoring could also be integrated into this.

References

Aimsweb. (n.d.). aimsweb. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://aimsweb.com Elementary Literacy (K-6) | CORE. (n.d.).CORE. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.corelearn.com/Services/Literacy/Elementary-Literacy-K-6-/

Livonia Central School District. (n.d.). Livonia Central School District. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.livoniacsd.org/ Livonia, New York (NY 14487) profile. (n.d.). Stats about all US cities. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.city-data.com/city/Livonia-NewYork.html#ixzz2O0ie3gvx

Official Site of Town of Livonia, New York. (n.d.). Official Site of Town of Livonia, NeYork. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.livoniany.org/