Iowa Teacher Development Academy Application 2006

Question-Answer Relationships (QAR)

 

District:                                                                                                          AEA:

 

Building(s) Requesting Participation:

 

Mailing Address:

 

E-mail address:

 

Contact Person:

Phone:

 

1)      Alignment with District Career Development Plans (3 points):

Participation in QAR must align with the district and building goals and support the target selected for professional development in the District Career Development Plan and building level plans for PD. Each public school district in Iowa has submitted a District Career Development Plan as part of their CSIP. Prior to applying for participation in this Academy, the district professional development leadership team should review student data and the District Career Development Plan to make sure that QAR aligns well with goals and professional development targets established in the CSIP.

 

List the reading PD target for each building that is considering QAR:

 

 

 

 

2)      Leadership Team (3 points):

The district and/or building should have a well functioning leadership team that plans professional development, engages in decision making about how to sustain PD, and supports the ongoing day to day work of implementing PD initiatives.

 

Describe the composition of the PD leadership team(s) that operate at the district and building level and explain how the team(s) functions. Provide information about how the team(s) will coordinate and support QAR efforts as part of the district/building professional development.

 

 

 

 

3)      Time for collaboration (5 points):

Adequate time is provided for teachers to engage in collaborative team meetings. One hour a week to engage in collaborative team meetings with other QAR teachers on the team would be appropriate (45 minutes per week would be the minimum).

Briefly describe the schedule that will be provided for collaborative team meetings for QAR teachers:

 

 

4)      Student Population (3 points):

 

Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) is a comprehension strategy beneficial to all students of all achievement levels, particularly those who struggle with comprehension of difficult text. The building data should indicate that students would benefit from learning the QAR strategy.

 

Building:

Summarize the building reading data:

Total # of students

Total # of free and reduced lunch

Total # of minority students

Total # of students with IEPs

Total # of ELL students

% proficient 8th grade for whole population and disaggregated for subgroups

% proficient 11th grade for whole population and disaggregated for subgroups

 

Optional: Any other data from reading assessment instruments

 

 

Repeat as needed for additional buildings.

 

 

5)      Class composition (3 points):

 

Students in all grade levels across all content areas would benefit from learning QAR. It is a strategy that focuses on students and teachers developing a common language for discussing questions and their relationship to the text.  In QAR, students learn the difference between answers that are found “In the text” and “On my own”.   Research demonstrates the importance of an awareness of question types. QAR teaches students to use the question answer relationship to improve reading comprehension.  (It may be helpful to determine which classes will implement QAR initially to avoid the chance of students being exposed to the strategy in every class throughout the day.)

 

Number of Sections of QAR

Estimated number of students per section.

 

 

6) QAR Team Composition (5 points):

 

Participating districts should send a team. Team members should include:

·        Minimum of two content area teachers (perhaps those who teach a core subject in which the majority of students are enrolled)

·        1 special education teacher

·         Either a principal or a central office administrator (e.g., curriculum director) or both. At least one person who has the authority to make decisions about student scheduling, resources, teacher planning time, etc. must be on the team.

First choice will be given to teams that include a principal or other school administrator on their team.

·        Participation by an AEA consultant is preferred. (A reading consultant or a consultant previously engaged in the QAR Teacher Development Academy is strongly recommended.)  Each participating school should contact their AEA consultant or the Educational Services Director for their AEA and discuss how the AEA might support this initiative. 

·        Reading coach/strategist/instructional coach would be an asset to the team

QAR TEAM

 

Teacher’s Name

 

Job Title

 

Building

Teacher’s Endorsement/ conditional

Number of Sections Anticipated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Principal/Central office Name

Job Title

Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7)      Current context at the building level (5 points):

 

For professional development to be effective it has to be fully sustained and supported. Competing initiatives make it difficult for a comprehensive effort to be fully implemented. Describe reading efforts currently underway at the building level by completing the items below.

 

Describe current programs that are in place to serve struggling readers at the building level.

 

 

Will QAR be added to the existing program(s) or replace it?  If yes, please explain.

 

 

 

Has the building PD in the last three years addressed reading problems of students? If yes, please describe any professional development that has focused on the reading needs of your students.

 

 

 

 

8)   Assurances

 

In order to be considered in this competition the district must assure that the following conditions will be in place. Either the superintendent or building administrator must commit to meeting these assurances by initialing each statement and completing the signature section.

 

a)      Resources:

 

Although a classroom collection of fiction and nonfiction materials is not required, research indicates the need for secondary students to have access to print materials in the classroom. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that students have access to quality fiction and nonfiction books in order to apply the QAR strategy across content areas in a variety of genre.



Assurance: Resources will be provided. 

__________________________________ Administrator’s initials

 

 

b)      Assessment (required):

Participants must collect appropriate formative and summative data. Measures will be explained during the Academy. Each student will be assessed using the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test and frequent informal assessment rubrics.  Participating schools will be expected to collect summative assessment data as scheduled and submit the data to the Teacher Development Academy Web Site (one person will be trained to enter data).

 

Grant recipients pay for their own tests (Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test -- ordering information will be disseminated after grants are awarded.)

 

Assurance:  Assessments will be conducted and data will be submitted to web site.
__________________________________  Administrator’s initials

 

 

c)      Participants must implement the program as designed (required):

 

In order to ensure that student achievement gains occur, it is necessary to implement QAR accurately and frequently. Participants are expected to implement the initiative as designed. Only teachers trained in the Academy should teach QAR. No one will provide training in QAR unless they have acquired DE recognition to be a trainer.

 

Assurance: All team members will implement the initiative as designed. Only trainers trained in QAR will teach QAR. No one will provide training in QAR unless they have acquired DE recognition to be a trainer.

__________________________________ Administrator's initials

 

 

d)      Full attendance and engagement in all training sessions (required):

QAR training includes 3 days in the summer, 2006, 3 days during the school year, and possibly 1-2 ICN sessions. Participants will be required to submit explicit instruction lessons to the trainer periodically in order to determine fidelity to the strategy.

 

Teachers will be asked to submit implementation data on a regular basis to their collaborative team, who will organize and analyze it in order to determine future PD sessions. Studies of the implementation data and sample lesson plans will be submitted to the trainer on a regular basis.

 

Assurance: All team members will attend all training days. Participants will submit logs and lesson plans as scheduled.

__________________________________ Administrator’s initials

 

 

9)      AEA informed (required):

 

The AEA Educational Services Director has been contacted to discuss this application and the AEA role in supporting this imitative.

 

Assurance:

 

_______________________was contacted regarding AEA consultation to this initiative.

List AEA name

 

 

10)  Signatures (required):

 

We agree that the team requesting application in this Academy will engage as described in the conditions of participation. The district will provide the supports listed in the condition of participation.

 

                                                                                                                                               

Principal Name Typed

 

 

Principal Signature                                Phone Number                                     Date

 

                                                                                                                                               

Superintendent Name Typed

 

 

Superintendent Signature                       Phone Number                                     Date

 

 

The submission of applications will be via fax to Gretchen Kelley at 515-242-6025. Applications will be due to the Department at 4:30 P.M. on February 10, 2006.