Strategic School & District Moves

Montville Public Schools: CKLA

Montville has been working to strengthen tier one literacy instruction using CKLA. To do this, they have supported teachers to delve deeply into the CKLA units, preparing lessons tailored to the strengths and needs of their students without supplementing or supplanting with additional materials. This has resulted in:

• greater student engagement;
• more consistent and efficient pacing throughout the grades and across the district;
• increased clarity as to what is working well in tier one instruction overall, as well as areas of growth;
• more informed, productive conversations between administrators and staff around instruction; and
• more cohesion and teamwork among teachers, coaches, and principals.

Keys to Montville’s success: collaboration around unit preparation and data; curriculum writing

Grade level meetings

• Rollout meetings: Before each unit, grade-level teachers meet with instructional coaches during their 45-minute planning period to unpack the unit using a consistent protocol. They discuss:
  • the big ideas of the unit;
  • the standards that will be addressed;
  • evidence-aligned instructional practices that will be used;
  • the essential pieces to prioritize; and
  • any individualized scaffolding that might be necessary to ensure that all students can experience success while engaging in the CKLA lessons, texts, and activities.

  Each teacher walks away with a deep understanding of the unit. The Assistant Superintendent and principals clear their calendars to attend these meetings so that they can better understand the instruction taking place and discover concrete ways to support student learning.

• Data team meetings: On alternate weeks, teachers gather with principals and instructional coaches during their 45-minute planning period to unpack assessment data. Teams use a consistent protocol to analyze the data and note strengths and areas of growth in student performance. Then, they determine how and when the CKLA materials can be used to target these growth areas in Tier One, in coordination with intervention as applicable. Follow-up meetings are scheduled to check progress and make changes as needed.

Curriculum writing

At the same time, Montville is updating the curriculum to reflect the CKLA units, thereby reinforcing the work of the Rollout Meetings. The updates outline:

• instructional moves (what the teacher is doing);
• demonstration of learning (what the students are doing); and
• task (what the students are being asked to do).

Andrea Flynn
Assistant Superintendent 
aflynn@montvilleschools.org